Finally upgraded from M800...To Safari 2.2

[akroy]

Congratulations and nice report !! Hope to see your 2K km travelogue soon

Abhi

[bhagathmp]

Hi Daius, congrats and Welcome to the CLUB. Even I cant thank TBHP enough for making my decision butter smooth. Took about 6-7 months of convincing job before my wife would really let me spend a million rupees on my dream truck. Trust me its worth every penny.
I'm sure you have gorged thru the whole of TBHP for all threads relating to Safari. Are you planning for any additional upgrades? I too was for the VX alloys ... boy your wife has got taste. These look stunning. Hopefully I'll get my hands on alloys soon. Cant wait to get back and go for a looooong drive with family. One more thing, after i got the truck, I found myself talking less to her while driving to and from work. Driving the truck makes the world around you disappear. Tons of space and no bumping into each other while shifting gears

Enjoy the ride and ride safe.

Bugs.

[four_tire]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

On the funny side (no offence meant in any way) i guess moving from a 800 to a Safari is like
riding a elephant after riding a horse :-)

I rather say riding elephant after riding a pig. Some horses are OHC, Lancer, ikon, baleno ..etc

[gowda79]

Hey Dude, nice selection on colour, alloys and the decision against your dad for the Safari.

Don't worry your dad will start enjoying the ride later once he starts using it.

Just enjoy the ride and keep rocking on long drives.......

[babureddy]

welcome to the beast club mate..
now i think you beast's pic is missing with pawan

[jaysmokesleaves]

Congrats!!!
nice colour choice and the alloys match well with it.!!
Enjoy trucking!

[chaxy]

thats quite an upgrade!! congrats on the 2.2. The color+alloys look perfect. enjoy!

[dkamath]

Congrats DaiusPitar, on your purchase! Good to know your loan processing with SBI was a smooth sail. It was an upgrade from the 800 too, for me. But being used to driving the Indica for long, the "hangover" was not so difficult to overcome .
Cheers

[DaiusPitar]

Originally Posted by musicmanaman

Congrat's, that's one grand upgrade from M 800 to Safari, enjoy the beast and keep us posted on the ownership experience as you munch miles with the beast.

Thank you. Will do.

Originally Posted by dadu

Congrats and a very well written IOR, please post your travelogue for the first trip. Hope you got your first service done too.

Thanks dadu, I have been keenly following your thread ever since your purchase.
Initially I even questioned going in for a safari, wondering if it required your or Kingshukt's technical knowledge.
Got my first service done during the trip. Will write about that later.

Originally Posted by HappyWheels

A nice narration of the buying experiece (or rather, decision experience). A great choice too.

It was very smart of you to go down and check the color physically before committing. The difference between the book color and on road color can be sometimes misleading.

Have a great time! :-)

Thank you HappyWheels. It was kind of interesting how it turned out to be the safari in the last 9 months since I decided to upgrade.
You are right, going to the yard was a good thing because we were actually very confused and there arent many Mountain Greens on the road to base a decision on.

Originally Posted by CtrlAltDel

congrats on the great purchase!

and its a very good "promotion" from your M800 too - almost like becoming a Project Manager immediately after working as a Jr Engineer

Man, you nailed it. You can imagine the stares I get when I pull up to park at office in the safari. After all they have been used to seeing me in the 800 for almost 3 years

Originally Posted by benbsb29

Daius, congrats on your new vehicle. Must say its one massive upgrade decision!
Great choice on the alloy design as well!

Thanks. And I am really happy with this upgrade decision. Thank you.

Originally Posted by Strangerintown

Congrats. Mountain green is a lovely colour for the Safari. And the alloys look great too. Do keep us posted about your ownership experience. Did you face any of the initial niggles? Does your truck have that "krrr" sound on acceleration? I believe tsk's truck does not have this sound and so Tata Motors may have finally got around to dealing with it. BTW I will be joining the club soon - should be taking delivery of my truck early next week

Thanks. And here's wishing you the very best. Choosing the colour/alloys was tough. Fortunately, I decided to drop that in my wife's hands.

What colour/version have you chosen? The odo stood at 2550 precisely after 27 days of ownership when I pulled in to my building yesterday. In this time, I have not encountered any niggle worth complaining.
No I dont believe I have the krrr sound on acceleration. Although I suspect I might have to check out some 2.2s that have it to be sure of what this sound is.

Originally Posted by bIte tHe bulLet

hey daius,

congrats dude. that is one stonking ride and a really *big* upgrade!!!

i also need to congratulate your wife - she not only has good taste in men (you!!) but also knows what looks good on a car (colour AND wheels!!)

i hope you have a really happy ownership experience with the safari and like i said on another thread, the safari does shrink around you in city traffic.... people seem to magically get the h@ll out of your way eh???

Ahhhmmm. Thanks dude. Just showed all the posts to my wife.


I am seriously wondering whats with the 'problem' in driving in the city. Frankly, I seem to have much more stress-free experience in the safari within the city.

Granted I cant make other cars disappear in the rear view mirrors, burn rubber on corners and all. But if wanted that I probably would have settled for choice no. 2, the cedia or may be even the verna.

[DaiusPitar]

Originally Posted by akroy

Congratulations and nice report !! Hope to see your 2K km travelogue soon

Abhi

Thanks abhi. I have been a keen follower of your travelogues. Believe me, I have circulated your Bangalore-Kolkata road trip to all the Bengalis at work


However, I dont think I will be in a position to provide a detailed travelogue this time around. Will be providing a point to point information on the places and the experience with the new truck.

Originally Posted by bhagathmp

Hi Daius, congrats and Welcome to the CLUB. Even I cant thank TBHP enough for making my decision butter smooth. Took about 6-7 months of convincing job before my wife would really let me spend a million rupees on my dream truck. Trust me its worth every penny.
I'm sure you have gorged thru the whole of TBHP for all threads relating to Safari. Are you planning for any additional upgrades? I too was for the VX alloys ... boy your wife has got taste. These look stunning. Hopefully I'll get my hands on alloys soon. Cant wait to get back and go for a looooong drive with family. One more thing, after i got the truck, I found myself talking less to her while driving to and from work. Driving the truck makes the world around you disappear. Tons of space and no bumping into each other while shifting gears

Enjoy the ride and ride safe.

Bugs.

Same here buddy. Doubt if I would have finalised on the safari if it were not for TBHP.

Thank you, will duly inform her.

Actually, I have a few things on my mind right now. Not decided. Will write about that later in a separate post. Except for the alloys, my vehicle is mostly stock.

Originally Posted by four_tire

I rather say riding elephant after riding a pig. Some horses are OHC, Lancer, ikon, baleno ..etc

Hey man, my M800 is no PIG. I protest. Kidding.

But seriously, it has served me loyally and was my first car. And I am not selling that, ever. During 2007 its done at least 5 bangalore-chennai round trips that I can immediately count. At speeds of 120+ on stretches and never given me any issue except for a recent failure of the timing belt. But at 45K+ thats kind of expected I suppose

Originally Posted by gowda79

Hey Dude, nice selection on colour, alloys and the decision against your dad for the Safari.

Don't worry your dad will start enjoying the ride later once he starts using it.

Just enjoy the ride and keep rocking on long drives.......

Thanks dude. My dad is an SUV guy himself. So its just till he drives it himself am sure.

Originally Posted by babureddy

welcome to the beast club mate..
now i think you beast's pic is missing with pawan

Yup, will upload it there soon enough.

Originally Posted by jaysmokesleaves

Congrats!!!
nice colour choice and the alloys match well with it.!!
Enjoy trucking!

Hey, thanks. Your truck was an inspiration to at least consider the light gold. After you uploaded your pics, the two colours that we almost had a toss-off over were light gold and mountain green. Light Gold especially from the maintenance angle.

Awaiting your travelogue on the bombay-orissa trip. That would be an inspiration am sure.

Originally Posted by chaxy

thats quite an upgrade!! congrats on the 2.2. The color+alloys look perfect. enjoy!

Thanks chaxy

Originally Posted by dkamath

Congrats DaiusPitar, on your purchase! Good to know your loan processing with SBI was a smooth sail. It was an upgrade from the 800 too, for me. But being used to driving the Indica for long, the "hangover" was not so difficult to overcome .
Cheers

You too form the 800? Thats great. I tried driving the 800 last night. I had not put my hands on it since we got the safari. The 800 been's in my wife's hands since.

And believe me, I could not drive it. Felt like I was in a toy metal bucket/cage. Could not feel the clutch/accelerator and felt like I had lost all judgement.
But in the same vein, the transition from the 800 to safari was far smoother.

[DaiusPitar]

I had planned on getting some good leather seat covers put, but didnt manage to get that done before we left on our trip. We took it with the plastic covers on the seats. Actually, I still have not gotten any seat covers so far. I have only removed the plastic cover. Need to get seat covers soon. I have now decided that leather is for later when I get the time (read money also?). For the immediate, I am planning to get some towel material or fabric seat covers. I did some checking last week and found that none of the outlets I tried seemed to stock readymade fabric or towel material seat covers for the Safari. Anybody know any place that does? Preferably good quality towel material because this would still be a cheaper solution until the leather upgrade.

The ICE is your OEM Blaupunkt HU. Weighing the audio setup, I would say it is just alright, but I find that the Bass is not very effective. You need not be an audiophile to figure that things could be better at this price point. But I dont plan to get any upgrades there for sometime. At best, get some portable player that I can connect to this via AUX. As I said, its manageable.

Apart from the alloys, the other upgrade I got done was a reverse camera with four sensors. The brand is Red Soul. It gives distance measurement, and beeps if objects are too close. I got this done from the dealer itself. The setup is good. And I find it very helpful, especially in tight spots. Helps when I need to park the truck in Tippasandra market or in the bylanes off CMH Road during peak hours for example. Could get it down to only 15,500 from the stated price of 18,000. It comes, with a warranty, if I recall correctly of one year.
I had originally gotten it fitted to make my wife's life easier when she drives it. But she is still not confident of driving the safari. And now I have come to appreciate this a lot.

I have not gotten underbody anti-rust or teflon coating done. Plan to get an under-body anti-rust treatment done either at 7,500 or 15,000 Kms. Plans are also on to get the 3M paint protection treatment done at the same time. Depends on how many kms I run up between September end to December.

Lastly, I need to get some kind of lock for the spare wheel. Else somebody could just unscrew the damn thing and carry it away. Any suggestions?

Overall, I managed only a cash discount of Rs.11,000. The sales guy rubs it in saying he would have offered 25,000 cash discount for my bargaining had I approached him 3 months back. I got exactly the same comments from both Manipal and Prerana. The uniform response was that TM has got some new regional sales manager this year who is setting different rules on dealer discounts. Whatever...


The dealer threw in the usual floor mats, perfume, mudflaps etc. Concorde also fitted Llumar sunfilm (Black, 50%). Its strictly better than not having a sunfilm. Thats all. Since we left immediately, and this was free, I settled for it. Plan to upgrade to HuperOptik ones later. Seen some of them and was impressed. I might possibly get the windscreen done up soon.

I feel the mudflaps are partly cosmetic. At least the ones that Concorde have fitted in mine are. They are joined to the body only on side with the net effect that seem to stand out a bit funny, only upon close inspection mind you. Thinking of getting it removed.

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by DaiusPitar

I have only removed the plastic cover. Need to get seat covers soon. I have now decided that leather is for later when I get the time (read money also?). For the immediate, I am planning to get some towel material or fabric seat covers.

Did you look at Artificial Leather covers? That might work will you get actual leather covers.

Cost was 2,000 Rs for small hatch, might be 4 - 5,000 for Safari. How much fabric covers cost?

[neoonwheels]

The beast looks good. Congrats on your purchase

[hellstar]

Hi dude thats one hell of an upgrade and a nice report !

[DaiusPitar]

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay

Did you look at Artificial Leather covers? That might work will you get actual leather covers.

Cost was 2,000 Rs for small hatch, might be 4 - 5,000 for Safari. How much fabric covers cost?

I did, a decent set costs at least 10K. Fabric is for around 3K and Towel material is for around 1.8-2K

Originally Posted by neoonwheels

The beast looks good. Congrats on your purchase

Thanks dude

Originally Posted by hellstar

Hi dude thats one hell of an upgrade and a nice report !

Thank you! Your Verna thread was interesting enough for me to actually consider the same.