[Sabyasworld]

Excellent review yet again.
One question I had, not sure if it was answered before. Is there any option of GPS navigation in the Harman infotainment system. I suppose you can integrate with your smartphone via bluetooth and use the smartphones GPS features for navigation, but does Zest provide any independent GPS functionality (for non smartphone users).

[ashish_BHP]

First of all an excellent and superb review by Aditya detailed down to a pin. TATA products used to get overlooked by a new buyer earlier because of their very regular and out of competition products .This time they have worked hard and it all shows right here with a car with refinements of European class both interiors and exteriors. Each and every component has been upgraded , leave alone the engine.
This product is a good competition undoubtedly to the likes of honda/maruti/hyundai sub-sedan class vehicles if TATA nails the last nail by improving their marketing/sales and post sales servicing. Simply Outclass and top notch vehicle going to turn many heads !!!

[msmatic]

Finally Tata seems to have woken up from its deep slumber and hit the bulls-eye - The Diesel AT, and the best looking compact sedan !! Wish Tata much deserved success and hope this car brings them back in the hunt to being the market leaders.
This car has almost everything going for it - looks, space, AT convenience, ride quality, build quality, features, fuel economy(diesel) et all.
I hope Tata moves up the value chain from here, with more premium offerings at affordable prices - advanced AT boxes, powerful engines etc.

[aak91]

Excellent review guys. 5 Stars to the writeup and the images.

TML has surely taken a GIANT LEAP forward in terms of quality and fit and finish. Me being the owner of 2 tata cars in the past was blown away by their new offering.

I think its time for me to replace our old work horse with this new kid on the block. Cant wait for the 12th for the car to be launched.

[anachronix]

Excellent review as always. Got a chance to check out the car in person at City Center Mall last Sunday. The build quality was surprisingly good for a Tata car. The whole car felt really good and put together well.

I am guessing it was one of Karl's last dreams while he was around, I really hope & pray that the Zest works for Tata.

[aah78]

Brilliant review guys! What attention to detail - fantastic!

Looking at the pictures, TATA Motors seems to have come a long way in terms of build & material quality when compared to the first Indica.

The interior feels like a well put together modern compact car should these-days.

I remember, a friend of mine booked one of the first lots of the Indica - a diesel at that.
When the car was delivered he sold it within 10 days for a premium - because he hated it & because there was a lot of demand.

Originally Posted by naveen.raju

Also in the zest, I think the LED will only be the park and brake light (when brakes are engaged) will be halogen.

The brake light will be a standard incandescent bulb, not halogen.

Originally Posted by noopster

It's considered poor practice to use your left foot to brake while driving an AT vehicle. You could of course do it in a situation like this but as a general rule your left foot stays jobless!

Why poor practice - why not use that left foot?
As you say - it's not doing anything anyway.

If it prevents the car from rolling backward that little bit, I don't see it as bad practice at all.

Coming from a manual transmission, it is difficult to get used to but once you get the hang of it, it really helps.

I haven't mastered it myself but my wife who has driven automatics all her life manages quite well.


Off-topic but left foot-braking is used widely in performance driving as well.

[JustCause]

Originally Posted by Aditya

When starting off on a hill, switching your foot immediately from the brake to accelerator will result in the Zest rolling back....before it engages the clutch and moves forward.

I cannot help but wonder if hill starts are a bother in AMTs, how will a person perform reverse parallel parking on an incline in an AMT car. If I'm not wrong, one might face immense difficulty doing this as was illustrated by Top Gear a while back.

[rrsteer]

In a world full of fake effort and duplicate work, thankfully there are still some things which are genuine and yet can be taken for granted. A team -bhp review is like that. Having read almost all other reviews on the Zest, this one is decidedly different - in a very pleasing and a reassuring way. Please maintain this difference. Congratulations to the reviewers for presenting a detailed and a thorough evaluation - the Zest deserved it.

As for me, I am convinced this is the best car in its segment and I would be buying the diesel AMT in the near future.

[parsh]

Originally Posted by aah78

Why poor practice - why not use that left foot?
As you say - it's not doing anything anyway.

If it prevents the car from rolling backward that little bit, I don't see it as bad practice at all.

Coming from a manual transmission, it is difficult to get used to but once you get the hang of it, it really helps.

I haven't mastered it myself but my wife who has driven automatics all her life manages quite well.


Off-topic but left foot-braking is used widely in performance driving as well.

We may be going a bit OT here.

Performance driving is totally different ballgame than regular driving and those drivers, places, situations and supports are tuned towards that.

Would it suffice to say that B(raking) & A(cceleration) are mutually exclusive? They should be learnt and used that way. That is one of the reason, why Right Foot is used for both alternatively and exclusively. This is in addition to earlier explanation of why Handbrake is better than Brake pedal on inclines.

Left Foot being free does not warrant its liberal use in all situations.

For drivers advanced a bit, there is another Heel & Toe mechanism that can be mastered, wherein the Right Foot alone does duty partly with Toe on B and Heel on A, so foot sits in angle on both to rapidly shift from one to another when taking off inclines. Quite a few of us must be doing that too.

It would be better if people DO NOT master the art of using Left Foot for Braking, rather let the Right Foot do the job even if Left is left lonely.

It should also be noted that why C got eliminated due to A/AMT. Because consistent use of C causes that strain on the Left foot which they wanted to relieve the people of and make them feel more comfortable while driving.

[Aragorn]

Well, as someone already said in the forum, this is one car which everyone secretly wishes that it garners volumes for Tata.

Hopefully Karl Slym's legacy will be remembered a long time after him.

And what a review this has been! Have read every single review available in print and seen every video review of the Zest, but this review seems to show me many new things.

Kudos to Rehaan and Aditya for "detailing" Tata's efforts - case in point being the chrome inserts in the dash buttons. Fantastic pics, as always!

I wish the ride and handling section was a little more detailed. This also seems one area where T-BHP review sounds different compared to other mags. Most of them seem to have like the ride and handling package a lot more and even termed it "sporty".

Waiting to TD the vehicle at the earliest. Just hope Tata does not get over ambitious with the pricing (like for Storme / Aria). They can slowly inch up the prices once the market accepts the product.

With the approaching festive season, Tata seems to have got the timing right. Here is wishing our truly DESI OEM success with Zest!

[tj123]

Brilliant review and attention to details - Wow!

Tata Motor's engineering team has come up with a good product, I hope now the marketing and service centers are geared up to do the necessary support. Now it’s all left to the crucial factor pricing, I think they will go the introductory pricing route that’s my gut feeling hope they don’t goof it up. Tata desperately needs the necessary volumes to bring it back right in the game.

Zest’s interiors and features list will create a ripple effect and it will force other manufactures to come up with better quality cars with decent interiors & features. With Etios, Amaze, Mobilo etc we were going the wrong way in terms of interiors and features.

AMT diesel variant should be a winner as there is no competition in that segment, hope Fiat will be able to supply the required numbers of AMT units per demand. Wondering why there is no petrol AMT !

[miharbe]

Wow! What an excellent review of what promises to be an excellent vehicle indeed! Thank You Aditya and Rehaan

The review and the vehicle are making me think of having this as an addition to my garage sooner than later. I think the diesel Zest has all the makings of an extremely successful city runabout. Of course the success depends on how they choose to price this car. Purely on past history TATA will have to undercut the competition significantly.

Though honestly I love the tall stance, the way it looks, the impressive feature list and above all I love that even though Tata doesn't have the technology in-house they have still gone ahead and launched a diesel automatic vehicle whereas the guys will all the technology in the world have refrained to do so thus far. They started the segment in 2008. They might as well have started the diesel automatic revolution this time round.

@Rehaan and @Aditya a quick question for you, does the rear seat fold flat like it does in hatchbacks? If yes would you be kind enough to post a picture of the same? Thanks in advance!

[tj123]

Originally Posted by miharbe

@Rehaan and @Aditya a quick question for you, does the rear seat fold flat like it does in hatchbacks? If yes would you be kind enough to post a picture of the same? Thanks in advance!

The review already says "No, the rear seat doesn't fold down."

[Magnaspectre]

Superb Review! Tata seems to have a great job with the Zest. Let's hope their marketing and after-sales departments can do justice to this well designed and made car.

[shashi63]

What I do find missing in this review is the fact that none of the segment first features have been highlighted.

Once this is done then it becomes a proper review, secondly once these are put in place the Zest will stand head over shoulders against it's so called competition. Please compare it on its segment and only in its segment.

I see many comparisons made for even the Dzire with full blown sedan's and that's not fair.

I have driven the Amaze, the Dzire, the Xcent and clearly even a idiot like me who has zero automobile knowledge can clearly see that the Zest is years ahead of all of them and yet our Mod's who are Automobile Engineers and more learned than me can't say that definitely!

Finally Tata has been working on many features and it's reliability and product quality has gone up in the past few years.. maybe our Mods should go back to Tata and do a review of the new Manza and possibly speak to a few owners who have brought Tata vehicles in the past 2 years and check their experience before saying what you won't like poor service quality!

Since people have such a negative image about Tata products maybe we can even ask Tata for the figures for the Crash Test and then display it transparently for a full blown review!

I do appreciate the effort and time taken in order to put up this review but i think this will complete the review from all aspects!