Tata Hexa Off-Road Experience

[Roshun]

The Tata Hexa is more than just old wine in a new bottle. This new SUV from Tata has been given a thorough reworking, ground up, even though it is based on the Tata Aria. The Hexa as the name suggests comes from the fact that it was designed to be a six-seater. But I'm not going to get into the details of the Hexa here. For that you can read the Detailed Tata Hexa Review or check out videos in What All The Media Reviews Have to Say About the Tata Hexa.
I am going to share my drive experience here of the Tata Hexa. Tata is organising this multi-city drive experience of the Tata Hexa and from Nov. 25 to Nov. 27, this tour came to Gurgaon, at Leisure Valley. This is a full off-road set up so that potential customers and enthusiasts can come and experience the Tata Hexa. At the venue there are some of the other Tata entities as well. The point being, that Tata wants its buyers to first get a proper feel of the vehicle, not wanting to get it wrong the second time around. I've always liked the way the Tata Aria drove - and its ride quality too - and the Hexa has just built on that.

The Tata Hexa comes in six variants - XE, XM, XT, XMA, XTA and XT 4x4. Only the top-trim XT variant gets the all-wheel drive system, while the others are all two-wheel drives. It also offers a six-speed automatic transmission on two variants - the XMA and XTA. What we had on test at the Tata Hexa Experience in Gurgaon was the XT 4x4 variant. This has a six-speed manual transmission with four drive modes - Auto, Comfort, Dynamic and Rough Road. The track was set up in such a way, where you could get to experience some of these modes. The Hexa has a 2.2 litre four-cylinder diesel engine that puts out 156 PS of power at 4000 rpm and 400 Nm of torque between 1700-2700 rpm.
You can check out the FaceBook Live video I did from the event here:
[facebook_video]https://www.facebook.com/zigwheels/videos/1192619354136977[/facebook_video]

Now for some photos of what the Hexa did at the venue.

First up was a look at the improved pick up and braking of the Tata Hexa. Choosing Dynamic Mode, one got to see how quickly it accelerated and then slamming the brakes showed its stopping efficiency and the performance of the ABS system.

Next, the same run was carried out with the Hexa in Rough Road mode, which does improve both pick up and braking a bit.

Then came a look at how the Hexa handles. Shifting into rough road mode, we let it plough through the sand and the all-wheel drive system kicked it quite efficiently - power is distributed in a 60:40 (rear-front) bias.

I must mention, that during the initial run with the instructor driving, I found the ride quality pretty good even over the rough stuff. That is one trait of the Aria that the Hexa has retained. Despite the large 19-inch wheels, the bumps are barely felt in the cabin. The traction control kicks in to transfer power between axles. It also allows for limited slip between wheels on the same axle. That's especially useful on obstacles like these logs below.

And on this cross-axle ramp, where it can be easily felt.

The Tata Hexa has a water-wading capacity of 400mm (that's not really much if you ask me, considering the Ford Endeavour has 800mm and the Ford EcoSport has 550mm of water wading capacity). Still that is enough to get you through some flooded streets. Tata also had a few other obstacles set up, to show how the traction control helps with its off-road usage. This one ramp had rollers on one side and a fixed ramp on the other. A situation like this would normally get other normal 4x4s to keep spinning their wheels, but here, power is given to the wheel that has more traction.

So, how good is the Tata Hexa off-road? It's not a hardcore off-roader, but it makes a compelling case as a long-distance tourer, given its creature comforts, its excellent ride quality and enough off-road capability to get you through sand, snow or slush - stuff that you may encounter on particularly bad sections of road or in extreme weather conditions. Given the huge amounts of space inside and the refinement levels, it will make for a pretty decent long-distance tourer. How good is it compared to the Toyota Innova Crysta and the Mahindra XUV500? Well, that's the subject of an even longer test. But do let me know what you think.
This Hexa experience will come to Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad next. So ZigWheels Forum members there, please do go take a test drive and share your views too.

[Shreyans]

It has been well established that the Hexa is a geunuily capable and comfortable vehicle. All it needs is a killer price tag and some enthuisiasm on the part of the dealers to make the sale, 95% of the job has been done. As long as they don't mess up this last remining 5%, the vehicle can easily do four digit numbers of a monthly basis.

[kaiserketkar]

[QUOTE_NODE]"Originally posted by Shreyans" and some enthuisiasm on the part of the dealers to make the sale,[/QUOTE_NODE] That might be asking a bit too much, even a simple readiness to make the sale is fine! But yeah, I really hope the Hexa does well, it's well worth it.

[NikilSJ]

I want the Hexa to do really well in the market. I've regained some faith in Tata cars since having a go in the Tiago. But even with that hatchback, although brilliantly built, customers are now facing some quality issues and service-related issues. I guess it all boils down to how fast they can improve their service quality. I got a passenger ride in the Hexa when Roshun took it out for a spin and what the initial impression was really good - it's got a brilliant ride, the cabin is well put together with quality materials and the seats..oh the seats..they are fantastic. The captain seats for the second row are a class apart. I might even be tempted to say that they are better than the Innova Crysta's. Apparently, the seats are sourced from the same suppliers as Mercedes'. The design is also butch. Personally, I like it more than the XUV5OOs. Those wheels also fill the wheel arches really well. 19-inch is what Audi offers as an option on the Q7 and here on the to-end, they come as standard. Overall, the Hexa is a brilliant MPV/SUV or whatever you may want to call it. If only Tata can improve their brand perception, I think the Hexa has got what it takes to fill the old Innova's shoes and be the segment leader.

[KPR]

[QUOTE_NODE]"Originally posted by NikilSJ" I want the Hexa to do really well in the market. I've regained some faith in Tata cars since having a go in the Tiago. But even with that hatchback, although brilliantly built, customers are now facing some quality issues and service-related issues. I guess it all boils down to how fast they can improve their service quality.I got a passenger ride in the Hexa when Roshun took it out for a spin and what the initial impression was really good - it's got a brilliant ride, the cabin is well put together with quality materials and the seats..oh the seats..they are fantastic. The captain seats for the second row are a class apart. I might even be tempted to say that they are better than the Innova Crysta's. Apparently, the seats are sourced from the same suppliers as Mercedes'. The design is also butch. Personally, I like it more than the XUV5OOs. Those wheels also fill the wheel arches really well. 19-inch is what Audi offers as an option on the Q7 and here on the to-end, they come as standard. Overall, the Hexa is a brilliant MPV/SUV or whatever you may want to call it. If only Tata can improve their brand perception, I think the Hexa has got what it takes to fill the old Innova's shoes and be the segment leader. [/QUOTE_NODE] +1 Even I need Hexa to do well and curb the monopoly of even Innova. Actually, the car is still an underdog given the Aria's failure. Let's hope for best that can happen to Hexa and if it happens, hapless Mistry will mysteriously miss out on the success of the Hexa.

[praveen_erappa]

TATA has improved the quality a bit when we compare the vehicles came after zest. But service remains the same. I am an hardcore Tata fan I own only TATA Vehicle, it's very painful when car enters an service.&nbsp;<br>Hexa is an beautiful car I wish a good luck for Hexa to hit the market with promising best services.&nbsp;

[Roshun]

[QUOTE_NODE]&quot;Originally posted by praveen_erappa&quot;

TATA has improved the quality a bit when we compare the vehicles came after zest. But service remains the same. I am an hardcore Tata fan I own only TATA Vehicle, it&#39;s very painful when car enters an service. Hexa is an beautiful car I wish a good luck for Hexa to hit the market with promising best services. [/QUOTE_NODE]

True. Tata has to improve its service reputation. It has done that to a certain extent, but it still has miles to go. Quality of its products though on the other hand has improved considerably over the last few years, from the Tata Bolt onwards. The Hexa too is very well built, and if the pricing strategy that we discussed above is correct, it should find quite a few takers.

[Roshun]

Now this is some next-level stuff! This is how you sell the Tata Hexa, by making it appear so cool, doing fancy stunts like this. Check out this video of the Tata Hexa driving on two wheels. This really does this SUV quite some favours. (Video courtesy: Jeep Captain on FB)
[facebook_video]https://www.facebook.com/jeepcaptain3/videos/10154925704277835[/facebook_video]
And in case you can&#39;t watch the above video, try this link:
[youtube_video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ0M5dMSHl4[/youtube_video]

[Arjun]

Roshun This is what you do when you need to drive a car but have a driving license only for two wheelers. Have seen such crazy stunts being performed in the Arab countries but didn't expect this in the Hexa drive. Tata is doing really good work promoting the Hexa. I hope they also give equal attention to improve their after sales as that is the main thing that keeps people from going for the brand.

[Mayur_Patil]

Which Tata Model is best for Off Roading Can Anyone tell me