Salvio Hexa

Tata Motors field their latest, safest and greatest challenger in the seven-seater arena long dominated by one big name. Will the Hexa help them carve a larger piece of the pie?

- Jim Gorde

HEXADECIMAL CODES AND protective charms are not my strong point. It takes a fair bit of knowledge to get the various elements right and put them to good use. Good use? Yes, give the car-buyer — the one who wants a capable car for six or seven passengers — a car that can do everything they need in a manner that doesn’t require them to do everything themselves. Take capability and give it an appealing form with enough going on under the skin to encapsulate applying all of that ability into action at the turn of a knob.

The Tata Hexa is not just an Aria reincarnate. It’s a new challenger with new weapons and abilities and it will take you by utter surprise if you come bearing expectations of complacence. First of all, the exterior has been given a modern makeover and not just with the shape of the metal. There are smoked projector combination headlamps with LED daytime lights on either side of a piano-black finish aggressive grille, while the rear gets swanky new tail-lamp clusters with LG’s LED tech that almost seems like it’s from their OLED stable. The side profile is accentuated by the contrast body-cladding and the large 19-inch wheels with 235/55 specially-developed MRF Wanderer rubber. The design is smart, but it doesn’t really belie its size. It’s a large vehicle, and it weighs in at a large vehicle-like 2,280 kg.