Tata Nexon Long Term Review

Now as this is our first long term report on the Tata Nexon, we will share some of the important aspects on this new compact SUV. But we will not get into all the details at the moment. There are some aspects that we have learnt as we enjoyed driving this compact SUV and there are some that we are still working on to understand how good or bad is it. To begin with, we have broken this story into 3 parts:

Exterior

With the changing face of the company, there has been a change in the company’s product styling too. For instance, the paint job is fabulous on the Tata Nexon and it feels good every time you look at it. Our vehicle is the bright and shiny red, which has one downside. Bright colours mean any small scratch also on the car will be highlighted and this isn’t a good thing. The scratch shows the part that has no gloss and this is eye catching. So, if you buy colours like blue and red, do maintain them well. This is vital, else you should stick to the white and silver to be safer. This part didn’t have too much to be covered, and we have mentioned what we thought had to be taken care off.

Interior

One of the biggest complaints critics had was the bad quality Tata plastics. Well, we had nullied that when we stated that this dashboard quality is no where bad or poor. The other complaint is the deteriorating plastic, which hasn’t been the case so way at about 14,000 kms on the odo. Now, there has been no wear and tear on the inside. As this is an early stage, we will still say we should hang on for a bit more. Moving on to the dash board, the touchscreen is a tad small, but we reckon a bigger size one will hinder visibility. The touchscreen response is decent when you touch and control from the centre console. It is a bit laggy when you control from the steering wheel. The screen resolution doesn’t feel HD and even the reverse camera quality somewhat feels like VGA. The Tigor has better camera than the Nexon.

The front seats are extremely comfortable and they offer good support. Tall passengers can enjoy long trips without any hassle. We don’t like the fabric that much on the Nexon, but it is more of the design on the fabric. The rear seats are fairly comfortable and three people can sit without much of a squeeze. There is a rear AC vent with two steps for blower speed. There is a 12V charging socket at the back, but only on the left hand side, which is a bit off. There should either by on both the sides or in the centre. There is a comfortable arm rest that comes in the XZ+ variant only and the 60:40 split has flat folding. The boot is comfortable to storage luggage and other bits.

Engine

The Tata Nexon engine is the 1.5-litre diesel engine. Now, one think that we noticed new is the engine noise. It does seem a bit noisy than before. This could be as it is at 14,000kms and should see an improvement after its first paid service. This is a character of many diesel engines and it predict this to be the case too. The performance of this engine is good and it does offer good enough grunt even at low speeds. This engine has linear performance and you might be disappointed if you are an enthusiast. This is an ideal engine for daily usage. It doesn’t get the turbo spool like the Ecosport but there is more than sufficient power to pull.

In terms of drivability, you do not struggle in city or even on the highway to overtake. The three modes have their own character and we explain, which to use when.

Eco: This mode is apt when you are cruising on the highway. This will reduce the power and improve your vehicle’s mileage. This will make it an exciting package for those who are looking at getting good mileage, especially on the highway. Avoid using Eco mode in the city, it will hamper your performance.

City: Best for city and highway driving. This mode will return about 14-16km/l in the city and close to 19-22km/l on the highway. Honestly, if you have just bought the Nexon, you will not get high mileage. It does take a while for the engine to improve its performance and mileage. This will happen with additional kilometres on the clock.

Sport: This has some boost over the City mode. But not much of a difference. We recommend using this only when you want to overtake someone. This will make it apt and easy for you too.

We will share more updates on the Nexon, when we do our first paid service. If you wish to get all the visuals of the Nexon long termer, do not forget to see our video on the long term of the Tata Nexon.