Yesterday took a test drive of the Tata Harrier, the TD unfortunately wasn't very long (some 15 minutes long TD). Last month I test drove the Jeep Compass (chief competitor of the Harrier). From the compact SUV range, I have exclusively driven the Ford Ecosport (we have a 2016 Titanium + D in our garage) & the Hyundai Creta petrol (my friend owns one).
The Drive:
Off the mark it feels exactly like a Jeep Compass, the clutch, gearbox feel are very similar. The clutch is very light, though it has a slightly longer travel. The gearbox has well defined gates, but once you are on the move & going through the gears, you realize that the shifting action has a notchy / rubbery feel to it. The Jeep compass easily had a smoother shifting action, the other thing I noticed was that the gear-knob had some vibrations. Just after the Harrier TD, I drove my 2006 Swift, the gear shifting was way better in the Swift.
A strange thing I noticed in the Harrier (& in the Compass) is that after releasing the clutch in first gear, the car lunges forward. I am someone who likes to give some accelerator input before releasing the clutch, so there isn't any change that the anti-stall mechanism was making the car lunge forward. This behavior will make these 2 car a bit tiring to drive in city traffic.
Anyways on the move, Harrier has good enough low end grunt, slightly better than Compass (maybe because of gearing). The Mid range is quite strong, though there is no strong turbo kick, power comes in a linear way. The top end (by top end I mean above 3500 RPM) is actually a bit disappointing, mainly because the engine gets really boomy at high RPM. Not only is the engine loud at high RPMs, it's also a bit too noisy under acceleration. The Ford Ecosport's diesel engine is easily quieter than the Harrier's engine, even the same engine in the Compass sounds smoother.
Overall performance is more than adequate, most guys would be satisfied with the performance on tap. The Compass is a bit quicker, especially when you floor it. I did toggle between the different driving modes, with sports modes engaged the acceleration is noticeably better. The city mode in isolation isn't very bad, it is more than sufficient for city driving.
I didn't get a proper chance to take the Harrier over bad roads, still it felt like that the ride will be good, the suspension seemed to be on the softer side. Under hard acceleration the nose lifts up a bit & on braking there is nose dive, a hint that the suspension is on the softer side. I took the Harrier up a small hill (went to the entrance of Kamakhya Temple), it was a relatively slow climb (narrow road & traffic). The hydraulic steering seemed good to me at low/medium speed, return back action was nice. The slow speed climb revealed one weak point of most modern SUVs, despite having a big engine the Harrier needed constant downshifting to first gear. The problem here is the tall gearing, my ex Zen with a tiny 1 litre engine would be better in such a scenario, just because of its short gearing.
The Interior:
Classy would be the word that I would use to describe the Harrier's interior. First up is the dull faux wood treatment on the dashboard, which runs across the length of the whole dashboard & gives a nice contrast. The floating 8.8 inch touchscreen is brilliant to look & use, the digital instrument panel is one classy touch. The other thing I liked in the Harrier is that there aren't too many buttons on the central console like most modern cars.
The front seats are quite big with sufficient bolstering, even thigh support is good. The adjustable lumbar support is one brilliant feature, wonder why manufactures skip this simple but useful feature. The space at rear is brilliant, be it seat width or leg room. The Compass in comparison feels cramped. One slight problem I have with the rear seat is the headroom at the back, for a SUV I would have preferred a tad more headroom.
The exterior:
This is the trump card of the Harrier, the design is futuristic & classy at the same time. The uniquely placed LED DRLs are sure to turn heads. The design is full of curves & creases, though nowhere does it feel overdone. The ORVMs are Elephant sized, the coverage is simply brilliant. If I have to nitpick, I would say the alloy wheel design could have been better. The rear camera also stick out as a sore thumb, it is placed below the Tata logo & looks like an aftermarket unit. Taking about the rear camera, the display output is horrible. More than anything, the video resolution & clarity are really bad.
Features:
The Harrier is one fully loaded car, especially the top variant. 6 airbags, ABS, ESP, TC & a host of other safety features. The JBL powered 9 speaker ICE sounds awesome, easily better than the one on the Compass. It also has a host of other unique features like puddle lamp with logo projection, auto headlight, rain sensing wipers, cruise control. One thing is missing even in the top variant, an auto dimming IRVM. Our Ecosport Titanium + is equipped with one & I find it very useful.
P.S- One really silly thing is missing in the XT variant, the XT variant doesn't get a vanity mirror
. Even something like my ancient 2001 Zen Vxi had a vanity mirror. This missing feature isn't mentioned in the brochure as well. Luckily the demo car inside the showroom was a XT variant, hence I noticed the missing vanity mirror.
Here are a few photos: Size comparison with the Swift: