[tsk1979]

D-1 day 11:30am:
Q.Can I please have the status update for my Loan.
A. Please give us a call by 4:30pm. It will definitely be done by then. You can go ahead and take delivery tomorrow
1630:
Q.Can I please have the status update for my Loan.
A. Sir, you will definitely get to know in another hour. Please don't worry sir
This answer was given by the HDFC Bank Noida loan incharge.. as well as the agent I was dealing with in Ldh,
1730:
Phone rings.
Sir, your loan has been rejected.
For some time I am really speechless. I've given the advance amount, booking is done, and she is ready for delivery, but some nincompoop is telling me loan has been rejected.
I am really speechless, and boggled. Then I realize "hello hello" being said on the other end.
I just manage a "Why".
And the answer.
Sir you own an indica, so we can't give you a loan for a safari, only for a mid size car like Indigo/Fiesta etc., why don't you buy an indigo.
At that moment, I wish I could tranform myself into electromagnetic radiation, go through the CDMA network, and get hold of the guys neck, and shake him till his eyes pop out.
But I do no such thing.
I just start shouting and threatening, talking about my 6 year relationship with bank, etc., etc., etc., and ask to speak to his superior
Suddenly he is again saying sorry, and telling me to wait till 7pm
I tell him okay, and call up the dealer's agent(Dada motors), and give him and earfull, and tell him why the hell he did not tell me this stupid HDFC policy before, I could have gone to Kotak with no hassles.
He is all apologetic and tells me that he will take care, please wait for the call.
A few phone calls here and there and a few abuses later, I get that magic call. Your loan has been approved. The approved amount is less than what I had asked for, but I am too escastic to care.
So I abuse them a litter more, and tell them to send the confirmation message to dealer.
The SMS comes, and its clear that we are all ready to go

D-Day:
1300:
We are at the dealership, and all formalities are being done, and we are ready to rock.
More whopper from HDFC. All the while they are assuming that I will register in Noida. I really lose my cool, and frankly tell then, if I wanted to register in Noida only, why the hell would I do all this monkey business of buying in PB!?
My permanent address is in Punjab, and I want registeration here!
Again some circus, and lots of abuses later she is ready. No service book because its out of stock, but will definitely courier it by wed
1600:
We drive out with 5 liters of diesel, to our favorite pump.
"Diesel out of stock" a board proclaims. Same story at other pumps, and five liters is really not much.
A few phonecalls later a contact who own petrol pumps at the other end of town says he will keep diesel for us, no issues, just come before 8.
1800:
Off we go. I turn on the parking lights, and then click, lights go off.
Punjab is having a lot of power cuts, and our safari just had one.
Luckily dealer is on the way, and we head there.
The helpline car is out for rescuing someone else, and will be back in 30 minutes. We decide to fill diesel first. Its dark, and I can barely see the gauges. Luckily the headlights work. Everything else, fogs. parking lamps, rear lamps have gone kaput. On pressing the brake the lamps work thankfully
We fill diesel and by 8:30 we are back at the dealer
2100:
The electrician says she's blown 5 fuses, can I come tomorrow, there is a short somewhere. At that moment I want to hold him and short him against a 440V socket, but then its not his fault. Its the fault of the nincomcoop at Tata quality control dept.
I tell them I hear some sounds from steering wheel, can you open and see, if you find short well and good.
Well he opens the cover, and viola there is the burnt wire. QC problem. Its placed such that it rubs against the steering column and all that rubbing has made the insulation tear off(insulation is actually would electrical tape in Tata speak).
I mentally curse the imbecile who designed this and ask him to re-wind it.
He does a swell job, and we are ready to go.
And on the way, the left window starts rattling.
Then when I'm parking at night I hear strange clicks from AC, like compressor cycling off and all while I increase rpm from idle.
I know its going to be a long long day at Dada
D+1 Day:
First is the rattling job tackling. Try try again, but we won't succeed. Well I am more worried about the AC.
The service advisor(a very senior cheerful middle aged guy) just laughes and tells me they spent 3 days in diagnosing this problem till they realized, its not a problem, if you increase rpm from idle erratically etc., it will cut off compressor. Its a feature not a bug.
I am in no mood to believe it and ask him to prove it on another 2.2
He obliges and attaches the bulb to the AC circuit. With AC on, the bulb goes on. He asks me to do tapping on the Accelerator, and the bulb switches on and off.
Same on our 2.2
Well thats solved, and so its time for picturs

Taking photos makes us hungry, so what better way than to go to Aman chicken and have the best Rahra chicken in the world!

So this sums up the purchase experience. Now time to talk about the car.
In the past 4 days she's done 600 kms, and that includes a 320kms Ldh-Del trip too.
Luckily there has been just one scary problem, and touchwood it stays that way!
On the finance side I want to cook a few HDFC people and use there meat in the rahra chicken gravy. Guys if you ever take an HDFC loan for your dream car, please take permission from them first. They will decide what car you should buy

And without much ado let me list the huge positives
1. Comfort. Delhi drive used to tire me and my wife both, but now its a breeze. No more aches and pains
2. Power . Weeeee Even restricted to 2500rpm of running in, its a lot!
3. Stability
4. Ride. The crators on NH1 seem non existant, and its appears that Indian roads have improved!
The Negatives
1. Rattle Rattle. I don't like rattles before 15000kms
2. Short problem. Not done, mr Tata. Please fire the nutjob who does QC
The annoying
1. Rear view mirror : When you switch to night mode, the roof AC interferes with vision because headlamps of vehicle behind you reflect of the glossy finish. This is such a glaring egronomical omission. Simple to correct with a thin fabric layer on plastic, but then it won't be Tata if they fix this, right?
2. Gear shift : 1st and reverse are a little painful to engage. Hopefully things will improve my first service
3. HU : The sound system is lousy, with very weak bass.
4. Horn : It will be good on a Luna, not a safari
5. Brakes : They also have to be adjusted, not in perfect sync yet

Overall?
I am loving it!

FE Kya hai?
From 71kms on the odo to 579 on the odo it consumed 48 liters of diesel. Gulp Gulp Gulp!
Hopefully, hoping hoping hoping this will definitely improve.
I was keeping 90-100 on the highway, promise!

[architect]

Congratulations TSK,

Another Safari comes home, despite all those initial hiccups. Great narration, especially about the HDFC content in the chicken!! But I guess at the end of the day, the Safari experience is worth these little things, right?

[phamilyman]

oh ji saab, vadhaaiyaan!! Beast looks goood.

When do we have a TD of the 4x4? Monsoons have given enough ugly puddles to NCR

or you can ... gasp ... take it to Dhauj!!

[navpreet318]

hey congrats man.doesn't she look like an angel in white.even i have the same cloour.
enjoy her.bully people on the road.if they don't move out of your way then drive up close to their rear bumper and honk.they will give way.i know that what i did all the way fron dehradun to amritsar and back.


electricals will give way sooner or later.i drove from amritsar to dehradun without the horn. and later the valve on right rear wheels failed and i had sudden complete loss of air.
when i had bought it last year i had power steering oil leakage on the second day.the AC then lost all its gas because the AC plumbing was too close to the steering shaft and had been rubbing and gotten destroyed due to it.then the Fuse for the AC fan went off.you need to put a larger rating fuse in it.

so keep a check on all these things.chek the different oil levels regularly.idle her for atleast 5 minutes before finally switching her off for the day.


take care.carry the regular set of tools as well as extra fuses and be ready for anything.life's so boring without challenges.ain't it.

just like you said even after all these problems i'm loving it.

cheers


ps remove the red ribbon.it will cause red lines on the hood.very hard to remove.don't ask how i know.

[jkdas]

Atlast! Nice narration.

Private banks can be a headache.

Now,
2) It WILL get better after you do couple of k's
3) Which HU?
4) My first upgrade. Get a Mega or so
5) No issues till now.Wider tyres would have helped.

[tsk1979]

thanks for your tips navpreet, but you are scaring me. I really hope the shorted wire was the last of troubles.
@jkdas, the HU is Alpine.
As for brakes its not the skid problem, somehow even while normal non panic braking, the pedal does not seem "right" as it did on one TD I did. I guess its adjustment problem.
I really hope I get my service book before the first service!

[musicmanaman]

Congrats on getting your beast finally, I'm confident all small niggles will be sorted out soon and you'll be having a ball with the beast. The experience with HDFC feels bad though and I hope no one has to go through the same. Enjoy and wear your seat belts.

[johy]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Well thats solved, and so its time for picturs

Tsk, nice buy, nice color.

You said picture(s) - but I see only one - and that one made you hungry? What about us? We are hungry for MORE!

[tsk1979]

Ok, here are a couple more
Will take some more in the coming weeks.




Meanwhile another short story at the dealership.
I go to PDI folks and tell them that my front sump guard(one with holes visible) is tilted.
They tell me its a forged iron piece which can be screwed only one way, and if its tilted its because manufacturing is that way.
I don't believe him and go to the yard where 7 safari's are parked.
3 have it straight and 4 have it tilted, and upon close inspection, its true! Its indeed made in tilted way in some cars.

Another thing I am noticing is that when you turn the steering wheel such that its near the limit(its still not completely at the limit, just very near) there is some noise of power steering pump or something?
Is it normal?

[Steeroid]

Congrats, Tanveer. Sad to hear of your blown fuses and stuff - this should've been picked up by the Dealer if they had tested the car before delivery. Did they just clean the car and deliver to you? This however is no excuse for QC at the factory!

Originally Posted by tsk1979

They tell me its a forged iron piece which can be screwed only one way, and if its tilted its because manufacturing is that way.I don't believe him and go to the yard where 7 safari's are parked.
3 have it straight and 4 have it tilted, and upon close inspection, its true! Its indeed made in tilted way in some cars.

My sump guard is slightly tilted, too. I went through the same rigmarole with my dealer.

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Another thing I am noticing is that when you turn the steering wheel such that its near the limit(its still not completely at the limit, just very near) there is some noise of power steering pump or something?
Is it normal?

At full lock, most power steering units make a bit of noise. At full lock, though - not approaching full lock.

I think you're going to have a lot of questions.

[jyobeb]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Another thing I am noticing is that when you turn the steering wheel such that its near the limit(its still not completely at the limit, just very near) there is some noise of power steering pump or something?
Is it normal?

Yup! The bane of the Safari, all the way from from the 1998 model.

[khan_sultan]

Originally Posted by navpreet318

....idle her for atleast 5 minutes before finally switching her off for the day.
.

.. you sure.. 5 minutes of idling.!!!!!

Originally Posted by navpreet318

ps remove the red ribbon.it will cause red lines on the hood.very hard to remove.don't ask how i know.

Is it a reflection on the quality of paint or the quality of the color used in the ribbon .

[bglsrini]

congratulation on your safari..............nice colour and it looks great.

[tsk1979]

I idle her for 30seconds before marching(every engine shutoff), and for 30 seconds before switching off the ignition key.
Its mentioned clearly in the downloaded owners manual.
I am reading the pdf version since my service book is still not ready.
How many of you noticed the AC switch off and on at idle on throttle input

[jkdas]

Try the setting in the HU. Play it at 12-15-17 to 'hear bass'