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-   -   Tata Hexa : Official Review (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/181903-tata-hexa-official-review-321.html)

Not an expert, but the Hexa wasn't designed with a sunroof in mind - while it is an accessory it is an externally fitted and provided one (through the dealer - will have warranty, but not by the factory). So in my view:
1. A factory finish is not something you'll get out of this while it may be close as others have installed it. I have my reservations
2. Safety: the roof will be cut by the installer - it's not a new pre-cut roof; there's a video on this somewhere on YouTube. So whatever the car was built to handle (roof rigidity and strength) will be lost to an extent
3. This a very personal opinion - Sunroof + Indian observations = kids (even older ones - adults) with heads hanging out of their cars waiting for disasters to happen. We've not got the highest no. Of deaths in road accidents globally just like that - we've really worked on it. (not everyone does this, but I've seen plenty of examples here in Mumbai). It's like kids/people in cars without seatbelts and infants on laps.

I love sunroofs they really provide an awesome experience, I would want to go with a car which came with one from the factory and control the safety aspect. Hexa no doubt is an awesome car.

All the best for your new acquisition and God bless!

Cheers,
Aayush

Sunroof offered on the Hexa is really tiny, and will not offer any extra view out to people sitting in the second of third rows. Other factors mentioned above aside, my personal opinion is that it is simply not worth spending an extra 80k. I wanted the accessory sunroof for my Hexa, but dropped the idea after actually seeing the actual thing in another Hexa on which it was fitted.

My opinion is to wait till Tata clearly articulates their BS6 plan like Mahindra. People might tell you all about servicability even after disconitnueing a vehicle,but it would always be a regret , if the car ends up taken off the market in the next 6-7 months. If you want the vehicle in the near future , it is better to go with Crysta, the biggest reason being, Crysta gives you a second chance. Even if you are dissatisfied with it , you have an option to sell it and try another vehicle since it retains its value more than any other vehicle in India. Hexa will loss at least 25 percent of its value straight out of showroom.

agree: My thoughts exactly! Tata's should really be creating brands rather than ditching them! Look at Corolla's,, Accords, Civic, Land Cruiser etc. They have been around for like decades! It would have been a disaster if these MNCs would have chosen a different name for every subsequent model change! :deadhorse I think it'd be prudent for Tata to name 7 Seater Harrier as Hexa rather than Brezza or whatever they intent to..!

True that.I think there is an MPV based on Omega Arc also in the pipeline. May be that will get the name Hexa. But then if the rumours are to be believed , they are ditching even the Safari brand. That is how skillful TML product managers are . I dont see such a product management team thinking about protecting brands.

Back from a 10 day 1294 Kms trip to the mountains in the XTA. No driving fatigue to report, you can literally do hours at a stretch in XTA. Great road manners and suspension.
The auto transmission is mated really well.

About the 19” wheels: I went over all sorts of roads during the trip without an issue - broken road, mud, gravel, And rocky (Munsyari - Mudkote stretch had ongoing roadworks where rocks & debris from boulders that were blasted had fallen onto the non existent road).

The entire trip was completely incident free as far as the vehicle is concerned. Now thinking about doing Spiti next year.

Just got back from a road trip on my new Hexa XT 4X4. I purchased the car a little more than a month back. Sold my 5-year old XUV500 in order to buy this car. A few thoughts about my decision-making process and the first month with the Hexa.

I thought long and hard about this decision. I was looking for a large 7-seater SUV and was open to a wide price range. Possibilities included Hexa, Harrier, Hector (was willing to wait), Alturas, Fortuner, Endeavour and Kodiaq. Harrier went out the door thanks to a small boot and the early reviews on Team BHP. Kodiaq went out the door because of... well Skoda. I used to own a Laura and even with the warranty and service package Skoda is throwing at customers, I couldn't trust them. I always felt Toyotas offered less car for the money than other makes. Plus, the missing features and an ugly interior (personal taste) and the price made the decision for me. My friend has an Endeavour and I was surprised to find that my head touched the roof in the front row. Although, I liked everything else about the Endeavour, I had to drop it from my list. Hector had one thing I was looking for - a petrol engine. However, I couldn't get over my nervousness of dealing with a new brand. If I had never experienced Skoda in my life, I may have waited for and bought the Hector, but Skoda pretty much killed all my appetite for risk. I checked out the Alturas and it looked awesome. The ride quality actually felt worse than a Marazzo. The moment I felt that, I had to rule out the Alturas. So, I landed on Hexa through a process of elimination.

Hexa isn't perfect. It is short on a lot of practicality and misses a few features. However, almost all of them were things that weren't on my must have list. Oddly enough, for a car that is bigger than the XUV500, it doesn't feel bigger. In many ways, it did feel a little smaller. The gear shift was notchy and the steering while good to hold didn't offer much flexibility (no reach adjustment).

The trump card was the ride and refinement. After 5 years with the XUV500, ride quality was on the top of my list and aside from the Endeavour, none of the other cars came close.

I had a chance to stretch the car's legs on my drive from Bangalore to Goa last week and here are my takeaways from the first month and the first long drive:

1. Gear shift is horrible (the first and second gears are notchy as hell). It did feel like it got better with time
2. Engine could use some more juice. Frankly, I don't have anything to complain about, but having driven the XUV500 before, one can't help making that comparison
3. While the sound insulation is good, the engine sounds weird. Perhaps, it is the experience of owning an XUV speaking, but the XUV sounded better
4. Highway driving is as good as the XUV. Long hours were easy
5. Ride quality alone is worth the price. The worse the road, the better it felt. Waaay better than the XUV
6. I never had Android Auto before. Loved it. Some irritating problems like the phone getting disconnected for no apparent reason
7. Audio rocked!
8. After driving the Hexa and the XUV500 through the ghats and watching a couple of Polo TSIs darting past me, methinks I need to get myself a hot hatch.
9. The absence of storage spaces in the front bugged the crap out of me. I had to drop everything from loose change and toll receipts to candy wrappers and sunglasses into the box under the arm-rest. I need to figure out a system soon.

All-in-all, I am pretty happy with the purchase. I just wish someone launched the "perfect" SUV for 25L on-road. Every single SUV from 20-40L has some flaws.

https://youtu.be/fyIoVqYP8ew

For the folks still unsure of the dual tone Hexa, found this video showing the updated White Black dual tone XTA. Looks pretty neat with those alloys.

Those beautiful alloys are no more! :Frustrati They looked drool worthy with the dual tone variants but they have been deleted on June manufactured Hexas. Tey had already been deleted on all other variants.

TATA has deleted them on the XTA as well. If I were thinking of getting an XTA, I would surely get the Jan to May 2019 manufactured units ASAP instead of the June MFG ones with those 17 inch alloys which I find like an afterthought personally.

Went for the first proper drive with our Beast (the kids coined the petname :D ) last Saturday. Left Bangalore around 0630hrs to Hoganakkal. We had six passengers. There was a mix of all types of roads a few hair pin bends and tarmac less sections in the round trip via a relative's dream home construction site near Denkanikottai.

Initial mileage is around 10kmpl. The vehicle handled beautifully and it was a pleasure to be at the receiving end of the 'road presence factor' for a change. Found the sports mode a great help in over taking and inducing engine braking during steep descents. No rattles, cabin comfort was supreme, excellent audio enhanced the experience for young and old. The AC was very efficient as the day got hotter. The vehicle looked perfectly at home in all terrains and handled exceptionally well.

Niggles: Lack of proper driver hand rest, paucity of storage space at the front and a thick A pillar restricting visibility while attempting curves.

I'm glad to report that including the third row passengers, everyone really appreciated how the journey itself was almost as much fun as the destinations, thanks to Hexa's solid performance matched with supreme riding comfort. Undoubtedly, this is the vehicle to go for if one is after long distance cruising in comfort under 25L.

I'm attaching a few photos of the day trip.

I agree! I have been on the fence for a while now on the Hexa XTA but the lack of any BS6 plan/testing by Tata coupled with the depreciation hit on the Hexa has eroded any confidence I had 6 months ago. The Varicor 400 is almost at EoL (end of life) and I don't know of any replacement engines being developed by Tata. I am not even sure if the FCA engine + Hyundai autobox to be used on the Harrier can be integrated with the Hexa. I don't think the Varicor 400 + Punch Powerglide transmission can be beat.



The recent news of the removal of the 19in rims does not bode well either. In all probability, Tata has no stock of the 19in rims post June and the MoQs for a new rim production run are not justified by the projected sales volumes over the next 2-3 quarters which is when they plan to shut vehicle production. They just increased the price of the Hexa and there was no reason to remove the 19in rims other than a supply chain constraint.



The best bet would be to get a used one instead. There were a few available last I checked.

Similar story in my case w.r.t. purchase decision of the Hexa (XTA). The other vehicle in my final shortlist was the 3.2 Endeavour but with the XTA i arguably got 90% of the endeavour at half the price. 4x4 wasn't that much of a priority as have been thinking of a Compass or a Thar for the purpose.

In XTA if you put your foot down, the vehicle does travel, courtesy the excellent mating of the auto box transmission.

The lack of storage spaces in the front is a problem indeed, confounding for the size of the vehicle. Have done a few easy workarounds and things are sorted.

One of the first issue as soon as one sits in the drivers "chair" is where goes the damned phone. For this, got a magnet based phone mount which plugs into the vent. Also helps in keeping the phone cool during the wretched summers.

For the coins, a small tin (altoids small worked for me as it was there in the fridge waiting to be used!!). This tin holds quite a few coins and fits nicely in the space provided in the door side door, cushioned with a tissue which addresses any rattle.

In process of getting a windshield parking ticket clip holder which will take care of where to keep the toll tickets.

The sunglasses go into the driver door side sunglass holder which came as standard storage with the XTA.

A few recommendations for adding storage in the car.

For keeping wallets, mobiles or other small/ thin items, I have got a pair of these car seat gap fillers. Match the interior looks, don't move around and do the intended job decently. These pics are screenshots from a website, as I don't have actual pics handy, but the original ones look pretty much the same as these.





I also got a sunglass holder. Perfectly matches the interior/ roof colour. Again,good quality and very functional.





I also have a Tech Sense Lab Magnetic (Stick on dash type) mobile holder. Been using it for around 2 months. Very good quality, and the phone has not dropped even once. Have placed it on the dash in such a way that it doesn't bock the AC vents, yet at the same keeps the phone chilled enough.

All products bought from Amazon.

What will you want to drive irrespective of price and resale value?
As a Hexa owner, let me tell you this, but ts actually a 30+ lac SUV in a 20 lac price. Was it made by a better percieved maker, the price would be in the lower to mid 30 lac segment.

Visited the Concorde Mathura Road Service Centre for my Storme's service and saw this.
Looks like everyone can have a sunroof now.