Team-BHP - Tata Hexa : Official Review

A brilliant in depth review of a neatly engineered vehicle. A well deserved 5* rating for the review.

Now it all boils down to the pricing. TATA should let the VFM flag fly really high for the first 6 months and then slowly go about increasing the price, just like all other manufacturers. I know it is difficult considering some the import components.

Some things that really stand out in Hexa are

1. Spacious and Comfortable interiors
2. High quality materials inside out
3. ICE
3. Ride Quality. Aria was very good, I was betting this was better. Review confirms the same.
4. A nice Autobox with Race Car Mode :D
5. Lumbar support for the Captain seats apart from the front seats.
6. Chiller AC (Storme and Aria ACs were chillers, So Hexa would not be bad)
7. Window Curtains.
8. Driving modes (manual)

Now Tata, should come up with an affordable AMC plan including tyres which will make life a lot more easier for the buyers. Once the deliveries start, TATA should ensure the max waiting period should not go beyond 2-3 weeks.

But the gut feel says XT 4x4 at 18.5 lakhs and 20 Lakhs for the XTA on road Bangalore. Hope this comes true.

PS: If this weighed as much as Crysta, how much better the performance would have been. TATA forget to put Hexa on a strict diet. stupid:

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.

The Hexa has to compete with the W8 AT and the W8 AWD versions of the XUV500.

Even then the XUV500 W8 AT provides the buyer with Projector headlamps, TPMS, ESP, Traction control and Hill Descent control which the XTA does not have. The W8 costs 20 lakhs on road. The Hexa would be a good proposition at 18.5 Lakhs on road. But if they price it at 17.5 lakhs on the road, the Creta customer is going to feel like a fool! Since Keyless entry and go and traction control are what it offers at 17.75 lakhs while the Hexa offers Cruise control and a 3rd row, which the Creta SX+ AT does not offer. At this price the Hexa would be a no brainer over the XUV500

With the XUV500 AWD, the additional features of significance are the Projector Headlamps and TPMS. The SUV costs 20 lakhs On road again. The Hexa would hold promise at 18.5-19 lakhs.

The Ride quality, an easily appreciated factor for the car buyer, The appearance, another mass appeal factor and the Price which is the game changing factor should play as the USP for the Hexa.

The XUV500 on the other hand would have existing success and better brand perception relative to Tata, a mind boggling number of variants with a variant for everyone's needs, and the exhaustive feature list as it's USP.

Based on the market acceptance, Six months down the line or within a year, knowing Tata, they can increase the feature list with variants whose prices will creep closer but still be significantly lesser than the XUV500.

Hello Aditya and Viddy

You guys rock. An amazing review.

I had only one chance sitting in the Aria and it was a comfortable ride with several bells and whistles. The Storme I have done long distances including one to Leh.

The Hexa is a notch above all peers. A perfectly well rounded vehicle. Checks all boxes. Ride, engine, features, safety, presence, and seating comfort - all feel great and what a premium feel to the entire package.

Tata vehicles have always had a wonderful ride. They have powerful engines and are no more economical looking vehicles. This one (as with Safari Varicor, Tiago and Bolt amongst others) oozes style. The interior and exterior are not just super functional but also stylish.

There are several of those little things that are not just top class, well thought through but also high in quality. The learning from Land Rover is evident. The sound system is perhaps two segments higher. Outlander used to have a wonderful sound system - this one perhaps beats that. The space even after the third row is up is very commendable.

Its so nice to see that both our homegrown car manufacturers, Mahindra and Tata are producing world class vehicles now and this by a huge margin. These vehicles would compete with the best in the segment. Cheers to Make in India.

What I had further wished for - a 70 or even a 75 ltr fuel tank. A longer range on a highway is a huge plus. Somehow lighter vehicle. At 2.2 tons this is heavy.

I do hope for two things - one, the Tata service is able to cope with the servicing of this wonderful vehicle and second, the pricing finds the sweet spot so that we see several of them on the roads.

Rated a full 5 stars.

Cheers
Rajain

Thanks for such a brilliant review. Hope that Tata receives the success it deserves for such a well engineered product.

The notable positives for me:
- Best ride quality
- Comfortable seats (especially the captain seats)
- Nice and informative MID
- Very good sound system

The put-offs:
- Typos and the wrong orientation "i": I am also stickler for these. but I am sure that Tata will be following this thread closely and will fix them in the production versions.
- Heavy kerb weight, they should address it in future editions

I am not out looking out for a car now, but will definitely look out for Hexa for self-drive whenever it is available.

Wow, Superb Review. In my view the Best ever on TBHP till date. Most detailed.

And Wow the Hexa is an excellent vehicle.

Only 4 -ves
1) No AWD AT variant
2) Missing Start Stop Keyless Entry
3) Missing Powered Front Seats.
4) Missing Paranomic Sunroof.

And maybe a bit more power (closer to 200 bhp) would have been good.

But still great vehicle. Only only price can kill it, they just simply must get that right.

Awesome review, really the new benchmark!

Hexa surely looks promising. Most of the "must have" features covered. The "good to have" features like keyless entry, push button start, auto folding ORVMs are/should not be a deal breaker.

Good looks, good interiors, good space (both passenger and luggage), best in class ride and handling, best in class Automatic.

As of now, I feel - only the AT with missing safety features, a missing dead pedal, less cubby holes around the driver and probably no sunroof as an option are the only sour points. A lot now depends on prices

Great review and kudos to TATA for a great product. Personally i want TATA to succeed. TATA has the money and reach to be a globally respected Indian automobile manufacturer.

I hope TATA has worked on quality and service issues which were its undoing earlier. Hexa is great product and going by the reviews the new king of ride quality in India. ( Indian customers attach great importance to ride quality ).

TATA should improve the MT power train and reduce the weight of the Hexa going forward. Looking forward to the review of the 4x2 manual variant. This may be the best performing ( no 4 x 4 hardware ) and most comfortable variant ( higher profile rubber ) of the Hexa.

Thanks for the nice review. I am sure you guys spent the last weekend polishing up things. Now coming back to the success of the Hexa, I want/hope Tata does the following:

1. As everyone acknowledged, price it well, they can always hike the price based on the success.
2. Be ready with their production line for those who already booked. Getting out as many vehicles as they can on road is equally important too, in my opinion.

Wonderful review for a wonderful car! Rating 5 stars!

It is so comprehensive and detailed that it feels like I have seen the car personally.

Well done Tata!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aditya (Post 4096455)

Tata says the Hexa has variable density foam seats. Whatever it is, it just works! Headroom is healthy - in the passenger seat, I had ~4 inches to spare:

If I am not wrong, the variable density foam means that there are 2 different foam materials are used on the seat frame. The topmost foam (where we sit) is soft foam whereas the one sandwiched between the soft foam and the seat frame is a high density foam. It adds to comforts surely. Many top end OEM's have them.

Moreover, with comfortable captain seats, I think we have a true competitor to Crysta. Let's see how it pans out.

Team BHP reviews are like Rajinikanth's punch dialogues - "Even if i come late, I will be the latest"

Wonderful review covering all the aspects in detail which you won't find in those 10 mins review videos.

TATA has put across all their heart into Hexa. Cheers for them. Awesome to hear on great comments on ride and handling department that too on a proper UV. Hope they are sensible in their pricing strategy as well. Fingers Crossed.

Excellent Review Aditya and Viddy!
The TBHP review is the final word that we trust and it is amazing to see the level of detail that you guys go into!
I am eagerly waiting to see the Hexa in person on the 25th/26th when they do their Hexa Experience drive here in Gurgaon!
Hope to see other TBHPians there too - I will most likely be going there on the 26th/ 27th at 5:00 pm.
The Hexa is a great package from Tata and it is nice to see how much they have evolved over the years. Now the only part which I hope they get right is the pricing part where they need to be very aggressive to get good market share.
If they are able to price the XE @ 12.49 and the XM @ 13.49 and XT @15 (ex-showroom) they will get good sales. Other options like the XT 4x4 should be around 16.5 and XT AT should be around 17.5 (I hope!)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Behemoth (Post 4096830)

If they are able to price the XE @ 12.49 and the XM @ 13.49 and XT @15 (ex-showroom) they will get good sales. Other options like the XT 4x4 should be around 16.5 and XT AT should be around 17.5 (I hope!)

We Indians have a habit of being extra critical of our homegrown products and if an Indian product is priced lower to a Korean / Japanese - it is looked as being 'cheap'. While Tata Motors would have learned from the Aria pricing mistakes - and they have been speaking with a lot of people, Analysts and what not in terms of positioning the product and making sure all the T's are crossed and I's are dotted - I doubt if the Hexa will be priced to start as low as 12.5.

I think the pricing range will be 15+ Lac - 21 ~ 22 Lac price band Ex-showroom. Pricing it low may lead to people thinking of it as an inferior products and go down the path of Nano where a fantastic product was labelled 'cheap' and hence not upto standards of competition. I think at 16 L OTR Hexa would be a competitive proposition for what it has to offer.

Excellent review of an absolutely brilliant product. Take a bow TML.

My only very few grouses with the product:

- they should have given choice of bench seats with the top of line A/T.
- the tumble feature of middle row should have been much better (full tumble).

Question to reviewers: Can the captain chairs tumble more completely if one removes the head rests? I am asking in case they need to be pushed as much as possible for luggage loading reasons (not ingress, egress). Thanks