[shashanka]

Originally Posted by scuba

Being from Serbia, buying and driving an Indian car can look a little bit odd. Not because of the car itself, but because Serbia is not accustomed to Indian car industry. We prefer European cars or Japanese and Korean vehicles. Only a small number of people know about Indian car industry and they drive Mahindras (Goa and Bolero pickups) or Tata Indica. And that is really small portion of our driving population. Only 14 Tata ..........

Scuba, that was one straight from the heart ! Wonderful thread and very informative too - it does us good to know that one of Tata's products too is alive and doing well there. Usually - as you too have mentioned - one hears of Mahindra's products which have earned a good name for themselves in some overseas markets.

I was in Brodogradiliste, Split way back in 1975 (I am 63 and retired now) as part of the crew (the junior most 5th engineer!) taking delivery of a large tanker from the shipyard. We have very happy memories of our stay there.
We too are happy to recieve guests in our country, so if you happen to be here, you will not be disappointed!

I wish you many more more kilometers of happy touring with your gentle giant. And don't bother about those gremlins & boogie-men - we have all learned to live with them!

Regards,
Shashanka

[psurelia]

Scuba sir, very nice to read about your experience with your Safari. The new version (called Safari Storme) is much more improved over the Dicor. Hope Tata starts selling their vehicles in Serbia soon!

In the mean time, please do come to Kolkata if you get a chance and you can get to drive mine and we will call for a Team-BHP Kolkata chapter meet just for you . Looking forward to many more interesting stuffs...

[jkrishnakj]

Welcome Aboard, and that too with a Safari.
I am currently owning my second safari without any regrets and am sure you will be enjoying your ride too.

Guess what - i wish i could get one of those spare wheel covers instead of the one that we all have in India.

A few pictures here, should be going into the Safari Owners pictures thread. Hope to continue hearing about your ownership. Best wishes.

[Sutripta]

Originally Posted by scuba

mine is five seater

Thanks. Was half expecting that.

Wonder if a 7 seater Safari is sold outside of India.

Regards
Sutripta

[Catalyst_delhi]

Liked reading your thread on your Safari. I am now pretty convinced that my next car would be the Safari. Your country is beautiful!

[v_safari]

Helo Scuba,

Welcome to TBHP.
It felt great reading your views about SAFARI. An Indian buys an Indian vehicle abroad. I'm sure 99% people living abroad would buy something else.
You've contributed indirectly to Indian economy. :-)

Also its good to know that Safari can handle this much cold weather very well.
I own a Safari Storme. I wish I could take my giant all the way across the world.

[Rollingwheels26]

Originally Posted by scuba

@moralfibre

Thank you, condor. I have never been to India. Closest I went was to Maldives to dive there, but that is not true India. Looks like we have the same wish. Maybe we could meet halfway

But if anybody come to Serbia, he or she will not regret a single moment for being here. Serbia is small but beautiful. And the beauty is the reason why I would like to visit India. A true India

Serbians like to have guests and we are giving our best for visitors to have nice time and to learn about Serbia and it's beauties. It is not strange for us to invite guests from abroad to stay at our homes instead of hotels and we share everything with our guests.
Well, not the woman, of course

You had me in splits with that line

Your thread has inspired me to do two things- Check out a Tata Safari and visit Serbia someday in the future. From your pics it does look as lovely as you describe it to be

[TOINGPOING]

We feel proud to hear Tata Safari being liked in foreign markets.Wonder,why Tata does not bother about giving quality like Toyota. When they can manufacture Land Rover with international quality,why not Safari?

[scuba]

Thank you all for good wishes, I am sure that I will drive my Safari for long period of time and many thousands of kilometers. As for Gremlins and boogie man, we have our own car industry, Crvena zastava (Red flag) from Kragujevac, and Serbians are very well accustomed to that kind of stuff . So, I already use to live in peace with such issues on my Safari. It is just a matter of accepting things with philosophical calmness

Serbia is really beautiful country and I truly regret that we are so far away. As much as I would like to see India in it's true colors and to fill my soul with beauties of India's vast diversity of nature, that much I would like to introduce my country and it's beauties to other people.

In my following posts I will write my observations about Safari as things happen. Also, I will post photos and work behind resolving problems if they occur. Please, ask whatever you wish about my Safari and Serbia, and I will gladly answer as best as I can.

I must say one little thing. It is not my intention to compare Safari with any other 4x4 or SUV because it will immediately start endless and often pointless discussion with no final decision which is best, bigger, better, stronger.

Any further comparison made by me, of Safari with other makes and models, will be simple to show how other engineers solved same or similar issue, without any intention to favor, praise or mock any part. I hope that you will understand this and I thank you in advance for that. This decision of mine is the result of huge time that I have spent on other forums with similar themes as BHP, and on bjbikers.com where I am one of moderators.

(This is not commercial of any kind for bjbikers.com. Bjbikers is non profit, open, technically and educationally oriented forum lead solely by bikers from all around Serbia)

[invidious]

Impressive posts and pictures. You say the car is from Italy. Funny story - I was talking to my Italian friend in Copenhagen and mentioned that Italians make awesome cars. She said, "Ah but my uncle has a Tata showroom - he sells Tata cars." This was in 2005. I was quite amazed as I didn't realize that Tata makes left-hand drive cars for Western Europe. I wonder if your car is from the same dealer; if memory serves me right he was based in Treviso.

Also, keep as many Tata cars as you like; just send over Djokovic. Fair barter.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by scuba

And as for winter temperature, I don't know what they have done in deep freeze chamber in India, but my Safari fires at -15 like mad. Obviously Tata has good deep freeze and good engineers in that part . Good battery and letting those glow plugs twice to do their job is enough for Safari to start.

Yes, with the right diesel, Safari will fire up at -20 without problem, unless you are at altitudes above 3000m above sea level or so. The Storme has that problem also fixed by slight change in ECU maps.

That said, if you suspect that the diesel may have frozen, use the hand pump to confirm. The fuel pump can get damaged if the Safari is dry cranked extensively.

Secondly, keep the sedimenter free of water. I am sure in Serbia you won't get water problem due to lack of contamination of underground tanks, but if you ever feel that winter diesel may be getting frozen, remember, it could be due to water freezing, and not the diesel.
So keeping sedimeter empty keeps things good.

I don't like to use those sprays for easy start because I have notion that explosions of those sprays is too harsh for cold engine. My opinion is that it is much better to let glow plugs to warm two or three times and than to crank the engine. But hey, maybe I am wrong. This is just my personal opinion.

Yes, with winter diesel, no need of any additives.

But if anybody come to Serbia, he or she will not regret a single moment for being here. Serbia is small but beautiful. And the beauty is the reason why I would like to visit India. A true India

Serbians like to have guests and we are giving our best for visitors to have nice time and to learn about Serbia and it's beauties. It is not strange for us to invite guests from abroad to stay at our homes instead of hotels and we share everything with our guests.
Well, not the woman, of course
.

Well, not Serbia is on my list of places to visit

[supremeBaleno]

@scuba, good to see you on the forum. Along with the Safari - which has quite some fans here.

I spent some time in Belgrade and was amazed at the variety of cars found there - especially the way the latest co-existed with old models. And more importantly, it was great to see most of the cars we have in India. But I missed seeing a Safari there. Not surprising since you say only 13 odd are registered in Serbia.
My thread on the Serbian experience : http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...-all-here.html

Lovely place, good people, nice night life. And last but not the least, I felt that Serbia is home to some of the most beautiful women in the world - "more beauty per square meter" than any other country I have been to.

Enjoy your stay here.

[scuba]

@supremeBaleno

Thank you very much for nice words about Belgrade, my hometown, and Serbia in general. Especially for complements to our women. With your permission, I will take the liberty and show your post to all of my feminine friends. I am sure that all of them will thank you.

Also, beautiful thread of Serbia, straight from the heart.

As for car scene in Serbia, we really have almost all makes and models in range from 50 years old, to cars made yesterday. And the best of all, they all work somehow.

Thank you once again

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by scuba

Thank you very much for nice words about Belgrade, my hometown, and Serbia in general. Especially for complements to our women. With your permission, I will take the liberty and show your post to all of my feminine friends. I am sure that all of them will thank you.

Sure, please do. Actually, there's a more detailed blog-post that I did on that topic. One of the many other posts that I wrote on the various interesting facets of Serbia.

[vinayrathore]

Hey Scuba! Finally the thread is live. Was waiting for it since your introduction post.

A really crisp and to the point intro to your gentle giant! Kudos to you to take the plunge and buy a car that has no ASS in the entire country let alone nearby. Takes guts!

Will wait for further updates eagerly.