Report 1

The Tata Safari Storme has had a busy schedule since October, munching kilometres much quicker than any other car that did duty as part of CarWale’s long term fleet. We have already covered close to 7,000km and before it switchesduties to being a daily commuter in Mumbai, we look at all the positives and negatives of this old-school SUV from its highway runs.

The Storme mostly plied on the National Highways travelling through four states, from Gujarat to Karnataka,onvarious trips.Each place was different right from language, weather, driving conditions and even people, but the kind of attention the Safari got was the same. The big white SUV was treated with respect no matter where it went, both in the cities and on the countryside. The cult image, especially with the white colours, is noticeable.People expect you to be some politician or strongman, and it is helpful at least in some ways. No one will cut ahead in the toll queue, you won’t have to witness too many fancy overtaking manoeuvresand chances of the police stopping you for random checks is significantly lower.

While we will certainly give the Safari Storme full marks on looks, there are a few rants in the other departments. The driving ergonomics for example are not the best; three to four hours on the steering is not a problem but anything beyond that can instigate cramps in muscles that you didn’t even know existed. Despite thatthe team thinks it is a very nice way of driving,having a commanding position over everything, but the heavy vehicles.

We certainly want Tata to work on the refinement, it is a relatively old engine and the diesel clatter and vibrations in the cabin are pretty evident. The efficiency can also be little better – driving at decent pace, we usually managed an efficiency of around 11kpl. The tank range is around 500km which is not bad but the Volkswagen Polo could easily do 650km before stopping for refuel.It is an old engine and the Storme is quite a heavy SUV, and so we are hoping to see more than just cosmetic updates in the new version that is expected next year. Both Omkar and I were forced to use the four-wheel-drive couple of times to tackle off-road sections and despite the weight and extremely slushy conditions, the SUV bailed us out with ease.

Night travel in the Storme is fun; the light spread in low beam is perfect although the visibility in high-beam could have been better. I think Xenon low beam and Halogen high beam would be a better bet for this segment of cars.

The middle row can accommodate three people in comfort; in fact this is the best place in the cabin. No one in our team has sat in the back row of the Safari though, we preferred taking a second car instead; the days of side-facing rear seats is past and Tata should also change this in the next model.

While all the travelling was lot of fun, all the stress did take a toll on the car’s health. We recently had to service the car, which also included prematurely changing the clutch at 18,000km. Ideally it should easily last for up to 40,000km in a personal car, the media test vehicles go through a lot more abuse during the routine. We got the car somewhere close to 11,000km and it already had taken some beating, and we further aggravated it through our non-stop trip. The car visited the service station soon after and is back in the pink of health. The experience at the Tata workshop was great, their staff is knowledgeable and understandably annoyed about the fried clutch. The actual service didn’t take much time, though our coordination with Tata office and service centre meant that the car took four days to return. The total bill including the clutch replacement, alignment - balancing and full service including all fluid change cost around Rs 30,000. Of course, the clutch was the major component in the total cost while rest of it was very much within norms.

The Safari Strome was a decent companion on the highways, baring the body roll and relatively low NVH levels at high speeds. None of us really had to continuously drive for long hours, so the seating was not much of an issue. The biggest advantage though is the boot space, when there are less than five people in the car. We managed to stuff five people’s luggage and still had space enough to fold and fit Ranjan, unfortunately he got a whiff of the plan and we failed to get you an interesting photo.

Next month will be all about the city drive and Selvin may not be the happiest guy driving the big boy through the traffic. Stay tuned to know more about the usability and practicality of the Safari Storme as an everyday car.