[pareshraheja]

Originally Posted by narayan

The whole idea of a turbo petrol was to improve mileage by boosting up low end torque. But I am wondering if the extra weight of Tata cars also has to play a role here. The Zest is around 150kgs heavier than competition - 15% heavier than the Swift Dzire. Wonder what Dzire owners get under similar driving conditions.

Well, in percentage, the 20% diff on fuel efficiency looks big but, in actual terms I don't think it is much. A difference of 2 kmpl is the real world diff b/w Zest Petrol and Dzire Petrol.

As per Blr prices for Petrol it works out to be additional INR 1.5 per km.

So, if you travel 1000 km per month on avg, you spend additional INR 1500 on fuel on Zest. This translates to INR 18,000 annually. So, does the initial cost + drive comfort make a diff or spending INR 18 k per annually. Suppose this is an individual's choice.

Cheers

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by directinjection

That's a huge difference. Raises a question mark about the validity of ARAI testing. It'll be interesting to compare ARAI figures for different cars with actual world figures and see where Zest stands.

The ARAI figures can only be used to make a relative comparison between vehicle to vehicle and expecting them to return the same FE in actual conditions will lead to huge disappointments. Anyways diesel engines do return FE closer to the ARAI figures but with petrol engines it is not the same. In this case, the ARAI ratings of the vehicles are Zest - 17.57, Xcent - 19.1, Dzire - 20.8, Amaze - 18. In the real world, you can expect a similar difference between car to car given the same style of driving and the same conditions. So if a Zest can return 10kmpl, Xcent would give 11.5 and a Dzire around 12.5 which looks to be what many people report.

Well if one is looking for fuel efficiency, then petrols must be striked off be it a Revotron or a Kappa or a Kseries. Take this from a person who is currently having three petrol cars at home Maybe a difference of a few kmpl, hardly matters in real life.

Originally Posted by narayan

The whole idea of a turbo petrol was to improve mileage by boosting up low end torque. But I am wondering if the extra weight of Tata cars also has to play a role here. The Zest is around 150kgs heavier than competition - 15% heavier than the Swift Dzire. Wonder what Dzire owners get under similar driving conditions.

That is the only question I have to the guys who built the Revotron. What did they have in mind when they conceived this project? IMO they did too much of a decoration for an old block instead of building a new engine from the basics. As GTO had said somewhere, the revotron is a stop gap arrangements until the truly modern engines arrive.

[itsashishsharma]

Originally Posted by pareshraheja

Well, in percentage, the 20% diff on fuel efficiency looks big but, in actual terms I don't think it is much. A difference of 2 kmpl is the real world diff b/w Zest Petrol and Dzire Petrol.

As per Blr prices for Petrol it works out to be additional INR 1.5 per km.

So, if you travel 1000 km per month on avg, you spend additional INR 1500 on fuel on Zest. This translates to INR 18,000 annually. So, does the initial cost + drive comfort make a diff or spending INR 18 k per annually. Suppose this is an individual's choice.

Cheers

And it is a petrol we are talking about, so for many, monthly usage of 500 - 600km is more likely. Hence this difference reduces to about 10k per year. Being a more comfortable, spacious and cheaper to buy car, this difference is non-existent.
But minor issues are still cropping up. For example the front suspension making a big "thid" noise as the car goes over potholes is reported by many. My XMA happens to have this issue as well. Also, diesel spills out of the fuel lid as the car moves onu even roads! I am sure dZire owners get more peace of mind than us, Tata car owners.

[mrbaddy]

Originally Posted by devilicious

Finally a bhpian! This thread has helped me a lot in deciding the car to be purchased and honestly, a good decision overall. A proud owner of Tata Zest XT Revotron. Yes, the FE figure have not been really great but the car has been driven only for 1500 KMs so far and should improve.

And while talking about FE figures, I've noticed that following the recommendations of gear on the MID does help in improving the FE figures substantially but the car is not much fun to drive that way. For the last 400 Kms, I've averaged about 10.5 Kms in City driving following the above. The max I've touched is 16 kmpl on an expressway. Not sure how it is in other cars of this Segment.

You might want to see this post from the first Zest ownership report on team-bhp.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ml#post3693961.

Arindam had reported higher mileage for his Revotron and I also remember reading in other forums late last year about few claiming mileage of 17+ for Revotron.

[Prithwitheraj]

Its been 5 months since am driving it and have travelled around 3k kms. My mileage have always ranged from 13-14 in city. Post 2.5 k km I have started getting 15.5 kmpl with 70% Ac (return trip at night of 15 km out of a total of 50 km). Regarding the thud noise, I have also experienced the same but only when I am travelling at higher speed over big potholes and I try to slow down going over them. I have checked up suspension post that and nothing seems to be wrong. Arindam_xeta has also experienced the same and he was demonstrated by the SA that this is indeed the charecteristics of ABS coming into play, so don't think there's anything worrying about this. In any case we should go over pot holes and bad roads a bit safely not in higher speeds.

Fortunately I have not experienced any other issues like Harman system getting hanged. Probably has to do with me having a supported phone paired with the Harman as per Tara's site.

Ride have been wonderful and fun and comfortable. The car has the head turning aspects in design. Simply to say "am loving it" :-).

As per the issue the petrol smell that I got for a couple of days after filling in from a new tank seems to have dissapeared. I will keep on observing though, seemed to me the engine took some time to adapt to the fuel from the new tank probably as percentage of different items in fuel mixture varied from the old pump that I bought petrol from. Can any experienced person tell me if this can be a reason?

[ksameer1234]

I have averaged 15 kpl on a 600 km long trip with 4 adults and decent luggage with ghats and non-existent roads.

The other time I got 16.5 kpl on 300 km ride with low to medium traffic.

Even with spirited driving, I typically register 13-14 kpl.

And I have never used ECO mode except a couple of times only to test how it feels.

To get something like 10 kpl, I guess I'll just have to leave the car in idle and not drive at all!!

I do however feel that driving styles play a big role in efficiency. I have seen my brother gets 1-3 kpl lower mileage than me the reason being his excessive brake usage. In fact, compared to him, I use brakes almost 80% less.

Revotron may not be the most efficient engine but certainly isn't as bad as people are reporting.

[saket77]

Originally Posted by ksameer1234

I do however feel that driving styles play a big role in efficiency.

No doubt about it Sameer. I have got astonishing FE figures from my cars. Also, varying astonishingly!

Originally Posted by ksameer1234

I have seen my brother gets 1-3 kpl lower mileage than me the reason being his excessive brake usage. In fact, compared to him, I use brakes almost 80% less.

The trick is keeping in mind the Newton's first law of motion - a body in motion (a moving car) will continue to be in motion until an external force is applied (air resistance and other frictional forces or braking). That is of course quite rudimentarily written.

So, try to maintain a constant speed and avoid sudden bursts of throttle. Throttle input should be as much as to maintain the constant speed. If needed, accelerate in a linear manner. Also good for the car. I have got about 17 KMPL in a 1.8 ltr Petrol engine (Civic) with this technique. In fact, I could have got even more if I had held more patience. I constantly get 21 KMPL + in my 1.0 ltr Zen on highways. The max I have clocked is around 24-25 KMPL!

Regards,
Saket

[ksameer1234]

Originally Posted by saket77

No doubt about it Sameer. I have got astonishing FE figures from my cars. Also, varying astonishingly!

The trick is keeping in mind the Newton's first law of motion - a body in motion (a moving car) will continue to be in motion until an external force is applied (air resistance and other frictional forces or braking). That is of course quite rudimentarily written.

So, try to maintain a constant speed and avoid sudden bursts of throttle. Throttle input should be as much as to maintain the constant speed. If needed, accelerate in a linear manner. Also good for the car. I have got about 17 KMPL in a 1.8 ltr Petrol engine (Civic) with this technique. In fact, I could have got even more if I had held more patience. I constantly get 21 KMPL + in my 1.0 ltr Zen on highways. The max I have clocked is around 24-25 KMPL!

Regards,
Saket

This is where I feel lies the trick as well. I find people accelerating hard to come up behind a vehicle in front and then brake even harder to avoid driving into them. As a result of hard braking, the car loses the pace and now they need to accelerate again to match pace with vehicle in front.

Alternately, all they needed was to step off gas, let the engine braking slow the car down and modulate throttle to match pace.

Since you have managed such wonderful figures on different cars, if you drove Zest, I am sure you would extract good 15 kpl in light traffic and close to 18-19 kpl on highways.

[simplyself]

I do see regularly people who accelerate hard and honk at even immovable objects like speed breakers.

Driving style greatly influences the FE. Not that all sedate drivers achieve good FE. Many drive in wrong gear in city.
Excessive usage of clutch has become a common sight today.

For better FE the QJD is at its most efficient at 2000 rpm. Dzire runs at about 80-90 kmph at that rpm and the Zest's engine hovers around 2050-2100 rpm for th same speed.

Petrols are more susceptible to rpm, FE- wise.

I used to get about 21 kmpl from my Indica, 15.5 kmpl from Bolero Camper, about 17 kmpl from Santro, 18 kmpl from Omni, 15 kmpl from an Amby with BMC engine. Ambassador and Camper being short geared, I had to make adjustments to my driving styles when I bought Indica.

[jose_luckose]

Tata Motors Service - Has it really improved?

If you think Tata Motors has changed in its attitude to customers, you might want to reconsider it. My Zest XMS Diesel has been lying at their service center (Focuz Motors, Kottayam, Kerala) for almost two months after a minor accident - front left fender damage and suspension/steering damage due to the left front tyre burst (secondary damage from debris).
For close to a month, there was the circus about wrong part arriving from Tata Motors.
From the service center's explanation, they received an incompatible steering knuckle - not once but thrice. And even after receiving the right part, they failed to honour the committed delivery dates twice afterwards. For a repair that shouldn't have taken more than two weeks at the most, it has been almost two whole months. The latest update is that they are asking me to pay up the entire amount now instead of using the cash less facility to avoid further delays.
During this period, I have escalated the matter to Tata Motors customer care, and was in touch with their CSM. But all they could do was to apologize and provide delivery dates that they couldn't honour.
Frankly, I think it was a wrong decision to buy this car from Tata. I really love the product - it is an awesome car to drive (I used to drive a Type 1 Honda City and Ford Fusion Petrol). But as long as it is supported by Tata Service, it would never be a comfortable ownership experience.
I am now seriously thinking about getting rid of the Zest and buying another car, despite the significant financial damage involved. But, at least I would be having peace of mind, which is rather priceless.
So, if you are considering buying another Tata product due to the savings up front, kindly think again. If it is going to be your sole vehicle, it might be better to stick to a more customer oriented manufacturer.

[AutoIndian]

Originally Posted by jose_luckose

Tata Motors Service - Has it really improved?

If you think Tata Motors has changed in its attitude to customers, you might want to reconsider it. My Zest XMS Diesel has been lying at their service center (Focuz Motors, Kottayam, Kerala) for almost two months after a minor accident

Very sorry to hear your plight . I can understand your frustration. Focuz Motors and Tata Motors should be ashamed of themselves that they are keeping a brand new Zest in their workshop, for not so major repairs. Cars are meant to be running on road and not to decorate theie workshops.

I see a complete lack of accountability on the part of the dealer as well as the company. Such experiences mar the credibility of the brand.

I was the owner of an Indica V2 for 10.5 long years. I was fortunate not to have any serious accident. After my car was out of the company standard warranty and the extended warranty, I hardly went to the authorized service centre as I had more trust in my friendly neighbourhood garage, who never disappointed me.

When I shifted my loyalties from Tata to Toyota, I experienced a vast difference in the service standards. I now understand why Toyota is considered as a benchmark in customer care and after sales service.

[devilicious]

Originally Posted by simplyself

I do see regularly people who accelerate hard and honk at even immovable objects like speed breakers.

Driving style greatly influences the FE. Not that all sedate drivers achieve good FE. Many drive in wrong gear in city.
Excessive usage of clutch has become a common sight today.


Petrols are more susceptible to rpm, FE- wise.

I'm sure that is the case but even then, why this particular engine is so sensitive to driving style? I've driven Dzire, City but never found such dramatic contrast in the FE figures differentiating by ~6-7 kmpl!

There will be 100s of drivers all with different style of driving a car but moving down from 16-17 kmpl to a single digit FE does bother me no matter what. There must be something not right here.

[simplyself]

[quote=devilicious;3713382

There will be 100s of drivers all with different style of driving a car but moving down from 16-17 kmpl to a single digit FE does bother me no matter what. There must be something not right here.[/QUOTE]

Single didgit FE returns are not acceptable for this class of vehicle/engine. There sure is a problem with it. Also, may be the torque peaking in diesel rpm range has got something to do with the low FE figures?

That brings into focus my primary question-apart from the low FE for the petrol and some issues with the AMT, is the car more or less okay? I do not see many complaints regarding the diesel version except about the TASS.

I would like to know about the FE figures of the diesel.

[jose_luckose]

I used to get around 17-18 kmpl during regular runs through medium traffic in kerala with 100% AC. The best I have managed so far is 24.8 in an early morning run from Coimbatore to Thrissur with 25% AC and steady speeds of 80-90 kmph. And in city runs, with heavy traffic, the figure drops to 13-14 range.
All the figures mentioned above are MID readings and the car has completed 12k kms so far.

And finally, I got the car back from the service center after paying the total amount instead of going cashless (The service center has promised to follow up with the insurance company to send me the settlement cheque though) . After almost two months, it felt good to get behind the wheel of my Zest.

[devilicious]

Originally Posted by jose_luckose

I used to get around 17-18 kmpl during regular runs through medium traffic in kerala with 100% AC. The best I have managed so far is 24.8 in an early morning run from Coimbatore to Thrissur with 25% AC and steady speeds of 80-90 kmph.

Are you talking about Petrol or Diesel?

PS: Did they upgrade the software of ICE to bring support for Navigation Maps?