Tata Zest Review & Pictures: Zestful Endeavour


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Another update. I am in a big problem with the car now with poor customer service and support offered by Tata and their ASC Fortune cars in Nerul Navi Mumbai. My Zest XMS RT had problem of loss of power and I had several trips to the service centre with no proper solution in sight. Latest being the problem in cluster with Engine malfunction light coming up. The service centre changed the cluster to a non Zest cluster (may be Indigo) and messed up with the wiring and now the Sport mode, Eco Mode have stopped working altogether. Fog lamp buttons are also not working. Have registered a complaint and the car is in service centre again! Earlier problem of power loss and missing is not repaired yet with at least 5 trips to the service centre and trials for several hundred kms by the service centres, I lost a lot of fuel in these trials as well. It was driven for about 145 km by their ASC in Goa already to correct the power loss problem. In addition one more problem introduced by the ASC is Petrol lid not working!
As always the ASC's don't provide any updates and you have to call them 10 to 15 times to even get a reply.!! Pathetic. Though TATA offers good products, these service centres spoil it altogether. Thinking of changing to another car now as there are too many problems in the first year of ownership and cannot imagine the future specially because of the sloppy services offered by Tata and these ASC's!!
Hmm.. They proved it once again, 'Horizon next '
is infact' Mirage next '.
 
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ha ha.. i too got a dent 2 years back. My wife was having labor pain and i was reversing my car in a hurry, it hit the lamp post, when checked with ASS, they estimated a quote of 5k, which would pocked me around 1.5k after insurnace, but I left the dent, keeping it as a remembrance of my daughter [;)]
but made sure. that area is well taken care, cleaned and applied required coating so that rust dont build
 
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On Sunday I was heading back to Pune from Nasik in my Zest around 7:30 pm I crossed the Chandanapuri ghat near Sangamner and was headed towards Ghargaon. I was driving at a speed of 80 kmph suddenly a fully grown healthy dog tried crossing the road and landed in front of me. I tried to save the dog but hit the dog (there was a big thud sound) went ahead stopped the car to see for damages for the car and if the dog was ok. In the first look the bumper from the left side was damaged nothing more was found. Went to check the dog but wasn’t able to see him on road as well. Since I was with family did not stopped there for much time and moved ahead.


After coming 10 kms ahead the dashboard displayed engine heating warning. Parked the car on hotel Daulat to check the damages. The coolant was leaking this meant that some pipe was damaged and driving the car like this would result in big damage to the engine. So only option left was towing the car. It was around 8 pm asked for some local help and mistake done (will elaborate it later). Now there were few challenges in front of me. The first challenge was to arrange some vehicle for my wife and kids till Pune and second was to the car to the service center. The first was solved in 30 mins a family agreed them to drop till Nasik Phata from where it is easier to get a bus or a cab till Pune. For the later one I called the sales guy from whom I had purchased the car. When I spoke with him I discovered that he is no longer with TATA and has joined Nexa so he gave me TATA call center number.

In the mean time I asked for the shops outside the hotel for Toeing van and got one crane services number. I then called the TATA call center explained them my problem and they immediately connected me to a person who was providing the service as per the conversation he said the charges will take around 3 to 4 hours for him to come to pick the vehicle and the charges would be Rs 1800 for first 40 kms followed by Rs 18 per km the total calculation coming around 3420 as I was planning to take the vehicle back to the service center from where I purchased the vehicle (Around 140 kms) and not to the nearest one that was in Pimpri – Chinchwad that was only 90 kms. I then tried the local number he said he can come in 10 mins and he will charge Rs 6000 for the same. Since it was a very coldy night and he assured that it will be covered in your insurance I agreed for paying him. Finally I started for Pune around 9:30 pm and reached the TATA showroom around 1:30 am. To my surprise the watch man was sleeping and there was no one to open the gates. Finally with the help of towing guys I managed to take the car inside the National Autowheels premises and park the car woke up the watchman handed over the keys and went home to end the day.

Monday I got a call in the morning from the showroom that I should had taken the car to the Service center and not the showroom and I will have to tow down the car again to the Service Center located 10 kms ahead charges asked Rs 1800. Also the service guy explained me that I will only get a refund of Rs 1500 from insurance and not the complete amount. I went to the ASC at 11 am yesterday paid Rs 2000 expected RS 200 back but did not received as Service Adviser was not having change. The further damage is not yet reported as the insurance guy is expected to perform the survey today. Till now I have really wasted Rs 6500 due to improper help and lack of knowledge as met with an accident for first time in my life. As far as things have went for last 2 days I am really upset the TATA service and really felt cheated.

Lessons learnt:

1) Never trust the locals and have complete information of your insurance policy.

2) Please take the car to the nearest authorized center instead of your regular service center if distance is a concern.
 
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HI Konkan,
That was really a bad experience esp when travelling with family. I always fear this would happen someday since i do lot of weekend drive with 4 members + loads of items in trunk. First priority as you did is your family safety, which is way above money.
2nd think as bhvm said, get road side assistance by TATA, you will have details in the car Manual, on top, when you take insurance, like hdfc, they provide 1 year road assistance service. This does not mean it will be cheap, but will cost less than yours 6500.
Good luck mate with your service and hope TATA serves you well.
I don`t blame you but before going for long drive I take care of following things
1. Make sure I am fully equipped like torch, phone battery, car manual, insurance.. etec
2. Get basic knowledge on how to handle such accidents like ready manual or Googling
3. If you are using the same highway very often, save highway emergency phone number + list of TATA ASS near by
4. finally don`t panic. Safety is important and during cases like dog, save yourself because you dont know which vehicle is coming from behind, when you take sudden left. To avoid these animal instance, i always drive in the middle lane, this will give ample time to react
 

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Tata Zest Scores 4-Star Rating In Global NCAP Crash Test. This is a good news but important is, car with 2 airbag. It is important that all standard of a vehicle must be equipped with airbags. I don`t know if Zest all variants has airbags but XT has for sure.

Tata Zest Scores 4-Star Rating In Global NCAP Crash Test - NDTV CarAndBike

Check the videos also. It is quire interesting how airbags are deployed in fraction of a second.

From the site = Apparently, Global NCAP first tested the standard non-airbag version that resulted in a disappointing zero star score for adult occupant protection and one star for child occupant protection. Post that Global NCAP offered Tata Motors the opportunity to test another version of the Zest with more safety features. To make the best out of this opportunity, Tata introduced a structural improvement to the entire Zest range optional airbags, which was again tested by Global NCAP. And this time the car received 4-star score in adult occupant protection and 2-star in rear child occupant protection.

What i don`t understand is above marked one. Did TATA introduced that one for this test alone?
 
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Tata Zest Scores 4-Star Rating In Global NCAP Crash Test. This is a good news but important is, car with 2 airbag. It is important that all standard of a vehicle must be equipped with airbags. I don`t know if Zest all variants has airbags but XT has for sure.

Post that Global NCAP offered Tata Motors the opportunity to test another version of the Zest with more safety features. To make the best out of this opportunity, Tata introduced a structural improvement to the entire Zest range optional airbags, which was again tested by Global NCAP. And this time the car received 4-star score in adult occupant protection and 2-star in rear child occupant protection.

What i don`t understand is above marked one. Did TATA introduced that one for this test alone?
XE and XM comes with no airbags. XMS and XT got 2 each.

Yes they introduced the structurally better car for testing purpose only. The current models plying on the road will not have this build quality. Whether they will introduce the new structural norms to the existing carline is highly doubtful as they are concentrating on Tiago and upcoming launches like Hexa.

We should also note that in the NCAP report it is mentioned that the structural build is unstable even for 4 star rated car. I didn't understand why they mentioned like that though the A pillar and cabin remained intact with near zero intrusions if any after the collision.
 
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The current zest on sale with airbags can score 3 stars. The reason for this is that the stars given are not only for the vehicle status after crash or damage to dummies but the features given in the vehicle.

The body shell is intact there is no doubt and the car took the crash.

Tiago sedan is priced lower than zest and has lesser space and engine punch. Add to that zest is released for taxis, I don't think there will be any effect. Both will cater to the needs to different segments.
 
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quick question: does your car mirror say - objects in the mirror are closer than they appear

I dont remember mine and now after service, i felt something strange with my mirrors. Was wondering if they replaced it with duplicate one[surprise]
 
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quick question: does your car mirror say - objects in the mirror are closer than they appear

I dont remember mine and now after service, i felt something strange with my mirrors. Was wondering if they replaced it with duplicate one[surprise]
Yes most of the modern day cars carry this disclaimer. Are you finding this missing from both mirrors? If they have replaced then its very unfortunate.
 
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I have had TATA cars in past, Sierra, Sumo, Indica, & Safari so i was mentally prepared for the niggling issues which crop up every now and then.
I recently purchased a 2014 Oct TATA Zest XE from a friend of mine, run for 13k km, have drove the car much as i bought it few days ago, how ever with limited time i drove this car
1. I found the car struggling on the incline which was almost solved by using SPORT MODE (Didn't help much but extra power is always good [;)])
2. I would have preferred if the ECO & SPORT switches were placed at place where its easily reachable (or its just me who feels this)
3. The steering keeps on rubbing the below housing (my friend who owned it earlier has got that rectified in September during normal service, its started again and its annoying when you have a music system off.
4. Is there any advise from my fellow ZEST members i need to adhere to regarding this car ?

I would really appreciate it.
 
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I have had TATA cars in past, Sierra, Sumo, Indica, & Safari so i was mentally prepared for the niggling issues which crop up every now and then.
I recently purchased a 2014 Oct TATA Zest XE from a friend of mine, run for 13k km, have drove the car much as i bought it few days ago, how ever with limited time i drove this car
1. I found the car struggling on the incline which was almost solved by using SPORT MODE (Didn't help much but extra power is always good [;)])
2. I would have preferred if the ECO & SPORT switches were placed at place where its easily reachable (or its just me who feels this)
3. The steering keeps on rubbing the below housing (my friend who owned it earlier has got that rectified in September during normal service, its started again and its annoying when you have a music system off.
4. Is there any advise from my fellow ZEST members i need to adhere to regarding this car ?

I would really appreciate it.
Congrats man on your new ride. I drive a diesel Zest and is now nearing 20k kms. Except for minor niggles this vehicle has amazed me.

Coming to your observations:
I am not sure on the first point as i have driven the petrol barely 5kms during TD. Your second point is very valid, even i felt that the switches are kept little awkard. I would have preferred the switches as a rotary knob as seen in Hexa and upcoming Nexon or maybe little upwards in the centre console or steering knob. [glasses]

I didn't understand your 3rd point. To sum up, Zest is really a VFM car in that segment and i hope that you have a wonderful and niggle free ownership experience in the future.
 

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