[doxinboy]

Hey Guys,

Just pitching in my thoughts at 4 AM. I feel this whole hoopla about enticing the customers and creating the tension between the seller and buyer is a brilliant tactics that is being nurtured of late by marketing teams. Look at how iPhones emerged as a status symbols and the drama surrounding its unveiling, which is being copied and it is a benchmark in product launches.

Though I feel like zapping my brain with 240 volts electric current because of frustration of the delays, TATA is consistently elevating its product branding in the minds of the consumers.

Nearly a decade ago, my interest in Manza was squished due to the cheep plastic. I still remember not taking the test drive after 'feeling' their el cheepo plastics, and ended up buying a German. However, the launch of Tiago and later Nexon has altered the image of TATA among the middle class consumers. Though I wanted to buy Nexon, I ended up with Hexa. The all blacks somber peace of a luxurious cabin and their brilliant auto tranny, made me in. Now a lot of people I know respect TATA and there is a general feeling of their cars being more robust and sturdy.

With Harrier, they are pushing the boundaries of what Tata's can give the middle class folks. Highlighting the DNA of JLR is a subtle way to position an aspirational product. A dude who drives an Harrier wants to look into the eyes of a dude in Discovery and say "dude, you have been shortchanged"

Regarding pricing the product, I believe TATA can't afford make a mistake again like they did with Aria. The pricing of next generation Creta will be probably breach 18 big ones and that's the sweet spot to drag the shoppers. TATA desperately needs volumes on the road more than anything else at this time. They will go for Creeta's blood. I would wagger 16 to 21 on it.

[lurker]

My gut instinct is that delays are due to Tata retuning the 2.0 MJD to their own conservative map and maybe even changing some components in that engine to improve reliability. Weren't the Jeep Compasses plagued with reliability concerns with many of low mileage samples already up for sale in used car market.

Chrysler cars for instance running on Fiat 3.0L V6 MJD diesel cars in US have complaints of cam gear slippage and other issues which make ownership experience hell. So not all fiat engines are as reliable as the 1.3 MJD and Tata is just being careful to prevent any suspect engine parts causing trouble later.

[kaviprem]

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

This is an incredibly obtuse poll. The car is not yet launched, no one has seen it, touched it, felt it, drove it, how are you expected to make a judgement on the price? Its about the value proposition a product offers and not just the price per se.

So true. This has been the case with last few pages of this thread itself.
More so, the poll seems to be questioning whether a buyer would want to pay INR XXX or INR YYY for the brand TATA rather than matching against the product!

[JoshMachine]

Speaking of prices, here comes the so-called (anticipated?) impact on competition.

Compass prices slashed by a lakh ahead of the Harrier launch
Is Jeep feeling the pinch already given that its sales are not going northwards?

Source

Will Creta follow suit, given that it has been over-priced right from day 1 or will it hold and confidently take on whatever the Harrier "throws" at it?

Interesting times ahead, for us buyers

[84.monsoon]

I did a quick photo analysis of the manual gearboxes in various Tata Vehicles (Hexa, Nexon), The Land Rover Discovery Sport Manual and Hyundai Tucson Manual. What is surprising is that the manual gearbox in the Harrier does not appear to a TATA owned one, such as the ones in Hexa and Nexon. Although there was news of the Harrier borrowing the Auto Box from Hyundai, we assumed the manual one will be the standard TATA box. But this does not appear to be the case.

HEXA Box: (See Reverse Gear position to the right extreme)


Nexon Gearbox: Same as Hexa in terms of Reverse Gear Position:


Land Rover Discovery Sport Manual Gearbox (Again, reverse gear to the right end)


Harrier Gearbox: Note the Reverse Gear Position to the left extreme:


So, it appears Harrier does not use the standard TATA six-speed box and also does not borrow the manual gearbox from the parent Discovery Sport.

Now, look at the Hyundai Tucson Manual Gearbox. It also has reverse Gear position tot he extreme left. Does this imply that the Harrier manual box is borrowed from Hyundai? If so, is it good news or bad? How good is the Hyundai six-speed manual? Experts, please opine.

[karan561]

Originally Posted by 84.monsoon

Harrier Gearbox: [b]Note the Reverse Gear Position to the left extreme

So, it appears Harrier does not use the standard TATA six-speed box and also does not borrow the manual gearbox from the parent Discovery Sport.

Now, look at the Hyundai Tucson Manual Gearbox. It also has reverse Gear position tot he extreme left. Does this imply that the Harrier manual box is borrowed from Hyundai?

Or, it could be from the Jeep Compass as there the Reverse gear is in same 'extreme left' position;



As Tata is using the Compass Diesel engine for the Harrier hence using Jeep/FCA's M/T would be ideally making it the right engine-gearbox combo.

[damodar]

Jeep Compass also has similar gate for the reverse as Harrier.

[nainan]

Originally Posted by 84.monsoon

So, it appears Harrier does not use the standard TATA six-speed box and also does not borrow the manual gearbox from the parent Discovery Sport.

It most likely will be from the Compass which uses a similar arrangement though with a different gear knob design.

[v6kgang]

Manza used to have the same gear positioning as in Compass. I am not sure Manza gearbox was borrowed or TATA's own gearbox. May I also add that the Manza gearbox is one of the best I've used barring the awesome ones that used to come along with first Gen Palios. It had a short and a sure throw and didn't loose that ability even after 50K kms and 3 years until I sold it

[sprocket]

Adding again since my earlier post was deleted. Harrier Interior teaser.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH6-MJZ0hsc

[rovingeye]

Originally Posted by spindoc

Tata want to create a separate space for the Harrier and will not position this against the Creta. We can see that their marketing campaign has thus far revolved around aspects such as architecture, driving dynamics, durability and performance in harsh terrain / conditions.

Someone in the know tells me this will be a "premium" product inside-out. They were confident that the features, unique strengths, quality of materials and fit / finish will measure up to the pricing.

Well, if all this is true and Tata believe they are creating a new segment with the Harrier - with segment firsts and what not, then why did they not launch it as JLR Harrier instead of Tata Harrier? At least, us people wouldn't debate the pricing so much then.

[uday.ere]

The 2nd Interior Teaser from Tata Motors
But not so catchy as the first one. This one focuses only on the Aircon vent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yow2c1hdsyc

[arit.mondal]

Originally Posted by rovingeye

Well, if all this is true and Tata believe they are creating a new segment with the Harrier - with segment firsts and what not, then why did they not launch it as JLR Harrier instead of Tata Harrier? At least, us people wouldn't debate the pricing so much then.

Two reasons:
1) The target segment is 10-20 lac where volume is much higher, not the luxury segment where JLR operates.
2) Even if they could and did launch JLR at 16-21, that would bring down JLR brand value, globally.

[AdityaDeane]

Cartoq has shared an article showing the images of Harrier's dashboard, MID and infotainment system here

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by 84.monsoon

So, it appears Harrier does not use the standard TATA six-speed box and also does not borrow the manual gearbox from the parent Discovery Sport.

Now, look at the Hyundai Tucson Manual Gearbox. It also has reverse Gear position tot he extreme left. Does this imply that the Harrier manual box is borrowed from Hyundai? If so, is it good news or bad?

I’m not an expert but I can assure you that this kind of speculation based on the GB stick is just, well, speculation.

My ‘99 Sumo 4x4 had the same ‘reverse before 1’ configuration, therefore I could speculate similarly that TML is going back to its old gearbox - which would be a really bad idea, because I replaced that GB with the one from a later Safari that has ‘reverse after 5’ since that was a really shitty gearbox from TML.

We are all petrolheads, but not soothsayers who can forecast based on some random pics. Give them a chance to launch the goddamn product before we do such deep speculative research.

Excuse my French, but the extrapolations on this thread are really getting out of control.