Tata Zest: Initial reactions

TATA ZEST

The Tata Zest was introduced to attract younger buyers into the showrooms. As far as I can see, it seems to be working. On my trip to the showroom, 80% of the potential customers were youngsters.

So, what’s so special about this car??

To, start with, Tata cars, as you know, are considered as boring and used mainly as taxis and their sales was on a steady decline. Then came the late Karl Slym. The Tata Zest and Tata Bolt were his brain child which he hoped would turn their fortunes around.

So, has it worked, the simple answer is, Yes!!
The car doesn’t feel like any Tata I’ve ever seen. Its way more advanced, and is a better weapon for Tata to fight its rivals. It may not be breath taking but it certainly is for a Tata, even though there were still a few issues with the build quality which we could make out especially when the doors closed. It’s a huge improvement especially when you consider the fact that it is still based on the old Indica. What surprised me was the amount of space available inside. My friend, a 6 footer found more than enough leg room and head room at the rear. The boot space is more than sufficient at 390 litres.

From the exterior, sitting on 185/60 R15 alloys, the car looks pretty good though the high ground clearance makes it looks a bit unusual. The car comes with new swept headlamps with projector lights and LED day time driving lights. The rear comes with wrap around tail lights. The interior features an all new dual coloured dash board design which a huge step ahead compared to the previous Indica and Manza.

The car comes loaded with features like touch screen infotainment, sms and notifications read out, 8 speakers for a surround sound effect, automatic AC, electronic power steering with speed sensitivity and active return function, ABS, EBD, corner stability control, dual SRS airbags, reverse parking camera and voice command recognition, which surprised me the most cause it actually worked. When I had to set the climate control temperature, it understood my voice command and adjusted the AC accordingly.

The car given to us was a brand new petrol car which had run only 150kms, delivered only the previous day but the drive was not more than just a few kilometres. The petrol car comes with a new Revotron 1.2 litre turbocharged engine producing 90 PS power at 5000 rpm and a torque figure of 140 Nm developed between 1750-3000 rpm. There is a bit of turbo lag which was noticeable. The main problem was that the engine overheated quickly. The diesel engine comes in two states of tune, 75 PS and 90 PS. The engine is the same Quadrajet diesel engine that powers many Tata cars. A 5 speed AMT transmission is available only on the 90 PS diesel.

Tata finally seems to have a car with which it can compete decently with. The Zest hopefully will revive Tata sales. For now, it looks like they have a winner on their hands.