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Hitting the sweet spot is of paramount importance. This is irrespective of the game you play; be it tennis, cricket or selling cars. The sweet spot in the car market currently rests somewhere above the compact sedan class. They have the right size, the right price and the right profile and Indian car buyers just love them.

Maruti’s Dzire, its compact sedan, has been whacking the ball dead center for more than four years now. A clear market leader, its precisely calculated formula is so on the button, many car buyers walk in and buy it without so much as a test drive. But Maruti isn’t satisfied as the customer is always a moving target. And the result is its first diesel automatic, a car guaranteed to widen the appeal of the already popular Dzire.

The Dzire AMT, however, isn’t the first car in its class; far from it. That bit of turf is actually owned by Tata, who pioneered the segment when it launched the Zest AMT at the Auto Expo a couple of years ago. And the cars share more than basic size and specifications. Both use Fiat 1.3-litre Multijet-based
diesel engines, both cars use automated manual transmissions or automatic gearboxes that are based on more affordable manual gearboxes and both cars cost in the region of Rs 8 lakh. So, which is better, the new Dzire or the Zest?