New ZICA Launch-#Fantastico Event by Tata Motors and Indiblogger!
As I mentioned in the earlier post, Tata Motors is readying their latest car, called ZICA for commercial launch. Recently they conducted media drives for journalists and selected bloggers in Goa. Some two weeks ago I got selected for this event, to get to drive the new ZICA first hand. This was my fourth Tata Motors event this year after Safari SOUL Drive, GenXNano event in Pune and The ChosenOne event at Ahmedabad. I was looking forward to the ZICA experience.
However heavy flooding in Chennai last week threatened to throw my plans out of gear. But managed to evacuate from Chennai to BLR just in time on 4th and then immediately take an overnight bus to Goa to reach Goa just in time for the event. [More in this post].
ZICA is an important car for Tata Motors- Derived from Zippy Car, the entry level hatch back segment in which Zica has to compete is a price sensitive market where customers are not willing to compromise much on features and comforts. From what I have seen and experienced, Tata has got the car’s design and production right, now some good sales volume at competitive pricing is required for the success of this new car.
Saturday noon I arrived at Madgao and reached resort. Met Indiblogger (Anoop, Vineet, Naveen and others) and Tata Motors officials, got very warm welcome from them for making it to Goa despite Chennai floods, they even made a video of mine talking about my experience [Check this link]. Other bloggers started arriving from all over India (about 60 of us in total). Met many for the first time, and few I had met at previous events. Bloggers from Ahmedabad, Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Coimbatore, Kolkata, Calicut, Bengaluru and many other cities merged into one spot and Alila Diwa was high on energy that evening. Post lunch checked into beautiful and luxurious Alila Diwa resort (one of the best in Goa) and later in the afternoon we had some fun at nearby beach.
In the evening our teams were made. I got paired up with Gautam of AutosArena and Sharmila Rao- (refer pic above) both are/were Goa residents and knew Goa roads in and out. After this we were in for a major surprise. We were asked to enter a hall which resembled locker room. We had jerseys with Messi written on the back and some more Tata Motor goodies. Personal attention and effort put in by the organizers to make this evening memorable to us really touched our hearts. As we evacuated in a hurry I couldn;t carry my camera bag, had to manage this event with mobile camera and gopro. So couldn't take very clear pics of the indoor shots. This personalized experience and treatment took all of us by surprise and we were truly delighted. Next Cyrus Sahukar hosted the briefing event.
Delna Avari talked about Tata Motor’s association with Lionel Messi. This was followed by a session on Design Next principles involved in development of ZICA- delivered by Pratap Bose(Prabo). Next Anand Kulkarni talked about DriveNext concept used in ZICA. Again Delna spoke about ConnectNext features of ZICA. I have detailed notes from these sessions, which I will cover in a separate post along with review of the car. [Now live here]
Next the all new ZICA was unveiled in front of us- the car and its key features- two engines, colours, entertainment system etc. We could interact with experts in these areas who explained in detail how various things work. I wanted to spend more time in this room but we were driven out for a cake cutting, followed by dinner and Karaoke. Post dinner I took leave, went to my room, published a post each on Chennai flood experience and ZICA first pictures, slept.
Day 2 was the main event. Post breakfast we checked out and got into our cars. Soon we were flagged off. We spent about 2.5/3 hours on the curvy Goan roads photographing the car, driving around etc. We got a diesel car in the beginning. Twitterati gave us lots of challenges, which we tried to complete as much as possible. Unlike few other drives I had this year- where we had to drive in strict convoy and had near zero liberty to drive where we want or how we want, this time we had some liberty to drive around a bit freely. Half way we swapped with another car and got to experience petrol version too. Wanted to go further but the drive ended early. We headed back to resort, returned the car and had lunch. Many bloggers were interviewed by Cyrus Sahu about their experience with the car.
After lunch bloggers started leaving one by one to their respective towns.
I wanted to go to my native place but didn’t have proper connectivity on Sunday evening. So wanted to leave Monday morning. Tata Motors and Indiblogger readily agreed to extend my stay by a night. I took good rest and bid goodbye to Goa next morning. I was sort of first few to arrive and last few to leave. Enjoyed every moment spent at the event. Only thing is that out of 24 hours we spent just 3-4 hours inside the car and rest in the resort- I would have preferred it to be the other way round obviously :)
If you notice, I have not written much about the car in this post, as it is mostly about the event. Detailed review of the car now live in this post.
However heavy flooding in Chennai last week threatened to throw my plans out of gear. But managed to evacuate from Chennai to BLR just in time on 4th and then immediately take an overnight bus to Goa to reach Goa just in time for the event. [More in this post].
ZICA is an important car for Tata Motors- Derived from Zippy Car, the entry level hatch back segment in which Zica has to compete is a price sensitive market where customers are not willing to compromise much on features and comforts. From what I have seen and experienced, Tata has got the car’s design and production right, now some good sales volume at competitive pricing is required for the success of this new car.
Saturday noon I arrived at Madgao and reached resort. Met Indiblogger (Anoop, Vineet, Naveen and others) and Tata Motors officials, got very warm welcome from them for making it to Goa despite Chennai floods, they even made a video of mine talking about my experience [Check this link]. Other bloggers started arriving from all over India (about 60 of us in total). Met many for the first time, and few I had met at previous events. Bloggers from Ahmedabad, Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Coimbatore, Kolkata, Calicut, Bengaluru and many other cities merged into one spot and Alila Diwa was high on energy that evening. Post lunch checked into beautiful and luxurious Alila Diwa resort (one of the best in Goa) and later in the afternoon we had some fun at nearby beach.
In the evening our teams were made. I got paired up with Gautam of AutosArena and Sharmila Rao- (refer pic above) both are/were Goa residents and knew Goa roads in and out. After this we were in for a major surprise. We were asked to enter a hall which resembled locker room. We had jerseys with Messi written on the back and some more Tata Motor goodies. Personal attention and effort put in by the organizers to make this evening memorable to us really touched our hearts. As we evacuated in a hurry I couldn;t carry my camera bag, had to manage this event with mobile camera and gopro. So couldn't take very clear pics of the indoor shots. This personalized experience and treatment took all of us by surprise and we were truly delighted. Next Cyrus Sahukar hosted the briefing event.
Next the all new ZICA was unveiled in front of us- the car and its key features- two engines, colours, entertainment system etc. We could interact with experts in these areas who explained in detail how various things work. I wanted to spend more time in this room but we were driven out for a cake cutting, followed by dinner and Karaoke. Post dinner I took leave, went to my room, published a post each on Chennai flood experience and ZICA first pictures, slept.
Day 2 was the main event. Post breakfast we checked out and got into our cars. Soon we were flagged off. We spent about 2.5/3 hours on the curvy Goan roads photographing the car, driving around etc. We got a diesel car in the beginning. Twitterati gave us lots of challenges, which we tried to complete as much as possible. Unlike few other drives I had this year- where we had to drive in strict convoy and had near zero liberty to drive where we want or how we want, this time we had some liberty to drive around a bit freely. Half way we swapped with another car and got to experience petrol version too. Wanted to go further but the drive ended early. We headed back to resort, returned the car and had lunch. Many bloggers were interviewed by Cyrus Sahu about their experience with the car.
After lunch bloggers started leaving one by one to their respective towns.
I wanted to go to my native place but didn’t have proper connectivity on Sunday evening. So wanted to leave Monday morning. Tata Motors and Indiblogger readily agreed to extend my stay by a night. I took good rest and bid goodbye to Goa next morning. I was sort of first few to arrive and last few to leave. Enjoyed every moment spent at the event. Only thing is that out of 24 hours we spent just 3-4 hours inside the car and rest in the resort- I would have preferred it to be the other way round obviously :)
If you notice, I have not written much about the car in this post, as it is mostly about the event. Detailed review of the car now live in this post.
Standby for detailed review of ZICA
Superb pics, Thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteThanks Rupam
ReplyDeleteYes,the event was good., and some great pics here
ReplyDeleteThanks Prasad
ReplyDeleteTATA has to collate a good (competitive) pricing for this car.
ReplyDeleteThe Zest & Bolt were a bit highly priced and lost to competition. With a good pricing on Zica TATA can snatch the biz off the competition in the segment as see some volume sales.
I think we will know the price today at Auto Expo... Let us wait n watch
ReplyDelete