[ptushar]

Originally Posted by Varun_HexaGuy

I feel that TATA shouldn't have given the 19"inchers because apart from aesthetics, there's no point having a 19"incher on a MPV/SUV. I feel that TATA should've given the Hexa a 16"/17"inch alloy supported with broader sidewall to withstand the abuse thrown at the tyres.

First and foremost - Awesome review. You are 16 and this is what you put up. You have a bright career waiting in the field of Automobiles, my friend. I can totally see you as part of the future Team BHP review team.

Am on the verge of finalizing my buy for an SUV/MPV and am almost decided on the Hexa XMA. The only thing about the XTA that I like over the XMA is the additional airbags. The 19" wheels are actually something I don't like. After reading a lot about wheel and wheel sizes, I am convinced that a 17" wheel on the Hexa would have been the best bet.

The Team BHP review and your review here, helped answer almost all questions about the car. I am now ready to put the money on the car.

[Varun_HexaGuy]

Sindbad turned one!

It's been an year of togetherness with the big boy and have made a whole lot of memories in such a short span! Sindbad turned one on April 12th 2018. Oh yeah, it took me more than 7-months to give him a name and realise that she's he! Me and Dad have enjoyed every minute spent with Sindbad together over the course of a year and three months. What were you guys thinking or worried about? Worried about taking this mammoth (forgive me Sindbad for calling you a Mammoth!) in bumper to bumper traffic and frequent city runs? Well, Sindbad has proved me wrong (or is it my dad who has accustomed himself to drive the big fella in the nick of the traffic?). The ease of an Automatic has won over its Huge dimensions and all other odds and we don't dread about the traffic jams anymore. Just crawl in the traffic with the help of the creep function, turn the volume up and listen to some crazy music on the go.

The most obvious question which might've hit your head is, "How is a Tata running without any niggles in the initial days of ownership?" Well, Sindbad has inspired that confidence in me and dad that he'll age well. He has made a woe to age well like the Figo. Well, I don't expect him to age like a Jap since he's loaded with some cutting-edge tech, but I want him to be mechanically fit for the next 5-years atleast! Over the past one year, we've taken him to some of the worse roads where I cannot imagine taking my Italian Lady along. Despite throwing in some of the worse conditions right ahead of him, he just took over them like an hungry adult having a sumptuous breakfast! The ride quality over those roads is nothing short of a carpet ride. But I do feel with the revised tyre pressures, the ride quality has sort of, taken a small hit as it's more harsh at lower speeds and there's increased vertical movement over the potholes and the odds on the road. Apart from this minor complaint, I'm very happy with the Sindbad in this aspect.

We did have a couple of minor niggles which were sorted out with ease by the ASC folks. All the niggles or issues which we've faced over the past one year have been listed down below :

• Failed driver side puddle lamp on the D-Day last year. Well, this was working while I inspected the car a day before the delivery. Culprit : Fused bulb which was duly replaced when we visited the ASC on some other issue.
• Spare key, keyless entry not working. This was observed on the D-Day too. While I was scratching my head at the temple as to why the car wouldn't open despite pressing the unlock button a hundred times, it was then we realised that the key wasn't working. So, dad had pointed this out by calling our ASM who delivered Sindbad to us. Reason : While sorting out the issue during the PDI (refer Page-1), the pairing between the car and that key had lost in that process (I don't know how; experts pitch in your thoughts) and this issue was sorted out within a minute by the workshop manager who locked and unlocked Sindbad using both the keys simultaneously a half a hundred times to pair the spare key with Sindbad. This was done alongside the puddle lamp bulb replacement.
• Sidewall damaged due to my negligent brother (a.k.a my accomplice in crime). It so happened one day that me and brother were in a mood to take Sindbad out but by that time, dad had already left for the office. Since the office was close by to our home-sweet-home, brother made a quick call to dad that we'll be dropping by in his office to swap the Italian Lady for Sindbad. He obliged (obviously, we were in majority and majority always wins) and we left for dad's office in the Italian Lady. Since my dad's parking lot was pre-occupied by Sindbad, we had to get the big boy out so that he can enjoy his day out with us and Italian Lady could rest for the day. For that, I quickly ran to my dad's cabin, grabbed the keys of the big boy, went downstairs, brother got in the driver's seat of Sindbad and drove him out in style. This is where we committed a mistake which we came to know after driving for half a kilometre. While taking out of the parking lot, my partner in crime oversteered the car which resulted in the rubbing of the rear right tyre against a kerb which caused a sidewall cut. Neither me nor my bhai sahab noticed it and we drove on. It was near a security check, the guard pointed towards something. What was that? In anxiety, we downed the window and then he said, "Saabji, gaadi ke tyre se hawa nikal rahan hain" and we stopped immediately to check out what it was. The unexpected had happened. The sidewall was cut and we decided to drive to a Tyre store which was hardly a kilometre from the place where we stopped. We hurried and reached before the whole tyre was deflated. Then, called and informed dad about this. Both of us heard a mouthful for our carelessness and we truly deserved it. Later, swapped our tyre to the spare and left towards the ASC. The ASC folks gladly welcomed us, saw the tyre and initiated a warranty claim right away without any questions asked! We were ready to pay for it but it ended up in a way completely unexpected! The only catch was there was no stock of the tyres and would take a few day's time as the tyre had to arrive from Chennai and to our bad luck no one had the tyre in stock in Hyderabad. On top of it, we had to leave for our Maiden road-trip in two day's time. After explaining our situation to out friendly manager, Mr.Narender at Malik Cars, Tolichowki, made a quick call to the showroom guys to send a TD car to the ASC ASAP! As soon as the car arrived, both Sindbad and TD car were lifted and they duly gave us the tyre from the TD car! We were like, "Who on Earth was complaining about the Tata's after-sales experience?" We, then left the ASC and once we were back from our road trip, me and my brother went to the ASC to get the new tyre. This was the sweetest ordeal we ever went through! At times it feels like as if this was infact an ordeal? This is by far, the best after sales experience we've ever experienced.
• Fuel tank lid doesn't lock as the car is locked. Culprit - Failed fuel lid actuator which was replaced a couple of days back.

How will Sindbad age : Well, it's too early to comment on the same. But there are a few owners who've neared or touched the 1-lac kilometre mark in an year of ownership and their feedback is quite reassuring for me atleast! Only time will tell if Sindbad has aged gracefully or not.

How is the Big Boy Holding up? Extremely well, in my opinion. Apart from a couple of fit and finish issues here and there and a couple of minor niggles, he's doing fine.

Why have I bought Sindbad ? Well, many of my acquaintances and close friends have pitched in this question from the day Sindbad entered into our lives. I felt it was a question which I couldn't answer. Maybe this is the right time to answer it. Well, Sindbad does most of the things right for us atleast. Here are a few which he does right for us :

• Can cruise all-day long keeping all the passengers (even the ones in the third row) comfortable throughout the journey. This is where I love Sindbad the most. He is meant to munch miles in style like no other machine does.
• Extremely spacious second and third row of seats. This was something very important as the Ertiga fell short in space with all the three rows occupied. Sindbad, infact has exceeded in this criteria.
• Wanted an Automatic for the daily chores. The 6-Speed Torque Converter from Punch Powerglide is perfectly mated to the heart of Sindbad. There's no delay in the shifts. With light foot, the gearbox upshifts at ~1,800 rpm in Drive Mode. With slightly heavy foot, the gearbox, upshifts at ~ 2,300 rpm which is good for those overtakes.
• A Good Music System. Well, Sindbad has come a winner in this aspect too The 10-Speaker JBL System is too good and probably is the Best Music System South of 30-lacs. It's just that all the doors and the boot door need a bit of dampening to complete that perfect entry-level In-Car Entertainment System. It's just that I'm worried about the additional weight the big boy will gain in this process. As such, he's on the heavier side, I don't want him to gain more weight!
• Seats. A special mention to these seats. They're so good for the Long Drives. We've done almost non-stop stretches during our recent road trip (more on that at a later stage) where we stopped only for our Breakfast or Lunch breaks and the seats are extremely supportive These are, by far the best seats with respect to overall comfort and long-distance touring.
• Sheer Road Presence. An Autowaala dare not attempt to squeeze right ahead of Sindbad.

Well, I can complement this big boy all day long for his merits. There are a few demerits which he has to work upon (atleast his latter generations will have a chance to correct these mistakes) :

• Overweight. Sindbad is on the heavier side and he is infact the heaviest car of the lot. He comes close to the Endeavour and Fortuner in this aspect. This issue has given rise to another issue; low power-to-weight ratios with respect to the Competition. While he is a MPV, I don't expect him to do a 0-100 run in less than 9-secs or something like that but the added weight is certainly not a boon for Sindbad. Even the higher power output of the engine doesn't help this. The additional power is nullified in masking the additional weight IMHO.
• Small touchscreen. This is something which I really complaint about. While the Nexon owners do with a bigger Touchscreen with added features, we don't get a bigger touchscreen with added features despite paying double the cost of what Nexon owners pay (No offence to the Nexon owners). This 5-inch touchscreen is out of place in such a huge cabin and the Navimaps suck to be honest. I'm better off with Google maps for most of it. It's not that Google is very reliable (well, this guy got us stranded atleast half a hundred times on the name of "Shortest Route" during our recent Road Trip) but the Navimaps sucks; be it the User interface, dependability, GPS signals and the likes.

Well, I wanted Sindbad to celebrate his 1st Birthday in style. While I was planning for his Birthday gift during his Birthday week, due to some commitments, me and dad couldn't gift him what he deserved.

It was real long since Sindbad crossed the city limits of Hyderabad. So, after a lot of failed attempts, dad finally was convinced for a Road Trip this April. Next up was mom. She wasn't entirely with this idea but she got with the flow eventually. Then, dad and I informed my uncle about this. He was all ears and confirmed his presence right away!

Now that all of them were convinced, we had to set a destination where we'd be driving. Since, we had allotted 10-days for the road trip, we planned to cover as many places as possible. Here's the final list of places which we visited :

• Day-1 : Hyderabad to Bengaluru via Jogulamba Temple. Total Distance Covered : 610 Kms.
• Day-2 : Bengaluru to Mysuru via Srirangapatna. After sightseeing in Mysuru, left for Ooty the same day. Total distance Covered : 290 Kms.
• Day-3 : Ooty sightseeing and rest for the day.
• Day-4 : Ooty to Palani. After visiting Palani, we proceeded towards Kodaikanal. Total Distance Covered : 300 Kms.
• Day-5 : Kodaikanal Sightseeing.
• Day-6 : Kodaikanal to Madurai and sightseeing in Madurai. Total Distance Covered : 140 kms.
• Day-7 : Madurai to Rameswaram and Dhanushkodi. From Dhanushkodi, we headed towards Srirangam and called it a day Total Distance Covered : 447 kms.
• Day-8 : Srirangam to Tanjavur. After sightseeing in Tanjavur, we headed towards Chidambaram via Kumbakonam. Total Distance Covered : 174 Kms.
• Day-9 : Chidambaram to Bengaluru via Arunachala. Total Distance Covered : 346 Kms.
• Day-10 : Bengaluru to Hyderabad. Total Distance Covered : 590 Kms.

Total Trip Distance : 3,177.7 Kilometres (home to home)

In the past one year of driving on the roads of Hyderabad, Sindbad had been a part of few incidents on the road unwanted :

• Incident-1 : This incident took place while we were returning from our maiden road trip last year (sometime in June). We were paying our toll charges near the Nellore Toll Plaza and while the booth incharge lifted the gate up, a Dzire guy rammed into Sindbad. Going by the sound from the accident, we were sure the rear bumper might've gone. But Sindbad surprised us big time. The Dzire guy who hit us, had a lot of damage. His bumper, bonnet and grill gave up in the incident. Seeing their damage, I was sure the rear bumper would've gone. But no, it only had a small mark from the Dzire.
  
  
  
• Incident-2 : This happened sometime in March 2018. This was a very weird incident one could ever be in. It so happened we were caught in a traffic jam. The traffic was moving at a slow pace. There was a Mercedes Benz E350 moving parallel to us in the right lane. All of a sudden, the driver of the Merc stopped. So we also had to stop. Soon, we see a person getting down from the co-driver seat of the Merc. It was all cool till then. Then another guy from the rear seat opens the door and slams it hard. As a result, the front right fender on my Sindbad was dented and we got poorer by another 5,000 bucks. Some pics of the damage and WIP pics of the repair :
  
  The Dented Fender.
  
  The fender after the tinkering job.
  
  The smoked wheel cladding ready for a fresh coat of paint.
  
  Inside the paint booth with all the body parts neatly covered.
  
  Post denting and painting.
  
  There's no paint mismatch between the fender and the rest of the exterior. I've compared the fender's repaint with the bonnet's actual paint.
  
  
• Incident-3 : This was more of a recap from the Nellore's incident last year. This time, a taxiwaala rear ended as Dad had applied sudden brakes as the car ahead of us had done the same. Damage to the guy who rear ended us was the same again. Front end of the car was completely gone in the incident. For us though, this time the damage was a bit more but that's something which we can live with.
  
  The scratches on the left side of the cladding and at the end of the rear skid plate.
  
  The scratched up rear bumper.
  
  The scratches on the rear skid plate.

Services Done till-date :

• First free service at 5,000 kilometres or 3-Months (whichever is earlier). Apart from a usual inspection of the stuff around there's nothing much to do in this service.
• Second free service at 10,000 kilometres or 6-months (whichever is earlier). Sindbad had done 6,000-odd kilometres during this service. We got the wheel alignment, balancing and tyre rotation done apart from the usual inspection and an oil change.
• First paid service at 20,000 kilometres. Sindbad had done about 9,400 kilometres at the time of the service. All the jobs were done as prescribed in the owner's manual (I'm too lazy now to document all of 'em here!) and the repair job (detailed above) was also taken up during this service.

Kitna Deti Hain ? In city conditions, Sindbad manages to return a fuel efficiency of about 8 to 10 kmpl depending on the conditions. Out on the highways, with the cruise control active, he returns an average of anywhere between 15-17 Kmpl.

Accessories added till date :

Since Sindbad is quite loaded to the brim, we didn't add many accessories to it. These are the only accessories on my Sindbad :

• Mini 0806 Dashcam : Bought used from fellow BHPian a4anurag. I've been using it for more than 9-months and it's doing it's job well and I'm happy with the purchase.
• Coozo 7D Mats (Black) : The 3D mats which I had bought soon after the delivery were sliding off from their position and they needed regular wiping to keep 'em shining. Looked around a lot and finally zeroed onto these. These are doing the job for now and I'm very much satisfied with them. If anybody's interested in purchasing them, then please PM me.

Modifications and Accessories Planned :

• Blackening of all the chrome bits on the exteriors. After this tweak, the exteriors would look swell.
• Addition of an Auto-Dimming Interior Rear View Mirror.
• Addition of another Dashcam covering the rear end of the car.
• Getting Sindbad detailed from a professional.

Sometime in June when dad was on his vacation to Leh, Sindbad was idle. So, I detailed him and spent close to 3-hrs on detailing him. Here's the end result :

That shine, I just love it!


That mirror finish! I just couldn't stop gleaming at the Big Boy for the next few days. That's me in the pic.

The big boy at the end. The end result was well worth it.

Here are some pics from our recent road trip :

Sindbad all set for his adventure!

At a petrol pump en-route Bengaluru.

Me trying my hands on a DSLR........

Always a poser for the pics!

Now dad joins in as well.

When we swapped our Sindbad for a Baggie

Two competitors in one click.

Sindbad gets a much deserved shower in Madurai.

Sindbad poses on the Pamban Bridge!

As I type this, Sindbad is 1-year, 3-months, 20-days and 14,320 Kilometres Young! Here's hoping that he'll turn only younger by the day.


Till next time,
Ciao

[Varun_HexaGuy]

Been a long time since I last updated the thread. Before this thread slips into depression and gives a deep thought about its existence, I'll give it an update.

It's been close to 3-years and 4-months since the time we got the Hexa. We've done quite a few roadtrips and have made a lot of memories along the way. The Hexa was bought to mark the 25th wedding anniversary of my parents and as we speak, my parents are into their 28th year of their marriage. Just like their marriage, the Hexa had its own share of problems although their marriage had fairly less number of problems over the course of 28-years than our Hexa over a period of 3-years

Before any fanboy attacks right on my face, let me be honest with myself and to the people out here. I like the car for what it is but I dislike the car for what it is too. I prefer calling a spade a spade. End of disclaimer.

Coming to the positives of the car, I love the sheer amount of space on offer in the first two rows. With me in the driver seat, both my uncle and brother can stretch themselves out right behind me (both are fairly tall at 6'3" and 5'11" and I'm 5'11" too). Infact, I prefer being a second row passenger than being a driver in the Hexa. So, if someone asks me to change roles, I do it without a fuss because I get to chill in the second row of the Hexa. The captain seats are comfy and hold you right in place no matter how bad the roads are. You've also got a 5A USB fast charger port (deleted in the subsequent updates) to charge your phone on the go, so that's a plus for me. The sun blinds do a very good job of keeping the heat at bay.

What makes the ride more comfortable apart from the seats is the ride quality of the car altogether. However bad the roads are, the car doesn't lose its composure and I love it for that. After having experienced the Harrier after owning the Hexa for a fairly long time, I'd say the Hexa rides a lot better on both on-road and off-road (please do note the discussion is not about the handling and driving dynamics of the car).

The Automatic gearbox eases up things for us in a metro like Hyderabad. I am glad we didn't pick up the MT over the AT. The shift quality of the 6-speed Torque Converter is really good and one can barely identify the shifts happening and the gearbox is quick to respond to your throttle inputs. The fuel efficiency is respectable for a car of this size. The car returns a very respectable 9-kmpl in the city traffic over short runs (my dad's office is only 5-kms away) and when I take it to my college and work runs, the car returns 10-11 kmpl all day long in moderate to heavy traffic over long distances. A full tank of diesel lasts a cool 500-kms before we top it up in reserve. Tankful to tankful figures have averaged at ~ 9-kmpl most of the times. The 10-speaker JBL Audio system needs a special mention from my end. I love the way the setup sounds. Be it a 90s track by Udit Narayan or Kumar Shanu or the track what a typical millennial listens to in 2020, one is sure to appreciate the audio quality of the Hexa. Infact, of all the cars we've ever owned, Hexa gets the best audio system right off the factory.

Now with the honeymoon period over, let's get to the harsh (or not-so-harsh; left to the readers and is highly subjective) realities of owning a Hexa.

To start off with, the car simply doesn't feel as tight as it felt on Day-1. I mean, I do understand the car ages with time but I feel the Hexa is ageing a lot earlier than anticipated.

My car has clocked close to 31,000-kms at the time of this update, but my car feels like a 50,000-kms driven car. The car is never subjected to abuse or redlining (forget redlining, the car barely breaches the 2500-rpm mark for 90% of the times) nor is it thrashed on the bad roads. My dad daily drives this car and the car is often subjected to the best of the roads in the Army Cantonment. The only time our car see bad roads are when it enters our colony where we stay. The road condition is nothing home to talk about and we usually creep inside the colony (<20-kmph). The plastics on the inside squeak (and occasional rattles on bad section of roads) like if someone is bouncing on a spring. I'm someone who appreciates a silent drive but the squeaks can sometime be too much to handle but the music system thankfully mutes most of these squeaks and my dad doesn't pay much attention to these either. Whenever a rattle or a squeak which gets on my nerve, I drive the car down to the ASC to get it fixed. The guys fix it but in the next few days, a new rattle or squeak crops up from another section of the car. It's something you'll have to make peace with it.

Second, the NVH levels have gone up quite a bit from before. At idle, the steering wheel vibrates a bit (which wasn't the case as before) and the overall noise and vibration levels from the engine have gone up too. In between, the NVH levels from the engine were a bit too much to handle for me, so I got the car checked by the technicians at the ASC and the TVD was replaced under warranty and things are a lot better for now. Along with the replacement of the Torsional Vibration Damper (TVD), they also have tightened an engine mount which was found to be a bit loose. After all this, the NVH levels have gone down by a good margin but it still isn't as good as before. I've made peace with it for now. Even the engine feels harsh and crude for some reason. Been in another Hexa recently and the engine harshness and overall NVH levels were much better (had clocked close to 40,000-kms). I'm not sure as to what is wrong with my car.

Have had a few warranty claims (to the tune of rusted exhaust pipe, failing AC clutch and relay and a few other minor electricals inside the cabin) and the claim appraisal and approval was smooth. Since November 2019, I've been to the ASC almost every month for some warranty claim or another. The Authorised Service Center (Malik Cars, Bowenpally in my case) is doing a very good job at attending to customer grievances and they're putting in a lot of effort to troubleshoot the problem as well. If not for the service provided by the ASC, I would've been a dejected customer by now.

Then the looming threat of the exhaust manifold leaking oil (a common niggle as reported by a sizeable number of owners) is always at the back of my mind. I almost freaked out once after having seen the oil breathe through the head (which is normal). I cleaned it up and it's been five months since I last cleaned it up. The oil is breathing out as usual and there isn't any leak from the exhaust manifold gasket or the engine head. Fingers crossed. I've still got two more years of extended warranty left and I hope that any mechanical part which is prone to premature failure better fail in this duration. The tyres have got about ~ 50% of tread left which is a good thing. I've still got another couple of years before I get to swap the tyres. The battery after serving us for close to 3-years, 4-months conked off a couple of days ago. Replacement battery is already in. I'm surprised the battery lasted this long because the warranty period for the same was only for an year. I was anticipating this to happen since the last couple of months and this finally happened a couple of days ago.

Now one can always debate the fact that a car is never free of niggles. I truly agree to that statement and in my defence, I'd like to ask you all one simple question. Do you really want to head to the ASC every now and then to get an issue rectified? After all, I've spent 22L on a brand new car 3-years ago for the peace of mind in the initial years of ownership atleast. Running repairs and a few (un)expected niggles are a part of any car ownership. But that doesn't mean I am ready to go to the ASC almost every other month to get an issue sorted. One issue is solved and another crops up.

Sure, I can turn a blind eye and keep driving the car as-is. But have we really spent 22 big ones of our hard-earned money to live with that sort of a compromise? I for one, can't live with such a compromise after paying so much but am forced to live with it because it's a depreciation disaster and all I can do is run this car down till I get to upgrade and keep fixing the minor issues which crop over the course of time. I can just hope the car doesn't give up on me.

Despite all these issues, dad and I love the car for what it is. This is a typical love-hate relationship where in you make in serious compromises just because you don't want to part ways with the other one who's a part of the relationship. You loved the car for what it was, so you also have to accept its flaws. Agreed, these flaws have come up over a due course of time. As they say, change is inevitable, but then you simply can't abandon someone because they've changed and they simply aren't the ones they were before right? (Do I sound like a guy coaxing himself?)

I can just hope Sinbad proves to be reliable in the longer run and I pray to go my prayers come true. On another note, I've finally procured the piano Black trim for the boot door. This will be replaced with the chrome trim which the XT line of variants get. Even the boot sill will be replaced with the rubberized black insert. The car was recently "detailed" at home. It was a learning curve for both, me and my dad and was quite an experience. Pictures will follow in the subsequent posts as I'm a bit too lazy to resize and upload them to this post. Till then, please bear with me

[ashokabs]

The part about Tata cars that never changed since the good old days is the constant visits to get something attended or repaired even in a new car. However, I must say that the Tiago has not given me any such issues and I am a happy owner for over 3 years now. Even the car rides and feels like new. I guess the newer designs are more tested and validated than the older ones. One hopes their improvement trajectory can become exponential instead of just plodding along.

[Varun_HexaGuy]

As promised, here are some pics from the recent driveway detail. Have also listed down the products that have been used in the detail:

• Shinemate ER0600 Dual-Action (DA) Polisher along with two foam pads (coarser one for compound and relatively softer one for the polish)
• Menzerna Heavy Cut Compound 1000
• Menzerna 3-in-1 step polish
• Turtlewax Hybrid Ceramic Spray coating
• CarPro Polyshave block for claying (this can be reused after accidental drops)

I had also ordered a load of microfibre towels (340-gsm), rinse-less shampoo, aerosol tyre shine, glass cleaner, a pair of wash mitts along with the rest of the supplies. Will spend on a nice drying agent and a dryer once I recover from this big fat expense. A pressure washer is on the cards too. With all of the stuff in place, it'd make the upkeep easy for me.

The only minor goof-up which happened during the dispatch was that I was sent the incorrect size pads for the backing plate I had ordered. I had ordered a 5-inch backing plate but the pads were 7-inch

I had completed the detail with this set of pads itself. The correct set is on its way to Hyderabad and will be used on the other cars in the near future. Also planning to order backing plates of smaller size to make my life a lot easier at the corners. All in due time. Due thanks to BHPian johannskaria for helping me procure the supplies which I needed and also assisting me from time-to-time during the entire process.

My intention was never to make it perfect but I wanted to get rid of the the defects which came up over a period of time. We (me and dad) did manage to cover up most of the defects save for the cracked paint at a couple of places. I intend to take care of it with sanding in the near future.

Here are some pics in no particular order. Excuse for the poor angle pictures here and there. Quality would take a hit as well because I had to resize them to upload on the forum. Have a few videos too but I'm a bit too lazy to upload them on YouTube

[AirbusCapt]

Can I offer a suggestion? Try removing your sidesteps and driving for a few days. I strongly suspect them to be thr culprit of your rattles and squeaks.

[Varun_HexaGuy]

Originally Posted by AirbusCapt

Can I offer a suggestion? Try removing your sidesteps and driving for a few days. I strongly suspect them to be thr culprit of your rattles and squeaks.

Thanks for the suggestion. But that sadly isn't the case. The sidesteps are relatively new and my problem with the rattles and squeaks has been from before when the car didn't have these. It's barely a year or so since I got them fixed. To be precise, it's the dashboard plastics and the doorpads which creak. Nothing much can be done in that regard.

Since you've reminded me of the sidesteps, honestly I'm not a fan of these and I intend to get rid of these soon. As far as the ingress and the egress goes, it did make our lives easier but we don't really need it.

[krishnakarthik1]

Originally Posted by Varun_HexaGuy

My problem with the rattles and squeaks has been from before.

Really surprising man. Mine's at 58k and pretty much hard handled all that time but there are zero sounds from anywhere. The interior especially is as good as new.

Why don't you try Pranavi once. Its near Sri Convention, Kompally. If you want to visit them just whatsapp me, I will put a word to their head.

[AirbusCapt]

Originally Posted by Varun_HexaGuy

Thanks for the suggestion. But that sadly isn't the case. The sidesteps are relatively new and my problem with the rattles and squeaks has been from before when the car didn't have these. It's barely a year or so since I got them fixed. To be precise, it's the dashboard plastics and the doorpads which creak. Nothing much can be done in that regard.

Since you've reminded me of the sidesteps, honestly I'm not a fan of these and I intend to get rid of these soon. As far as the ingress and the egress goes, it did make our lives easier but we don't really need it.

I suggest you do the mallet test. Get a soft rubber mallet, tap it on all areas you think rattles. Where ever there are rattles, the sound will be prominent. Do this on a stationary car so that you can precisely identify the source of these sounds. Try it on the engine cover as well as the grille over the wiper area.

[Varun_HexaGuy]

Originally Posted by krishnakarthik1

Really surprising man. Mine's at 58k and pretty much hard handled all that time but there are zero sounds from anywhere. The interior especially is as good as new.

Why don't you try Pranavi once. Its near Sri Convention, Kompally. If you want to visit them just whatsapp me, I will put a word to their head.

Glad to hear that your car is holding up good. But I'd like to stick to Malik because they've been proactive in acting on my complaint and I know the higher ups at Malik and I've made a rapport with almost everyone here. Incase I want to try out Pranavi, will ping you for sure

Originally Posted by AirbusCapt

I suggest you do the mallet test. Get a soft rubber mallet, tap it on all areas you think rattles. Where ever there are rattles, the sound will be prominent. Do this on a stationary car so that you can precisely identify the source of these sounds. Try it on the engine cover as well as the grille over the wiper area.

Will give this a try. Thanks for the suggestion

[Alisiddiqui]

Wow. Thanks for the insight. I was very close to buying a Hexa Diesel Auto in 2017 but somehow didn’t bite it. Guess found it too cumbersome, low on power, etc. I didn’t need three rows back then too.

Fast forward, 2019 family growing and we decided on a 7 seater. Voila, crysta was the no brainier. Bought the 2.7 petrol automatic. Very poor average, very poor speakers but amazing power and well built. Feels very light. Replaced the speakers with Blam Audio and that sorted.

Been an year now, very happy with the experience and satisfied too. Plan to keep the car for it’s good 15 years. Reading your review, guessing made the right choice.

[Varun_HexaGuy]

Sinbad turns 4! A lot has been up with Sinbad in the past one year. Most of which is covered in my previous update from the later half of 2020.

Thanks to covid, all our major roadtrip/vacation plans had been put to rest in 2020. Although dad would daily drive this car, the distance covered was less (his commute was 3-kms one way). Also, at the end of 2020, dad was transferred to a remote location in Arunachal Pradesh which meant a roadtrip in January was to happen to move his car from Hyderabad.

2021 it is, dad's made his arrangements to come back to Hyd so we can hit the roads post Pongal/Makara Sankranti. He's home. Car was all prepped and done for the roadtrip. New tyres, essentials, etc all in place. With a week to go, I get my exam schedule which were happening from Jan 19th. Mode of examination was offline (yes, with the existence of covid). All the plans went down the drain. My exams went on to happen till mid February. Dad was again planning to make a visit to Hyd so we could drive the car back to Arunachal. However, dad's professional commitments with the Financial year coming to a close and I was busy myself with other commitments and the trip somehow wasn't materialising.

Since my other car was already purchased and I was waiting for the Hexa to make way for the new one back home, we decided to ship the Hexa down to Arunachal. After a 11-day journey inside a closed container, Hexa is finally celebrating its 4th Birthday in the lap of the seven sisters.

After the car was unloaded in Dibrugarh, Assam. Dad drove the Hexa down to Demwe, Arunachal Pradesh and spent the next three days cleaning the car up completely as the car was filthy inside out.

Since dad's office and residence are in the same campus, Hexa sees zero commute but it does hit the roads twice a week. Dad drives the car to the nearest town (which is an hour's drive), spends some time with the car and mom and heads back home. He's loving the car and plans to do a couple of trips down to Hyd in the future to keep the odometer rolling. It's kinda stuck at 36,000-odd kms in four years. Also, I'm talking my dad into doing an Overlander to Thailand :P

However, the trip which could happen without much of a delay would be the drive to Tawang. This has been on my dad's to-do list since a long time.

If these trips do happen in the near future, car will pile up significant amount of kilometres otherwise, I don't see the car exceeding the 50,000 kms mark even by 2023-24.

Regarding the aftersales of the car in a remote location as Demwe, dad plans on driving the car down to the nearest ASC every six months which is based out of either Tinsukia or Dibrugarh as his office cars (a Safari Dicor and a Storme 4x4) head to either of these towns for their periodic maintenance. Since the Hexa shares a lot of those service parts with the Dicor and Storme, service shouldn't really pose as a problem.

Will post a few pics of the car in the subsequent posts.

[car_guy1998]

Congrats for completing 4 years of ownership with the Hexa, Varun!

Glad to know that your Hexa has served your family well and without any issues even after the 4 years of ownership!

[Varun_HexaGuy]

This thread has been dead for well over a couple of years now. I thought it was only fair to give in an update about how the ownership has been with our car now that we’re well past the 6th year mark.

This car came in to mark a special occasion in all our lives. Our parents had completed 25 years of their married life. Cut to 6-years later, they’re now well past their 31st year of being married. Since it was now well-over 6 years, the itch to do something with it had only gone up. Given the fact that most ideal upgrade we were aiming at is dearer to a crore rupees than half a crore at this point and even then it wasn’t an upgrade worth upgrading to. Being extremely content with the status-quo, it made no financial or emotional sense to splurge on an upgrade. Why fix when something isn’t broke in the first place?

Anyways, in the third and fourth year of ownership we did run into a few issues. Minor but irritating nonetheless. In the past 2.5 years, car has moved from place to place wherever my dad’s job took him to. March 2021, we were supposed to a roadtrip from Hyderabad to Arunachal Pradesh (Tezu was the place where my dad was stationed). The covid scare had revived just then. Shipping the car down was a no-brainer. After being in that part of Arunachal, dad did venture out on his fair share of expeditions with the car by his side. Exactly an year later, on a promotion, dad was transferred to Gangtok, Sikkim.

What better than doing a roadtrip instead of just driving down from point A to B? Dad being the amazing planner that he is, chalked out a 10-day itinerary to cover various other places in the North East. Tawang being one of them. After covering the states of Arunachal, Assam and Meghalaya fairly extensively we made it to Sikkim.

Come July 2022, car was well over 5.5 years from the date of MFD. Dad being the proactive guy that he is, decided to do up a lot of stuff as a part of the preventive maintenance. Changed a lot of rubber hoses, water pump, power steering fluid alongside the usual set of recommended jobs for the age. Timing kit replacement was recommended for 5-years/150k kms. That was done alongside as well. Dealer chosen was Lexican Motors Siliguri. Dad was extremely happy with their service and he spent a cool two days at the workshop getting all of it fixed under his supervision.

Dec 2022, this was when we decided to drive down from Gangtok to Bhubaneswar for the annual get-together meet of the Hexa owners. Last meet happened in Dec 2019 (Just before Covid) in Mangalore, KA. We couldn’t miss this year given we were meeting after three years. The drive was good. The drive can be detailed out in a travelogue someday (but will never happen knowing me) but that’s that.

Come June 2023, dad was posted out from Gangtok and off he went to Wellington, TN. Near Ooty. We decided to drive down from Gangtok to Ooty by road because why not :P

Gangtok-Siliguri-Varanasi-Prayagraj-Jabalpur-Nagpur-Hyd was the decided course for the trip. However, being the month of Sravan, the drive from Varanasi to Prayagraj turned out to be a disaster so we decided to drop Prayagraj and continue with the rest of the course. The drive was good as usual.

Once the car was back in Hyderabad, we then proceeded to claim the insurance for the first time in 6+ years of ownership. The rear bumper and taillight were damaged sometime last year while parking the car. I had bought a set of gloss black boot insert and matte black loading lip found in the Hexa XM back in 2019 but never managed to install all of it in one go. This was the chance to do it.

Dad only had a week to spend in Hyd. We had notified the workshop (Prathammalik Cars, Tolichowki) well in advance about the parts we needed. Since it was anyways in the workshop decided to carry out the general service as well. Brake pads too were changed this time around, at 48,260 kms on the odo (this one sees zero commute so the mileage clocked is purely from roadtrips). Post this, it was time to drop it at Autopia (my second home) for a thorogh detailing job inside-out followed by a few other tweaks.

Dechroming the car has been on my list for long. Decided to do that now. Two step correction with protection, interior deep cleaning were opted alongside. Dad wanted to get the brake callipers painted in red (I was against it, but his car) so that was done too. The end result was much better than expected and it didn’t stand out which is good. I also wanted a heat rejection sunfilm because the factory glasses failed miserably at keeping the sun at bay on our roadtrips. So in came the Stek Smart 70. Ideally I would have wanted the Nex 70 but the stock hadn’t come in ages. With that done, managed to complete most of the bits that I’d planned for the car.

Next set of upgrades happened when dad drove down to Ooty. He decided to stop by at Bangalore for a night so we could do two more things, a remap and steering wheel refurb. Steering wheel refurb happened courtesy of Krithi Car Care. Coming to the remap, tuner chosen was Wolf Moto. Their dealer partner Engineering Exponents was the one who did our car. All of it happened as per the plan and dad was too tired at the end of it that he didn’t really test the map out.

Next day on his way to Ooty, dad called me to tell me that he wasn’t really happy with the change. Took in his feedback and wired it to Rajiv at Wolf Moto. Being the receptive guy that he is, two weeks from then he managed to fix all of my dad’s complaints with the map in this one. Dad also got the headlights upgraded around the same time. So now dad is thoroughly enjoying his well over half a decade old “new” car to the fullest.

As it enters the 7th year of ownership, I would like to carry out ATF replacement soon. Should hopefully happen sometime next year. Once that’s done, we have a keeper that’s going to stay for long. In terms of other upgrades, the headunit has been a long time coming and me being spoilt for convenience with CarPlay in my other cars back home, not having it in the Hexa is a pain. So that is on cards since I’m not really into the android HUs that are swarming the market and there are a ton of plug and play options available for the Hexa too. But just not my cup of tea. Plus get the dampening done when I do up the headunit upgrade. I just hope it doesn’t turn into a comprehensive audio upgrade haul (neither have that kind of time, patience or money to spend) but you never know.

Signing off with a few pictures for viewing pleasure:


Back home after being away from home for well over a couple of years. Also getting acquainted to a new member in the family.


Both the members in the family decided to have a spa-day at once because why not












The man and the machine. These two have seen and done a lot of things together and here’s to many more years of them doing things together

[ranjaneya]

Originally Posted by Varun_HexaGuy

The man and the machine. These two have seen and done a lot of things together and here’s to many more years of them doing things together

Your car is unbealievably beautifull at this age! You have taken a great care of hers it is evident. Kudos.