Tata Bolt review, road test

The Bolt uses a conventional suspension setup with independent struts at the front and a torsion beam and springs at the rear and is tuned to be slightly stiffer than the Zest’s setup. What isn’t conventional though is the way it muscles its way over bumps. The new dual-path dampers, new subframe and recalibrated struts silently iron out the rough bits, round off sharper bumps and do a splendid  job at keeping the occupants isolated from the road. Sure, the hatchback pitches and bobs a bit at speed but overall, the suspension feels almost perfect for our road conditions and this makes the Bolt one of the best riding cars in its class.

Despite the relatively high ride height, stability at speed is impressive and this, combined with (the nicely calibrated) Bosch’s ninth-generation ABS system, instils confidence on open roads. The steering bristles with feel, is accurate and grip levels are good too. That said, going round the bends at speed results in a fair bit of body roll and this takes away some of the joy from swiftly changing directions. It’s not that it feels unsafe, it just isn’t as much fun as, say, the Swift.