[GrammarNazi]

Originally Posted by condor

If we are looking at different drive modes that are selectable on-the-run, then the change-ability is better integrated in the system .. ?

Maybe. Just keeping my expectations limited to simple stuff that this segment (15-20L) could afford. I don't know anything about adjustable dampers.

Anyway, the Team-BHP review will reveal what they've got.

[ACM]

Originally Posted by Behemoth

Yes, the biggest question in everyone's minds is whether the Tata Hexa's Multi Drive modes are actually including Adaptive Air suspension technology - which is essentially Variable air dampers which have pumps which regulate the amount of suspension resistance and also lift the car up for rough road use. It is quite an expensive technology and is normally found in the Higher variants of Audis and BMW and Mercs.
It is ofcourse possible Tata can offer this tech (from JLR), but since it is extremely expensive, can Tata offer it in the Hexa and at an affordable price level? Typical difference in Models from Audi for models which have this tech and models which don't is upwards of 4 lacs!
I feel it would be too optimistic to expect Tata to offer this in the Hexa and even if they did, the premium may well land upto 2-3 lacs over the standard version.
But knowing the customer profile of Tata SUVs I doubt that any customer would pay a 3 lac premium for this feature and bear the risk of premature failure and also service nightmares.
Waiting for the TBHP reveiws to see how good the technology is when and if they do offer it!

This technology is not really that expensive but ends up costing a lot as it is imported.

That said it is a major and expensive failure point in all these premium vehicles. Another variation of this is Adaptive Dampers that BMW uses which does not raise the ride height but due stiffen the Dampers.

Irrespective it is highly unlikely that the HEXA gets this.

[RavenAvi]

Tata Motors will be conducting a mega marketing exercise for the Hexa through exclusive planned events, where people will get to drive and feel the power of this crossover SUV and also it's off-roading capabilities.

Excerpt:

Mayank Pareek believes the mojo is back at Tata Motors’ car business thanks to the good showing of the Tiago launched in April. According to the President of the Passenger Vehicle Business Unit, the model reflects the company’s new impact design philosophy.

“There is positive word-of-mouth with more Tiagos now on the roads,” says Pareek. The sales pitch for the car was also different with customers asked to drive it. “Long winded sales talk does not help and only wastes people’s time,” he adds.

The positive market response is more than welcome, especially when the company’s car business was literally in the doldrums till not-so-long ago. It is this renewed confidence that is playing a big part in readying the Hexa launch in January 2017. This SUV was displayed at the Delhi Auto Expo earlier this year and will be part of a product category that is among the fastest growing in India’s competitive auto arena.

“With Hexa, the challenge is to identify new customers and win their confidence. It is a big opportunity for us to recreate the magic and there is no reason to worry about competition,” says Pareek. There is a big engagement marketing exercise planned through Hexa events, where people will get to drive and feel the power of this off-roader. Its customers are expected to be in the age group of 35-45 years.

The Hindu Business Line

[RavenAvi]

NDTV Auto has posted an "official" reason for the Hexa launch delay.

Although the Hexa will only launch in January 2017, we'll get to drive the car later this month itself as we have told earlier that the automaker has scheduled media drives for the car in the third week of October. So why this huge gap of over 2 months between the launch and the media drive? Well, it's because Tata feel that even though the Hexa is production-ready there is still a bit of room for improvements. So, based on opinions and feedback collected from the experts during this media drive, Tata Motors will make the necessary changes to the car before it is finally ready to be launched.

[amitpunjani]

Firstly apologies for going off Topic! But this post is directly or indirectly related to Hexa. Majority of us have all praises about Hexa and Why not?But how many of us will actually put our hard earned money on Hexa equipped with numerous electronics

I've witnessed numerous TATA employees buying Dzire over Manza. I'm seriously in love with the vehicle, but will I buy it, absolutely NO or rather not in the first year of launch.

Safari, has been in the market for more than a decade, but a lot of owners have mentioned in their ownership report that in the first month of purchase of Safari, they knew all the TATA dealers in their vicinity of Office and home.

[sunishsamuel]

Originally Posted by RavenAvi

NDTV Auto has posted an "official" reason for the Hexa launch delay.

Ah, Why can't Tata atleast control what goes into the media ? This is definitely negative publicity and will create doubts in the minds of people. Would months between November and Jan be good enough to sort niggles and get new parts etc ?

Originally Posted by amitpunjani

Safari, has been in the market for more than a decade, but a lot of owners have mentioned in their ownership report that in the first month of purchase of Safari, they knew all the TATA dealers in their vicinity of Office and home.

One of our Bhpian posted something very thoughtful in this thread

I am not sure how testing works in the Automobile industry but we need to learn a lot from the Japanese on Quality check and making durable components. I had a faulty ECU within the first few months of owning a Tata Safari 2.2 and it took so much time to even figure out what went wrong

[amitpunjani]

Mod Note : There are several spelling & grammatical errors in your posts. This negatively affects the forum experience for other readers.

Kindly ensure that you proof-read your posts prior to submission. Also, it would be a good idea to use a spell-checker.

[avinash_clt]

With reference to having remotely adjustable ride height (most likely would need air-suspension setup) or adjustable dampers in the Hexa: At this price point, I don't think it is fair to expect these in the upcoming car. Having adjustable driving modes (essentially engine/transmission maps) or even an adjustable steering assist (again easily achievable with a electric power steering) is still more realistic. With the cheaper cars from Tata stable already having the former, safe to expect similar modes in the Hexa and not much more.

Originally Posted by RavenAvi

Both of Hexa's competitors have multi-link suspensions at the rear.


Innova:
Attachment 1565308

XUV500:
Attachment 1565309


Both are of the standard 4-link type though.

Seems like the Hexa's rear setup (rigid axle, coil spring based) is similar, except for that extra rod. Not sure if Tata is offering something new in the Hexa's suspension setup.

I think there is confusion here regarding what typically is referred with 4/5-link suspension as is the case with Storme/Aria/Innova etc and the multi-link setup as referenced in the XUV brochure.

To my understanding typically the reference of '4 or 5-link suspension' is mostly in combination with a rigid axle or non-independent suspension, as is the case with rear setup of most body-on-frame UVs sold in our market (thus including Aria/Storme/Scorpio/Quanto).

True that 'multi-link' essentially should refer to anything with more than 3 control arms. But if I'm not mistaken, almost all the usage of the 'multi-link' terminology these days is in combination with an independent suspension setup (Requesting experts to correct/confirm). XUV-500 has independent setup at the rear also and is a multilink, but not comparable/eqivalent to the rigid axle setups in the body-on-frame UVs discussed above and also to the upcoming Hexa (assuming it is retaining the basic chassis setup of Aria). And it's not just XUV, the independent multi-link rear suspension is there in Duster AWD, Yeti etc among primarily FWD monocoque SUVs.

[RavenAvi]

I don't think pricing will be a very crucial and defining factor for the Hexa's success.

Somehow I keep getting the feeling that if Tata prices the Hexa from 10 lakh rupees onwards, it will be perceived as too low and the product might be perceived as not as premium as the Innova Crysta/XUV500, and if they go for a 13 lakh rupee price tag, it will be deemed too expensive and invariably comparisons will be drawn as to how the Crysta and the XUV score better at the same price. Battle lost either way.

For the Hexa to succeed, the end product needs to be something which leaves a serious impression on the buyers. Hence, the way Tata is going to market the Hexa by making people drive the crossover and experience the abilities of the SUV by themselves is a great idea. What better way to impress the prospects than to let them experience the product itself.

People will jump up and down once the Hexa is launched, and then go ahead and buy the XUV500/Innova instead, citing N number of reasons for bypassing the Hexa, however brilliant the product turns out to be. Bet the most prominent one will be "I don't feel safe/comfortable with a Tata in my garage."

It is this particular hurdle which Tata has to overcome, and this is where the boosted Tiago sales is going to prove to be crucial.

[m3_07]

Aptly said.

What should be one compelling reason to buy the car???

IMHO -

Sales Experience:

1. Have an ambient place to display the car
2. Offer "no questions asked" test drive - there are reports of restrictions on Tiago test drive.
3. Create a common test drive track in the city to experience the Hexa (this may not be dealer exclusive)
4. Have a competent/ knowledgeable Sales Exec to handle the queries


After Sales Experience:

1. Standard warranty to be the best in the market
2. Add on service packs which have "no frills attached"
3. Priority queues in the TASC
4. Competent Service adviser & technicians (root out the arrogant ones)

[srishiva]

With Tiago (happened to drive one couple of days ago) one thing that is distinct is how fresh it felt in the interiors and also the exterior for a Tata car (especially the door panels, front and the waist line).

Hopefully we see this freshness in the Hexa (with so much information and similarity with Aria its getting far from that!) It looks like Tata is jittery and seems to have a lot riding on this.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by srishiva

Hopefully we see this freshness in the Hexa (with so much information and similarity with Aria its getting far from that!)

Thankfully for TATA, most people would never have seen the Aria upclose. Including myself, who have been to the TATA showroom many times over the past few years for car purchases, randomly checking out Storme, Tiago etc and still haven't got a chance to see one properly. It's a good thing for Hexa that the Aria was one of the biggest flops in the market.

So they wouldn't really need to worry about similarities with Hexa as long as quality is top class, except in the looks department (and they seemed to have done a decent job at that!).

[prakash_ajp]

Originally Posted by RavenAvi

I don't think pricing will be a very crucial and defining factor for the Hexa's success.

Somehow I keep getting the feeling that if Tata prices the Hexa from 10 lakh rupees onwards, it will be perceived as too low and the product might be perceived as not as premium as the Innova Crysta/XUV500, and if they go for a 13 lakh rupee price tag, it will be deemed too expensive and invariably comparisons will be drawn as to how the Crysta and the XUV score better at the same price. Battle lost either way.

My opinion is that Tata should have a handful of variants in a broad price range. If I remember right, Aria's pricing was good (after the price-cut, i.e) and Hexa should have the same starting price too and the price for the top variant and the 4x4 can be stretched upwards.

[Nissan1180]

Has any company ever done a sell-first launch-later scheme? Tata could offer their prototypes for test drives while continuing to work on the car.
They could sell the first few hundred vehicles at really attractive prices.
And they could promise delivery in FY 2017.
This is the strategy that builders use for selling houses. They create a sample flat or bungalow. They promise buyers that the product (house) will be ready in 3 years and they charge a token booking amount while the rest of the money is paid as the construction progresses.
The advantage of this would be less inventory pile up at the dealership, more visibility about the demand pattern (the variants that sell most could be made in higher numbers).
I don't think car companies do this-I'm not sure why.

[avisidhu]

Originally Posted by Nissan1180

Has any company ever done a sell-first launch-later scheme? Tata could offer their prototypes for test drives while continuing to work on the car.
They could sell the first few hundred vehicles at really attractive prices.
And they could promise delivery in FY 2017.
This is the strategy that builders use for selling houses. They create a sample flat or bungalow. They promise buyers that the product (house) will be ready in 3 years and they charge a token booking amount while the rest of the money is paid as the construction progresses.
The advantage of this would be less inventory pile up at the dealership, more visibility about the demand pattern (the variants that sell most could be made in higher numbers).
I don't think car companies do this-I'm not sure why.

Not possible mate. The R&D and associated cost for a fresh product runs into hundreds of crores typically. Besides, The builder may take 3 years but he doesn't give you a half constructed flat to move in saying he'll keep adding things. End customers laying hand on semi-developed prototypes would be the worst possible nightmare for any auto company.

Coming back to the topic, I must say that I haven't prayed for the success of any other vehicle as much as the Hexa The company seems to be not just 'seen' to be trying hard(like many others), but the effort has been visible over the years. And a very decent 4 year long experience with my relative's Safari Dicor has made a positive impression in my mind. I only had one grouse in terms of how down market their service centers are, but then had a very shabby experience at a Honda dealership recently, and it made me realize there's no point generalizing these things. Kudos to them, and if the product is good they have a prospective buyer in about 2 years