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5,000 km with a 2023 Harrier Dark edition: Here's my experience

30th January 2024, 10:29 by Ananth Iyer

It turns heads everywhere I go and I have had people come up and chat about it. This is something I would've never experienced if we had bought another XUV 700 in a sea of XUVs in NCR.

BHPian V0id2003 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Harrier ADV+ Dark AT Ownership Review - 5,000 km

A bit of a background about me , I am an engineering student in Karnataka ,a long way from home in gurgaon and I have done only about 800-900 kms of the 5000. This car is primarily driven by my mother on her daily 40 km commute. I always thought that I'll start making posts on Team BHP when I grow up, start earning and buying cars myself but since Diesels/Petrols are dying and EVs will take over when I become 23-24 years old , I thought I'll express my enthusiasm in this post.

Purchase Decision

The objective was to replace our 2017 Duster petrol CVT which was starting to feel really sluggish due to the uninspiring 1.5 H4K producing only 105 ps of power and the heavy hydraulic steering which was a chore to manoeuvre, so in-spite of having only 30k on the ODO we decided it was time to move on. We used to take our Verna on long routes, but the lack of rear space and repeated alignment/suspension issues due to the bad roads on my mother's daily commute was becoming an issue , so we needed a big automatic powerful SUV , preferably petrol, to take its place.

Options considered

XUV 700 - A great and well sorted car with amazing engines which are certainly a cut above the Harrier/Safari powertrain.
However the interiors felt cheap with a lot of plasticky bits along with the weird vaneer treatment on the doors , Harrier's black interior in the dark trim felt much better. The wacky DRLs, the dull-looking rear and side profile meant that it was dropped. Basically we didn't get that wow factor we were looking for. It only had the availability of an amazing petrol engine which is favorable in NCR going for it

MG Hector - It had an amazing cabin , amazing NVH. However all of 3 us were spoiled by the Verna's amazing pickup and the Hector CVT was quite sluggish and not fun to drive at all. Our sole reason for upgrading from the duster was its lackluster powertrain so hector was dropped. An automatic was must so we didn't consider the diesel

Alcazar - Great interiors , good 1.5 turbo petrol + DCT combo. However we were a bit turned off by its subdued styling although I can understand its appeal. It looks timeless, especially from the rear. The interiors were also fab. But dad didn't like it due to its more MPV-like stance , so it was dropped

Safari - Being a family of only 3 ,with our cars being driven with only 1 person inside 90% of the time turned us off a 7-seater. There was no need to compromise on the second row comfort (Safari seats feel upright and less supportive than the Harrier) and design (Harrier's sloping roofline looked more appealing).

Harrier - We had test driven the pre facelift Harrier. We were immediately in love with its design and plush black interiors with a black roof liner, just how I like it, however, the heavy hydraulic steering was not liked by my mother, which was the same as the Duster , so it didn't make sense for us to upgrade at the time. We thought that Verna will suffice for now and set our sights on the facelift.

The facelift came, and it was test driven by my parents because I was back in Karnataka due to college. They fell in love , there was almost nothing wrong to point out in the facelifted harrier. My mom described the EPS as a hot knife through butter. It was done and the Harrier Fearless Dark AT was booked. We got allotted a bad unit which I mentioned in these posts ,so we rejected it

We went with the Adventure + trim which was in stock at the time and had almost everything we needed:

Got my Harrier Adventure + Dark AT trim about 2 weeks back. Seemed liked the most vfm trim with all of the look and feel of the top trim + many feel good features I wanted like a panaromic sunroof , leather upholestry , 360 camera , 19 inch alloys but I wanted to specify a couple of omissions that they dont mention in the brochure
Passenger side vanity mirror which was very surprising , a 27 lakh car without a vanity mirror is a crime in my opinion. The fearless trim gets it.
Auto dimming IRVM
Tata should definitely mention the omission of these 2 things in the brochure , moreover they should start providing these basic things. Other than that this variant mainly missed out on 2 tweeters and a subwoofer , Electric seats with ventilation , a bigger screen( Same features on both the 10.25 and the 12 inch screen except for the jbl modes) , the swipe indicators with the quirky unlock animation and dual zone climate control which is actually a plus for me since I hated the touch control for the fan on this variant. I like having physical controls for temperature and fan both with the adventure trim gets.
I got this variant @ 26.94 lakh on road , the fearless dark AT trim was costing me 28.76 lakh on road , both in gurgaon. I had booked the fearless variant first but on the day of PDI it had a lot of issues - the roof lining was broken , it was hanging down , the harrier badge had the H missing ,the door rubber seals were not done properly and the tailgate was about installed 1-2 cm inside comapred to the body , so the tail lights were not flush. A lot of new harriers are having tailgate alignment and roof + door seal issues. The dealer had an Adventure + dark AT in stock so I went with it.

I like that this variant had the look and feel of the top trim and a savings of 2.3 lakhs which will be used towards a better audio system

Now moving onto the crux of the matter , I have divided my experience into the pros and cons

Cons/Issues faced first:

In all our excitement, we didn't realise that Tata doesn't even give a vanity mirror on any sun visor in the Adventure+ trim, which is shocking.

Glitchy Infotainment system - I did see this coming , its a Tata afterall. Sometimes the turn signal + speed alert + seatbelt warning sounds stop working. This is very common , I did get the software updated but its still there.
I don't know if anyone has experienced this or not but the turn signals don't sound rhythmic at all to me on all Harriers/Safaris. They sound out of sync ,like the time period in between blinks is not uniform.
Steering seems slightly off center to me while driving straight

Now onto the pros

I really love how it looks. The stylish design makes up for any issues I've had. Every time I get out of the car, I can't help but look back at it. It has that feel-good vibe we were after. It turns heads everywhere I go and I have had people come up and chat about it. This is something I would've never experienced if we had bought another XUV in a sea of XUVs in NCR.
The mileage is simply stellar. 12-13 kmpl in the city , 17-19 kmpl on the highway is mind boggling to us.
I felt that after we booked the Harrier I would always regret not having a stonking motor of a XUV but to my surprise sports mode feels amazing. The pull is instant and the paddle shifters feel great ( I have been watching F1 since 2012 when I was in 4th grade , I always wanted a set of those in my car)
Surprisingly good NVH. Going 110-120 in our Verna felt like 110-120 due to the wind and tire noise. However 110-120 feels like 80-90 here due to the excellent insulation. The engine is very silent in city conditions as well.
The interior - I am a big fan of black interiors coupled with black roof liners. The door frames are thick and the dashboard is huge. The door handles feel chunky. I really like the cozy , protected feeling I get in this cabin. Sure, it's not as airy as beige interiors in cars like the XUV, but the panoramic sun roof makes up for it. It feels like I am sitting in a tank

In spite of all this I would still recommend the XUV, it is the better car.

I know that buying a Diesel product in NCR without long-distance running in NCR is stupidity, buying a first lot Tata product is also stupidity but that feeling of excitement every time I get I behind the Harrier's wheel and when I look back and glance at it is something only the Harrier gives. You only live once, so we chose a car that we all loved and not something that's sensible and reliable. Lets enjoy the Diesels till they last.

Here are a few shots I took of the beast and I would also love to get some audio upgrade recommendations, since this trim doesn't get the JBL audio system