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-   -   Tata Hexa : Official Review (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/181903-tata-hexa-official-review-255.html)

Don't worry, even when we compare
"Kilo ka Bhau" , Hexa will fetch more than Crysta.

However we have examples of these 'Contraptions' running fit and fine with 40k+ kms in a year. Unfortunately don't have examples of more than that, because the product is barely 14 - 15 months old. And icing on the cake, you have already saved what you would (probably) lose during resale.

Here is a free advise, take it or leave it (I learned this lesson afetr living with SUVs / MUVs for years)
Irrespective of what park assist you have, always dip your left ORVM to lowermost position while reversing, so that it shows the position of your rear tyre and what is behind that. Follow this and you will never hit any kerb or scratch your rear left (Something that SUV owners frequently scratch). I strictly follow this rule for every car I drive while taking reverse, in the right ORVM I can see everything by adjusting myself, middle ORVM as a precaution (Reverse camera helps there - but I once nearly hit a tree branch with a Scorpio :D), In other words, park 'assist' is an 'assisting' features and you are always better off using some basic rules. In fact follow the trick I told and at times you will be yourself surprised looking at how tight situations you have managed to reverse park into without hitting anything.

I completely agree on this point, it is indeed overhyped (That's playing with consumer psychology by giving high specs on paper and make people believe that it's awesome), but it is better than the competition. I would suggest you have everything in 320 kbps in a USB drive and then see, it works quite well.

Get inside and then do it, else it is really hard.

That said, I particularly like this that the 60% section of the middle row can't be tumbled because of the rear AC vents. Why so? I find it thoughtful, this doesn't allow you to keep the middle row right hand side door open for minutes or let third row occupants get in and out from right hand side - the side that is towards the road and there is a risk that some vehicle may hit the open door or an over excited passenger jumping out of the middle row steps directly in front of the traffic after coming out. No matter what, third row passengers will get in or out from left hand side only and that is really good. (Applicable on seven seat Hexa)

I drive all the UVs with left mirror dipped on tight hilly roads or in tight gulleys, it gives me a very nice idea of how much space I have to maneuver even if its showing me only the rear quarter of my vehicle, but if I know where my rear tyre is, I can accurately estimate where my front tyre is.

Here is my maths that I did while comparing XTA to Crysta 2.8 Z:
Price difference: 6 lac
Say after 1 lac kms of ownership, the value of crysta remains 60% and Hexa remains 33%, then:
Crysta = 15 lac
Hexa = 6 lac

A difference of 9 lac, which easily overcomes the differential of 6 lac. But, here I have paid way lower interest, lower insurance costs and lower fuel bills too. Take inflation etc all into account and I can bet that Hexa makes sense here.

The wiper intermittent control is achieved by moving the stalk 1 position up, the rotating thingie is to set the delay on the intermittent wiper function. Take a look at the manual pg 78, or download the soft copy and search.

My one plus also has issues connecting, Bluetooth is just fine but the hard wire connection does not work, during service the SA showed me a website with all the compatible phones listed, maybe you can check that.

The seats flipping on the seven seater is really easy, the hook that needs to be pulled must be pulled in the direction that it exits the seat ie straight aft for the third row and straight up for the middle, a even force smooth pull in line and the contraption works perfect, about shifting the seats you have to climb in and move them, really difficult from outside.

Hope this helps a little.

Two questions:-

I am thinking of the Hexa 4X2 instead of a Creta but I have a a few questions:

1. How is the FE compared to Creta 1.6 for mostly in-city driving in a place like mussoorie.

2. Since I will be in mussoorie for the next 5 years and I have never driven such a heavy car on inclines so I am not sure how will it handle steep inclines. Just imagine a 60 degree tar angle road and a hexa 4X2 being driven on it with a start-stop motion "Cars come from the opposite way so have to stop and give way"

EDIT: I am just afraid that a car with a weight of 2400kg will get stuck once I stop on a steep incline and result only in wheel spin.

The scenario you addressed according to me the hexa will fair better than the creta. Hexa is RWD vs the FWD setup in creta, the gravitational force acting upon during the inclines or declines will aid the Hexa alot better. In fact the creta might spin its wheels on a incline, as FWD and the weight / load will be on rear tires.

I guess you meant it the other way; a RWD (Hexa) will be worse off than a FWD (Creta), when driving up an incline. RWDs would spin their wheels (on ice or loose surface) since the comparative weight on the driving wheels is much less, as compared to FWDs where the engine weight does the trick. It may be a different scenario for a fully loaded vehicle though.

At least that's what I've observed in places like Manali; humble Altos able to make uphill climbs much better than even Innovas, which struggled a lot on slightly wet (melting ice) surface.

For the kind of terrain in and around Mussoorie and the tight city premises, where you don't get space to park even a two wheeler at times, my suggestion would be to go for the Creta as it will be easier to live with in Mussoorie with lighter controls, smaller size and brilliant performance - not to forget, better fuel economy too. You can get the top end variant with ESP and 6 airbags, that must keep you happy I believe.

I don't know about what other members have observed, but I have always felt that Mahindra 2.2 is an engine better tuned or suited for hilly drives as compared to the 2.2 from Tata. People may have their own take but I am yet to find any other SUV which can better the Scorpio under 20 lac when it comes to hilly drives or driving uphill.

Back to Hexa, no place in Mussoorie or surrounding Mussoorie is tricky enough to get a Hexa caught up, no incline is beyond the capabilities of Hexa, in fact the trickiest road is the decline and incline to Bhatta falls en route to Dehradun and a Hexa can easily negotiate it too.

No, it's actually the other way! On an incline, the engine weight does very little when compared to its effect when the car is straight or on a decline.

The centre of gravity shifts to the rear of the car when its on an incline and hence more weight and traction to the rear wheels. Hence, an RWD is always way better than a FWD and can even be compared to certain AWD versions as well in terms of coming out of sticky situations.

Not sure about the Creta but Hexa has the hill hold feature which is a huge boon for exactly the situations that you have described: to stop and go on inclines without burning that clutch or experiencing wheel spins thanks to it being an RWD.

Also, only a TD can give you better answers than us members in such situations!

Alright I am holding you to the science, I am driving a Honda City Diesel and once in a while it goes crazy. For example wheel spin while in a stop and go ascend and also crazy clutch burn while trying to reverse in such an incline. With my years of experience driving in Himachal and Dehradun this one road has me up in a knot. Reversing in such an incline is the worst I wonder how a Hexa would handle that situation.

The size problem is not a problem but the FE and ability to go around is also considered the XUV500 but then a friend of mine shared a bad experience with the strength of the cage and I found myself rippled by it before that I did think it was a great car.

They wont let me take a TD of Hexa till that road :uncontrol Hill control is on the top model but I will stay within the XM.

Tata Motors announces discounts on the Hexa. 1L rupees at that! Not sure on which variants.

When Hexa was launched, some complained (including me) of higher than expected prices. What I meant was it is better to start with a lower price and then hike them once there is sufficient traction in terms of sales numbers. Discounts of 1L hits the brand hard. In a way Tata Motors has accepted that they are finding it hard to sell Hexa (and not some initial supply issues that some assumed).

How would the existing owners feel about this? Reward for being early adopters of a product from a shaky brand.

It's almost a deja vu of Aria. Highly priced and then slashed. The lowest variant was 9.99L at some point.

Hope Hexa's story will be different from Aria, pricing & brand equity wise.

Source

It is not that they are finding it hard to sell Hexa. Hexa is selling in decent numbers every month. The primary reason for benefits upto 1L is that they want to clear the inventory of 2017 models that are lying with the dealers. And it is not a straight 1L discount. Exchange bonus + some discount + scratch card equals to 1L. But all this makes it a lucrative deal hard to ignore.

This is a video comparing HEXA 4x4 & XUV500 AWD for their limited 4x4 capability. Please keep in mind that, it also depends on the drivers' ability largely.

https://youtu.be/dR6FzbVo5M4

They have also explained in detail why is it so. You can read it here.

https://www.cartoq.com/tata-hexa-vs-...f-road-battle/

If you can wait, HEXA XM 4x4 variant is coming soon. It will be on par with Creta Top end model price wise.

Slightly off topic, but could there be any chances that the XM 4X2 could be offered with 6 airbags? I have booked a XT purely for the safety features and if I could get that with the XM would wait for that.

You should just go ahead and get your XT. Tata will not keep on changing the specs of variants, just as no other manufacturer does.

I think you should go ahead with XT without waiting for XM. 6 Airbags normally comes equipped only with top end trims like any other manufacturer. Adding 6 airbags to mid trim will make mid variants VFM and impact sales of top end trims. (Just my opinion).