A Day At The Tata Nexon Skill Arena

  • Oct 13, 2017
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We took the Tata Nexon for a spin on a short obstacle course recently. Here’s what we think of it

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Tata Motors held the ‘Nexon Skill Arena’ drive experience at Leisure Valley Park in Gurugram recently to showcase the Nexon compact crossover’s prowess to potential customers. In this event, customers got a chance to drive the Nexon through a small obstacle course which included urban off-road situations like tackling rumble strips, negotiating tight turns and testing the wheel articulation and ease of parking. Other than the course that was prepared exclusively for the event, Tata Motors also had a lounge where potential customers could experience the Nexon’s cabin and its host of features from close quarters.

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The specially designed course comprised slaloms, side slopes, axle twisters and alternate rumblers which showcased the Nexon’s ride quality. Customers could either opt to drive the Nexon or let a professional take them through the course to better understand the newest entrant in the sub-4 metre SUV segment. We got to drive the Nexon’s 1.5-litre Duratorq diesel variant on the course and came back impressed by the superior comfort and ride quality it offered. The Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, the Ford EcoSport and the Mahindra TUV 300 will now have an even tougher battle to claim the top spot in this cut-throat segment.

Before we set off, we were instructed to switch to Sport mode for better throttle response. In addition to this mode, the Nexon also gets a City and Eco mode that are more suited for your daily commute. The first test was a parallel parking competition where customers were given points on how well they could park the car. At the end of the day, the winners of this competition received gift hampers and other goodies. Next up was a tight turn before the straight leading to the rumble strips. The Nexon munched these up without any trouble and we could barely feel the bumps inside the cabin. The softly cushioned seats are comfortable, but we would have liked them to be a bit firmer, to be honest.
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After this, we put the compact SUV through axle twisters which showcased its wheel articulation. Even this obstacle proved to be a piece of cake for the Nexon with us already marching forward to the next one - the side slopes. Although the obstacles were a little tamer than what we experienced during the ‘Hexa Experience Centre’, most owners will never get a chance to put their Nexons through such conditions within the city. Unless you live in Mumbai or Bengaluru, of course.         
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Other than the diesel variant we tested, the Nexon is also available with a 1.2-litre Revotron petrol engine. Along with the Ford EcoSport Ecoboost variant, this is the only other SUV in the segment to feature a turbo petrol motor. Both the motors that power the Nexon produce 110PS of maximum power. While the diesel engine churns out 260Nm of peak torque, the petrol engine is rated at 170Nm. For now, there is only one transmission on offer - a 6-speed manual gearbox. However, Tata is set to introduce an AMT gearbox with both variants early next year. See what we think of the Nexon here.

The Nexon’s petrol range is priced between Rs 5.85 lakh for the base XE variant and Rs 8.6 lakh for the XZ+ dual-tone variant. The diesel range starts at Rs 6.85 lakh and goes up to Rs 9.45 lakh (all prices, ex-showroom New Delhi) for the top-spec variant.

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