Interior
The black treatment continues into the interior. The prominent ones being the dashboard finish in grey and the steering accents. Chromium finish carried over for the side air vents, the floating ICE housing and the Tata badge. Please excuse the plastic covers being retained, I have reminded my father several times but he just says Let it be.
The seats are comfortable and are a black fabric finish rather than black leather finish as in the XZ variant. The beaded seat cushion, if I can call it that, is from the Polo days. If you are okay with back of your shirt looking like surface of a golf ball, these are a comfortable option for you.
Seats have sufficient side support. We also got the lumbar support feature, Tata deleted it on BS6 XT variants.
Steering wheel gets music and voice command controls on the left and cruise control buttons on the right side. It is chubby and comfortable to hold. Rake and reach adjustment lets you set it to the optimum position. Being XT , leather cover was missed. Classic centre horn pad for that full palm angry honking . But the horn is literally just Meh. sounding for a car this big. Also the horn pad is made of scratchy plastic which is a turnoff for a car costing nearly 19lacs.
Plenty of storage provided for your masks and sanitizers. Rubber lining helps to eliminate rattles of coins and other items. You get two cup holders, one slot for the key (multi drive mode selector in top variants) and a wide enough space towards the front to store the phones.
The infamous USB and Aux input.
Gear lever boot is a bit thick for my liking. Dark treatment on the gear lever also. Unconventional handbrake will need a few days to get used to. The gloss finish on the handbrake will scratch easily if you wear rings.
Dark theme again on the centre grab handle design element.
Dash top material is plastic but soft to the touch. The matte color helps to eliminate reflections on the windscreen. Advertised as 'Nappa Grain Top Layer' by Tata.
Instead of the oak finish that runs in the normal XT variant, you get this light grey one. Again please excuse the plastics.
Armrest is very small and you arm will touch it only when you pull up the hand brake.
But it is very useful as a storage area with cooling function and a 12V socket. There is a cutout to route your cables into or out of the armrest storage. The receptor for the keyless system is under the armrest storage. If the key fob battery is running low, placing it in this storage is advised.
Driver side gets illuminated window switches for all doors. One touch down and up capability is there. Like on all doors, fabric lining where you rest the elbows. Perforated leather door handles missed out being XT.
In each of the front doors there's one large and one small bottle holder. Third one is for your umbrella.
Front cabin lights have reading light capability for each side. Theatre dimming effect is standard. Light is a white bright LED. Sunglass holder with felt lining is adjacent to the unit.
Illuminated glovebox is not large when compared to cubby spaces provided elsewhere in the vehicle. Strangely it's not cooled. My 7 lac Tiago has this and the centre armrest gets one too. IMO a design flaw and lost opportunity in the feature list.
Keyless entry meant the conventional keyhole to be covered up. Looks ugly. Some better piece of plastic could've been used to make it sit flush with the existing part.
Driver side sun visor does not get even a receipt holder. Passenger sun visor gets airbag warning sticker only. XZ variant gets illuminated vanity mirror on passenger side. Vanity mirror without illumination would have given product differentiation and added some value for the XT variant.
Rear seats are truly business class level. You get loads of legroom, thigh support, armrest with cup holders and adjustable headrests. Travel at the rear and youll be spoilt for the space of offer. IMO for the manual transmission Harrier, the scale is very tilted to towards to it being a chauffeur driven car rather than a driver's car.
Rear AC vents are on the B Pillar which is a refreshing change from the usual middle mounted ones. AC is highly effective as is with all Tatas. Even if the temperature is set at 27 degrees, youll feel like its 24. Is something wrong with the solar sensor? Hope not!
On the downside the whole dark theme works against the perception of space on offer if viewed from outside. Rear windows becomes narrower as it follows the sloping design. The hump on the rear floor is high and wide. Middle passenger will experience slight discomfort. There is a USB charging slot under the middle storage space. It's almost impossible to notice.
Cubby spaces include the phone storage space at the center. A phone pad and large bottle holders on the doors.
Most of the people will need to put in some muscle to close the rear door. There's soft fabric where you rest your elbows. Illuminated window switches and door handle levers are finished in chrome. Perforated leather grab handles missed out on the XT variant. Notice the maximum roll down position of the window glass.
Rear also gets dome light with the same functionality as at the front. They are bright and useful. Notice the narrowing windows.
Boot space is more than generous for our use. Absence of a loading lip will eat into litre capacity on paper but very practical. You can slide things right in. Boot lights are not LEDs. There is a small storage under the boot floor to keep crude items such as dusters or brushes. XZ variants got an extra woofer on the left side in the boot.