TATA Motors and Blogadda gave us the opportunity to review the TATA Zest at The Zuri White Sands, Goa Resort & Casino. We were given an opportunity to drive both the Petrol and Diesel variants of the TATA Zest.

Continuing from where I left off in my previous post about the entire experience, the fun and enjoyment were bound to increase and the best was about to be explored.

We were given two variants to try out – TATA Zest Petrol with Revotron 1.2T with Manual Transmission and the TATA Zest Diesel with F-Tronic AMT.

Exteriors

There was no difference in the exteriors of the car with most of the premium elements making into this segment for the first time in India. They were the Projector Head lamps, Day time running LED lights, LED Tail lamps, Chunky alloy wheels etc. The new Signature grille on the front defines how TATA wanted to make this car standout from the rest of the stable and also make a mark amongst the others in the segment.

The Power Bulge on the hood was giving an impression of the Car carrying a lot of power inside. The strong shoulder lines gives a great feel of car from the side. One can imagine the car moving at the high speeds.

Interiors

The all new designed steering wheel is much smaller than what was found earlier in the TATA cars. This gives a good control and feel of the steering wheel. The seats were comfortable too. The leg room for the both front and rear seats were good enough to fit a tall person like me to be relaxed during the entire duration of my test drive. The lumbar support was exactly where I wanted and could easily rest my arm on it when cruising.

The ABC of the car – Accelerator, Break and Clutch were smooth and responsive. This doesn't tire out the legs in the long run.

We had OVRM controllers and power window controllers at the driver end which is again what I prefer.

The car gets with best-in class audio system which has smartphone integration facility, voice command recognition, SMS readout facilities. This is supplemented by the controls mounted on the steering wheel.

Drive Experience

I drove the TATA Zest Petrol with Revotron 1.2T first. This was the high end variant with loads of gadgets on-board. I had a petrol car of this generation with me earlier and this Zest seemed to beat it in the pickup and power.

The Revotron 1.2T is the turbo charged petrol engine which comes with 3 modes – City, Eco and Sport. City mode is being tuned for the optimum economy and performance. The Eco mode is for Highway cruise and Sport is for the Zippy move out of traffic and to get the best power output out of the engine.

The drive was around for 20 kms. I enjoyed the thrust which Zest gave. Especially when I was driving in Eco Mode and accelerating and changed to Sport mode. There is a sudden feel of Turbo kicking in and a lot more power in the Engine. The Car was more peppy and zippy all along the drive. The Eco mode was smooth is best suited when driving on the highways. The City mode gave a good pickup from the start over all. The best pickup and performance was given by the Sport Mode. I was able to over take a lot of cars and zip out of traffic when needed.

The diesel variant seemed to be more easy with respect to power when compared to the turbo charged Revotron Petrol variant. This was the automatic transmission which we tried out. The transmission was smooth with no jerks or engine shutting down at any point of time.  The AMT made its first entry in this segment via TATA Zest and does its job really well. Its in the City mode by default and Sport mode can be enabled with the push of a button. The Sport mode gives much more higher revs thus giving the engine much more time to get the power out.

Stability wise, both the cars were up to the mark. During the entire journey spread-out over 40 kms spanning across the country side via the narrow lanes and the wide roads, the control was with me even at high speeds. I always love to see how the car performs at the high speeds at the corners. I didn't feel over steer nor under steer during my drive. I would like to test it more when I am alone in the car about the stability. Nevertheless, the car gave a good response. There were few bumps which I went over at the high speeds and the car settled down pretty quickly.

I couldn't test out the fuel economy of both the variants at the moment and will share when I have more details on the same.

Best:

• The new Revotron 1.2T Petrol engine with Turbo Charge.
• Voice Recognition which does its best in the area defined.
• Exterior and Interior features which are first in class like LED lights, Projector headlamps, the 8 spoke alloys
• 9-ABS as a safety feature

Could have been better:

• Both the Petrol and Diesel versions could have come with Sport mode by default
• The steering mounted control area feels empty on the right side.
• Wider range of Voice recognition commands

Overall, it was a wonderful experience for me where I was able to try out both of the variants at the same time and was able to share it with all of you.

You all can hit the link to know more about TATA motors Zest.

As usual, it was a hectic work day for me with hardly anytime. During the break, I saw a mail from the Blogadda team about a best experience with Zest.

My experience have been good with Blogadda with reviews of TATA Vista D90. This mail spoke about a new experience which I have never been part of. It was for the new product from TATA Motors stable – TATA Zest. It was a two day outing for us which included interactions with the core team from TATA Motors who were involved in the design and engineering of the all new Zest.

I opted in for this activity and I was excited to be part of it. Along with me, there were 50 bloggers from all over the India who were selected for this event. And all these were arranged in The Zuri White Sands, Goa Resort & Casino and the best part of it was that the event was over the weekend.

We were sent the flight tickets to Goa and it was fairly descent experience. As usual, there was the bumpy and jerky with one of the airways. But, I was sure that there is something good after this bumpy experience.

We were taken in a coach from Goa airport to the resort and there was a surprise in store for us. We were welcomed with what is generally done to the International Guests. A pretty lady was standing outside who applied the customary tilak to all of us.

In the afternoon, we relaxed a bit, had a good social interactions with the bloggeratti. We had the Master class organized to give us more insight about the design and engineering of the new Zest. We were told about their Zestful experiences during this journey over the past few years. We had a chance to experience the state-of-the-art Revotron Lab which had the design next, connect next and drive next zones. We were able to experience what the new Zest was all about.

The second day had a long drive planned for 2 hrs. 3 people were put into each team and each team were given a chance to drive. We had both Petrol and Diesel variants to be driven for about an hour or so. That gave us ample time to check out the car and how it behaves with us and obeys what we order.

It was really a ZestFul experience for me in my life till date and a first of its kind. With so much efforts from Tata motors into Design, Engineering, after market support and with me trying out the Zest, I am confident to say that Zest will give them boost to achieve a good market share and further positioning TATA motors as a solid player amongst the different players in the Market.