24K km with my Tata Harrier: Avid traveller shares ownership experience

Considering that I'm driving a heavy car, I'm very happy with the fuel efficiency. I get around 10 km/l in Bangalore city traffic and 14-16 km/l on highways.

BHPian where_to_next recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

The views shared by various members in the forum helped me purchase my car 12 months ago. Till date, I have done close to 24k KMS on my TANK and this is my ownership thread. I am still a novice when it comes to understanding the technology and mechanics behind these beautiful machines. Hence, a lot of the language used will be very layman-ish. Although, I am learning quick thanks to this forum.

A little bit about me first

I work for a software company based out of Bangalore. I was in Sales and used to do a lot of plain-hopping during the weekdays meeting customers. On the weekends, I used to come back to Bangalore and hit the road on my Yamaha FZS 150cc bike. My wildest ride with it was a 3-day 1700 KM journey from Bangalore - Kanyakumari - Rameshwaram - Bangalore. The ride surely hurt my butt but it was worth it.

Beginning of 2020, I moved into a new role in my company that does not require me to travel anymore. I was tired of the airport trips and it was impacting my health. And then Covid happened. I moved back to my hometown in Andhra Pradesh. I got married during the first Covid wave. Post marriage, we waited for things to cool out for a year in our hometown before returning to Bangalore. During this 1 year, I learnt car driving. My Father-in-law had a 2008 Diesel Swift VDI. I learnt to drive on it and have done a few 400 kms+ drives on it as well between Hyderabad and my hometown.

Me and my wife finally moved to Bangalore in June 2021. I spent a couple of months settling in and setting up a new house with all the necessary stuff. With things easing up with Covid, I wanted to travel again. Only this time, I won't be alone. I will be travelling with my wife. So, our search began for a new car. We have considered and test driven several cars starting from Swift to XUV700. It took us a while to figure out our key requirements as stated below:

• Large boot space to carry stuff from the occasional trips from hometown to Bangalore
• An SUV - We felt an SUV would give us a better highway driving experience and an overall better feeling of safety
• Decently powered car to sail us smoothly on the travels through different terrains
• Sunroof is a must for the wife. A part of me also wanted it.
• A diesel car with an auto gearbox
• A proper 5-seater. When 3 people are sitting in the back row, they should not feel congested. We did not need a 7-seater.
• Top model preferably. Get as many features as possible from the OEM itself. I am not a big fan of opening up the car outside of the OEM premises.

Purchase experience

My purchase experience was good with KHT Mahadevapura, Bangalore. Our Sales Advisor was genuine and gave us multiple test drives on request. He also did not push us to buy any extra stuff. We booked Tata Harrier 2021 XZA+ Orcus White colour. The vehicle was delivered to us in 3 weeks. We felt Tata could have provided a cake at the time of delivery considering we are buying a vehicle worth 25 lacs. Anyways, we did not allow that to shadow our excitement. We took the car for Puja and left immediately for Mysore that night and took it out for a ride to Bandipur forest the next day. The adventure & trips begin.

Things I like about this car

• Highway driving manners - The car feels stable and sorted at high speeds. I am a sedate cruiser (although, I am game for an odd outburst to overtake an irritating bus or car). The car almost effortlessly reaches 80-100 KMPH speeds and such speeds are not felt in the cabin. It "feels" like you are doing 40-50 KMPH whilst you are actually at 80-100KMPH.
• Automatic Transmission - Thank God, I purchased the Auto Transmission. It takes the weight off the car while driving in the crazy Bangalore traffic and gives you the peace of mind of not having to constantly engage the clutch and gearbox on the Ghats. I get to focus more on the road and enjoy the scenery.
• Strong build quality - It took us a month to able to close the doors in one go. You can certainly feel that this is a heavy car when Tata makes you lift the bonnet (without hydraulics) and the boot (without electronics). Overall, the body structure itself feels very strong.
• Audio System Quality - I am a bass lover. Not a heart-thumping Bass, but in moderate amounts. The Infinity system by JBL is perfect. The audio quality & clarity is great and I get sufficient Bass without stretching the volume a lot. A good music system enhances your long-drive experience and slow-moving Bangalore traffic trips.
• Satisfactory Mileage - Considering that I am driving a heavy car, with a 1966cc engine and an auto-transmission, I am very happy with my mileage. I get somewhere around 10KMPL in Bangalore city traffic and 14-16KMPL on Highways. If you have the patience to cruise at 80-90KMPH with Eco mode on a highway, you can get even insane mileage numbers.
• A lot of power in the tank - The car does not feel underpowered at all. I take all types of tricky situations in its stride - Ghat roads, quick overtakes on busy 2-lane roads without dividers. Mind you, this is all without engaging the Sports Mode. Sports Mode transforms this into a different-level beast.
• Stunning Looks - This car turns heads. Mine is Ocrus White edition. I am not a big fan of the rear. Of course, several people prefer the Dark Edition. We preferred White as we did not want to invest a lot into Maintenance. Moreover, I like it when White cars are soiled.

What can be better

• Behold, another rant about the infamous Tata Harrier Infotainment system. A lot has been written about it already. Let me add my own thoughts. First of all, it hangs up on you on long travels. Just restarting the infotainment system by pressing both the volume and radio tuner knobs solves this. Second thing is the under-utilisation of the screen space when connected to Android Auto or Apple Carplay. Nearly 30% of the screen space is not used. Third, the screen resolution itself seems to be poor when connected to Android Auto or Apple CarPlay. Fourth, Google Maps doesn't play well with Apple Carplay. When you are in a no-network location, the navigation does not update the location (even though I have the map downloaded offline in Google Maps). Moreover, you are unable to cast the turn-by-turn navigation guidelines onto your MID. The solution that I found for this - I purchased a cheap Android phone for the car. I use it for Navigation & Music. This solves the issues with Apple Carplay.
• Stock headlights offer poor visibility. You would realise this just in a single night drive after you purchase the vehicle. Prepare yourself to upgrade.
• Essential safety features missing - I believe TPMS is as important as an Airbag in your car. While the Airbag will protect you when an accident happens, TPMS will alert you to get out of one. Tata should be providing TPMS in their cars. I purchased Sensairy Internal TPMS and got it installed from Tyre Empire. For a car of this size, I believe a 360-degree camera would also help manoeuvre it in some tricky narrow roads. I had my heart in my mouth when I drove this car in the narrow lanes leading up to Commercial Street in Bangalore (Google Maps played smart by showing up the shortest path through these lanes).
• Turn indicator sensitivity - It is a bit irritating. The indicator automatically neutralises even for the slightest hint of a turn to the opposite side.
• No options for an AWD or 4x4 - when you look at the products Mahindra is rolling out, I wish Harrier offered at least an AWD variant. It just gives that additional level of confidence when you might run into some tricky situations
• Service Centers - Enough has been said about the hit-and-miss Service experience with Tata. A new problem is on the horizon now. I am not sure if Tata has ramped up their service network enough to scale with its sales volumes. They are selling a lot of cars and this is slowly starting to choke their service centers. You need to plan well ahead for getting your scheduled services done. Considering that the scheduled services are once every 7.5k KMS, it is a major hassle.

Few pics of the car from its travels

Taking delivery of the car at KHT Mahadevapura

Raxidi Jungle Lodge, Sakleshpur

Gokarna

NH-48, Chitradurga, On the way to Hampi from Bangalore

En-route Mullayanagiri Peak

Mugguru Forest View Point

Coorg

 Vathalmalai Hills

Somewhere in my hometown in Andhra Pradesh (ready for the groom)

Ooty - Guddalur route

Samsa (near Kalasa)

Other cars considered & reasons for rejection

• XUV700- Our Test Drive car had niggles. Reverse parking camera did not turn on when the reverse gear was engaged. Drive modes did not engage. Infotainment system hung up during the Test Drive. This left an impression that this is a Work-In-Progress product. Moreover, the waiting period was a huge turn-off. We wanted the car immediately so that we can hit the road.
• MG Hector - We wanted to book a top model and we wanted Diesel considering the amount of travel we do. We wanted an Auto Gearbox. Hector did not have a Diesel option. Their top model petrol automatic came with a CVT gearbox which was not fun to drive for me. I was also terrified by looking at some people reporting 6-8 KMPL mileage in Bangalore city driving conditions.
• Tata Safari - We needed a 5-seater. I did not like the rear of the Safari and felt like it is a bulkier car and would be difficult to drive in Bangalore Traffic.

Signing off for now.

I will be updating this thread with my ownership experience on an ongoing basis and also look forward to jotting down several travelogues.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.