[ram87pune]

Hello bhpians.Finally got a chance to get behind the wheel of the BS6 Harrier for a quick drive. The car I drove was a white one with black roof(XZA+). Also checked out the much talked about red colour. I would like to mention upfront that I was not allowed to click any pics and my drive was limited to a few kilometres only. So without further ado lets begin with what I liked and disliked and also what's new in this update. I will make a few comparisons with the Hexa since its my daily driver.

Exterior -

1. As all of you are aware that the much hated/least selling Calisto Copper colour has made way for the new red shade which is also available in the Altroz. In one word this colour looks smashing and enhances the beauty of the Harrier multifold. I can see this colour becoming the crowd favourite.

2. The car I drove was a production spec unit. The panel gaps and fit and finish of the exterior panels was even and within acceptable limit. The only gap which I found to be a bit larger than average was around the area where the bonnet meets the fenders.

3. The new design alloy wheels too look quite good and way better than those on the earlier version.

4. The smaller ORVMs too now don't look like elephant's ears and gel well with the design of the rest of the car.

5. I found the exhaust to be facing a bit downwards as compared to the BS4 version but its location is the same. You need to bend down to get a look at it. Also the urea tank is located on the right side at the extreme rear on the opposite side of the exhaust.

6. The car was shod with Apollo tyres in the same size as before.

7. Automatic badging is provided on the left fender.

8. Now coming to the piece de resistance that is the panoramic sunroof. Well the sunroof was not that visible from the outside since it gelled well with the black roof. Versions with single tone option would be able to flaunt it better.

9. Again features like 18 inch wheels and rear disc brakes are reserved exclusively for the Gravitas.

Interiors -

1. The first thing you will notice as soon as you enter is obviously the sunroof, you eyes will inadvertantly roll upwards. And my god what a difference has it made to the airy feeling and the luxury quotient of the Harrier. The sunroof is a full length unit but only the front half opens. The cover is also operated automatically. As soon as you open the sunroof, a wind deflector pops up too.

2. The dead pedal provided with the automatic variant was woefully inadequate for my friend who is 6 ft 3 and he preferred to keep his foot on the floor instead. The Hexa automatic's dead pedal is way better. Also my friend just could not find a comfortable driving position and the dashbaord was fouling with his left knee.

3. The powered driver's seat is a welcome addition with fore and aft, recline and height adjustment being powered.

4. Auto-dimming IRVM is provided which is another welcome addition. It is not frameless or automatic like you get in something like a Polo but you have to switch it on manually.

5. The location of the USB port which was extremely inaccesible and widely criticized has been brought forward and its no more a pain to connect your USB. Again I wish Tata had provided a wireless charging pad.

6. The gargantuan ORVMs now make way for smaller units and they no longer create blind spots. Another welcome addition.

7. The background colour of the part digital MID and the infotainment screen has been changed from blue to a greenish shade.

8. The Harrier still gets that un-ergonomic handbrake. Electronic Parking Brake is reserved for the Gravitas.

9. I still don't like the outward view for the driver where the bonnet is visible till the end. I very much prefer the "sitting on the top" feeling you get in the Hexa which to me feels less intimidating while piloting such a large car through traffic.

10. The front seat comfort of the Hexa is still better while there is no contest when it comes to the rear seats.

11. The urea tank can be filled via an opening provided under the smaller boot cover which covers the toolkit. Its capacity is around 15 litres.

12. Tata has not upgraded the rear view camera and it still has a very grainy picture quality.

13. The gearknob has the tri arrow design which I found to be a bit cheesy. Would have preferred a simpler design maybe with just "Harrier" written on it.

14. I wish Tata had taken this opportunity to include features like an adjsustable driver's armrest,connected car technology and a 360 degree camera etc, but as we all know, Tata will take its won sweet time to bring these features to the market. Maybe with the mid life refresh? who knows.

Driving Impressions -

1. The first thing you will notice as soon as you fire up the engine is that now it runs much much quieter than before. Maybe even quieter than the BS4 one. It is not super refined though and you will hear the diesel clatter once you rev it beyond 2000 rpm. But still its a marked improvement on the earlier Harrier.

2. The engine now produces 170 bhp and 350 NM of torque which is the same tune available for all the Harrier variants.

3. The engine comes mated to the Hyundai sourced 6 speed torque convertor automatic which was earlier available in the Tucson while the new wet clutch DCT which is under development will see the light of the day not before 2023.

4. Though my drive was pretty short, I could easily make out that the gearbox is perfectly in sync with the engine and feels quite seamless in its shifts. I have driven manual cars all my life so cannot comment much on the behaviour of the gearbox but all I would say is that it's very very close to the Punch Powerglide unit of the Hexa.

5. Where the Hexa betters it is during shifting through the PRND gears where you sometimes get a small jerk which is almost non exsistent in the Hexa since its a body on frame vehicle.

6. For enagaging the manual mode you need to shift to D and then press the lever towards left and then tap the gearlever upwards for an upshift and downwards for a downshift.

7. Those 170 horses really make their presence felt as soon as you shift the engine map to the Sports mode. The Harrier now becomes a completely different beast.

8. I can only imagine what a scorcher the manual Harrier would be with those 170 horses.

Other points -

1. Like mentioned earlier in this thread, Harrier BS6 media drives will most likely take place in the last week of February. The location is likely to be near Pune most likely Amby Valley.

2. Tata will also most likely introduce a new blue shade in the Harrier during the media event.

3. After witnessing the upgraded Harrier I can only imagine what would have been the fate of this wonderful product if it was launched in this avatar from day 1. Tata really shot itself in the foot with this one.

So thanks for reading this short drive summary. I have tried my level best to match upto the exemplary standards set by Teambhp when it comes to product reviews. Hoping to bring to you such exclusive reviews whenever possible.

[TROOPER]

Originally Posted by ram87pune

Hello bhpians.Finally got a chance to get behind the wheel of the BS6 Harrier for a quick drive. ....

Thank you for the accurate scoops!

So in my view the Harrier is finally there. That's what I hope for the Team-BHP reviewers to say when the Harrier BS6 review is out.

All the features are in, they could have tried accomodating front parking sensors, if not 360° cameras. Other than that, feels like a complete product.

Add proper pricing to that too. Not low, nor high. And I guess Tata finally deserve to demand that. They need to shed that VFM and 'should come cheap' brand image.

Now the product development team seems to have done most of their job. Tata have an almost airtight product portfolio. Now it's on to the marketing, production team (proper QC) and the dealers to do their job and see to it the cash registers keep ringing.

[varman742]

Originally Posted by ram87pune

Hello bhpians.Finally got a chance to get behind the wheel of the BS6 Harrier for a quick drive.

Thanks for the heads up, really appreciate. Hope you get an opportunity for a longer test drive and share some more insights!

The desirability quotient for Harrier has increased significantly after the Auto launch. Eagerly awaiting the TBHP official review.

Harrier still misses out on 360 degrees camera, which I think will be required for a car of this size. This is especially true when Hector and Seltos are offering in the top trim. I don't know if will be available as an official accessory (or even it's advisable to fit in as an accessory).

[SahilS]

Originally Posted by TROOPER

All the features are in, they could have tried accomodating front parking sensors, if not 360° cameras. Other than that, feels like a complete product.

Originally Posted by varman742

Harrier still misses out on 360 degrees camera, which I think will be required for a car of this size. This is especially true when Hector and Seltos are offering in the top trim. I don't know if will be available as an official accessory (or even it's advisable to fit in as an accessory).

Front parking sensors for Harrier are available as an official accessory for 3,730 Rs but 360 cameras are not there even as accessory(as 360 camera will be required to be in sync with infotainment system).
As these are available for such a small cost, Tata should have equipped Harrier with these right from factory itself as this after market official accessory will not be in sync with infotainment system.
Even TPMS is available for Rs 10,737 as an official accessory.
Don't know why Tata decided on not equipping Harrier with these right from factory itself, at least in top-end variant.

[uday.ere]

Originally Posted by ram87pune

Finally got a chance to get behind the wheel of the BS6 Harrier for a quick drive. Also checked out the much talked about red colour. In one word this colour looks smashing and enhances the beauty of the Harrier multifold. I can see this colour becoming the crowd favourite.

Thanks Ram for one more scoop.

Since you have seen the new Harrier in daylight, does the new red/black combo look like the one on Jeep Compass combo in real life?

Originally Posted by ram87pune

7. The background colour of the part digital MID and the infotainment screen has been changed from blue to a greenish shade.

There is a new feature update called 'Themes' which enables one to select any one of 5 colours - blue, red, green, orange and purple. Screenshots below of red and orange.


Source :

https://youtu.be/kxAKNmDmR0E

Source : https://www.facebook.com/groups/clubharrier/

Cheers,
Uday

[ram87pune]

Originally Posted by uday.ere

Thanks Ram for one more scoop.

Since you have seen the new Harrier in daylight, does the new red/black combo look like the one on Jeep Compass combo in real life?

There is a new feature update called 'Themes' which enables one to select any one of 5 colours - blue, red, green, orange and purple.

Cheers,
Uday

Thanks Uday for the update. Since I did not get to spend much time with the Harrier, I didn't notice this new "Themes" feature.

Yes the red and black combo does look like the Compass to a great extent and this is especially true if you compare the Compass Limited Plus with the Harrier XZ+/XZA+.

But still I would say that the Compass has it's own charm what with its baby Grand Cherokee look while the Harrier has a lot of muscle in its design with a lot of beefed up sheet metal on the haunches and around the bonnet area. So people who prefer more of a clean and typical boxy SUV design will anyday prefer the Compass. But still the Harrier in that red shade is a looker.

And forgot to add one thing in my mini review. When I was driving the white car one guy in his brand new BMW X3 which too incidentally was white, couldn't take his eyes off this beauty and was repeatedly staring at the Harrier. Talk about road presence.

[turbo_delight]

Originally Posted by ram87pune

Also my friend just could not find a comfortable driving position and the dashbaord was fouling with his left knee.

Why is it so difficult for Tata to resolve this issue? I want to buy this and I was also facing this issue in my test drive of old harrier.

It's not that they are unaware of this very important issue as the salesperson himself had acknowledged. He did say that some people are finding this difficulty. It was even pointed out in team bhp review as well.

Now out of 100 people who want to buy a car, only 6-7 people will think of harrier. Now, in those 6-7 people, 50 % are having these knee touching problems.

Now, with all these things known to Tata designers, why were they not able to correct. Does one need to be a scientist to understand this ?

[advaydh]

Originally Posted by turbo_delight

Why is it so difficult for Tata to resolve this issue? I want to buy this and I was also facing this issue in my test drive of old harrier.

It's not that they are unaware of this very important issue as the salesperson himself had acknowledged. He did say that some people are finding this difficulty. It was even pointed out in team bhp review as well.

Now out of 100 people who want to buy a car, only 6-7 people will think of harrier. Now, in those 6-7 people, 50 % are having these knee touching problems.

Now, with all these things known to Tata designers, why were they not able to correct. Does one need to be a scientist to understand this ?

I second this! Remember taking the pre facelifted Harrier for a test drive (I had high expectations from the car) and was put off in the very first kilometer primarily because of the uncomfortable seating position, NVH Levels (mind you pre-facelift ) and an apathetic sales rep.
Tata really has upped its game but I believe there's still a long way to go.

[damodar]

Originally Posted by turbo_delight

He did say that some people are finding this difficulty.

My brother who is 6ft tall did face the same issue of the central console fouling with his left knee.
I took a test drive again with him and made him spend some time in adjusting the seat and steering position. Most people overlook the fact that Harrier has a good range of telescopic steering adjustment in addition to tilt function. So lowering the seat to the lowest position and pushing the steering the maximum solved the issue for my brother.
Do try and see if you can get a better seating position by adjusting the steering reach and seat height adjustment.

[piyush1.a]

I am 6 ft+ and I dropped the idea of picking a harrier as I could not find a comfortable seating position.
I felt the steering tilt and telescopic adjustment were not enough. I kept feeling that I wanted the steering to be a bit higher than its max position.
At lower positions of the seat, it was even worse. It was like driving an i20.

[himanshugoswami]

I rejected the hexa a few years back for precisely this reason- knee fouling with center console. I picked up an XUV instead.

Now I'm in the market for a harrier AT- yet to get a TD since no TD cars have arrived, but if this issue is there with harrier too, then once again I will have to go for my second choice, which in this case is the kia seltos

[pineapple_ameet]

Hi Ram87pune
Thanks for the quick update. Wanted to know if you felt the dreaded steering issue in this version on higher speeds?
Cheers,
Ameet.

[Sebring]

Oh, so the much vaunted panoramic sunroof opens the front half only? It's great when the whole portions opens, in my opinion. Also the 18 inch alloy wheels should have been provided. It's great on Gravitas.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by Sebring

Oh, so the much vaunted panoramic sunroof opens the front half only? It's great when the whole portions opens, in my opinion. Also the 18 inch alloy wheels should have been provided. It's great on Gravitas.

Panoramic sunroof opens only front half in all cars. Doesn't open whole in any car. Cause there's no place for the rear half to go into. The front portion slides over the rear.

[coolkurt]

Originally Posted by Sebring

Oh, so the much vaunted panoramic sunroof opens the front half only?.

It's usually the case. Even the one on the Hector opens only half. You get a full moonroof though. The Auto expo had the one with 18 inchers. Looked great.