Tata Bolt Review:-

The Indica nameplate is perhaps the most important in Tata's passenger car business. It put Tata Motors on the map against the likes of Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai and the product had a few strong points - ride quality and space, for example.

It also looked quite smart in its time and was the turning point for Tata Motors. The launch of the Horizonext initiative marked the paradigm shift that the company much needed; and the first fresh product to come out - Zest - was a good effort in the right direction. If not the best product in the segment, the Zest definitely surprised every critic in a very pleasant way.

One could sense the effort that's been invested in the Zest - the product that battles chiefly with the three cars in the sub-compact sedan segment: Maruti Suzuki Dzire, Honda Amaze and Hyundai Xcent. There's still substantial road to cover, but Tata is on the right track - that's for certain. For a brand like Tata that's not had the best brand equity and has suffered from perception issues over the years, an initiative like Horizonext is crucial and, I think, the company should've been a bit more aggressive and introduced a radically different design direction for people to see.

You see, it was a fantastic opportunity for Tata to truly move away from the shadows of the image that plagued Indica. When Tata revealed the Zest and Bolt to the media just before the Auto Expo earlier this year, I didn't have much of an issue with the Zest, but I was disappointed with the Bolt even back then.

It carries broadly the same design as the Indica and that's where I think Tata could've done things differently. As I said, the Bolt is almost as important as the original Indica, if not more. Ever since the late 1990s when the Indica was first introduced, there's not been a major update to the product.

Yes, it has seen many facelifts and suffixes and while the Indica Vista was greatly improved and had a slight suggestion of fertility about it, it still was an Indica. With the Bolt, Tata took the big dive - it moved away from the Indica brand. That's great, but therein lies the problem too.

Specifications:

Engine:- Revotron 1.2-litre Turbocharged MPFi
Transmission:- 5-speed manual
Power:- 88.8bhp @ 5000rpm
Torque:- 140Nm @ 1750-3500rpm