[DriveOnceMore]

I was recently in market for my cousin who wanted to buy XUV700 AX7 D MT.
He doesn't have a good enough experience with Tata Motors reliability and service and that is the ONLY reason I am stopping myself from suggesting him Harrier / Safari twins.

The current Harrier / Safari twins FEEL way better than XUV 700 in every aspect.
There are lots bashing / negative reviews available on social media and on our forum about these Tata twins.
But I also see many of these on road everyday that is where I am confused.

This is where I need your help folks.

Please vote / comment you opinion and first hand experiences about these cars and whether or not we should go ahead with either of these two beauties.

[Rodie09]

I see I am the first voter here and happy to give it a good start voting as "completely reliable". I think it should be understood that this is based on personal experience and the journey so far - I am completing one year this month with my Safari XZA+ Adventure.

Have run about 10800 kilometers and 15 days short of 1 year. My experience has been very positive. The car is well built and is sturdy, and there have been no major issues I have come across that will question its reliability. Of course, it can be early to say but that is what I have at this point to form an opinion.

I am sure the face lift version is even more sorted in some areas and fundamentals remain the same and equally reliable if not more.

[GTO]

Absolutely love the Safari Facelift, but I'm not convinced that Tata has ironed out all the bugs yet. My test car had 4 niggles in the weekend that I had it - link to my review. Whenever I read the Safari Facelift thread, I see many niggles being reported by owners too.

Go for the Harrier / Safari, but with your eyes open. Be prepared to handle niggles & bugs. That's how I approached the Thar = bought it and love it so much, but I knew that niggles will be there (although nowhere close to Safari / Harrier niggles).

[Shreyans_Jain]

It will be better if only actual owners vote and share experiences here, lest the thread be drowned by noise.

[ashutoshb]

Voted 'completely reliable'. Our 2019 Harrier belongs to the first lot. Five years and 70,000 kms later, we have been pretty happy with it. It has not troubled us at all. And as I posted (Tata Harrier : Official Review) in the forum, if driven sedately, it can give over 20 kpl!

[condor]

I have been checking the ad's for a XZA. Came across one (dont remember the variant), with 2.32L on the odo.

Many others which are on sale have done close to a lakh. Even if we consider 4 years of use (approx), that would translate to about 25k a year.

[NPV]

I have owned the Harrier XZA+ #Dark edition for 13 months now and I find the car to be very good and enjoyable to drive. Yes, there are the odd niggles mostly with the infotainment. Service has been quite good so far, it probably helps to build a good relationship with service folks from the time of delivery itself.

Issues I’ve had so far (other than minor intermittent infotainment niggles):
-I had one scare initially on my first highway drive with the family, when a Drive mode error popped up and the car had to be towed, but it ended up as a simple issue with the EGR valve clamp.
-Prior to first year service, I had an engine malfunction lamp display coming up on the cluster which pointed to O2 sensor issue and turned out to be a false alarm, O2 sensor and wiring was checked and cleaned, error was cleared
-OEM Exide battery died after 10 months.

[Newtown]

I have not voted as I don't own one. I do however accompany friends who take me along sometimes for their services to the workshop. There is still much to be desired even in a large metropolis like Mumbai.

Although a lot has changed from the time, I used to drive our Tata Estate all the way to Govandi for a basic service, the change has been slow coming. This needs the light switch treatment - Move from mediocre to great at the flick of a switch and this needs effort.

[Enigmatic]

Thanks to the OP for starting a very pertinent thread wherein if the respective owners comment their views, it will lead to some credible analysis regarding the real-world reliability of the Safari/Harrier.

I bought the Safari (Accomplished + 6S) in February 2024 and over the last 5 months I have driven it for about 4000 KMs.

During this time, I did face a few niggles (such as rear LED light bar had fogging issues, the rear left suspension was making a weird noise at times, the spare wheel mechanism was making a squeaking noise, etc). In fact as I am typing this, my Safari is at the Tata ASS for replacement of a faulty ambient temperature sensor which was triggering other random issues.

Having said the above, I must also highlight that all of the above issues were promptly addressed by the Tata ASS. The Tata ASS (specifically the team at Puneet Motors, Worli) has been more than proactive to rectify these issues. In all honesty, while a fault free product is definitely one of the most important decision making criteria, for me what is equally important is a proactive ASS which understands the issues and attempts to rectify the same.

I bought the Safari with my eyes wide open. I knew there might be minor niggles and I was prepared to have the same rectified. We all need to understand and appreciate that no modern car is without issues (be it a Tata, Mahindra or a Toyota). I was driving the 8th generation Civic prior to the Safari. Honda (as you all are aware) are globally known for their reliability. But was the Civic free of faults? A big no. I doubt there was any Civic in India which did not suffer from a power steering leak. My Civic also suffered from a failed alternator (which also happened to a couple of other Civic owners I knew) and other random issues.

To prospective owners of the Safari/Harrier, buy it with a clear understanding that there might be minor issues. Be prepared to make palls at the Tata ASS near you and in-turn they will be proactive and help you navigate these minor issues.

You might ask, why buy the Safari/Harrier at all if there are such issues. Well, go and have a look around at the market and what it currently offers for the price of a Safari/Harrier. You either get the XUV 700 (which is a great car but has similar issues as the Safari/Harrier while not being as well appointed, feature packed or modern), the Hycross (which cost a significant bit more but the interiors are a letdown), the Tucson (great car with an amazing engine (diesel) but again cost significantly more) or other smaller SUVs (which honestly don't match the bigger SUVs in terms of ride, handling, comfort or safety).

Best,
Enigmatic

[technicalytuned]

I would say Harrier/safari are great cars until and unless you get a lemon. The service centre people are highly undertrained and underequipped to handle cars with modern electronics. The customer care of Tata Motors doesn't reply so people have resorted to twitter. One of my colleague was facing an issue with his Nexon (Gearbox) since a year. He kept escalating to their Customer care but he didn't get any resolution (They didn't even bother to reply). Someone suggested him to tweet on twitter against Tata Motors. He got his gearbox replaced within a week after consistently tweeting against them.

Stay away from the current gen Safari and Harrier if you are planning to own the car for more than 5 years. Since Tata Motors cars age very fast (Rusting issue). 4 year old Hexa customers are not getting spare parts to keep their car running which exposes the commitment of Tata Motors towards its existing customers.

XUV7OO is 10 times better since they are selling it consistently in good numbers and rarely we get to see complaints against Mahindra on social media sites and even on Team-BHP. They are giving good support to their old XUV5OO (10+years old) customers and we rarely hear any issues with parts availability. Due to this the resale value of Mahindra is much better than Tata Motors.

The last generation safari/harrier was still better and only had a steering alignment issue. The latest Safari/harrier and nexon is plagued with a weird battery and electronics issue. Some car battery discharges abruptly (current leakage or some software issue) and doesn't start leading to breakdown. The worst part is Tata Motors dealers blame the customer and tell them to use the car on daily basis which is highly impractical.

The 19" wheel is the biggest attraction of Safari/harrier but those low profile tyres are highly impractical and are prone to get damaged in our road condition since the concrete joints on our new roads make it highly susceptible to tyre wall damage which is irreparable and require tyre replacement.

Tata Motors is not serious regarding their existing customers since their promised Adaptive Cruise Control and Lane Keep Assist is still not available which was available in XUV7OO since its launch in August 2021. The current price cut makes XUV7OO the best option. And after paying 20+ lacs why would you settle for shoddy paint job and inconsistent panel gaps.

[DCEite]

Well, not sure about new Harrier and Safari, but if you go one segment back, that is , the Nexon, then looking at the reliability record of new Nexon, specially the Automatic variants and higher trims, things don't look too promising.

I see and hear about multiple issues with the DCA gearbox, the electronics in general and MID/instrument console, far too often.

What also does not help is that TATA service centers do not seem to be expanding in numbers as much as they should be doing considering the number of TATA vehicles on road.

Came across this Youtube video recently. Can't comment or judge anything based on it, but at the end of the video the service center did acknowledge its fault and did admit that indeed no work was done on the car , but billed incorrectly for some part changed !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwxP...l=MasterWheels

[DicKy]

Don't own a TATA at present, but my buddy has a Harrier from the first 2019 batch, so voted for Cars are great but service ruins the overall experience

For me brought up on Japanese cars, the Harrier's track record is a no-go, but for my buddy who is the owner, his BEAST can't go wrong, unless the service centre screws up.

Coming to the story. From day 1 ( I drove the car way before the owner did, he was out of station), I felt that the car drove like a badly tuned BoF vehicle. The clutch modulation, gearshifts, vibrations, power delivery, steering somehow didn't make me comfortable. And I did mention it an embarassingly number of times in the forum when writing about the Harrier, when it was the only Harrier/Safari that I ever drove. My buddy was happy with the vehicle and on cloud nine. He attributed the behaviour to it being a rough SUV and was bowled by its looks and speed masking ability. Everytime the vehicle visited the service centre, the vehicle would stay for a minimum of one week for some niggle or the other. Guess around the 30-40k km mark, one visit to the service centre and the clutch started getting tighter/harder, and subsequent complaints lead to the service centre advicing him to change the clutch which he vehemently opposed since diesel clutches should last for atleast 100k kms. The clutch got harder and the rough nature of the clutch became more pronounced and 1st->2nd shifts were never smooth with a pronounced shuddering. There was also the issue of a juddering when coming to a stop at a traffic signal. Almost like the below two threads.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...andomly-2.html (Tata Harrier shaking & bouncing at idle (randomly))

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...ing-car-2.html (Excessive vibrations from Harrier engine | EDIT: Tata & dealer replacing the car!)

Kilometres piled on and he didn't seem to bother with the clutch becoming as hard as Renault K9k clutches, until one day the gearlever refused to slot into gear. Luckily he had dropped his pregnant wife at the hospital and managed to park the car. An hour later I reached and tried slotting the gear for sake of it, and voila, it slotted. Hurriedly we drove to an FNG that deals with high-end German cars that his dad knows. The head mechanic drove it and announced that the clutch is gone, and the dual mass flywheel should also be replaced with it. With the car out of warranty and AMCs, gave the car to the FNG. 70k rupees later, went to pick the car, and I was awestruck at how the vehicle behaved. It felt like how a proper diesel monocoque would drive. No longer was there any clutch shudder. The head mechanic showed me the stock DMF which was rattling metallic parts inside and claimed it was inferior quality, while he had imported the DMF/clutch kit from outside. Typical streetsmart mechanic speak or whatever, the way the vehicle behaves from Day one from factory vs after changing the clutch/DMF from an FNG means all trust has been lost on the QC/QA of TATA and the incompetent service centres. To think that for almost 69k kms of ownership, the vehicle was not behaving as it should stock. The owner may not have the chance to drive other Harriers (all other Harriers my buddy drove were automatics), but the service centre guys should surely know how a stock Harrier would behave. They must have got some silent recall notice, and hence why they were eager to change clutch at 30-40k kms.

[It's Magic]

Both the Harrier and Safari are amazing products. However, it's quite possible to encounter a few niggle with your vehicle. It's important to thoroughly check the vehicle before taking delivery. The experience of Tata service centers can be hit or miss.

I wouldn't mind opting for the Harrier or Safari as they are built to last. Moreover, they are among the safest cars. If I can accept a few minor niggle, it's nice to own a Tata car like the Harrier or Safari. Hence, I voted for 'Minor issues but overall a great car'.

[CARDEEP]

I have owned the Safari XMA for 2 years now & 34K kms & barring the accident in January, it has been fuss free ownership.

[FiatDiesel]

For me QC and after sales service matter a lot for peace of mind and if I am spending 30+ lacs then I expect top quality and good after sales service. Given so many negative stories predominantly from TaMo customers, I won’t buy or recommend the twins to anyone.