Well, its been just more than a month and we are already in love with this beauty. You heard it right! I am talking about Tata Zest, a real good car in the offer from the Indian Automaker. Tata was the pioneer in the sub-four meter sedan segment; they lost the space to the likes of Maruti, Hyundai in their own game. This time Tata has just upped the game for its competitor.
Honestly speaking, I was skeptic about Tata like all my friends and colleagues and the pundits all around. But after taking multiple test drives in almost all available cars under 10 lakh in Hyderabad, I felt from my heart - This is the one!
What I like about the car:
Style - well not exactly from side view which is more like Indica with boot. Having said that, from any other angle and back, it looks stunning! The head lamp assembly and wrapped around tail lights can beat any premium car. One would really feel proud about choosing this beauty.
Power - I have a petrol version - Revotron engine. This is new power horse in Tata’s sable. It offers, first-in-class three driving modes - city, eco and sport. Sport mode certainly thrills any car enthusiast. While eco mode ensures it does not hurt you much in a long drive. City mode is in between; enough power with optimum efficiency for city commuting.
Mileage - For my daily commuting, Trip meter shows around 10Km/litre which is not very encouraging but I hope this will be improved to some extent over the time. However, we had gone out for two long trips so far. The speed was no more than 80Km/Hr mostly, occasionally 120K with the highest being 140K. We found it surprisingly high, around 15.3Km/liter. Note - I always drive with A/c on.
Cabin space and boot - This seems to be competitive, given that constraint to keep in under four meter in length. The car offers best in class cabin space. It can easily fit five adults of any size. Boot space is more than enough for long trip for a small family.
Instrumentation - This is undoubtedly one of the best in this segment. Excellent, panel layout with radium lights; lots of useful information on the dashboard. Features like distance to empty, trip meter, average mileage and instant fuel efficiency are all really useful information.
Music system and connectivity - Good quality music system. My son finds it very easy to operate. The on-board Bluetooth, USB connectivity give you well, almost all that you need to connect to the system.
Safety - This is one of the most important features that swung our decisions in favour of it. It offers dual SRS airbags, ABS. I thought this is worth to spend few thousands more to have features like these. It may not be used ever but life saving at the time of need.
Comfort and ride quality - Anyone who has had a ride in my car, has given it a thumbs up. No negative about the comfort and ride quality so far. A/c is quite and cools of the cabin nicely. Steering is smooth all the time and steady at high speed. The car seems to be grounded all the time even at 140K. I have not driven it more than that speed till now.
What I did not like:
Mileage - Petrol mileage is not really light on pocket.
Built - Tata being one of the giant steel manufacturers, should have given more steel in it! On a serious note - bootlid does not feel that solid.
Plastic and finish - Tata has improved a lot but still many more miles to go. I felt plastic quality does not match up with the overall quality of the car.
Vendor treatment - This is one of the most discouraging thing about Tata. The treatment I received from the vendor(Malik cars in Hyderabad), I do not know in what world they live in, will shoo away most of the prospective customers.
Overall, its really a good car with a style statement and decent budget. A true value for money.