Every car company needs a flagship product that can demonstrate its technology and design prowess to the world. And in 2016 the best way to do this is with a crossover or a SUV. And a flagship is exactly what Tata Motors is going for with its new Hexa. At first glance, the Hexa might look like a facelifted Aria, but the changes are far deeper than just some new body panels. In fact, you could call this an all-new car. The Tata Hexa car has been launched at a price of Rs. 11.99 lakh.Let's start with the design though. The Hexa is the second car after the Tiagothat gets what Tata Motors calls the ‘Impact’ design language. And if impact is what the Tata design team was going for, I think they have pretty much nailed it. The sheer stance and road presence of the Hexa is immense – far greater than what the Safari Storme pulls off.The large gloss black front grille gets two distinct border slats, the bottom in chrome and the top in black that connects the two swept back projector headlamps. The lower half of the bumper gets a large central grille that has a wraparound accent painted in shade of matte grey. The fog lamp and daytime running lights on the bumper too get their own little grilles and on the whole I think that although there is just a hint of crossover-ness that the Hexa has, this is about as butch as a crossover can ever get.A plastic cladding dominates the lower portions of the Hexa and combined with the wider wheel arches and the door trims, it makes the car look a lot more aggressive than it would have otherwise. The side profile is also dominated by the sloping roofline that travels up right at the very end. There's also the chrome accent piece that carries the Hexa badge right behind the C-pillar. The rear end of the car has two large horizontally placed LED tail lamps with a really cool lighting and a large chrome accent piece that runs across the tail gate. Similar to the front, the rear too gets a matte grey scuff plate and two trapezoidal exhaust tips.And then we come to my favourite part of the design – the 19-inch wheels! I am so glad that Tata has decided to choose something classic and simple like these 5-spoke wheels in a two-tone black and polished shade instead of choosing something unnecessarily ultra-modern and ruining the design package. Not only do they look great standing still but the polished wheels look even better in motion. The sheer step up in design and quality are obvious when you step into the Hexa. Shut lines and the overall quality of the plastics and materials used are by far the best we have ever seen on any Tata Motors vehicle in the past. Its great how consistently we have said this of all the recent Tata products - meaning with each car, the company is taking big strides off late. The all-black interior gets a hearty dose of leather on the dashboard and on the door panels along with the leather seats on the top of the line variant. The seats are not only well designed but also feel top notch in terms of their tactile feel with a really good grain of leather running through as well. My only grouse is the slight lack of shoulder support on the front seats and the fact that the padding seems a little harder than it should be.The simple gloss black console combined with a chrome wraparound is pleasing to the eye and so are the well placed chrome/brushed aluminium accent pieces around the dashboard and the AC vent. The climate control knobs are placed slightly lower than they should have but you do get used to them very quickly. The horizontal central console on the automatic houses the gear shift lever enclosed in a black bezel. You get just one cup-holder and no real slot to place your smartphone apart from the central flip up storage space between the seats.You can get the Hexa in either a six or seven seater configuration. Rear leg space in both versions is quite healthy and the rear passengers get their own AC vents in the centre and on the B-pillars. The third row could get slightly cramped if you are of average height but passengers do get their own storage space and charging points. The Hexa’s large glass area makes it quite airy on the inside and even without something like a panoramic sunroof, it does feel very bright – especially good considering an all-black interior can seem to make the car appear to be cramped.
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