ZIppy CAr..ZICA..A TATA ZICA

Tata Motors #madeofgreat took us to Goa to unveil its new compact car, code named ‘Kite’ till its launch. The car which zips fast or the Zippy Car, hence the name Zica.Tata Zica.

It all started when I saw a request form put up on Indiblogger and applied for it along with the others from the Indian Blog fraternity. I had absolutely no hopes of being selected, so was pleasantly surprised when I got a mail stating that I was one of the 60 bloggers chosen amongst (God knows how many) the many who had applied. We immediately set up a Chat group and most of the 60 connected with each other to plan out some fun along with the work while in Goa. Tata Motors had hosted the entire Event and Wizcraft handled the Travel and stay arrangements pretty well. We were flown down to Goa in the afternoon hours of 5^th December 2015 and checked in the plush Alila Diwa (Alila means Surprise in Sanskrit) at the Gonsua Beach in Majorda just 20 minutes from the Goa Dabolim International Airport. We headed straight for Lunch after which we checked into our rooms to change and catch up some activities at the beach. The Tata Motors team have a great sense and taste for the best and Alila Diwa ensured that it lived up to its stature of a 5-star resort.

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We had some great football at the beach and all of us were eased out at the new place. We came back to our respective rooms, changed again and went over for the official launch of the Tata ZICA the entry level hatchback to be launched in the month of January 2016. We were greeted in the lawns by the Indiblogger Team where we planned out 20 teams (10 each to Test Drive the Petrol and Diesel versions) Our team leader and fellow blogger Anita was generous enough to select me and Pooja as her teammates. After some hot Tea and snacks, we were taken to the “Footballers Locker / Dressing Room”. This room was specially made by Tata Motors for us bloggers, which was vibrant with lights and the music. I was surprised to see that there were 60 sets of Tata motors/Messi Jerseys put up individually for all of us with some goodies stacked up alongside. While we were checking the Locker room, it was announced that our ‘head coach’ would arrive soon and we sat down on the locker room benches. The room went berserk with the entry of our ‘Head Coach’ Cyrus Sahukar. All of us have a funny bone, but this gentleman is made up of many funny bones. The music and his adrenaline pumping talks, charged up every single person in the room and he eventually introduced us one by one to the people behind the making of Tata ZICA starting with Delna Avari – Head of Marketing & Services and Director of Concorde Motors. Delna, who has won over 35+ awards for excellence in various marketing and digital verticals knows that Tata Zica has a lot of potential in the Indian Market.  Next was the favorite of all, popularly known as Pablo in the Industry Pratap Bose- Design Head tata Motors, who has designed many cars of Tata Motors. After successfully giving the BOLT and the ZEST to the nation, Pablo’s eyes gleamed like a proud mother when he described the making of Tata ZICA. We could see his passion for designing a car to make it a ZICA. Once the making was explained we were given a brief on the Technical aspects by Anand Kulkarni – General Manager Vehicle Integration-Cars. He explained the whole car without getting too technical but at the same time educating us on the latest technology used and the features put in the Car. Once the brief was over, an adjoining make-shift wall of the locker room gave way to a gate which was thrown open to reveal the TATA ZICA. All of us were taken inside the launch rook where all the technical experts were present to answer our queries related to the car. Though the pricing and the average was not disclosed (at the pre-launch stage, no official statement would come), we were asked to guess the same next day.

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After we had clicked some pics with the car and the car, we moved on to the buffet and Party area. The evening was complete with some beautiful songs sung by my favorite BlogewatiG, the sweetest Maitreni Mishra and the versatile Rahul Prabhakar, not to mention our good old host and dost, our head coach ‘Cyrus Sahukar’ too sang some beautiful songs. We retired to our rooms early so as to get up early morning and set off on the much awaited Tata Zica ride.

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We woke up early the next morning and assembled for breakfast at 7am. By 8 am we were ready with our team members to start the journey, sporting our new Jersey’s. Teams P1 to P5 and D1 to D5 left first, followed by Teams P6 to P10 and D6 to D10. We returned back by about 12.30pm and straight away headed to the Lunch area. We had a good time driving the Petrol version of the Tata Zica and also completed some challenges thrown in on Twitter by the people following the drive. I was not driving the car so the onus was on me to check the challenges coming in the Whatsapp group and complete them along with Tweeting the same using the best of the mobile signal conditions of Goa. Out of the 29, We did about 27 challenges which I feel is a good score. Since we had checked out of our rooms in the morning itself, we did not have much trouble packing our stuff and batch by batch we were dropped at the Airport. We took an evening flight back to Mumbai and were home dropped by the event organizers. Overall a hectic yet a fun filled #fantastico weekend with the #madeofgreat Team Tata Motors and IB. I would definitely want to do more reviews in the future and would love to be part of such events. Having said that, let us now come to the features, specifications and the review of the Petrol version of the Tata Zica which I was with. It is a sincere effort by me to do an honest review of the car. Please do let me know your views in the comments section below.

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Product Note:

Designext –1)The most popular one where Global design inputs from the studios of Pune, UK and Italy have contributed with equal zeal.

2) A boot space of 240 Litres and 22 utility spaces with a separate partition for the tool kit and the shopping bag hooks with weight markings.

Drivenext – 1) The new 1.2L Petrol Engine, indigenously developed in-house, promises to deliver a refined performance.

2) First-in-segment Multi drive modes – City and Eco- delivering both fuel economy and a peppy drive experience.

Connectnext – 1) An intelligent 8 speaker Next-Gen Connectnext Infotainment system, exclusively developed by Harman for the best audio experience.

2) First-in-class Smart phone enabled Turn-by-turn navigation app.

3) First-in-segment Juke car app.

3) User configurable vehicle settings provide a personal touch.

Here are some of the key features and Specifications of the ZICA Petrol model.

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 Review:

The Petrol version of Tata Zica seems to beat its competitors and counterparts (i10 and Celerio) both in the working and the cost. Lets first look at the design and the working. A lot of attention has been given to make the exteriors of the car using some of the valuable metals like Platinum, Palladium and Rubindium. Even the door handle has been given an arrow shape to make it more attractive. The color is what appealed to me the most and looks fresh and attractive to all age groups. The headlamps have a chrome element running through it with layering which is new in the market. The creases which run through the length of the car make it appear modern and classy. The 14 inch alloy wheels give the perfect stability and balance needed. Overall the car gives the first impression of a Zipping car with a sports touch.

Coming inside the Car, the Pro’s are that I found the dashboard very interesting with some of the color from the outside elegantly being brought inside. That adds to the freshness of the cabin and the smaller steering wheel again reminds of the sporty touch the car has been given. The gear ratios work in tandem with the 1.2 litre second generation Revotron all-aluminium engine. The7 bottle holders and the 2 cup holders appealed to me as it ensures the availability of water everywhere in the cabin  (a total of 5 liters). A special Tablet space is provided on the dashboard to keep your ipad or tab. The Drivers and navigators seat are bucketed down in order to create space for a taller person to sit comfortably and I feel even a 6 foot something may easily be able to manage the car. The AC vents have been designed especially to throw air evenly across the cabin and that happens. The Juke app and the Navigation app are features which the younger generation would love to use regularly. The Zippy car can be maneuvered and we tried some sharp turns just to check that. The balance is amazing, I must say. As far as the cons are concerned, the rear seats which make you very comfortable with the low seating, but at the same time one has to make an effort to move ahead a bit to see what is happening at the front end or outside the car from there.

I would love to look at the AMT variant when its launched and I am sure it will be equally interesting.

Tata Zica will beat its counterparts on Price definitely. (I peg the Top end petrol version at 4.50 Lakhs to 5.50Lakhs ex-showroom)

Tata Zica will beat its counterparts on Fuel efficiency definitely. (The tech team kept telling us that) I feel the petrol version would give anything above 12km per litre and not less.

Tata Zica will be liked by most of the age groups. Ag group 20-35 who would love its speed and modern features, followed by the age group 36-50 who would love the comfort of the car and the age group 50+ would love to see their children drive this car and take them around the city and beyond.

Overall a ZIppy CAr..A ZICA…A TATA ZICA.

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A Small jig by my team-mates which went viral in the Blogosphere. ZICA Rocks!!

A Big Thank you to all my other Blogger friends Zainab Attari, Vaisakhi Mishra, Sid Balachandran, Dr. Roshan R, Ankit Chugh, Shifa Merchant, Shilpa Garg, Shivani Garg, Yogita Aggarwal, Upendra Swami, Anand Bhate, Ragini Puri, Pawan Soni, Arvind Passey, Avantika Chitlangia, Ajay Kontham, Anindya Sundar Basu, Ankita Bhatia and Ankita Singhal who made Goa memorable..

Uttpal K

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