[shankar.balan]

Gravitas - it connotates a certain 'weight' and 'seriousness' and 'authority' in demeanour.

Buzzard - this is a bird commonly found in America and is similar to the Vulture. It is a carrion eater. And this is to me, as stupid a name as possible for a car.

Frankly neither Gravitas nor Buzzard are suitable names for cars.

[//M]

Originally Posted by Nithesh_M

Not digging that name. Tata Gravitas doesn't flow well and that's the kind of name you'd expect to see on the trucks sold in India.

What was wrong with the Buzzard nameplate?

H A R R I E R
B U Z Z A R D
G R A V I T A S

The double Rs and Zs were so in sync there. The third name seems the odd one out.

They named it CASSINI too, probably going with the double Rs and Zs trend.

Honestly, I feel the SAFARI moniker deserves a comeback. This could have been a great opportunity to discontinue the aging the Safari Storme and get a proper BSVI 7-seater SUV called Safari instead.

[Kosfactor]

So about 8 years after XUV5OO launch, Tata finally has a 7 seat crossover. It's just that they should think through and not benchmark it against the current XUV as it's due for a full revamp.

[krishnakarthik1]

My thoughts.

1. Any name will do little as long as the sales experience and service are not upto the mark. Tata should totally outsource selling and service to another manufacturer. They should only focus on making cars.
2. Gravitas has to be clearly positioned as a 7 seater Harrier to take on XUV and not the Innova with only a maximum 50k premium over the Harrier variant wise.
3. Position the Hexa against the Innova by adding more features and increase the price of Hexa. That way you make more on those few orders you might get.
4. One must and should is an auto gearbox right at the launch.
5. 5 years unlimited warranty on all cars sold by Tata from 2020.
6. Price it variant wise a tad below the XUV.
7. Offer good exchange values for Hexa owners to upgrade.
8. Do not offer those year round discounts on any car. Those discounts just make Tata cars that much less desirable. Instead use that money to create a better customer experience.
9. Advertise. Use the coming IPL to the maximum extent.
10. Never use that sky blue color to showcase the car in India. It looks really silly. Get the Hexa blue or shinning black.
11. Hexa was not able to take on XUV because of the looks. Gravitas has stunning looks. All it needs is good sales experience, decent pricing, 5 years warranty, autobox, advertisement- do those and see how this will dent the XUV.

[tushky]

Originally Posted by Kosfactor

So about 8 years after XUV5OO launch, Tata finally has a 7 seat crossover. It's just that they should think through and not benchmark it against the current XUV as it's due for a full revamp.

Did you forget about HEXA? It is a 7 Seat crossover/SUV. And of course guys at Tata are mature enough not to benchmark it against current OLD XUV.

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by tushky

Did you forget about HEXA? It is a 7 Seat crossover/SUV. And of course guys at Tata are mature enough not to benchmark it against current OLD XUV.

The Hexa though, is actually a ladder-on-frame MPV/SUV. Its not exactly what we define as a "crossover". The OP was right in that comparison.
(I remember the old ARIA launch ads where they showed a car & SUV coming together to create a "crossover" ARIA.)

[pogo0120]

What was wrong with Harrier 7 Seater itself. It is a Harrier with 7 seats!

When it comes to naming a product, I have seen lot of failures by marketing dept in India.

Some where, some how people think, Spanish or non English sounding names have some premium or elite nature into it. God knows! I have seen some of the names of apartment complex in Bangalore. Sounds Spanish and you will not see one spanish soul inside. All people living inside are all Indians yet some how, marketing people put a name, foreign, difficult to pronounce and difficult to spell. And that's supposed to be elite!

Regarding names, I always felt this..People want to name to be EASY to pronounce, EASY to remember, Does not associate with a bad or negative of any thing and CATCHY if possible and NOT TOO LONG.

Worst names in my understanding regarding auto industry in India.

Stallio motorcycle by Mahindra.. Stall means danger and immediate loss of lift power in aviation field ( I am a trainee pilot, with experience in Cessna 172)
Zica Now Tiago (Name of a virus)
XUV300, KUV100.... Too many words to pronounce.. X300 would have been better than X U V 3 0 0... is it 3 hundred or three oh oh.. what ever. Ford has a great product F-150. Four letter, Period.
Alturas, Gravitas, please donot use AS in the last. Always sounds plural or verbal WAS or as in ASS. Ass is a bad word in american culture.
MAGIC IRIS (tata product)
S PRESSO, or expresso? x presso , espresso, exo presso..

Don't know who comes up with these names or how it gets approved, but that's the talent we have..

Here is Morgan Freeman talking about great movie with terrible title..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPXeiS1tzr4

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

[ram87pune]

Originally Posted by krishnakarthik1

My thoughts.

1. Any name will do little as long as the sales experience and service are not upto the mark. Tata should totally outsource selling and service to another manufacturer. They should only focus on making cars.
2. One must and should is an auto gearbox right at the launch.
3. Price it variant wise a tad below the XUV.
4. Offer good exchange values for Hexa owners to upgrade.
5. Never use that sky blue color to showcase the car in India. It looks really silly. Get the Hexa blue or shinning black.

Quoting my sources and my personal experince of driving the BS6 auto Gravitas, let me reply to your points -

1. Completely agree with you regarding the name. I also don't like any of the three names for H7X. Because Tata are known to give nice sounding and easy to pronounce names to its products but the Harrier and the Gravitas are not to my liking. I knew that Tata were going to call the H7X the Gravitas since a couple of months but it was still not finalized so did not reveal it here on Tbhp.

2. A Hyundai sourced TC is coming right from launch itself.

3. M&M is going to launch the next gen XUV 500 in the 2nd quarter of next year so we don't yet know the prices for that car. So Tata cannot benchmark the Gravitas's pricing against the XUV 500.

4. Being a Hexa owner myself and having driven the BS6 auto Gravitas, I definitely don't think that even a single Hexa customer can be converted to the Gravitas. Heck I am quite sure that once Hexa BS6 comes out, some of the Gravitas/Harrier customers will surely be converted to the Hexa.

5. Regarding the blue colour which they had showcased at the Geneva, I had given my feedback to my sources regarding change of colour for Indian media cars. Most likely Tata will change it. Will let you know once I gather intel regarding the Gravitas's media event which is scheduled for post Auto Expo 2020.

[nikhilthegunner]

Originally Posted by ram87pune

Being a Hexa owner myself and having driven the BS6 auto Gravitas, I definitely don't think that even a single Hexa customer can be converted to the Gravitas. Heck I am quite sure that once Hexa BS6 comes out, some of the Gravitas/Harrier customers will surely be converted to the Hexa.

I'm quite surprised to see this! Could you please elaborate? Would be interesting to know how it differs.

Also, would you say that it rides similar to the Harrier?

[ram87pune]

Originally Posted by nikhilthegunner

I'm quite surprised to see this! Could you please elaborate? Would be interesting to know how it differs.

Also, would you say that it rides similar to the Harrier?

No need to be surprised Nikhil. I had driven the Hexa too way before its launch. I get to drive some preproduction prototypes as well as production spec cars from time to time.

As far as the Gravitas is concerned all I can tell you is that I managed to take her out for a short spin may be 4-5 kms not more than that in city traffic. That mule was an auto with the BS6 170 hp engine. The gearbox felt pretty good as far as the shift quality is concerned. Also I am more of a manual guy so cannot compare the behaviour of the TC against any benchmark. The engine also felt pretty damn powerful.

That particular prototype had bench seat in the middle. But optional captains chairs are coming. The ride quality felt similar to the Harrier at least from the driver's seat. That means it will be better than the outside competition but a shade below the in house competition if you know what I mean. 3rd row seating is compromised compared to the Hexa so its a 5+2 Harrier at best.

Rest is going to be the same as the Harrier apart from larger wheels and addition of rear disc brakes.

[manishk123]

Gravitas seems to be a silly name. I can just imagine all the poor chauffeurs trying to say it. Why couldn't they just go with Harrier-XL

Keep it simple Tata!

[pseudo_coder]

Originally Posted by ram87pune

The gearbox felt pretty good as far as the shift quality is concerned.... The engine also felt pretty damn powerful....
....The ride quality felt similar to the Harrier at least from the driver's seat. That means it will be better than the outside competition but a shade below the in house competition if you know what I mean. 3rd row seating is compromised compared to the Hexa so its a 5+2 Harrier at best.

Rest is going to be the same as the Harrier apart from larger wheels and addition of rear disc brakes.

Doesn't sound all that bad. Why do you think that most people won't prefer it over hexa? Do you underestimate our preference for looks?


On the topic of names, will we ever see any car named in an Indian language?

Also, anyone knows what the infinite supply of variant names actually means?

Hyundai keeps variants like S, SX, SX+, SX(O). Why so much complexity? And what does 'optional' mean? Are all other variants compulsory?

Maruti names diesels as LDI, VDI. I think the D stands for Diesel. But then petrol counterparts are not named LPI, VPI. Can someone decipher this madness?

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[ram87pune]

Originally Posted by pseudo_coder

Doesn't sound all that bad. Why do you think that most people won't prefer it over hexa? Do you underestimate our preference for looks?

As far as looks are concerned, the Harrier looks better than the Gravitas. Hexa has kind of crossoverish looks but doesn't look bad at all especially with those 19 inch wheels. And people who value outright comfort and ruggedness more than looks and gizmos will go for the Hexa is all I am saying. And I am definitely one of them as are a lot of fellow bhpians.

[dadu]

Test mule is an Auto....

Good to see TATA's moving towards Automatics, hope they will provide the same in Harrier.

[TheHelix0202]

So, the diesel auto box combo was being reserved for this, all along? If so, then it wasn't a very wise move by TAMO. The Harrier could've seen more sales figures.

P.S- the Harrier doesn't have an automatic transmission.