The first car that I owned didn’t have a sound system. I could not buy one as I didn’t have the money. That was around the time I had just married. We used to play radio from our mobiles whenever we used to go for a long drive. I wish I had a Tata Zica Tiago then – and now, thoughts meandering on my mind till the GPS said – 200 metres from now, take a right …

Read – The experience of Zica Tiago Made for great meet at Goa with 60 top bloggers from the country 

We were driving the Tata Zica Tiago in amazing locales of Goa for the last 90 minutes when the next message came in our whatsapp group – We have to explain the features of Tata to a stranger and make him say – Its fantastico. Its Fantastico. Its Fantastico.

Our drive started around 9 in the morning. I was the team captain along with Sammya Brata and Avantika. The feeling was almost like Varun Dhawan in the same frame as Shahrukh Khan and Kajol. As we glided through the amazing roads of Goa, with choicest of best music playing in the car, a support car following us, what else would one want?

The journey of Zica Tiago started at the end of 2012, when Tata Motors took an ambitious challenge of developing the next generation, global hatchback platform in a never before time span. A global team was put in place and the fun started. When I spoke with Pratap Bose, later he admitted the biggest challenge was timeline. A project which gets done in 48 months was squeezed to 36 months and the options of missing out one deadline was not there, as then it would have a domino effect on the next phases.

As they say – Every great design begins with an inspiration ….

So what are some of the important aspects which Zica Tiago has introduced? Hold on before that I will try to list 5 reasons why we should not fall into the Zica Tiago trap

  1. Colour – It has seducing colours and if you are not enough seduced from the outside, the colours will follow you inside as there are components of the colour which are also present inside. If that was not enough, the other colours which compliment the primary colour will be equally alluring. To add to the misery, the interiors can be customized too. Choices and decisions on colour are the make or break for any man from the colour of lipstick, upholstery, dress materials, shoes, bags, phew… the list goes on. Don’t need one more addition to the list.
  2. Sound and infotainment – I am a sound freak and very very fussy about the sound around me – in my home, in my office, while travelling and almost all the time. This car has got 8 speakers – yes you got it right- 8 speakers and that too from Harman Kardon . The sound design has been specially done by men with Golden ears ( who can hear rarest of frequencies normally). There is a Juke Car application which is the first ever in India, where everyone can sync their mobile with the car audio system. Oh no! My wife loves English music and I love Sadak Chaap Hindi songs when I am travelling in the car. One more possibility of a fight. Please no… In addition to this, there is map my India integrated with the car and the on going current music just reduces the volume but doesn’t stop the music.  Listen to this

3.  Comfort – I drove for almost 4 hours and for once I did not feel like leaving the driver’s seat. The height of the seat can be adjusted and if thats not enough, there is ample leg space for tall people. We checked with Cyrus (he is 6ft 3 inch). Its so comfortable that I predict that most of the times, your passengers won’t prefer getting down easily. My Father in Law requests for lifts at times and the conversations are not very pleasant most of the time. He avoids the journey due to space shortage of my current car, considering he is little on the heavier side, but now I wonder whats going to happen. The high end seat covers and the design is too good to be left and get dropped from the car in your destination.

4. Interior design – I don’t know where to start and whether I can finish. Who on earth had asked them to design 22 smart utility spaces? Drinking and driving is a no no, so I don’t plan to do that. Then how to use those 22 spaces? My wife is on detox once a week. I can see all those interiors getting filled up with juices of different colours, smell and sizes whenever we are on a drive. No more excuses of not enough space to carry them after loading the toy animals of the son. I cannot imagine driving in Goa with detox juices around. I think I will have a small revenge in hiding my beer pints in the chilled glove box.

5. Boot space – The days when my wife goes for her shopping, are the nightmares. Till now, never ever have all the bags fitted in the boot space. Grocery from one place, vegetables from another place, proteins from third place, shoes given for repair, clothes from tailor, almost everything finds a nice home in our car and most of the time, in the backseat. Enough now. All get back to their own place- which is at the boot. There is capacity of 240 litres. Back seat is meant for my books, my gym bag ( well at time it stinks but not always) and my beer crate . Thank you Zica Tiago for this.

On a serious note, this car has enhanced safety features with Airbags for the driver and the passenger too, a fuel efficiency which is unbelievable (we ended our drive at 19.6 km/l on a diesel version) and a smoothness while driving, which is next to none in this range.

Some of the essential features you may want to know about Zica Tiago –

  1. Both the diesel and the petrol version of the engine is 3 cylinder, while the Diesel engine is 1047 cc, the Petrol is 1199 cc.
  2. The first in Segment multidrive facility offers an option of Eco and City drive mode, so the efficiency of fuel and the purpose of the driving can be achieved.
  3. The roof lamp has been shifted from front to the middle with LED white lamp lighting, so that interior color harmony is maintained.
  4. Superior Air flow with driver and passenger centric AC vents for quick cooling.
  5. Rear parking sensors with display on Infotainment boards.
  6. The scooped front seat back is an answer to all tall people.
  7. The drivers seat height can be adjusted to get the maximum leverage of driving.
  8. 22 spaces which are intelligently designed to make a more comfortable driving like cupholder on the front console, 12 v power outlet, driver side pocket etc.
  9. One of the best music system with 8 speakers having surround sound. There is also a juke car app and bluetooth connectivity with smart phone integration.
  10. To top the list, Zica Tiago is low on maintenance, which is what most people look for while buying a car.

As like always I leave you with some pictures of the overall experience which you will surely enjoy

Tiago the beauty

Zica flagging off

Delna and Pratap flagging off the drive

Zica flagging off

Flagging off the beauty

Zica the mean machine

The mean machine before the flagoff

That powerful T

That powerful T

The chilled glove compartment

The chilled glove compartment

Zica_dashboard

That dashboard

Testing out the boot space

Testing out the boot space

Zica TC 1

SRK and Kajol of blogging :-)

Zica three of us

Three of us