Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Official New Car Reviews (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/)

-   -   Tata Harrier : Official Review (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/209281-tata-harrier-official-review-29.html)

Tata is now offering an exchange benefit of Rs 35000 on the Harrier. There's news brewing of a cash discount as well during the festival period. I'd like to call it the Hector-Seltos Effect.

Source

Certainly the Hector/Seltos played a part. However, I'd term it the "Harrier effect" instead. This would have happened even if these 2 cars have not arrived with a bang. Most (not all of course) of the people who bought the Hector/Seltos would have opted for the Creta in their absence & not the Harrier anyway given its missing bits & "half baked" tag. Its Tata's own doing causing the implosion with this product.

If it was purely Seltos/Hector - XUV500 wouldn't be clocking the steady numbers it is doing. Sure it did take a hit - but its still selling double or more that of the Harrier.

The game may change when TATA introduces the automatic version, provided they price it well...:). Powerful Fiat engine mated to already proved Hyundai gearbox should be pleasant to drive, with reasonable fuel efficiency.

I'm sorry where did you see those? The Tvc isn't made too well and hardly anything is ever visible at all for most of it. There is only 1 shot where wheel with disc brake is visible & that's a front wheel. The car is going from right to left in that frame, in contrast to rest of the ad where its going from left to right. Is that what caused you to think its a rear wheel?

TML doesn't generally attempt fake marketing. :)

Add to that the rumoured GST cuts and that will make a compelling case indeed.

Come on Tata.. Take my money! :)

That is the part which surprises me. I would love to know which version of the XUV is selling. Is it the automatic or the manual?
Even though I am in the market, the XUV isn't in my list at all. It is too dated.

Reality check for TATA - There is no game anymore. Harrier is on the verge of becoming a flop, as sad and as shocking as it may sound. :eek:

Sales are near Compass levels now in only a couple of months, despite Compass being a couple of years old now - and half a segment higher in pricing. The decade-old Mahindra XUV 5OO is selling a steady 3X times that of Harrier. Harrier has already been properly overshadowed by the marketing blitzkrieg from MG and Kia.

This is the gravity of the situation -


If it doesn't seem like much and before you try to shoot me down, do also remember that TATA Motors had announced 10k bookings with almost 8000 bookings in the backlog in March 2019. The huge fall afterward not only indicates fall in demand but also a lot of cancellations as well. Looking at the graph - it is very probable that TATA easily lost more than 50% of their bookings once the MG and KIA campaigns started. The impact is almost double that of what the graph suggests!

Automatic is not going to change games - That will be priced above the manual + Will likely carry the BS6 burden (Ask Compass Trailhawk!). GST cuts won't help either since it will benefit everyone, not just TATA. Hector petrol hybrid especially stands to win big with the proposed GST cut on hybrids from 43% to 5%. Kia and MG who got off to a good start with their introductory prices will claim even better prices post the GST cut!

Feature additions + price revisions are the need of the hour. Wasting time with Dark Editions, 5 year extended warranty plans, 35k cash discounts, etc as temporary measures are not going to help. GST cut is an excellent opportunity coming up to revise prices and not look like being pressurized by falling sales to do so!

As I said earlier, walking on thin ice. No matter what Tata do, they cannot compete with the Koreans and Chinese. But again losing to an 8 yr old product in the last year of its life cycle? :Shockked:

No aggression, improper marketing, no attention to detail, skipping on features. Add to that the glaring niggles. Will feature additions work? Cause then they risk disappointing their 2019 customers. At most they can add features in the AT variants, again risking price rise. What a soup you are in Tata. Having an attitude of just getting by, like they did with the Hexa (because they think Hexa isn't a great product, but it is almost there), thinking an equivalent effort would make Harrier sell like hotcakes hasn't worked .

How can they be sure that the market will trust the reliability of a loaded AT variant, when they couldn't manage to get the basics right?

With the Harrier edging into flop territory, and Tata already in damage control renaming the 7 seat 'Buzzard' (Couldn't even get the name right), would be better if they just drop the idea of launching the Buzzard, at least till 2021. Rather use the time and money rectifying the damage done with the Harrier.

It actually could. There is no other diesel automatic in that range and at that price point right now and am sure that there are people like me waiting for a powerful diesel automatic.
Like you said, it all depends on the features and the pricing of the automatic.
Keeping my fingers crossed, while exploring the market for a rightly priced Tucson!

There was a time I was considering buying the Harrier in March. Was so much smitten by the looks and presence. Wife was hell bent on a small car and finally settled for Nexon.
If not for wife I would have bought the Harrier and would have ended as the R&D centre for TATA.
I still can't believe how complete and finished product the Nexon is and how far away the Harrier is despite being almost twice the price.
I did buy Nexon at the worst possible time (few months before the feature upgrade) but no regrets am enjoying it nonetheless.

Off topic, but is it time Tata let go of Mr Pareek and Mr Butschek? Clearly, both have failed to take Tata Motors to the levels it had potential for, inspite of being at the helm of the company for approx 5 years. Sure, they had great stints at Maruti or Daimler/Airbus but atleast to me, they have failed at Tata. And that too, after the late Mr Slym laying all the groundwork for a rejuvenated Tata Motors. The only standout performers at Tata Motors seems to be Mr Girish Wagh at the CV division and Mr Pratap Bose in design. Mr Wagh was able to raise the market share of Tata's CV business within a year of becoming its president. Even to a common man's perception like mine, some 5 years back every new truck I saw on our roads was either a Bharat Benz/ Eicher/ Mahindra or AL. But over the last couple of years I see an equal number of Tatas too. Mr Bose's designs at Tata have been well appreciated globally. I can only imagine the hurt Mr Bose must be feeling in how Tata has managed the engineering/launch/marketing of the Harrier. Even JLR under Mr Speth seems to be doing a better job in trying to turn around its fortunes, though Mr Speth himself has to share the blame for spearheading a series of heavy investments in diesels and dud launches like the XE/Discovery/ Velar and E-Pace.

Saw this test mule vehicle near Mulshi Dam in Pune yesterday; it was raining so pics are not very clear.

Looks like an Automatic version of Harrier is being tested. Took photos while sitting in our car so couldn't hear the sound, so not able to make out whether it was Diesel or Petrol!

Hope it is the automatic. The alloys design is quite good.
The bulge on the roof 'may' point to a factory fitted sunroof.
Likey!

That's the 7 seater Buzzard/Cassini/H7X.

The alloys are a giveaway

This is the seven seater version of harrier. There is already a thread for the same. Need to find it though!

Here. It looks like disc brakes Front and rear.