[Eddy]

Originally Posted by Nilesh5417

I always feel short changed by manufacturers. I hope tata plays fair this time.

That's what, I always felt short changed when manufacturers offered an auto transmission mostly with the top variant.
Things are changing for the better

[aniketi]

To be frank, after Vista launch, Tata has better quality on their cars. Manza is also good. I am not talking about design here. Also dont bring Nano here as its in totally different category, still new Twist is also good for its price. New Tata Safari as well is very good. I am mainly worried about Tata is their service. Their own service people are unable to fix problems in their own cars many times, its really shameful. Maruti, Hyundai, Honda scores here heavily. Service is very best. With Zest & Bolt, they have good products in hand. Hope they will improve on Marketing & Service as well. As a Indian i always love Tata and want to see good cars from them, always

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by malq

Today a car launch is, in my opinion, nothing more than an ego boost for the marketing team who in this case can not even understand that a white/off-white dashboard is an idea that will not succeed in India. Start from there.

Compared to your days, even the writers of motoring/automotive 'columns' for non-auto magazines and lifestyle magazines are a pampered lot.

I recall the family of one such "writer" in an obscure magazine turning up in fancy Merc GLKs and Land Rovers for every other family function - regardless of where the function is, the manufacturer ensures that the best vehicles are available to the 'journalist' and his immediate family. When he decided to take his parents on a long pilgrimage trip, he had a Skoda Superb at his disposal.

With that level of pampering and 'hospitality' extended with no questions throughout the year, do you seriously expect to get an objective view from anyone who is part of an 'official' drive?

And it is the very same bunch of pampered journos who serve up and sustain the obvious biases that get faithfully regurgitated by the gullible everywhere - including several times here on this thread. "Hyundais don't handle", "Tatas are badly built", "Skodas have terrible service", "German cars break down" etcetera etcetera and so on and so forth. While such views may have had some basis at some point, the bias is amplified, reinforced and driven home faithfully by these journalists - and if you notice carefully, certain manufacturers manage to escape the gallows no matter how crappy their products are. Its called 'media management' - because if you manage the media you manage the audience.

The poor manufacturers then go all out to pamper them further in an attempt to prevent such cliche'd views from marring a product launch - its a vicious, never-ending cycle.

[malq]

Reality is that in my experience and as observations - Tata Motors make "just right" kind of cars for Indian conditions. In Hindi we would say "sasta, sundar aur tikaoo" (cheap, good and long lasting) At the Indica launch, for example, Ratan Tata specifically said that colour shade was a matter of hygiene which, once you've taken care of the white, "silver", beige/"gold" and grey shades, really does not impact matters - and then for the Nano a whole expensive campaign is built around purple!

Likewise, when truck dealers who all said and done have to live with a more demanding class and category of customers than private car owners because truck left for a few days is income lost like a perishable gone, wanted to also be part of Indica sales, then along came something called "Concorde" in '98/'99 from outside India with fancy ideas on what they thought Indian customers needed was costly showrooms while Maruti, Daewoo and Hyundai swept the urban markets by figuring out (in those days) Arya Samaj Road in Delhi and Lamington Road in Mumbai as the locations where dealers and customers and financiers gathered.

The Zest looks like a tough machine (don't ask, but it is not possible for Tata Motors to not make a tough motor-car, is what many of us believe) but then along come these "design elements" from Cuffe Parade and Lutyen's Delhi, throw in a word like "by JLR" when if you look at the interiors of a JLR vehicle then they are nothing like what is in a Tata Zest (otherwise it could have been re-badged JLR Zest, right?) and as soon as the price will be announced, waiting in the wings will be the competition (A,aze/D'Zire) with yet more features.

I would buy a Tata Zest for myself as my next car in Delhi if I was confident of even one workshop for after-sales and service from Tata Motors. I don't, along with many other past and potential Tata Motor car customers, see anything on that aspect at all.

But if you want to see flashdance of the sort that finished GM in India, then keep watching more and more of these events, with so-called modern day motoring media passing smirky ones on the side. About the food.

I wish Tata Motors would sell cars like they sold the 407 and the Ace - just wait for the customer to walk in, make a sale somehow, and then keep 95% of the customers with you at any cost.

Instead, what we see is flashdance, when as Ratan Tata said, it is all about hygiene.

(I wonder what the warranty will be like? Nano type 4-years would be minimum expected)

[damager21]

Originally Posted by malq

I would buy a Tata Zest for myself as my next car in Delhi if I was confident of even one workshop for after-sales and service from Tata Motors. I don't, along with many other past and potential Tata Motor car customers, see anything on that aspect at all.

But if you want to see flashdance of the sort that finished GM in India, then keep watching more and more of these events, with so-called modern day motoring media passing smirky ones on the side. About the food.

I don't think bad service is a legacy of only Tata Motors. Look around and you will find the same with other manufacturers as well barring Maruti, Honda and Toyota. Let me also add that Ford for me is no exception for the way they treated their EcoSport customers. Their take it or leave it attitude scares me more than buying a Tata car.

You as a potential car buyer will never know whether Tata's after sales service has improved or not until you hear it from someone. After a year from now we will get to read those experiences and hopefully positive ones. I think on the product front, Tata has taken a huge leap and the way I see it, in a year from now, Tata will be in the Top 3 again.

In this and your previous post you mentioned about the way media drives are conducted today. I don't see anything wrong in that because from 98 to now world has changed a lot. Such lavish media events are there in other fields as well. Google at its event gives away freebies like phone, tablet, etc to all attendees followed by a sumptuous dinner. Same for Apple developer conference. These media drive events with food and liquor is to ensure that everyone writes in detail about the product because in today's time - Jo dikhta hai who bikta hai and media won't care a damn about your product if you don't treat them well.

I am not a journalist so thankfully I have not seen any tweet from anyone describing food at the #ZestDrive event. When I do a search for "Tata Zest" on Twitter, most of the tweets I read seem to be legitimate.

Lastly on the interiors, if beige color can succeed in India I don't see why off-white can't. Read review of any car with darker shade interior, the standard reaction from Auto journo would be that it feels claustrophobic. The same thing for cars with limited interior space but beige interiors - this one feels roomy.

I personally prefer dark shade interiors given it is easier to maintain but I guess times have changed and nowadays people don't care much about it.

[rosaf]

Since there is discussion happening about Tata Dealer attitude and A.S.S. i would like to point out that my family is in a desperate need of another car and we are looking no where other than a Tata vehicle.

Now the dilemma , i am certainly voting for the Zest AMT top end but my dear wifey and father are drooling over the Safari Storme EX.

So just yesterday went to Concorde Motors Baner as i was passing that way and enquired about the Zest and boy oh boy! what a response and treatment i got from the S.A. well it was very pleasant.

OT : Then i asked about the Storme and in no time i was offered even better service and a SBI guy for loan proposal and freebies without me asking.

The point i am trying to make is that Tatas have really upped the game and that too in every department and i for one am going all out to market Tata cars to each and every one who comes across my path and do my little bit it in ensuring that our very own home grown car maker reaches the 3rd spot in the manufacturers list numbers wise in the coming 8-9 months .

[damager21]

All colors we have seen so far looks good. In fact the best thing I feel Tata has done is to move away from herd mentality in terms of features and they have made a genuine attempt to bring many first in class features.

In Zest, Tata has made a fine balance between Must have and Good to have.

I think the first thing they did was to ensure car buyers get best in class engine and gearbox. Petrol buyers are happy to see turbo charged - Revotron engine while Diesel buyers are looking forward to AMT. Moreover Revotron cars will also have 3 drive mode unlike most of the other cars which have only ECO mode.

The next important thing which every one invests in is a good music system. Harman audio system should be best in class and may not require an upgrade. They are also offering a touchscreen with Rear park view.

On the exteriors we have LED DRLs, Projector head lamps and LED tail lamps.

Some of the features we may not see in Zest are Push button start, Keyless entry, Rear Ac vents and Electrically foldable ORVM. For me, these features are Good to have and not Must have. Given this, Tata should be able to price Zest aggressively.

Pics Source: Twitter & Cardekho

[Leoshashi]

A new status update on Facebook from hon'ble Tutu Dhawan Sir reveals that TATA Bolt/Zest might be the saviour for TATA after all. He hints at excellent engines and AMT setup. To quote him- "
Look out for the new product from Tata Motors its surprisingly
amazeing coulnt believe they could do such a good job both in petrol
& the AMT Diesel - Wow "
So, the new revotron engines are pretty good if initial reports are to be believed.

[Slush_Traveller]

Ohh gosh ! I am blown away with the looks of the new zest, it looks premium compared to it's competitors, the steering looks amazing. I am sure this is will blow up good sales and stand in good position in the market. Just waiting for hands on for the new revetron engine. I hope it stands true for the buzz its creating for, specially the petrol turbo is something I am drooling upon.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by k_ajay

Was TBHP invited by Tata Motors for the Media Test Drive?

Team-BHP participated in the Zest media drives. As you know, a lot of detail goes into our reviews and this does take an awful lot of time. Example: We've spent this week on the Mobilio and it still isn't up to the Team-BHP benchmark. Will take a couple more days.

We're never in a hurry to be 'first' to publish; however, we always want our reviews to be the most decisive, neutral & comprehensive report on the car. One that keeps BHPians informed and make better (car) choices.

Many people compete on time. We prefer to compete on quality

[Gannu_1]

Originally Posted by GTO

Team-BHP participated in the Zest media drives.

And that lays all the speculations to rest. Eagerly awaiting the review!

You guys must have had a hectic week! Mobilio, Zest, A3.

[goingelectric]

I think for the first time in my lifetime I am genuinely looking forward to the review of a Automotive product from Tata. Somehow, I get the feeling they've put a lot of heart and soul (and engineering, hopefully) into the zest and bolt. Can't wait for the T-BHP review!

[madhu33]

Originally Posted by GTO

Team-BHP participated in the Zest media drives. As you know, a lot of detail goes into our reviews and this does take an awful lot of time. Example: We've spent this week on the Mobilio and it still isn't up to the Team-BHP benchmark. Will take a couple more days.

+10000 to the quality of content & comprehensive reviews being posted here on teambhp.
However being a little impatient can you at least share a few lines on very very initial impressions you got about the ZEST ..PLEAAASSSEEE

[itsashishsharma]

Originally Posted by GTO

Many people compete on time. We prefer to compete on quality

Hey, that goes without saying. It is definitely because of the quality of this forum that we feel proud in sticking Team-BHP stickers on that shiny bumper of our beloved darlings. You know when you are a part of something as big and as good. Kudos to you and others who deserve aplauds and salutes. This emotion of impatience is very obvious considering the expectations we and Tata have from this car. To sum up, please, if some time can be spared towards an 'initial impression' kind of a mini article, please?

[RavenAvi]

Rushlane reports via an exclusive scoop that the Zest and the Bolt will also receive sporty body kits in a few months from launch.

Speaking to Mr. Pratap Bose, Head of Design, Tata Motors, we learnt that apart from making the stock car look younger and vibrant compared to Tata’s existing portfolio, the company will also launch sporty body kits for both Zest and Bolt in months to come, to generate interest among petrolheads who otherwise approach third party, custom kit makers to make their cars stand out. This will not only show that Tata Zest and Bolt are versatile and adaptive, but also that Tata brand is undergoing transformation in the way they are looked upon.

Although kits including bumper and side skirts, trendy spoiler, stylish alloy wheels and other racy highlights and trims are not revealed yet, this information coming directly from Head of Design means Tata Motors is planning to sweep competition with a surprise.

SOURCE - Rush Lane