Tata Harrier waiting period stands at 3 months: What are your alternatives?

The Tata Harrier was launched a few weeks ago, and the SUV’s super sharp price tag of Rs. 12.69 lakhs has made it  extremely attractive to a lot of buyers across India. The spurt in bookings for the Tata Harrier has also resulted in  a waiting period of 3 months. While a lot of buyers will be willing to put up with the higher waiting time as the Harrier offers great value-for-money, there will be others who simply can’t wait so long. If you belong to the latter category, here are some alternatives for you.

1. Hyundai Creta

The Hyundai Creta’s prices start from Rs. 9.6 lakhs for the base petrol version, going all the way up to Rs. 15.63  lakhs for the top end SX (O) Executive Diesel variant. What this means is there’s a fair bit of price overlap between the Creta’s higher variants and those of the Harrier (whose variants are priced between Rs. 12.69 lakhs and Rs. 16.25  lakhs). The Creta is available with minimal waiting times.

The Hyundai Creta offers a range of variants that the Harrier does not offer. For example, the petrol engine is not  offered by the Harrier but offered in the Creta, with both manual and automatic gearbox options. Similarly, a diesel  automatic variant, which is not offered on the Harrier, is offered by the Creta. While the Creta offers plenty of  features and engine-gearbox combinations, it’s still a much smaller SUV than the Harrier. For buyers who can’t wait,  and don’t really care about the extra size, space and street presence offered by the Harrier, the Creta is a logical  alternative.

2. Mahindra XUV500

The Mahindra XUV500 matches the Harrier in terms of size and street presence, and also offers an extra row of seats.  It has more engine-gearbox combinations – petrol-automatic, diesel-manual and diesel automatic – and also offers an all wheel drive layout on the top-spec trim. In terms of pricing, it’s priced slightly higher than the Harrier for  the entry level variants, with prices starting from Rs. 12.72 lakhs.

As you go up the variant chain though, the  XUV500 is significantly pricier, with the top-end version sitting at Rs. 19.48 lakhs. Of course, the top-end version  is a diesel-automatic model with an all wheel drive layout as standard, and generous levels of equipment all around.  So, for people who can spend more, can’t wait and are willing to settle for a tried and tested albeit slightly dated vehicle, the XUV500 makes great sense.

3. Jeep Compass

Like the XUV500 and the Hyundai Creta, the Jeep Compass has the measure of the Tata Harrier in terms of the engine and gearbox options (petrol-manual, petrol-automatic, diesel-manual and diesel-all wheel drive) on offer. It’s more powerful too. However, it doesn’t have the same street presence as the Harrier, and is clearly a size smaller though it also offers 5 seats. Also, it’s much more pricier than the Harrier, with prices starting from Rs. 15.4 lakhs, and going  all the way up to Rs. 22.9 lakhs. So, clearly it’s a lot more pricier than the Harrier, and for people who can fork  out this kind of money, the Compass will be delivered sooner than the Harrier.