Tata Motors’ determination to not just win back the compact sedan segment but also turn around its fortunes is now clearer than ever before. The company has launched the Zest compact sedan at an extremely aggressive price, which could trigger a price war in the segment. 

 

Buoyed by the fantastic profits in Q1 (Rs 5,398 crore), which have trebled thanks to the stellar performance of its subsidiary Jaguar-Land Rover, the pricing of the Tata Zest indicates that Tata Motors isn’t obsessed about profitability in the short term. What remains to be seen is how long Tata will continue with the introductory prices for the Zest. 

 

Priced at Rs 4.64 – 5.99 lakh (petrol) and Rs 5.64 – 6.99 lakh (diesel), the new Zest steps into a now hotly contested territory. We pit it against the Honda Amaze, Hyundai Xcent, Chevrolet Sail, Mahindra Verito Vibe and segment leader Maruti Dzire to see where it stands in terms of pricing. All prices are ex-showroom, Delhi.

 

Tata Motors has launched the new Zest sedan in both petrol and diesel variants. The petrol motor on the Zest is the new 89bhp, 1.2-litre Revotron and the diesel engine is the tried-and-tested 1.3-litre Quadrajet which comes in two states of tune – 74bhp and 89bhp. While the petrol variant gets four trims, the diesel gets five with the base trim being powered by the low-output 74bhp diesel motor. Transmission duties are handled by a five-speed manual gearbox and there is the option of an AMT gearbox on the diesel.

 

Since the Zest is unique as the only diesel automatic on this list, we will compare the manual variants of each car for ease of understanding.