Nissan Magnite breezes past Tata Nexon on sand [Video]

The Tata Nexon and Nissan Magnite are two of the most in-demand sub-compact SUVs of recent times. While both look more like jacked-up hatchbacks than traditional SUVs, they have impressed various urban and rural buyers with raised stances, spacious cabins and impressive performance at Global NCAP crash test results. But how do they fare when the going gets tough on loose surfaces? A video from the YouTube channel of ‘Notes from India by Anuj Singh’ shows both Tata Nexon and Nissan Magnite battling out in an off-road trail.

The video seems to be from an off-road event conducted by a group of Tata Nexon owners. Here, both Tata Nexon and Nissan Magnite try their luck on an off-road trail covered fully with loose sand. Firstly, all the iterations of Tata Nexon try to conquer the loose sandy surface one by one. The lineup included the pre-facelift 110 PS turbo-petrol, facelifted 120 PS turbo-petrol and facelifted 110 PS diesel engine versions of the Tata Nexon.

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Surprisingly, despite having rugged mechanical underpinnings and high ground clearance, all the three versions of the Tata Nexon, unfortunately, failed to conquer the off-road sandy trail. All the Nexons here got stuck at some point in the loose sand and failed to lift off despite several attempts. The video concludes with a non-turbocharged version of the Nissan Magnite, which produces much lesser power output of 72 PS, conquering the off-road sandy trail without breaking a sweat.

What made the Nissan Magnite a winner here?

While some might write off the Nissan Magnite as a better off-roader than the Tata Nexon without a second thought, there are multiple reasons which favoured the former.

Firstly, the driver of the Nissan Magnite maintained a consistent momentum before entering the sand-covered trail. The constant momentum built up using the accelerator and steering wheel optimally helped the Magnite’s driver to conquer the trail from the start till the end without any jitters.

Secondly, compared to the Tata Nexon, the Nissan Magnite has a lighter nose at the front, which helps the SUV to gain throttle responses more instantly while moving forward. The lower kerb weight of Nissan Magnite, which stands at 939 kg, is much lower than the 1,188 kg kerb weight of the Tata Nexon.

Lastly, no matter how capable a vehicle feels to drive on off-road trails, it can fail to conquer terrains if the driver’s skills are not optimal enough. Here, the Nissan Magnite’s driver struck a balance between building momentum and steering the SUV at right turns, which helped him win this round of off-road driving without any difficulty.

 

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