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Business News/ News / Business Of Life/  Review: Tata Bolt
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Review: Tata Bolt

The successor to the popular Indica hasn't forgotten its roots, but it adds a modern touch

This hatchback offers great value for money. Premium
This hatchback offers great value for money.

NEW DELHI :

If the positive response to the Tata Zest is anything to go by, its hatchback sibling, the Bolt, comes with a lot of promise. The Bolt hasn’t come a day too soon because Tata Motors needs one smash hit after another to snatch back lost market share.

The first impressions are positive. There’s no doubt that Tata Motors has put its heart and soul into getting the Bolt right. True, it’s based on the Indica Vista, and that link is obvious, especially when you view it from the side, but dig deeper and you can see that this is not just a facelift but a heavily engineered and redesigned hatchback.

The Bolt is Tata’s best-looking hatchback yet, and stylish enough to hold your attention. The spread-out headlights, the blacked-out rear pillar and neat tail lamps give it a distinct look. The bright red paint looks rather good, but we wish Tata had used paint, rather than a cheap vinyl sticker, for the C pillar too.

The wide opening doors and tall stance of the car make it easy to slide into the cabin, which is pretty similar to the Zest’s. You get the same interesting dashboard, with the standout element being the Harman-sourced touch screen for the infotainment system—but that’s available only in the top-end XT version. The infotainment system is easy to operate and pair your phone with, and can even be used to operate the climate control system.

All Tata cars are known for their spacious cabins; the Bolt is no different—three passengers can sit comfortably in the back. The seats are wide and deep but could have done with better cushioning.

For a cabin that’s big on passenger space, the Bolt offers irritatingly little space for small items like bottles, cans and keys, and the boot is small.

The big surprise, though, is cabin quality. Just like the Zest; it’s a huge leap forward for Tata Motors, and though a notch lower than the standards set by Hyundai, you won’t find cause for complaint.

The Bolt comes in petrol and diesel engines, but it’s the 89 bhp, 1.2-litre “Revotron" petrol that the company is pushing hard. For a car maker not known for its petrol technology, the Revotron comes as a nice surprise. This turbocharged petrol motor isn’t very free-revving, nor does it feel very sporty, but the Bolt is still the quickest car in its category. There’s a nice surge of power, delivered in a smooth and fuss-free way, and the unique Multi Drive system carried over from the Zest allows you to switch between the Eco, City or Sport modes to juggle performance and economy. Fuel efficiency, however, isn’t the Bolt’s strength; the petrol version delivers a lowly 16.8 kilometres per litre in the official test cycle.

But it’s the Fiat-sourced 1.3 MultiJet (Quadrajet, as Tata calls it) diesel that will interest most buyers. However, this 74 bhp motor isn’t particularly peppy. A lot of that is down to the engine’s characteristic lazy low-end response. It’s sluggish at low revolutions and only gets into its stride at about 2,000 revolutions per minute.

The highlight of the Bolt diesel is its refinement. The engine is among the quietest, if not the quietest, in its class, with sound levels further reduced by the Bolt’s thick body shell. Vibrations are also kept at bay rather well.

The Zest’s driving dynamics are also carried over into the Bolt, and that means an impressive ability to coast over rough patches and bumps smoothly, masking the severity of most potholes without much drama. There is some amount of body movement, but nothing you wouldn’t expect on a comfort-oriented hatchback. Occasional clunks from the otherwise quiet suspension are your only indicator of the poor condition of the road. Around the corners, it’s no Swift, but the good grip levels and the general level of confidence it inspires make you look past the considerable roll and the lightness of the steering.

With prices starting at 4.44 lakh and 5.49 lakh (ex-showroom, New Delhi) for the base XE petrol and diesel, respectively, and moving up to a corresponding 6.05 lakh and 6.99 lakh for the top-specification XT versions, there’s a huge price walk across the range. But if you look at the equipment on offer, it’s great value for money.

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Published: 27 Jan 2015, 08:35 PM IST
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