[octane_100]

Originally Posted by Mukund

Autocar interviews Mayank Pareek - President, Passenger vehicles, TML.

He says currently no plans for 4wd and more importantly Automatic.

Time to say "OK TATA - bye bye" to Harrier!!

[isldhn]

Originally Posted by Mukund

Autocar interviews Mayank Pareek - President, Passenger vehicles, TML.

How are they allowed to say ridiculous things like “True blooded SUV” on National television? What does this guy think he is selling?

[Samba]

Drove the Harrier today.

TC motors staffs were very friendly and cooperative. A big thumbs up to them.

Bhpain Arindamxeta & I did the test drive together.

I took my Duster Awd, so we can do a comparison.

My observations-

Its a looker from every angle.
The interiors are plush and feels premium. The outdated Duster cant even hold a candle to the Harrier in this section.

The overall build quality is great. Fit and finish is good, if noticed minutely, few rough edges can be spotted.

The drive -

I drove it in sports mode-

The performance is adequate, it's not a scorcher like the Compass! If i do not downshift while picking up from slow speed, a negligible turbo lag can be felt, though its not a deal breaker. Once the turbo kicks in the pickup is quite good. Reaching triple digit speed is a breeze. At 120km/hr in 6th gear the RPM needle was lazing around 2,000 rpm whereas Duster Awd touches 100k/hr at 2,400 rpm. So this can give an idea of how much relaxed highway cruiser the Harrier is. The gear shift feels nice and smooth. The gear ratio's are sorted out well.

The car easily picks up from 2nd gear from standstill while it stalled in 3rd but the Duster AWD picks up from 3rd gear without accelerator input because of it's short gear ratio's. Anyways starting a vehicle from standstill in 3rd gear without accelerator input is just pointless. Still i checked that. Over all the drivability is quite good. For long highway drives this can be a very good car.

I took it a bit off-road too. The ground clearance felt adequate and it performed well in respect to 2wd standards.

The NVH level of Harrier was below my expectation. It's at par with Duster. I expected a much quieter cabin in such a premium offering.

The ride quality is plush. Its more comfortable than the Duster!

The handling is neutral. Its not a sharp handler. On sharp inputs, body roll can be felt. Duster scores better over here.

Despite having a hydraulic power steering, the steering lacks feedback.

The brakes are just superb! I may say, its even better than few sedans!

If only fun to drive is considered, the Duster is more of a drivers car with better steering calibration and handling but if it's compared overall then the Harrier scores high in terms of premiumness, looks, comfort, features, ergonomics & braking.

My verdict is, if i spend 18+L on a car of this segment, i will settle with the Compass base model! I am not a feature and top model freak guy. For me only the driving pleasure matters.
If i am looking for a 2wd in a budget of around 16 L, i will chose the mid variant of the Harrier above Creta 1.6L diesel.
I hope TATA offers an AWD and an automatic soon.
Overall a big thumbs up to TATA for the Harrier.

Time for pics-

The exterior









Note the animal imprint on the projector!



XXL sized ORVM (Coverage area is huge)



The Interior



Dashboard



Instrument cluster



The driving seat armrest is okay if the seat is positioned backwards. If the seat is adjusted in the front, the knee fiddles with the dashboard contour.



Rear legroom is more than adequate



Rear leg space for me with the driving seat adjusted to my liking. I am 5 feet 9"



Huge boot space



The rear door pad



The handbrake looks unique!



235/65/R17



The engine bay looks neat. Air intake pipe is placed high. Water wading wont be a problem. Radiator is placed well inside the front bumper. The AC condenser is more vulnerable in case of a frontal collision.



No hydraulic struts.



Dead pedal is present



A pictorial comparison with my Duster Awd.

Both have similar approach angles. Duster have a slight edge over here.



Harrier looks bigger



Duster has better ride height and ground clearance.







Harrier is wider



Just compare the size of the ORVM's!



The segment starter with the latest entrant!

[Dr.Naren]

The Only 2 SUV's with 2.0 MJD on sale in India

https://www.cartoq.com/tata-harrier-...ence-compared/

[Waspune]

Originally Posted by Dr.Naren

The Only 2 SUV's with 2.0 MJD on sale in India

Attachment 1844398

https://www.cartoq.com/tata-harrier-...ence-compared/

Wait for the MG motor 's SUV. That will complete the trio running 2.0 MJD.

[ashutoshb]

Tried the configurator today. Here is what I intend to get OEM:
Mascot: 1,685
Mudflaps: 960
Side Steps with Bracket: 18,055
Roof Rails: 9,090

Two more things, I am going to get done from outside.
1. Get the rims painted - Hyper Grey or Gun Metal Grey.
2. Might get a Roof vinyl of either Glossy black or Gun Metal Grey.

Spent some time on GIMP to see how it should turn out with everything done. Last pic is of my Storme, with its painted wheels.

[AutoNoob]

A reliable birdie from Tata Motors confirms another variant in working with Sunroof and black shade. Launch timing not confirmed.

Makes things exciting. Personally, I'll love to have both.

[mroutlander]

From what I heard, Harrier had gathered ~16000 bookings. Now even if 25% of those booking get realized (wild guess; actual figures might be higher), that gives a number of 4000. For a vehicle that starts at 15-16L OTR, that's a more than decent start. Good going, Tata. Hope you address the minor fit and finish issues real soon.

[neoonwheels]

Visited Bafna motors today with wife for the Harrier TD. Was pleasantly surprised to see a 500KM TD car, so the claim made by the Concord SA seems to be true that they got media cars being TATA motors subsidiary.

Now most of my observations still hold true but I am happy to report that the vibrations that I felt when the clutch was depressed on the media car were absent on this car. As I mentioned, the clutch is super light and it would not cause knee pain even in B2B traffic. Of course, only time will tell if the clutch remains this light after putting up KMs.

The driving modes were also functional and I could make out the difference between City and Sport mode. The already peppy car becomes more agile in acceleration when you engage the Sports mode. But I guess this also increased the engine noise which freely made its way into the cabin.

After this I immediately took JEEP compass TD and it certainly feels more premium and has that finesse which somehow the Harrier lacks. Also it feels more eager in acceleration compared to Harrier.

BTW, JEEP is getting rid off the Limited O model and I strongly feel its because of the Harrier impact. Limited O as of now is available at the price of Limited. I guess even the Longitude O will be dropped and the features will be made available in Longitude. This is what I was expecting since long as the variants are just not VFM when you compare them to Harrier (They still are not!!!). Things will turn interesting the time MG launches the Hector. We would have 3 SUVs will same engine but with a lot of price difference. My gut feel says Hector would sit in between Harrier and Compass.

[nainan]

I had a brief test ride on the Harrier today at Planet Autokraft on Outer Ring Road Bangalore.

I also had a short 2 min break before the TD so I decided to check out the oft discussed panel gaps in the rear light cluster. On closer inspection of the display vehicle the rear light clusters shut lines looked exactly the same however they were not flush with each other. So I decided to take an even closer look. I then realised that the tail light division between the boot and the D pillar is not on the X axis ie parallel to the length of the car but at an almost 45 degree angle in such a manner the the boot tail light section overlaps the one below the D pillar. This orientation and overlap looks like an incorrect shut line but is uniform on both sides so I conclude this is not really a niggle as in something not working as designed rather a design choice though not sure to what reason.

Now the test drive itself. As I had a Safari and currently use an i20 to get to work I mostly look at the Harrier in relation to these.

Firstly I neither had to climb up or down into the car as the seat is just the right height and getting in was as natural as sliding onto the seat.

The mirrors were folded and between me and the sales person we fumbled a bit till we realised that in the knobs centre position you have to push it down to fold the mirrors.

Having done that I got on to the outer ring road on a pretty busy stretch. The light clutch is a big boon and the high torque ensured very little need to change gears. The suspension is stiffer than the boat like sway in the Safari. The Harrier never lost its incredible composure no matter whether i drove it on potholes or construction debris.

I then got on to the Outer Ring Road and tried small bursts of speed on the empty sections with some overtaking. As some auto review had mentioned it indeed feels like a baby Safari albeit with some important differences. There is no perceptible turbo lag unlike the Safari. The Harrier feels much more planted and while there is body roll its very controlled. The engine did not feel strained at all and it felt like there was a lot of grunt left. Braking too felt very confident. The gear knob is a real improvement with none of the rubbery feel of previous Tata manuals. The engine feels very much like the Compass's. NVH is not Hyundai levels but better than the Safari.

Though the drive was short and I would like to take a longer one to get a better taste of the upper gears it definitely kept me engaged.

I asked my favorite two questions on service interval and average service cost and was told its 15000 Km and Rs 11000 approximately. The waiting period is 3 months. They also said they have made approx 20 bookings at this showroom since launch.

My biggest grouse was the left knee hitting the panel and though you can work around it by pulling the seat back with my 5 foot 10 inch frame the resulting position at a good seat height is just about adequate and any shorter might be an irritant combined with the long throw clutch.

[1100D]

Originally Posted by Samba

Drove the Harrier today.


The performance is adequate, it's not a scorcher like the Compass! If i do not downshift while picking up from slow speed, a negligible turbo lag can be felt, though its not a deal breaker. Once the turbo kicks in the pickup is quite good. Reaching triple digit speed is a breeze. At 120km/hr in 6th gear the RPM needle was lazing around 2,000 rpm whereas Duster Awd touches 100k/hr at 2,400 rpm. So this can give an idea of how much relaxed highway cruiser the Harrier is. The gear shift feels nice and smooth. The gear ratio's are sorted out well.

The handling is neutral. Its not a sharp handler. On sharp inputs, body roll can be felt. Duster scores better over here.

Despite having a hydraulic power steering, the steering lacks feedback.

I got pulled into driving the car, although I wasn't particularly interested. But since I did, although I knew that comparisons with the Compass will come automatically to the mind. Yes, the Compass seems to be a better sorted machine in terms of Ride, Handling and even tuned more enthusiastic (both in terms of power output and gear ratios), I decided to compare the drive experience of this, against a car whose platform it is based on (especially since a lot of "pedigree" marketing is being done), namely the Discovery sport.

I knew comparing the powertrain performance was baseless, the price bracket also is completely different, so was simply looking at comparing the ride, handling and dynamics on almost the same roads. Looks like the difference of rear suspension and the metals used in the LR platform, really makes it a completely different animal. The ride is something that comes closest, but there is a bit of wallow, not sure if its entirely due to high profile rubber. At the end of the day, since a lot of talk is being made of being based on the LR platform, how much does it percolate to a drive experience, that will require someone to dig deeper and find out.

[Th!ru]

Originally Posted by nainan

My biggest grouse was the left knee hitting the panel and though you can work around it by pulling the seat back with my 5 foot 10 inch frame the resulting position at a good seat height is just about adequate and any shorter might be an irritant combined with the long throw clutch.

+1 to that. I think only an AT variant can solve this problem for us folks.

[damodar]

Originally Posted by nainan

My biggest grouse was the left knee hitting the panel and though you can work around it by pulling the seat back with my 5 foot 10 inch frame the resulting position at a good seat height is just about adequate and any shorter might be an irritant combined with the long throw clutch.

I hope you had adjusted the steering too while getting the seat position right. I found the steering had a good range of telescopic adjustment and most people test driving seem to have missed out on this because of the huge rush at the showrooms.

[tarik.arora]

Originally Posted by mroutlander

From what I heard, Harrier had gathered ~16000 bookings. Now even if 25% of those booking get realized (wild guess; actual figures might be higher), that gives a number of 4000. For a vehicle that starts at 15-16L OTR, that's a more than decent start. Good going, Tata. Hope you address the minor fit and finish issues real soon.

The typical cancellation rates in the automotive industry are less than 30%. For a new product, the rates can be a little higher as people have not seen the car and prices before booking. Even if i take the cancellation rate to be 40-45%, we are looking at ~9000 units in the next 2-3 months (assuming production is a constraint)

[condor]

Looking at all the comments about the supposed shortcomings of the Harrier, I want to suggest to Tata Motors to work on a Transformer. That is possibly the only way they can satisfy the perceived needs of all the people, esp those who have expressed their dissatisfaction over the Harrier with all it's shortcomings like panel gaps, lack of knee space, noise, performance at higher revv's. Or even polish left over in some nook after the vehicle was cleaned before display at the showroom.