I have hardly been paying attention to the flurry of car launches happening these days, a far cry from a decade ago, when I would religiously go and test drive almost every new car which was launched. The Harrier however, piqued my interest.
To say it stands out among today's cars is an understatement. It is very striking, with great presence and is just the right size. It does not have a bad angle in my opinion. I had briefly checked it out at the Mumbai airport while rushing to catch my flight and somehow the desire to spend more time with it manifested itself that day.
I found myself with a couple of hours to spare at home last weekend when I'd gone to Hyd. I remembered there is a Tata showroom nearby, and dropped by Tejaswi Motors, Hitec city with my Dad, who quite readily agreed, once he heard its based on a LR platform.
The sales person who met me Yuvraj, was quite friendly. We checked out the car leisurely. The interiors are definitely premium, more than say the XUV and even the compass. The BMW-esque screen surely uplifts the ambience. The seats, both front and rear are very comfortable, typical TATA style, with good under thigh support. It's a pity that the fancy Italian leather even on the top end version is not genuine leather. The wooden panel on the interiors is quite nice. The solid metal hinge to open the door from the inside is great to hold. There is enough soft padding on the doors, in the usual spots on touches/rests on the door pad, something a Creta sorely misses out on. The only thing I did not like was the handbrake, it did not feel solidly made at all, and did not inspire confidence when using it. I did not do a detailed paint and panel gap analysis, but nothing stood out like a sore thumb. The doors shut with a lovely thud.
Onto the test drive. I daily drive a figo 1.5D and a 2.4 Turbo civic. The Harrier has a nice and high driving position with a good view out, and the bonnet is fairly flat, so one can judge the extremities easily. The Safari is a tad higher though. The 9 speaker JBL sound system was excellent, and I am quite picky when it comes to audio systems. I played English songs off a USB drive, no FM testing.
![Big Grin](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.png)
The clutch is lighter than that in my figo, but the gearshifts are a little notchy, and it was tricky to into 2nd at times, it might get better with time, but I am not sure if its a running in issue or something due to the design. The armrest position also somehow was not making shifting gears that seamless. The steering was quite light for a hydraulic setup, and was quite direct and did not have any play. I would have personally preferred some more heft to it, but I guess most would not.
I did not find the engine to be noisy. Music was shut while we were moving, and my figo is definitely noisier. The car pulls easily, no lag, 20km/h in 3rd gear also did not pose a problem, drive-ability is that good. Obviously performance is sufficient, not great, will be more than adequate on the highway. The biggest highlight to me was the ride and handling. I read a lot about the JLR platform etc, but did not expect to be this impressed. Regular potholes, ruts and broken surfaces on our usual city roads are dismissed like they don't exist. And all this without the jiggliness one gets with ladder on frame chassis SUV's. I will go so far as to say that the low/medium speed ride is better than the endeavour's, which was the benchmark.
Fine, but obviously the high speed dynamics will suffer if the low speed ride is that good. Not a chance. On a deeply rutted road, the sales advisor kept pestering me to not lift off and to keep the throttle pinned. Coming from sedans, at the first sight of a broken road, I shed speed like nobody's business. But not here. I was doing unmentionable speeds on these broken roads, where I would not cross 20-30 kmph in my other cars. The Harrier seemed unflappable. Braking was good as well, the car stopped from 100kmph in a straight line without drama, and with zero bobbing and pitching. Whatever tech TATA has borrowed from JLR clearly seems to have worked.
I did take it off-road, nothing serious and used the various modes, i'm guessing they should see you through most situations. Don't blame me if you get stuck somewhere though because of it being FWD only.
To sum it all up, it is a lot of car for INR 19 lakhs. Don't bother with the lesser versions as they will not feel as special, and the little extra that one pays for the top end, really goes a long way. I was told there is a 3 month waiting list for the top end, and that majority of the bookings are for the top end version itself, which makes sense. I currently do not have the need for a new car, but boy was I tempted after this test drive. People sitting on the fence should just jump in and get this car.