Wednesday, April 22, 2015

The Sunday that I Bolted!

I, among a few other bloggers, received an invite from Blogadda on behalf of Tata Motors to join them for a drive to Lonavala from Bandra Kurla Complex, a distance of around 120kms so that I could experience their latest hatchback Tata Bolt.
We met at Café Infinito on the 19th morning at 7.30am for a sumptuous breakfast, a briefing about 


the car and the route that we would take to ensure that we could experience a variety of road surfaces.
We were divided into teams and each team, of 3 bloggers and a representative of Blogadda, was allocated a car each. We were allocated the Tata Bolt with a Revotron 1.2T engine. Let me at the outset make it clear that my opinion of the car will be that of a ‘user’ and not a technical one.



The exterior was pretty much like that of any hatchback. Did not excite. But the interior, as we sat in, proved to be very comfortable. I sat in the rear seat and the legroom was impressive.



Then came the most impressive part – the Harman infotainment system. It can play music from the Radio, USB or via Bluetooth connectivity. That is not all. It has a touchscreen and responds to voice commands as well to control the A/C or any other functions that have been enabled. There is more, yes. It also has smartphone enabled navigation with MapMyIndia maps! So with our route fed in, we set out! This car engine has 3 modes that can be used for optimum fuel utilisation – Eco, City and Sports, depending on where and how you drive.



The 1st stop was at MMRDA grounds to show how wonderful the suspension was. We were given a ‘connect the dots’ chart and I had to connect the dots while the car moved over rough patches on a laid out track with a small stretch of rumbler strips too. You can see the results for yourself in the video shot by Anuja from Blogadda.




Then we had a great comfortable ride with Disha Kotak at the wheel who was testing out all the


different modes of the engine and Ekta was in total command of the Infotainment system playing music that we requested and also navigating all the way! The comfort level at the rear was indeed very high.
The 1st pitstop was at the Food Mall after the 1st toll booth at Khalapur on the Mumbai Pune expressway where I replaced Disha at the wheel and Disha decided to grab 40 winks.
From there on to Triose Plaza for lunch was a short distance but I enjoyed it though I felt that it was not very responsive in higher gears while the torque was great at the lower end which was a great help as there was no need to change gears constantly while negotiating traffic on the ghats. Disha slept like a baby in the rear seat. It was so comfortable.
Post lunch we got to exchange our cars and our team got the much powerful Quadrajet 1.3 diesel Bolt. It was a breeze driving her up the curves to Tigers point in Lonavala where we had the mandatory selfies.



And then it was back to Mumbai. Overall a wonderful experience in a seemingly improved car from the Tatas! Get Set Bolt!
For technical specifications and other FAQs please visit http://bolt.tatamotors.com/faqs.php
It sure was a Sunday well spent at #BoltDrives with BOLT from TATA Motors in association with BlogAdda.

13 comments:

  1. man!!! you had so much of fun... I missed it :( next time perhaps... :-)
    thanks for sharing sire :-)

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  2. 40 winks really.... I was all awake to make sure we didn't miss the coffee... but you pretty much the highlight of the day for me. Let's catch up for some lunch and endless soon...

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  3. Seems like you had a gr8 time...I was also going to join you guys ...but last minute guests. ..anyways next time...cheers

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  4. Hari OM
    Road trip! Sounds like it may be built a bit more with the city driving in mind, by your comments on the gears; and whilst it does look like a lot of other hatchbacks of this size, that is not necessarily a bad thing. Simple - and red. That's gotta be good! YAM xx

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    Replies
    1. You are spot on Yamini ji. It sure seems designed for city driving as the boot too is tiny!

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  5. Loved the Blog. Loved the Bolt.

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  6. Deepak ji, seems you guys had a wonderful time with Bolt. :)

    A Rat's Nibble

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