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-   -   Unable to find a suitable replacement for my Tata Hexa (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/suvs-muvs-4x4s/248328-unable-find-suitable-replacement-my-tata-hexa.html)

Hey

Some people tell me I am eccentric, but I have a peculiar predicament.

To create the context, let me tell you about my garage.
I have a X5, 2020 E Class, Taigun, X3, Carnival, Baleno RS, Wagon R, Kodiaq 2016 , a Mini and my beloved Hexa. (We are a pretty big family rl:)

The challenge is, its time to replace my Hexa, and I am unable to find a suitable replacement.

I use Hexa as my daily commute and its driven by a driver. I absolutely love the rear seat. Its the perfect hip point for my height, large seat base so that I get almost full thigh support, great legroom ( I move the front seat way forward to liberate even more) and great ride.

Now, out of my entire garage, I have not found a car which I like for this duty as a replacement. Let me also tell you some of the cars I have considered and my opinions of them, so that I can get the best advise.

1. The New Safari - Haven't driven it yet, but the seat is not as generous as Hexa. In fact, I found it quite small.

2. C5 Aircross - Ride is great, legroom I can manage with moving the front seat. But it faces the same challenge. Poor rear seat. The individual seats do not have enough width. When I took the test drive, the seat belt locks were hurting my bum. I liked the car otherwise.

3. Carnival - Low Hip point. Legroom is good, ride is good. But I really have to stretch my legs.

4. Kodiaq - Ride is stiff. But ticks a lot of boxes otherwise.

5. E - Great Ride, but very low seat.

6. Innova - Seat is low. Seat base is OK, but ride is like a boat. There is just too much movement.

7. X5 - Dream of a car. Horrible back seat. Bought it for Road Trips only.

Probably, I should have bought the X7 instead of X5, to have the best possible fit to my requirement, but thats done and dusted.

My previous car before the Hexa was the Nissan X-Trail which again I loved, and before that I had a Safari.

Now, I have spent hundreds of hours on every possible medium and have nothing to show for it as a conclusion. :Frustrati

My hope is that this forum will surely be able to help me with ideas with which I could pick my next ride.

To reiterate, my requirement in order of preference:-

1. Seat Height
2. Seat Base
3. Ride Comfort

Wow, congratulation on your garage. X5 (self-drive), Mini (city-self drive), and Hexa (chauffeur-driven) solve almost all travel/ drive requirements for me :).

From my TD'ing experience, I would suggest Kodiaq or Air-cross. But, other folks may comment on cars with air suspensions on them e.g, Volvo XC60 or GLE

If you like the Hexa so much, why replace it? And if it's gotten old and you find no other car's seat as comfortable, you can get a second-hand Hexa with fewer miles on it.

For city speeds especially, I would look at the MG Hector for being driven. Lots of legroom, soft comfort based suspension. The font seat ride is better than the rear though. Rather than repeating, let me point you to my own search:

With my specific needs of convenient ingress-egress, comfortable ride considering recent back issues, driving pleasure and cabin comfort for my size, I ended up test driving a few and have shared pretty detailed test drive reviews with the forum which can be found at the following link:
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/suvs-...700-kicks.html

Hector+ seems to be the right fit for now.

Or just wait a little to check out the Jeep Meridian. With a longer wheelbase, some rear seat comfort should improve.

Unfortunately, there is nothing in a reasonable price band that can feel like an upgrade or even a replacement for Hexa second row. Vellfire will be a proper upgrade for the second row. But then it costs 5 times that of a Hexa.

Crysta can match 90 percent of Hexa second row experience. My opinion is to get the Crysta and make peace with the fact that you lost some , but gained some in the form of reliability and service experience. If you had a bench seat Hexa, there will still be a compromise because Crysta do not have a bench seat option in top end variant.

Hard fact: there is no like for like replacement for Hexa. The combination of space, comfort, toughness premiumness and value is unmatched.

The best course of action will be to retain the Hexa, especially considering you are happy with it. Vehicle is long lasting and reliable. It doesn’t really need anything more than periodic service. Truth is that they don’t make cars like these anymore. Hold on to it for as long as you can.

No doubt, the Hexa punched above its weight. If you love the car so much:

- Retain your Hexa! It's only in India where we replace cars every 5 - 7 years. In many other countries, people retain their cars for 10 - 15 years & 200,000+ km.

OR

- If your Hexa has already run a lot, replace it with a late model 2018-2019 example. Plenty in the used car market.

Personally, I love the Innova Crysta's captain seat variant too. Of course, the Carnival is next level, but more expensive and not as practical (massive size, lower GC).

I have been hunting for a replacement for my aging Safari for years. I can't find anything close to it in all these 12 years. The only downside is the pathetic ASS. My car - I feel - will easily outlast me considering the fact that I suffer from sleep apnea.

I have tried both. Carnival - Hip point is too low. I find sitting with stretched legs uncomfortable.

Crysta, seat base is short. I could have managed with the ride quality.

I would have loved to retain the Hexa but, there are a few niggles which the ASS guys are unable to resolve.

1. Rattles have started coming in.
2. Engine vibrations have become a little too much.
3. The steering ahs become a bit vague. I don't like driving the car anymore. Besides that, I think the car is doing great.

You haven’t mentioned how many km your car has run but it seems it needs a bit of love.

1. The tailgate is the main source of rattles. It’s rubber stops need regular adjustments. It’s a 2 minute job that any denter can do.

2. My 2017 model Hexa’s mounts were changed once, under company recall. Was that done on your car? If not, new engine mounts may be all you need. The TVD (torsional vibration damper) needs replacement every 60k km.

3. A fresh set of tires, alignment and balancing will sort this out. The 19inch alloys get bent out of shape easily if the car is driven on bad roads regularly. Periodic balancing is required to maintain a tight and smooth driving experience.

Basically, give the car a thorough once over. Replace all fluids and filters. New tires, engine mounts and suspensions (if needed). Get all this done and your car will be as good as new. My Hexa has done over 1L km and the suspension has started feeling a bit worse for wear. Will need replacement soon.

It is better to spend 1-1.5L on making the Hexa new again, than spending 30L on another car and still compromising.

In case you are not happy with TASS, give a call to Worlds of Service, Noida.

What an impressive garage you have sir , in my opinion if you like Hexa so much then why not keep it.. To find a car like that in the same value is not possible..
Now coming to some options as few people have mentioned in terms of comfort Citroën and Volvo can do a better job. XC60 should be a good choice.. All the best .:thumbs up

Since you are always chauffeur driven, why can't you get a Crysta MT (V or Z for the features and safety) and then have the seats customized by an independent company such as DC (or any other better) for more comfort, features and/or NVH levels?

This you can get done even in the Hexa but the newer Crysta will give you lesser or no issues and has better ASS.

The Hexa is such a unique car in the Indian context. No other car delivered the value it did (alas too briefly!) at around 20L on-road. A friend was planning to replace his 2019 Hexa XTA with a luxury German and I talked him of out it :D

Run it to the ground. That's the advice I'll give you!

Us unfortunate ones in NCR have to replace our diesels as they approach the 10 year mark. I would love to retain my Storme for 5 more years, and with the maintenance I am sure I can stretch is to 200,000 km like I did my wagon R, but I have to sell it by next year end!