[Turbokick]

Originally Posted by streetfighter

Looks like folks at Tata are being hyper aggressive in marketing and roping in popular (non auto enthusiast) Youtubers to review the Harrier. Not sure how much of justice the reviewers are doing and who is benefitting out of this

'Though its an automatic it is very comfortable to ride in the city traffic.' This video looked more like a paid advertisement than a review

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by streetfighter

Looks like folks at Tata are being hyper aggressive in marketing and roping in popular (non auto enthusiast) Youtubers to review the Harrier. Not sure how much of justice the reviewers are doing and who is benefitting out of this

I am just glad that TML is trying to garner eyeballs in this digital world. Atleast oe cant fault them for trying. Atleast they will no longer let the "product speak for itself". The Harrier seems to be a good offering, although I personally wish its design and positioning deserved more hardware (AWD, all-disc brakes).

[ihrishi]

Taking advantage of the lockdown relaxations, went for a short drive yesterday.
Teaser below

[himanshugoswami]

Originally Posted by ihrishi

Taking advantage of the lockdown relaxations, went for a short drive yesterday.
Teaser below

[2035065[/ATTACH]

Tata motors should seriously consider engaging your services for the official photo shoots of the Harrier. This pic is stunning!

[PrasunBannerjee]

Originally Posted by Candy$Cars

I don't think that this review is Tata sponsored or Tata promoted. I Remember Ranjit doing a review of his Verna too a while back and like he says, just a way to make new content during lockdown, I guess.

I think this was a review unit sent to him. I remember the other video of his Verna but recently he shot the BMW 3 series too. Either he has been hunting for a new car and shooting them for content or now they are being sent to him for reviewing. I don't see any harm though for couple of reasons:

1. Modern cars are no less than a gadget today. This guy is still relevant that way for the Harrier or the 330i.

2. Cross segment influencer marketing is a thing. Even famous tech bloggers complain about new phone review units being sent to Fashion influencers or 'pretty Instagram models with large following' and not them. Companies are still right on their part, doing what they can so they can attract the most eyeballs. From the automotive segment, somehow Tata has in a way relied on it starting with Tiago and Nexon.

We need to understand not everyone is an enthusiast. I'm no diehard motorbike enthusiast, so I follow almost zero bike related people or websites. But I do follow a certain tech, travel, fashion bloggers. So what will be the best way to make a new launch come to my attention? Somehow plan a 'collab' with these people I follow. There are at least a million more people falling in line with me.

Originally Posted by klgiridhar

I completely agree with what some of our fellow BHPians said about how people are downplaying TATA/coming to a conclusion about the Harrier without even experiencing it well enough or owning it. ( Experience with the product, not the salesman. )

Sadly that is the state where our market is right now. Rather than giving first preference to the fundamentals, more focus is being given to the extra goodies. If the fundamentals (Build, Engine, platform, transmission (AT), legroom, seat comfort, ride quality, safety, looks etc) are not upto the mark, everything else goes to the bin in my books. And the harrier AT nails in all the fundamentals.

I would say, sales experience is another fundamental. I remember how I and my friend were denied to see a 10+ lakh car from a certain manufacturer and even test drive their A-Segment hatchback, when my friend was dressed in formals, and we showed up in a 8+ year old beaten up 'Honda Shine' bike; and the day we showed up in his Skoda Rapid, despite me wearing the shoddiest of attire, were given special treatment. I don't mind being ignored, etc. but being denied on my face one day and then rolling out a red carpet on the other day is too much, and is definitely happening to a lot of people. People from bigger towns have luxury of going to other dealerships. Here, apart from MS, Hyundai (and now Tata), nearest dealership of the same company might be 200-300 kms away. That's too far for a small towner, and long term service etc will be a pain to handle if they have made up their mind never to step back into the local dealership due to the insult.

Yet, this was not the experience I had with Tata. They have a really, really strong fundamental, their competent cars. The same friend in question was looking at a car that time, hence we were hunting day in day out. Apart from a couple of such experiences from a few others, and also contrary to their image, VW and specially Tata gave us a pleasant one.

The Tata people sent Hexa to our office next day, as there was no TD Hexa present at the moment. The first thing he did when he came to the office was, offer the key and said, 'Sir chala ke dekhiye pehle, baaki saari baatien baad me karenge' (Sir please drive it first, we'll talk about everything else after that). We drove it and we were impressed to the core! It drove even better than the Harrier v1 (That's what we test drove). This is what Tata should be doing in overall, as they have really competent products with them. While my friend did not purchase any car at all due to some other situation that cropped up, he had decided for the Hexa, and was ready to stretch his budget for it. Simply because of the strong product, and that the SA chose to let the product speak instead of long speeches of explaining first then drive at the last stage!

So therefore I consider sales experience as another important fundamental. I see Tata moving to a little more premium cars in their lineup, but between Tata and Mahindra, it is Mahindra whose showrooms feel tad more premium than Tata, where Tata showrooms (even the newest of them) feel like renovated and repurposed old government office buildings. See where all the added bling from the Nexa showrooms got Maruti into. And in case you don't want that to happen, differ the strategy to 'test drive first, talk later' approach. One happy TD and everyone will stop complaining about comparatively shabby showroom experiences. Understanding the human psychology, usually I happen to notice every detail about showroom experience till the SA had been explaining my friend about finance options, and similar questions which don't have anything of my interest, or explaining features which I already know. I observed so much about Mahindra showrooms, because the SA took 20 minutes to elaborately explain what is Android auto to my friend without him asking about it. While I appreciate that, showroom experiences work on certain psychologies, and I wish Tata to crack that code.

[myavu]

Originally Posted by ihrishi

Taking advantage of the lockdown relaxations, went for a short drive yesterday.
Teaser below

OMG! What shot?

Position the text HARRIER a little bit to the left and it may read as HAPPIER and both are same, isn't it?

Waiting for that epic photolog.

Cheers!

Vinu

[ihrishi]

Originally Posted by myavu

OMG! What shot?

Position the text HARRIER a little bit to the left and it may read as HAPPIER and both are same, isn't it?

Waiting for that epic photolog.

Cheers!

Vinu

Thanks - that is exactly the pun I used when posting it on social media!
Here is another taken by my son from the sunroof.

[scarlet.fever]

Mods are we expecting a review for the Harrier automatic and Harrier Manual BS6 anytime soon am sure many people would be looking forward towards that ?

[anasmundackal]

I had gone to the Tata showroom to install the Harrier mascot. Along with that, I got the infotainment system updated to R14.05 from R12.05. The initial impression has been good. No lagging is observed in the settings. The system used to go unresponsive for a few seconds in Vehicle setup mode while in R12.05.

[46TheDoctor]

Yesterday i took extensive test drives (15-20 km each) of Harrier XZA+ and Nexon EV and my impressions are as follows for the city drive:
I will not compare it to Seltos/Creta class as Harrier is certainly a class or two above both of them when it comes to mechanical specifications but I use Koleos currently so i will compare with it occasionally.

Harrier XZA+

1. Road Presence and Looks: Demo car was a red/black dual tone and i must say it looks absolutely fabulous in person. Personally i am yet to digest that split headlamp design in the front but apart from that i find the looks totally impressive and premium like a Land Rover.
2. Space and features: Car is very well loaded with features ( maybe not as much as Seltos but good as a stand alone product), panoramic sunroof is great, space is great both in cabin and boot.
3. Fit and finish: Both interior and exterior is impressive for a Tata, although not as good as Europians but very good.
4. Sound system: very good quality, although not as good as Bose in my Koleos.
5. City usability: Car seems very comfortable to drive in the city even though it has large dimensions. Steering weight feels right and car doesnt feel cumbersome at all in city conditions.
6. Ride quality: Most of the online reviews rave about its ride quality and i agree that ride is very absorbent but it doesnt feel well settled for that class of cars (Compass and my Koleos are certainly better). We were two in the car and the car showed good amount of body movement on undulations and roll in the corners. Maybe it improves with full load and highway conditions. I have driven Hexa XTA over a 500 km road trip and i can certainly say that Hexa has much superior ride quality.
7. Safety: Although we dont have crash test rating for the car yet, the car feels very safe when seated inside.
8. Engine and Transmission: Engine has good power but at high revs it becomes noisy inside cabin but there arent many vibrations, transmission is very smooth and provides shifts as expected.

Lack of AWD ability and rear disc brakes are the major omissions for competing in this segment.

Verdict:
I think Tata should cancel the Gravitas and make the Harrier a complete product compared to the competition because,
1. Between Harrier and Gravitas, Harrier is certainly a better looking and more proportionate looking car.
2. Instead of reserving certain features for Gravitas, Tata should make Harrier a complete product by equiping it with disc brakes at rear, 4X4 AT variant, ventilated seats and a few more features that the competition boasts of and Tata should have a winner at hand.
3. I am sure Gravitas will neither be as spacious and comfortable as Hexa/Innova/Fortuner in the third row for the passengers nor will it be as good looking as the Harrier.

To cater to seven seat car buyers, Tata should revive the Hexa and bring a new XZA+ variant in it with panoramic sunroof and other goodies. This way Tata can cater to both kinds of buyers, one who want form factor and other who want seven seat practicalities like Innova.

[TorqueIndia]

Originally Posted by 46TheDoctor

Verdict:
I think Tata should cancel the Gravitas and make the Harrier a complete product compared to the competition because,
1. Between Harrier and Gravitas, Harrier is certainly a better looking and more proportionate looking car.
2. Instead of reserving certain features for Gravitas, Tata should make Harrier a complete product by equiping it with disc brakes at rear, 4X4 AT variant, ventilated seats and a few more features that the competition boasts of and Tata should have a winner at hand.
3. I am sure Gravitas will neither be as spacious and comfortable as Hexa in the third row for the passengers nor will it be as good looking as the Harrier.

To cater to seven seat car buyers, Tata should revive the Hexa and bring a new XZA+ variant in it with panoramic sunroof and other goodies. This way Tata can cater to both kinds of buyers, one who want form factor and other who want seven seat practicalities like Innova.

Excellent observation ! Gravitas & Hexa are certainly a bigger confusion for TataMotors. Gravitas with several engineering changes and feature additions will shoot up the price by more than ₹1 lakh between Harrier & Gravitas, Harrier top trim costs about 19.99 lakhs ex.sh. right now. Where as competition like MG has already brought those extra seats variant with minimal engineering efforts and lot of marketing efforts at ₹80K, which is overpriced for the product on offer IMHO.

Hexa on the other hand will score high when it comes to ride quality, practicality,the ladder-frame architecture and product differentiation on the showroom floor. Very much curious on their strategy for the 7 seater UVs. Also Hexa may need a nose job for meeting the upcoming pedestrian safety norms.

Whatever be their choice they should focus on their offerings with much stable,long term vision, otherwise it will hurt customer sentiments and brand loyalty.

I think X2 platform of Hexa is still young for another top hat job with more SUV-ness.

[Mynameis]

If I was in the market today for an automatic SUV for 20-22 lakhs, it certainly would be the Harrier AT.
For the following reasons:

- Priced well for all it offers.
- Nice/quality interiors, wider cabin.
- Panoramic sunroof
- Going by reviews, excellent engine, TC autobox (fast and reliable)
- very spacious.
- Looks macho. I am a fan of big bulbous looks. Though looks are subjective.


It is certainly better than the Jeep Compass. Compass just does not feel like a 25 Lakh car due to narrow width and not so spacious cabin.

It's clearly a segment above Creta/Seltos/Hector, but price difference is'nt much.

As far as XUV is concerned, although a good choice in this price range, it's getting older now.

[ihrishi]

Sorry for the slow trickle of images...😃

[GTO]

Live from the expressway. If you bought the 2019 Harrier, I feel bad for you because the 2020 car is so much more sorted.

And the AT is the definite pick over the MT.

[Sandeep500]

It proves that the assumptions and predictions of GTO came true that one should wait for year to buy Harrier for the company to sort out various niggles. I for one think that basically it is a much better product than Hector . Let's wait for team bhp review of improved version to confirm.