Tata Harrier Dark Edition - High On Features But Has Minor Issues - Pros & Cons | Faisal Khan

This is the Tata Harrier, a car which has improved so much over the years that it seems like the best bet in the segment or is it? Well, I have the Harrier Dark Edition with me today and I'm going to be telling you 5 good things and 5 bad things about this car. Welcome to another pros and cons video but before I discuss more about this Harrier, let me talk about a very important part of a car. Tyres, the connection between your car and the road but if you drive an SUV, probably the connection between your car and no road too. Thus, SUVs need tyres which are durable and are made for all-terrain application. This is where the Apollo Aptera 82 tyres come into the picture as they offer high precision control and maximum comfort on all types of surfaces, be it road or off-road. So, if you want to unleash the performance of your SUV, then the Apollo Aptera 82 tyres is what you need. Check the link in the description to know more. Anyways, back to the Harrier, let's start with the cons and the first one is this not being a real SUV. Because an SUV without 4WD isn't an SUV, period. Still, the lack of 4WD in the Harrier would be fine if the competition didn't offer 4WD but the Harrier's main rivals, the Scorpio N and XUV700 both come with the option of channelling power to all 4WDs making them justify the SUV tag. Patata Motors offers terrain modes which has a rotary dial that alters the ESP system for soft roading but there is no replacement for a 4WD system. The second con are the ergonomics. The design of the centre console is such that the driver's left knee hits the centre console and the footwell area is small too. When you operate the terrain modes, your hand will hit the gear lever. The wireless charger isn't easy to use and the USB ports aren't easy to access. There's a ton of gloss black which is reflective and prone to fingerprints in the short term and scratches in the long run which you can clearly see on this car which has done just 6000 kilometres. There's no place to keep a phone in the centre console and seat ventilation button is placed out of sight and you simply can't see the fan speed in the day as the lights on the button are too dim. When you are on a call via the car's infotainment system, it will mute the call to give preference to the sound from the parking sensor. And while the gear lever is inspired from Land Rover, it requires multiple tries to go from reverse to drive and vice versa. Sunroof operation is a bit gimmicky, they removed buttons here to keep just one switch to operate all functions which wasn't needed. They went backwards here. Same is the case with the touch controls here, they are a gimmick as they don't work as intended and many times you pressing a button is simply futile. The left side sun visor has a mirror and lights but the driver's side doesn't get it. Centre passenger doesn't get a head, he isn't cool either as rear AC vents are on the side. Meanwhile, the horn is disappointing for a car that looks this muscular. So you're just cruising along, grooving to music and the horn keeps getting activated all the time because this horn pad is just too sensitive. The third con is the price. The Harrier is an expensive car. Price range starts at Rs. 18.75 lakhs going all the way to Rs. 32 lakhs for this dark edition model. All the prices are obviously on road Mumbai. Yes, there are a lot of variants, 25 to be precise but Rs. 32 lakhs is a lot of money for a Tata car. Save Rs. 1.67 lakhs by shifting your own gears and that's the manual cost difference. Rs. 66,000 more for the dark edition trim which is worth it for the design element. The problem is that the Scorpio N starts at Rs. 1.66 lakhs cheaper and I'm talking about the diesel one, not factoring in the petrol. The petrol is a lot more cheaper while the XUV700 is Rs. 95,000 cheaper, again factoring in the diesel here and the price difference is obviously on road Mumbai. The top-end Scorpio N is also more than Rs. 2 lakhs cheaper but then doesn't get the features that the Harrier offers which brings me to a question, would you rather get more features with two-wheel drive or four-wheel drive with less features? By the way, higher variants of the MG Hector are much cheaper too. So, the Harrier is the most expensive car in the segment and offers just five seats while the rest offers seven seats. Now, obviously, I'm not factoring in the Jeep Compass which is even more overpriced. In fact, the top-end Scorpio N in two-wheel drive trim is Rs. 4.5 lakhs cheaper than the Harrier. Now, that is a real SUV too. Clearly, Tata Motors no longer offers more car per car because the Mahindra SUVs are just more accessible in terms of pricing. The fourth con is the lack of a petrol engine because all of the Harrier's rivals come with the option of a petrol engine. It's actually surprising that Tata Motors still doesn't have a petrol engine for the Harrier or the Safari and the folks in NCR want petrol only due to the stupid diesel ban there. Don't know what's taking them so long to bring their 1.5-litre petrol engine which they've already showcased to the public. The fifth con is the quality. I know I've been over this a lot of times so I'm going to keep this brief. Fit, finish, paint quality and the reliability of the electronics needs better consistency especially when a car costs Rs. 32 lakhs on road Mumbai. Now, let me give you a few examples of the quality issues with this particular Harrier. The infotainment system glitches at times, more so when the camera is activated while the AC has a mind of its own. It keeps increasing and decreasing the fan speed on its own. Is there a ghost inside? Prove it. So, here I'm going to be turning off the air conditioning completely. So, there it is turned off. It's at 1 right now and we are going to turn it off. Come on, turn off. I'm pressing the off button. It's increasing. Look at this. I don't know what is wrong that such a basic feature has been messed up in a car. I just want to operate the air conditioning system as normal. Why is it getting so messed up all the time? Shut it. Okay, shut. Now, you notice one thing that the auto function is actually turned off which means there's no reason for this system to start going up and down on its own. It's a very weird one and there again it started. Why is it going 5? Can you see the settings right now? Auto function is off. Why is it automatically turning on the fan? It's a very weird system this one. Oh god, what have you done Tata Motors? Just give me a knob. I can confirm this touch panel is one of the worst I've seen in any car. Look at this. It just, when I activate the camera, it doesn't work only. It does not work. The infotainment screen is also a fingerprint magnet. So, I have to keep a cleaning cloth handy. Heck, even the steering is prone to fingerprints and is already getting scratches on either end. The wireless charger throws an error every once a while and some functions are still not available which is surprising since this Harrier has been on sale for 7 months now. There's some fabric coming out from below the rear seat while a port is exposed below the steering wheel. Even the dashboard isn't aligned properly. Maps function with Apple CarPlay only supports Apple Maps and not Google Maps. The cabin lights feel cheap and by the way, this car doesn't have all LED lights as the rear fog lamps and reverse lights are actually halogen. The rear windows have sun film as it's tinted but the film is already wearing out so, poor quality sun film has been used here. The larger issue is that Tata Motors service network isn't trained well enough to fix issues. So, improvement is needed on that front too. Unfortunately, both quality and service can't be fixed overnight and it's going to take Tata Motors a lot of time to address. And now, coming to the good parts of the Harrier, there's actually a lot to like about this car. And the first pro is the design of the Harrier. I've always liked the Harrier. Right from the very first one that came in 2019 to this one which many might find polarising due to the tube light. Sorry, connected DRL at the front. But that also has a very cool animation when you lock and unlock the car. Even at the rear, there is no denying that the Harrier is a good looking car. More so in this dark edition which gets black everywhere. Right from the body to the 19-inch wheels on the exterior to the black theme on the interior with an all-black dashboard and seats. It also gets hashtag dark badges all around and the Tata logo illuminates on the steering wheel which looks super cool at night. The number two pro are the features. The Harrier lacked features when it was initially launched but it is now the most loaded car in the segment with some really impressive features like a 10.25-inch instrument cluster that also displays navigation from your phone. It also has a GeForce meter and a power and torque meter which looks super cool. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity which doesn't seem like a big deal till you realise that Hyundai and Kia only offered wired connectivity. A big 12.3-inch touchscreen which has a good resolution. 360-degree parking camera with 3D view. The camera quality is really awesome. Air purifier which we need as our AQI continues to dwindle. 10-speaker JBL sound system with 13 sound modes. The audio quality is awesome. Ambient lighting that works on the dashboard as well as around the panoramic sunroof but colour options are limited based on the variant you choose. There is no red or green colour ambient lighting but when you change the drive modes, it actually shows you red for sport mode and green for eco mode but those colours are not available in the ambient light menu. That's kind of weird. If you have it just activate it now so that I can change it because red is my favourite colour. Actually it's blue and blue is available right here. There. Dual zone climate control system that unfortunately has fiddly touch controls. Hello Tata. Say a command. Hello Tata. Is Scorpio better? Say a command. Is Scorpio better? Sorry, please connect phone and retry. Is Scorpio better? Sorry, this command is not supported in your vehicle. Hello Tata. Close the sunroof right now. Okay, closing sunroof. Cool storage under the front centre armrest. Yeah, the glovebox doesn't have the cooling function but at least gets a shelf on the top and yes, it's a big glovebox. Well, that's what she said. Keyless entry, push button start, automatic headlights, rain sensing wipers. The quality of the wipers is just amazing. However, this nozzle is spraying just too low on the windshield which isn't that great because water is not really coming there on the top but at least it doesn't dirty the whole car which is usually the case with most other cars. However, it also gets a delay wiper swipe function which is a nice and good attention to detail in this car. Rear washer wiper, electric parking brake, auto hold function, rear sun blind, paddle shifters but there is no tripronic function, connected car tech so you can even call Tata Assist and there's also an umbrella holder on the door pads which itself are quite big at the front. In fact, the rear door pads have shelves in it. There's plenty of storage space inside this cabin. There's also a puddle lamp on the door which is a neat touch. The sunroof here has a global close feature wherein it will shut even the sun blind when you lock the car, neat. So the features list is quite endless but there is some cost cutting. Like for instance, this car gets only two parking sensors at the front as well as the rear instead of getting four on either side. While this car is running on 19-inch wheels, the spare tyre is a 16-inch one and only the driver's side power window gets a one-touch up and down mechanism. By the way, the driver's seat also gets the memory function and you can save up to three people's seat settings. The third pro is the comfort. This Harrier is a very comfortable car. The front seats get the ventilation function and are powered. Six-way for the driver and it also gets a manual lumbar support adjustment. Meanwhile, the co-passenger gets a four-way electric adjust. There's also a welcome feature for the driver that moves the seat up and down on exit and entry which is quite cool. The rear seat is spacious with good legroom and knee room. Unfortunately though, the under-thigh support is not the best. The rear headrests have this nice pillow too but centre passenger does not get a headrest. The AC is also a chiller which is important because this car gets an all-black interior which will obviously attract a lot of heat and it also gets rear AC vents but unfortunately, you can't control the air conditioning from the rear because there are no buttons there. The boot is also quite spacious. The fourth pro is the drive experience because the Harrier is a fun car to drive and quite enjoyable from behind the wheel. Yes, the engine is loud. Yes, it lacks refinement but that is part of the character for me because this jeep source slash borrowed 2-litre diesel engine produces 170 horsepower and 350 Newton meters of torque. It has a very strong mid-range punch. Yeah, it lacks a low-end grunt and that's the reason why it's not that great in the city in terms of city drivability but yes, it feels punchy in the mid-range and then again, it lacks top-end grunt but becomes very vocal. Now, because it has that turbo lag, I would call it the silence before the storm which I really enjoy because being an enthusiast, you want that kick in the pants feel which is not really there as such but then that silence before the storm is quite enjoyable because of the turbo lag here. However, that really affects the city drivability of this car and when you climb the revs beyond 4000 rpm, you realise there's nothing in the top-end either. The engine becomes very vocal as well in the top end of the rev range. The manual has a very long clutch and shifts aren't slick either so the automatic is the one to opt for which I'm driving right now and this torque converter is actually smooth and offers a lot of convenience as well. The ride is actually very good at high speed but low-speed ride isn't the best because the suspension is on the stiffer side and then it crashes through and you can hear all that sound quite easily inside the cabin but high-speed manners are excellent in this car because it stays glued to the road but then, yeah, suspension could be a little bit more silent here. The shift from a hydraulic to an electric steering wheel has made the steering wheel way more consistent when compared to before. Yes, it doesn't have much feel but has consistent feedback now which is a good thing and some wheel spin finally because you cannot turn off the ESP system here. I went through the screen, I tried my level best, I can't find the option of turning off ESP or traction control system unfortunately. The ground clearance of this car is more than ample to tackle the worst of Indian roads which means that you don't really have to slow down when you come across big bumps or even speed breakers because this car has got ample ground clearance. Even the view from here is actually quite nice because I can see the hood while driving, the mirrors are like huge, humongous mirrors here and the dashboard also seems massive, only thing is my knee, it's a bit uncomfortable here. You will really enjoy driving the Harrier, it's a very fun car. Oh yeah, look at that, it just goes, you opposite lock it and it feels not that understeery somehow, has a bit of oversteer as well which is fantastic. Simply put, you will love driving the Harrier just like you enjoy driving that Ford EcoSport. The fifth pro and one of the major reasons why Tata Motors has become a force to reckon with is its emphasis on safety. So I will definitely applaud them for that because the Harrier has got 5-star safety rating both from Global NCAP as well as Bharat NCAP, this is a very safe car. All variants of the Harrier come with 6 airbags, traction control, ESC, ISOFIX child seat mounts, tyre pressure monitoring system, 3-point seatbelts for all the seats as standard. On the higher variants of the Harrier, you also get a driver's side knee airbag, hill descent control and radar based ADAS with features like forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking, blind view monitor, blind spot warning, auto high beam assist, traffic sign recognition, rear cross-traffic alert and lane departure warning. Unfortunately, lane keep assist is still not activated on this car in spite of it being on sale since quite some time now. There's also adaptive cruise control which is only available with the automatic. ADAS has been tuned very well here, it's not intrusive, it intervenes just at the right time, well done Tata Motors, well done. In fact, lane departure warning is also very nicely done because here when I'm trying to leave a lane, economy drive mode activated, okay you keep quiet, it immediately tells me when I'm leaving a lane, it does it beautifully well because it's able to detect it very nicely. In fact, if I press this button, it tells me this feature is not available. Why Tata Motors, why? Give me that feature, why did you put a button here? Even the advanced ESP and rear disc aren't enough to stop this car from nose diving and skidding under heavy braking. Now you will say that the surface is poor, so let's do one thing, let's do it on a clean tarmac and here we go, same thing. The Harrier is not a perfect car and it's not a real SUV either, however, it's still very impressive. If Tata Motors manages to sort out the inconsistencies in quality, then this will become one of the best cars to buy in the segment. If you have a budget of around Rs. 30 lakhs, which is the car you would buy, let me know in the comment section below and don't forget to check out the amazing Apollo Aptera 82 tyres, check the link in the description to know more. Thank you so much for watching, if you like this video, make sure to give it a thumbs up, touch the like button and also subscribe to the channel. I will see you guys in the next video real soon, buh-bye.