TATA NEXON
The first Tata Motors car to be offered in the compact SUV segment and, oh boy, what a mark it has made! The Design of the Year also bags the Car of the Year crown
THE INDIAN SUV MARKET IS GROWING AT an extremely fast rate with 32 per cent of the total car market share dominated by SUVs. Out of the total SUV sales, the compact SUVs and crossovers account for 39 per cent. Maruti Suzuki, Ford and Hyundai had already made their mark and received huge success in the compact SUV segment with their Vitara Brezza, EcoSport and Creta respectively. How could our homebred manufacturer, Tata, stay away from the limelight? That's how the Nexon was born.
The Nexon marks a new era at the venerable Tata Motors – a compact SUV that takes on the best in the world and comes out on top. This is a product that doesn't offer you par for the course but sets the benchmark with its quality, its ride and handling balance, its interiors and most of all its styling while at the same time not forgetting that value for money factor that has always been crucial with Tata Motors.
What is design if it does not evoke an emotional response? That's something the Tata Motors design team have been able to evoke brilliantly with the Nexon and all the new generation cars rolling out of their Pune facility. There is hardly anything that looks as striking and abstract as the Nexon in its price bracket. The Nexon looks eye catching, has those typical Tata Motors styling cues and looks like a concept car that rolled off the Expo floors directly into the showrooms. Its just been a couple of months since the Nexon was launched and the car is already making a strong presence felt on roads, marking a strong revival for Tata Motors.
The Nexon is powered with two new turbocharged engines – a 3-cylinder, 1198cc petrol and a 4-cylinder, 1497cc diesel unit. Both the motors make similar power output of 108.49bhp while the peak torque is 170Nm and 260Nm for the petrol and diesel, respectively.
What makes us fall in love with the Nexon is the way it drives. Ride quality has been a USP of Tata cars since the Indica days but the Nexon sets a new benchmark on this front. The suspension setup provides a pliant ride at all speeds while possesing the ability to take over everything from speedbreakers to mild off-road terrain without a fuss. What is incredible is that with proper attention to a driver's needs, the Nexon also turned out to be an excellent handler around the MMRT. All in all, a great package that fuses great design with excellent practicality and good performance and dynamics. A natural winner of the title of overall Car of the Year. ⌧