[Durango Dude]

Originally Posted by prasathlr

According to a scoop from Car Blog India, Nexon to launch only with Diesel engine due to some “unforeseen hurdles” that Tata Motors is facing with the development of Petrol.

http://www.carblogindia.com/tata-nexon-launch-date/

This is not exactly good news. It brings down the confidence & reliability level of the product. Petrol engines haven't exactly been Tata's forte and a new turbo petrol may add to it's share of woes!

[prakash_ajp]

Originally Posted by Durango Dude

This is not exactly good news. It brings down the confidence & reliability level of the product. Petrol engines haven't exactly been Tata's forte and a new turbo petrol may add to it's share of woes!

That's not exactly news, to be precise. It's a rumour, perhaps a guess at best. I don't know why/how people read so much into it.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by SoumenD

Brezza/Ecosport

I don't expect this to set sales charts on fire by any means purely because of the brand name.

Compared to the Brezza and Ecosport, both of which pull heartstrings of the Indian love for SUVs, Nexon begins with a big disadvantage in the looks department. It's a love it or hate it design, be it in terms of the big smiling grill, or the one-of-a-kind rear end design. And it looks more crossover than SUV.

More than the TATA brand, I feel the looks will polarize opinions.

TATA brand issues can be overcome by producing a VFM well rounded offering without any glaring weakness. Just like the Tiago and unlike the Tigor. And from whatever information we know of now, it looks to be a well rounded product indeed, barring the polarizing looks.

Originally Posted by Durango Dude

This is not exactly good news. It brings down the confidence & reliability level of the product. Petrol engines haven't exactly been Tata's forte and a new turbo petrol may add to it's share of woes!

So isn't it good news that they are not launching it until they are sure?

Diesel is enough to drive sales in my opinion. Brezza only comes in diesel, WRV offers a very poor petrol option and the Ford Turbo petrol is competent but overpriced.

[Ironhide]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Compared to the Brezza and Ecosport, both of which pull heartstrings of the Indian love for SUVs, Nexon begins with a big disadvantage in the looks department. It's a love it or hate it design, be it in terms of the big smiling grill, or the one-of-a-kind rear end design. And it looks more crossover than SUV.

More than the TATA brand, I feel the looks will polarize opinions.

TATA brand issues can be overcome by producing a VFM well rounded offering without any glaring weakness. Just like the Tiago and unlike the Tigor. And from whatever information we know of now, it looks to be a well rounded product indeed, barring the polarizing looks.

I second that. The looks of what otherwise seems to be a competent, well rounded car, will be a make or break factor for many a potential customer who are in the market for a so called Mini/ Urban SUV. The design, which carries the now familiar TATA design philosophy of the smiling grille, is somewhat car-like and less SUVish. In the looks department, Maruti pulled it off with the Vitara Brezza's muscular, jeep like looks. It sells like hot cakes despite its ordinary interior quality and relatively small boot. The Ecosport turned around the sales for Ford riding on a muscular design amongst its other great qualities and the Creta's 'fluidic meets butch' looks are surely helping it sell like hot cakes. All these manufacturers are clearly aware that the average buyer is looking for 'Macho' looks in the SUV.

The Nexon may have all the attributes of a great car - power, drive, handling, ground clearance, space, top of the line ICE etc. but the average Indian public is quite sensitive to looks. The design, as CRAZYDRIVER put it, is indeed polarising. It is quite nice but may not be butch enough for the average customer. Maybe they should have lent the design a flavour of Hexa - mature, understated and yet muscular. Of course it is too late for a design change now, but TATA would do well to maybe introduce a more butch, muscular design as an upgrade sometime down the line.

Cheers !

[Sheel]

I hadn't chanced upon this thread but today. I saw 3 fast driven Nexons [I think they were this Tata small SUV] around a month back on NH-31 near Purnia. Fully camouflaged.

[RavenAvi]

Caught on camera by Sushim Dey near Khardung La Pass (Ladakh) last month.

And a couple of test mules were spotted in Calicut, Kerala, by a Fly-Wheel reader.

The test mules are heavily camouflaged and are Maharashtra registration like most Tata test mules.
The test mules appear to be top end variants as we can see LED tail light and alloywheels from the spy pics.

[Enobarbus]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

More than the TATA brand, I feel the looks will polarize opinions.

Originally Posted by Ironhide

I second that. The looks of what otherwise seems to be a competent, well rounded car, will be a make or break factor

Most BHPians liked the looks in the 2016 Indian Auto expo. The Nexon was voted the best looking car by a fair margin. Even in the 2014 Auto expo, when it was only a concept car, it attracted a lot of interest just by its looks.

[Chillout]

The reason it was voted in 2016, was because it was different design and ceramic strip enhanced the style quotient, however people are bored now since they have seen enough test mules and design itself is becoming dated.

[akhil994]

Originally Posted by Chillout

The reason it was voted in 2016, was because it was different design and ceramic strip enhanced the style quotient, however people are bored now since they have seen enough test mules and design itself is becoming dated.

As mentioned in this thread before, not people but bhpians are bored because we are the informed lot.

If you ask or discuss this car with people who aren't bhpians then I'm sure you would find 80-90% people unaware about the car and will ask you -"Which car is this?" And "which brand is launching it and when?"

I say the above from personal experience. Not one person knew about it. Had to google and show images everytime.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by Enobarbus

Most BHPians liked the looks in the 2016 Indian Auto expo. The Nexon was voted the best looking car by a fair margin. Even in the 2014 Auto expo, when it was only a concept car, it attracted a lot of interest just by its looks.

Most BHP'ians voted Tiago as the car of the year in 2016, and Zest was voted to the title in 2014. Compare it to actual sales and need I say more?

Looking forward to the engines now. If they are as good as what RavenAvi's sources predict, BHP'ians will ignore the polarizing looks, IMO. Good contender for the 2017 title in case the engines are very good.

The masses and sales? That's a whole different story with this crossover format.

[Enobarbus]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Most BHP'ians voted Tiago as the car of the year in 2016, and Zest was voted to the title in 2014. Compare it to actual sales and need I say more?

Exactly my point. If looks are such an important criteria, these cars should have been hits and the previous generation swift and dezire should have been flops.

[SoumenD]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Compared to the Brezza and Ecosport, both of which pull heartstrings of the Indian love for SUVs, Nexon begins with a big disadvantage in the looks department. . .

More than the TATA brand, I feel the looks will polarize opinions.

Originally Posted by Ironhide

I second that...

Originally Posted by Enobarbus

Most BHPians liked the looks in the 2016 Indian Auto expo. The Nexon was voted the best looking car by a fair margin. Even in the 2014 Auto expo, when it was only a concept car, it attracted a lot of interest just by its looks.

Here's a snapshot of the poll during 2016 Auto-Expo. BHPians were wow-ed the most by this car back then. Link



However I would partially agree with CrazyDriver that it doesn't really give the butch feel that Brezza/Ecosport give.

Originally Posted by Enobarbus

Exactly my point. If looks are such an important criteria, these cars should have been hits and the previous generation swift and dezire should have been flops.

Not sure about swift but if looks were important Dzire/WagonR would have been royal flops. Actual scenario is exactly opposite.

I would reiterate myself. Brand baggage has a lot to do with the market acceptability of a product. For example lot of people agreed HEXA is a great product at the price but most of them shied away with the statement '20 big ones for a TATA doesn't seem sensible' . But inspite of being a general opinion that Crysta is overpriced , its being lapped up by the market with both hands mostly because its from the reliable Toyota.

[akhil994]

Just came across this on twitter! Guess the media drive is not far away now!

[ashutoshb]

Let us not give brownie points to the Brezza and Ecosport, just because their sheet metal is shaped to look like an SUV. Beneath that sheet metal, all three are monocoque crossovers.

The Nexon is purposely designed to be different.

It is not that, Tata wanted to come up with a macho looking, angular, wannabe SUV, but since they didn't have a ruler and couldn't draw straight lines, it ended all curvy.

If Tata wanted, they could certainly have come up with a Mini Storme / Evoque looking crossover.

But, they have played a gamble here. They appear have designed the Nexon as, if I may call it, an aam admi's X6. And they have planned to price it in the Brezza / Ecosport segment.

But, that doesn't mean, it wants to play for the 'wannabe SUV' title. IMHO, they plan to create a new sub-segment here.

To me, the Nexon looks more a lifestyle vehicle, than a people mover or a car aping an SUV.

It appears to be targeting the sedan buyers and it remains to be seen, whether people will warm up to the Nexon's somewhat radical design, or not.

Those, who want to grow chest hair, by buying a crossover imitating an SUV, will choose to stay away, for sure.

[prakash_ajp]

Tata Nexon might find itself in the short list for my next car, but I don't see it doing very well with respect to sales. In some ways, Nexon looks like S Cross. I believe S Cross is not doing as well as Creta is because it lacks the pseudo SUV looks, which is the case with Nexon too. People these days seem to want cars 'looking big', not necessarily capable.