[Ash_vtec]

Detailed review. Excellent job.

Tata does have a long way to go, but has a taken a step in the right direction.

That said, a big kudos to those who voluntarily buy tata products and dont run taxi services. Takes some commitment to put good money down on a substandard engineered product.

XUV 500 is no great product, but is leagues above this sloppy goliath.

[Urban_Nomad]

This is an excellent review; rated 5 sitaara.

I love the pricing of the Lx variant. Compared the scorpio Sle; it is 30k more expensive with a similar list of features (save for the fog lamps).

For that 30k; you get-

* A vastly improved ride and handling package (most important)
* Overall; a better looking vehicle (IMO)
* Better (IMO) quality interiors. Also; the lower variant comes with black interiors. Personally; me no likey too much beige. Not sure how it would look in person though.
* Superlative space and comfort (albeit at the sacrifice of additional seats vis a vis the scorp).
* A nice sounding (as per Tsk) music system (Sle comes without one)

A couple of times that I saw the Storme's adverts; I felt it simply did not match the quality of the safari ads. Lets see how it does. But given Scoripo's and XUV's stronghold on the market; I am not epecting it to do more than 1.5 k and the max sales would be from Lx.

PS - the brochure was silent on whether the body cladding on Lx was present / body colored / black / grey. Any inputs on this?

[tsk1979]

All storme variants now come with body colored bumpers(Thats what the Tata representative told us)

[madhkris]

Wow what an exhaustive review!! Rated 5 stars Tanveer. Your review has put things into perspective now. Have a coupla questions:
Any inputs on when we can expect the Storme in Bangalore and if the Lx will be under the 10L mark?
Sorry if I missed it in the review, what is the top speed on highways?

[rb2399]

Looking at the engine bay, I noticed that they have done away with the air filter service indicator (present in both 2.2 as well as Aria). I don't know what made them do that ! .Or maybe they don't want us to rely on the service indicator and clean/change the filter element at every service !

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by madhkris

Wow what an exhaustive review!! Rated 5 stars Tanveer. Your review has put things into perspective now. Have a coupla questions:
Any inputs on when we can expect the Storme in Bangalore and if the Lx will be under the 10L mark?
Sorry if I missed it in the review, what is the top speed on highways?

The owners manual states top speed is 160kmph
Price will be around 1 re above the 10L mark so that you pay the higher tax bracket
As you know, this is what companies do. They do not have any idea about the impact that one rupee can cause to the on road price

Originally Posted by rb2399

Looking at the engine bay, I noticed that they have done away with the air filter service indicator (present in both 2.2 as well as Aria). I don't know what made them do that ! .Or maybe they don't want us to rely on the service indicator and clean/change the filter element at every service !

Air filter is cleaned at every service anyways. That said, that service indicator is pretty useless. Never tells the truth!

[narayan]

Originally Posted by Urban_Nomad

This is an excellent review; rated 5 sitaara.

I love the pricing of the Lx variant. Compared the scorpio Sle; it is 30k more expensive with a similar list of features (save for the fog lamps).

For that 30k; you get-

* A vastly improved ride and handling package (most important)
* Overall; a better looking vehicle (IMO)
* Better (IMO) quality interiors. Also; the lower variant comes with black interiors. Personally; me no likey too much beige. Not sure how it would look in person though.
* Superlative space and comfort (albeit at the sacrifice of additional seats vis a vis the scorp).
* A nice sounding (as per Tsk) music system (Sle comes without one)

A couple of times that I saw the Storme's adverts; I felt it simply did not match the quality of the safari ads. Lets see how it does. But given Scoripo's and XUV's stronghold on the market; I am not epecting it to do more than 1.5 k and the max sales would be from Lx.

PS - the brochure was silent on whether the body cladding on Lx was present / body colored / black / grey. Any inputs on this?

The Lx pricing is good having said that some key points

1) If the Lx pricing crosses 10 lakhs in certain cities, the on road of the SLE would be far lower than the Lx - thanks to the higher taxes in most states for vehicles costing >10 lakhs

2) In the order of importance for me I am putting some features the Sle has which I dont find in the Storme---- driver and passenger arm rests, option for front facing 3rd row, rear wash and wipe, middle row sliding seats (safari may not need this given the space ), voice assist and some other jazzy stuff.

[bhagathmp]

Thanks Tanveer and T-BHP team for all the effort that went into this detailed review. Rated 5 *s . As many have said before, you being an existing Safari owner did get some of the minute details taken care off. For Eg the width of the storage space just behind the Hand break area. Who would have noticed that!

Looks are subjective. I find some part of XUV really good and some are well, ugly. Same with the Storme. I love the front with those new lamp cluster. Though I would have liked a better integration of the bonnet minus the chrome strip. Also the back now looks rather tall than it really would be. But appreciate that they have moved the spare under the body. One can now say good bye to constant issues with door rattling and miss alignments. Also would have liked a better grill design. Again none that is a deal breaker.

What I read and understood is TATA focused on improving areas where there was greater noise being raised. For eg, the suspension and wheel alignments. never ever could have it done correctly. what with shim adjustments and all. Good to learn the new mechanism is just a simple "Screw" adjustment. Made great improvements in over all fit and finish including the quality of materials they used. My requirements from an SUV is comfortable long distance drive for 5 people. Safari / Storme excel in that aspect. They should stop selling/marketing Storme as a 7 seater

With regard to the HU. Yes a double DIN would have been greatly appreciated and especially in 2012 and at this price band. However, as some one pointed out in one of the earlier threads, you can buy yourself an aftermarket Singly DIN flip out Touch Screen DVD player. Thats what I used to have in my Truck. Worked perfectly well. Also the camera. Get an aftermarket camera of your choice and hook it to this player. Having said that I too agree they should not have taken out what was already an offering in the old gen product.

Recently I took my cousins 2010 GX for a 400 km road trip. Was back on the driver seat of a Safari after over 2 years. Though the ride itself was very comfortable, there was a lot of noise coming from all around. The clutch felt very heavy, gear throws felt a bit too long, longer than my Safari. In short, its not aging well.All 4 Bridgestones has uneven ware. He could never manage to get proper alignments done. Neither at the TASS nor at any reputed shops.

One might need to wait for the courageous few to get Strome on to the roads now and get us some real world long term usage reports. My guess is around 12 months of usage will give as a clear indication. And I'm sure TATA would improve their product over time.

One parting question though. Do you feel/think/agree that the Storme in its current Avatar could be anything like the Verna Transform was ? Just a stop gap face lift before they brought in the Fluidic design !

Regards
Bugs

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by bhagathmp

One parting question though. Do you feel/think/agree that the Storme in its current Avatar could be anything like the Verna Transform was ? Just a stop gap face lift before they brought in the Fluidic design !

Regards
Bugs

Storme took in some major R&D work from Tata. I doubt they will introduce anything soon. However, who knows 3 years down the line they could come out with something with entirely new body shell.
I am a purist(spare wheel and all), but even I feel that 14 years on the same body shell is a bit too long in today's world. 2000Kg is very heavy.
A vehicle of Safari size should not weight more than 1700kgs in the 2WD avatar. And for that they have to go for an entirely new body shell.
That required a lot of work, so the Storme is here to stay for atleast 3 years.

[jaysmokesleaves]

Originally Posted by bhagathmp

One parting question though. Do you feel/think/agree that the Storme in its current Avatar could be anything like the Verna Transform was ? Just a stop gap face lift before they brought in the Fluidic design !

Regards
Bugs

I surely think this is a stopgap arrangement because this Storme is not going to set any sales charts on fire. Im sure they are furiously working or recovering lost ground... if they have learnt any lessons after the Aria disaster.

Originally Posted by tsk1979

All storme variants now come with body colored bumpers(Thats what the Tata representative told us)

Tanveer, if you do get the opportunity to do an exhaustive review of the 4x4 please check if the fuel supply still cuts off when the vehicle is driven on a slant sideways, with the left side higher than the right.

Its a so called safety feature incorporated in the Safari which will surely create a storm for you and get you stranded in an offroad situation. Then, towing is the only solution till your vehicle is straight on flat ground.

Such safety features are welcome if they take effect incase of a rollover, but very unwelcome if they cut fuel supply to the engine when driven well within the parameters of the vehicle limits.

[oops]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Price will be around 1 re above the 10L mark so that you pay the higher tax bracket
As you know, this is what companies do. They do not have any idea about the impact that one rupee can cause to the on road price

But TATA seems to be intelligent at this point. They have kept 9.95L fixed price for LX across all states and adjusted the rest(loss) of amount in EX and VX:

Chandigarh: 9,95,002
Delhi: 9,95,000
Gujarat(Ahmedabad): 9,95,408
Haryana(Ambala): 9,95,153
Himachal(Kangra): 9,95,060
Jammu: 9,95,215
Punjab(Amritsar): 9,95,137
Rajasthan(Ajmer): 9,95,359
UP(Agra): 9,95,059
Uttranchal(Dehradun): 9,95,094

http://tatasafari.com/static/buy-safari-india.php

[tazmaan]

I have one question. Do the middle seats recline like that of Innova?

Reclining seats makes that nap time in traffic very comfortable. It is a very simple mechanism especially when the seats are folding in front to make way for luggage space.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by jaysmokesleaves

Tanveer, if you do get the opportunity to do an exhaustive review of the 4x4 please check if the fuel supply still cuts off when the vehicle is driven on a slant sideways, with the left side higher than the right.

Its a so called safety feature incorporated in the Safari which will surely create a storm for you and get you stranded in an offroad situation. Then, towing is the only solution till your vehicle is straight on flat ground.

Such safety features are welcome if they take effect incase of a rollover, but very unwelcome if they cut fuel supply to the engine when driven well within the parameters of the vehicle limits.

On the test track, the left was much lower than the right at the slope challenge, no fuel supplies issue. However, if you have less than 10L in the tank, you cannot start on an incline as the engine is starved of fuel. This problem is there even with the old safari, and I do not think any change would be there for new one.

Originally Posted by oops

But TATA seems to be intelligent at this point. They have kept 9.95L fixed price for LX across all states and adjusted the rest(loss) of amount in EX and VX:

Chandigarh: 9,95,002
Delhi: 9,95,000
Gujarat(Ahmedabad): 9,95,408
Haryana(Ambala): 9,95,153
Himachal(Kangra): 9,95,060
Jammu: 9,95,215
Punjab(Amritsar): 9,95,137
Rajasthan(Ajmer): 9,95,359
UP(Agra): 9,95,059
Uttranchal(Dehradun): 9,95,094

http://tatasafari.com/static/buy-safari-india.php

Lets hope when its launched in Banglaore, they take this into account

Originally Posted by tazmaan

I have one question. Do the middle seats recline like that of Innova?

Reclining seats makes that nap time in traffic very comfortable. It is a very simple mechanism especially when the seats are folding in front to make way for luggage space.

No reclining in safari. However the middle bench is very comfortable(just like old safari)

[Aceman82]

If Tata does manage to keep LX pricing under 10L then i would really give a hard deep look at the Safari before seeing the XUV500 since there would be effective 3L difference between the On-Road pricing of XUV500 W6 and Storme Lx variants and leaving Airbags , other features i can live without. Plus within a year discounts would anyways start rolling on Tata Cars which would make the price difference even higher between Storme Lx and XUV500 W6.

If Storme Lx exceeds the 10L barrier for Lx then it is tata to Tata and hello to Mahindra. Anyways my pet donkey (Indica) should last for another year at-least before changing and by that time some ownership reviews should be up in Team-bhp which would say how reliable (or) otherwise the Storme is. End of the day it all depends on Pricing of the Storme.

[ayadalam]

Outstanding review Tanveer. It was as though I was test driving myself. Amazing depth in clarity and attention to minutest of details.

I was expecting the review to be deal clincher. However, it has caused more problems now simply because TML though has addressed all major issues, still has priced the models in such a way that, now I'm more confused as to whether go for a STORME or the DUSTER. They haven't addressed all issues too as mentioned with the review as well as those reflected upon by existing Safari owners.

The review covered all aspects that have been requested by members so far. Added benefit was the review from Vidyut that provided the necessary perspective from a Sedan/Hatch owner.

Thanks to both for the brilliant review. However, I'm leaving the thread for the day, more confused than ever.

Drive Safe,
Andy