Tata Motors' fight back in the passenger car market has been delayed and fraught with risks, including some that were caused by unforeseen internal incidents such as the ex-Managing Director Karl Slym's untimely demise.

But finally, in the new Zest compact sedan, the company seems to have a strong contender to showcase, and honestly, it looks like the car has what it would take for Tata Motors to make a spirited come back.

There is much that is new about the Zest, but the most important would be the all-pervading passion now, across the company, to deliver a completely overhauled product and service experience with the Zest. This will be the key factor for altering the perception about the brand in the buyers' minds.

Exterior

In terms of design, the Zest is fresh and considerably different from anything we have seen in the past with the Tata logo on the bonnet. There are design lines that are new, but the smiling countenance continues, though the bonnet grille has been reinterpreted. Tata designers have done a good balancing act with the retention of some family design traits in the new Zest, even while they have attempted to redefine a number of others. The result is a younger, more wholesome design that is likely to age more gracefully than the previous models.

The Zest's skin sits comfortably with its image of a compact sedan, even though the cab-forward design is easily identified as being more suitable for a hatchback. The Bolt hatch will also make it into the market in the months to come.

Our favourite design elements in the Zest are the LED wraparound tail-lamps, the Humanity Line (as Tata Motors calls it) that defines the front looks and slash-shaped LED daytime running lights at the front.

Fit and finish quality is a leap over previous Tata Motors vehicles and the shut lines and panel gaps are finally to international tolerance levels. The only pointers to the Zest's mass market orientation are the large gaps in the wheel arches from its high sprung stance and the 15-inch alloys.

Cabin

If the fit and finish quality of the body panels have found the mark, the improvement in the design and execution of the cabin is an even more pleasing change for the positive. The knobs, buttons and stalks are all precise, with progressive haptic feedback and the entire dashboard design and layout is elegantly simple without seeming Spartan.

Our test drive models were off the production line and there were a few hygiene issues still with a bit of a squeak here and there. But overall, the perceived quality image that the cabin exudes is a big leap for Tata. Company designers and engineers have also worked with a 360mm steering wheel with controls mounted, which also contributes to the feeling of being in a premium compact sedan.

Space inside the car was never much of an issue with Tata cars, the Zest stays in that category. There is as much leg, head and shoulder room that can possibly be squeezed out of a sub-4-metre sedan. The boot volume is said to be 390 litres. Seats are adequately bolstered and firm. They are also adjustable for height. The seating position itself is still high-set. Other features include fully automatic climate control and additional dashboard inserts depending on trim level.

The highlight in the cabin is the touch-screen infotainment system that Tata engineers have developed in collaboration with Harman. During our test drive there were a few nit-picky issues with the software that were being trouble-shooted even as we go into print, but the quality of the 8-speaker music system is excellent and the cabin's acoustic tuning felt much above the segment's average.

Powertrains

The Zest is being offered with two engines - one each for petrol and diesel. The diesel engine continues to be the 1.3-litre Fiat multijet engine in the same state of tune at 90PS and a peak torque of 200 Nm. What is new in the powertrain is the additional option of an automated manual transmission, which Tata officials call the F-tronic 5-speed AMT. Also borrowed from Fiat and developed by Magneti Marelli, this gearbox is fundamentally very much like that of the clutch-free AMT in the Maruti Celerio.

The differentiator in the Zest, though, is the addition of drive modes that Tata engineers have smartly integrated into the system. So, there is the regular automatic mode for city driving and then there is a sports mode for more dynamic highway driving. These modes have been tuned by simply working with the engine's mapping and the bunch of sensors feeding information to the ECU.

The other engine on offer is the brand new Revotron petrol engine. The 1.2-litre engine is a turbocharged unit, also producing a healthy 90PS of peak power and 140 Nm of peak torque. There are three modes in the Revotron petrol version - Auto City-driving, Eco and Sports.

The engine feels like it is a good match with the Zest and is surprisingly refined. It does look like it has the potential to live up to all the hype that has been built around it in the last few months. The diesel engine version is offered with the 5-speed manual transmission also, but the petrol engine version is offered only with the manual - no AMT, at least for now.

The Revotron engine feels like a very useable mill and is also said to be very frugal (Tata officials are very tight-lipped about the mileage numbers for both the engines). The Revotron is good fun to drive in sports mode, with its free-revving character and tall gears.

Cabin noise levels in both the diesel and the petrol engine versions have been well contained. Even road noise and water splash noises were low and unobtrusive inside the cabin.

Ride and Handling

The Zest's suspension has been tuned to offer a more agile on-road performance. Though previous Tata cars have had issues with the suspension's performance in terms of longevity, there was not much of an argument with their ability to soak up bad roads. Of course, the previous cars were heavier on average and the suspensions were not meant to support aggressive cornering performance. The Zest on the other hand gets ABS with electronic brake force distribution and corner stability control. The brakes also get a boost in their bite, though the rear brakes continue to be drums.

Bottomline

The Zest is a leap for Tata Motors in many departments. It doesn't look like a compromise and it doesn't drive like one either. There are a few small ergonomics issues that we believe can be sorted out before the car is launched. Prices and mileage numbers are to be announced at the time of launch in the first week of August this year.

We expect Tata Motors to consider an aggressive pricing strategy. The company is also hard at work trying to redefine the sales and post-sales experience at the dealerships.

The Zest has the potential to alter the perceived image of Tata Motors. Will car buyers embrace the change?

Read our full road test review in the Auto Focus page in the Friday edition of Business Line.

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