Do I replace my Hyundai i10 with MG Hector or Tata Harrier

Rejected the Mahindra XUV700, since its 5-seater variants don't offer many features.

BHPian Puneet0612 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Dear BHPians,

I bought my first car, an i20, back in 2015 thanks to everything I learned about the car from this reliable community.

It's been 6+ years since then, am a family man now and in the process of graduating to a bigger car. I say in the process because I booked the Sharp Diesel Variant of the MG Hector on Oct 22, 2021, and cancelled the booking last Saturday, on Jan 8, after almost 3 months of booking. What started as a promising booking experience with MG's flagship dealer in Ggn, turned out to be an awful ending with the sales lead repeatedly lying to prevent me from cancelling my booking. More on that maybe in another thread if someone's interested.

On to my dilemma.

After the sour experience with the MG dealer (even the second one in Ggn is owned by the same party sadly), I am somehow only seeing faults with the Hector, just to convince myself to not go back to MG.

The thing is, alongside my better half, I test drove the Hector, both the XUV automatic fuel variants and the Harrier. I have read on enough threads about how people's pre-sale experience with Tata hasn't been the best. Fortunately for me, I have managed two test drives from home and one stockyard visit in one week to check the interiors of the variant I am interested in thanks to a very cooperative advisor. So with that background, here are my personal views on the driving experience of each car along with the interiors.

MG Hector

*Planning on the Sharp diesel variant

• Decent performance from the Jeep engine but something felt missing in the power delivery. My brother has a Jeep and the performance is far better on that beautiful car The engine is clearly not well mated to the extra-long body on Hector.
• Plush interiors, great music system
• Feature loaded

Haven't as yet rejected the car but am sincerely doubtful and need your help here. But do read on.

Mahindra XUV700

*Drove both petrol and diesel automatic

• Petrol engine is far smoother and delivers power like you don't expect. The drive was exciting and almost convinced me to make a booking there and then but other things mentioned below prevented the booking.
• When I drove the diesel automatic, I was in for a shock. You can actually feel eons of lag, as the diesel automatic shifts from the first to the second gear. In fact, you feel the need to press the gas harder without seeing any power. The advisor himself accepted that there is an annoying lag with the diesel automatic and recommended that I go for petrol because of better performance.

Interiors are not great even in the top model. I think Hector spoilt this experience for me.

Rejected the XUV because

I am looking for a 5-seater and all the nice features come only in the AX7 variant which only has 7 seaters in it.

Really got wondering why wouldn't Mahindra provide a luxury variant in the AX5, 5 seaters, with all the nice creature comforts. Why should someone have to buy a 7 seater for features when the last 2 seats are never ever going to be used? So XUV is out.

Tata Harrier

*Looking at XTA+ variant.

Hits:

• Amazing drive with the three power modes actually working and not just buttons added on a car.
• Driving this beast gave me a sense of joy and security both, and I know it would be a reliable companion on the highway when I push beyond 140. Hector or XUV didn't give me the same confidence.

Misses:

• While it has a lot of features, the interiors don't look like an upgrade from my i20, honestly. If I am spending around 22-23 lakhs on a car, the interiors should have felt better. My wife, especially, isn't convinced about the interiors on this variant as well and stretching to 25 for the XZA+ isn't possible for me.
• JBL speakers don't sound the best, especially without the amplifier and sub-woofer that the top variant has.

So now I am in a complete dilemma over which car to buy.

I am inclined towards Harrier for the ride quality and I know this car is going to be a tank on the highway. But then, Hector and XUV are both feature-loaded as well as decent performers. Even the cars in the segment below have tidier features. Since I'll have this car for 5-6 years in the least, I fear I'll keep feeling like I bought an iphone11 because it was cheap when iphone13 is already 5g enabled.

I don't have issues buying a diesel car in NCR because I personally feel, as long as trucks continue to be the backbone of our economy and as long as Indian farming depends on tractors, diesel cars will exist. I am in any case staking the next 6 years, after which I'll most likely switch to an EV.

Need a car yesterday because I sold off my i20 three months ago and need a car of my own for various things that I and the missus still need to step out for regularly.

So dear fellas, help me make this decision between a manual diesel Hector top model and the XTA+ Harrier.

Waiting on your most valuable inputs. Thanks for reading

Here's what BHPian Poitive had to say on the matter:

Hi Puneet, I see this is your first post. Welcome to the forum and the thread. Only sharing quick thoughts for now:

• You seem to like most things about the Hector except the engine comparison to Jeep. I actually didn't find it much worse. The rest seems to work well for your needs. Please take a test drive to a different piece of Hector. It just might have been an issue with the vehicle.
• XUV: I agree with the 5-seater point (mentioned in my TD report), however, one could consider a 7-seater and fold the seats down. A waste, I know, but the vehicle offers much else (those engines, especially). Again, maybe TD another piece; also the petrol AT. If you are okay with a Hector MT, maybe an XUV MT? The issue would be delivery times though.
• Harrier: Yes, the interiors don't feel Hector quality, but if the ergonomics work for you, likely to be a joy on the highway and more.
• I see that your thread has been merged here. You might find the test drives in the beginning of this thread (post # 3 onward) helpful.
• At the face of it, and with the limited info available, a good test drive of the Hector Diesel (with tyre pressures checked, and preferably NOT the plus model) might convince you to it.
• For your other/repeat test drives, you might find this pretty detailed guide I recently made helpfully.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.