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-   -   Tata Safari Storme Varicor 400 : Official Review (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/171841-tata-safari-storme-varicor-400-official-review-15.html)

Dear AJ-got-BHP - hello to you. Thanks for your feedback of now as well as of page 6 of January. Kolkata, right? DONE! :).

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

Just test-drove a new driver with the Varicor 400 4x2 and am seriously wondering why the cooling is not working as well as my old Dicor - this new Storme with only 110 kms on the odometer??

If one looks at the Toyota products, it's like 1/3 to 1/4 of the cooling capacity of the Innova or the Fortuner - why??

Too bad I never checked the AC of the vehicle during the day - or didn't notice it during the TD of the test Storme...

(Although I do recall from a Varicor 320 4x4 TD I took a year ago that the cooling on that one really *sucked* - as apparently mine does.)

Otherwise, the car is impressive.

Very much Kolkata Sir !! :)

Dear Mr. Dhabar, I have been trying to find a lot on the water wading depth of Storme 4X4 and the best I could find was an unsubstantiated 300mm which seems paltry if compared to the new albeit much costlier options coming in the market. Why I ask you this is that after one trip each to Spiti & Ladakh on my trusty Classic 500 over past two years , the rock strewn water crossings of the stretch from Kaza to Rohtang seem to be ultimate challenge of the whole circuit, and this year, god & court permitting hope to do it on Storme 4X4 Varicor 400 :)
So please consider this a petition to Tata tobolster the reliability of whole 4X4 set up including the electrical and enlighten us on the rated water wading depth of Storme 4X4.

I am back after a long time. Yes! I did it. Finally i took a plunge and bought the new TATA SAFARI STORME VX 4x2 400NM Pearl White. Firstly i thank BHPians apachelongbow, kaviprem, BipB, Libra, for the support they offered initially when I was in planning stages. DHABHAR.BEHRAM sir, for boosting my confidence on the Storme, with his support to BHPians. tsk1979 and ACM for their excellent reviews and lastly few other BHPians whom i forgot to thank for their support. Done with the Thanksgiving.

My ownership review is still being processed. Will put it up within a short period.

I’m upgrading from hatchbacks. Zero experience for me in driving a diesel or a SUV. Regarding the Storme, there's only one thing i can say "KING OF THE ROAD". I’ll just brief few points regarding the drive. Detailed Review coming up.

Storme glides on the road. The only grouse I have is the Gear box. Gears are too stiff. Especially 2,4,6 gears. I'm feeling gear box is softening up on driving. Reverse gear is impossible to slot on 1st attempt. Please guide me regarding this issue. Is this normal in the initial period? Odo was 37km when I got the vehicle. I took a 130km short trip on the day of delivery. On the return I felt gear box was not as stiff as when I received the vehicle.
Storme easily touches the 100kmph mark on 5th or 6th gear. On 6th gear I'm touching 100kmph at 1900 RPM. Showroom guy advised me not to cross 60kmph in the initial period. Is it correct? Should i stick to any speed limit or RPM limit initially? I don't want to take any chances regarding the running-in period.

In the city driving, I'm feeling a bit difficult to adjust to the gear box. If i drive in the 3rd gear at RPMs below turbo range, i can feel the vehicle vibrating a lot. If i down shift to 2nd gear, the beast jumps. Is such vibration common in all gears below turbo range?
Any change I should make in my driving behavior? Please advise. All suggestions are welcome.

Enough with the words. Let the pics do the talking for now. I couldn’t photograph the Interiors, as I only have a 50mm prime lens and a ultra-telephoto 150-600 lens. I’ll try to take a few snaps of interiors with my phone and post it later. By the way the grey colored storme sticker came from the factory. Looks too good in my opinion.

Congrats

There should not be any engine vibration even if you select wrong gear.

Welcome to the "Storme" club !! Well, I am no more with Safari :( I am still a fan though.

For almost all your question, the above is the answer - Welcome to the Storme [SUV].

The gear changing issues - a very small/minor feel. No problem with it. Dont worry. It will take some time for you to get used to the way the gear box/lever works in Storme. It will NOT be as smooth as your small hatchback. Welcome to the truck.

Run-in period - As far as Safari is concerned - Do not cross 3000 RPM. I believe, the same would hold good for Storme too. Its just about 1000 KMs. It will go like in a month or 2 max based on your usage.

Reverse Gear shifting - Make sure, you press the clutch to the floor before you try to engage the lever to "Reverse". This is an usual mistake that any petrol heads [or a small hatchback guys] do with the SUV.

Yes, the grey sticker on the doors look real cool and nice. Simple and neat.

Enjoy the vehicle and Safe motoring !

Prem.

Thank you ISO. By vibrations, I meant the body vibrations. When I slow down in the traffic if I down shift to 2nd gear, then the vehicle jumps even if I'm at 15-20 kmph. If I continue in 3rd gear, then I'll get a vibrating feel just like what you feel when you are inside a city bus, when the driver tried to lug the bus in higher gears. I'm not able to explain accurately what I'm feeling.

Thank you sir. Sad to hear you parted from the Safari. It's like driving a truck. Even the steering. I'm used to single handed steering. Left hand mostly stays on the gear lever. But for storme, both the hands are necessary most of the times.
I'll strictly follow the limits in the running-in period. I'll mostly be completing 2000km by the end of this week. Also the clutch for reverse gear.

No need to be sad for me. Its a conscious decision that I had to take :) My Safari is sold to my cousin. So, not very far off anyway.

BTW, I forgot to mention that I never had to cross 3000 RPM in my normal driving with my Safari Dicor including the long distance highway drive. I am sure, the same would be true for Storme as well, that too with an additional gear, you should be good with the max of 2500 RPM.

I think, you are referring to engine lugging by "vibration". This is normal when you run at lower speed on a specific gear.

The Safari's 3rd gear is a big boon for normal city traffic where you can easily maneuver the beast b/w 30 KMPH to 60 KMPH in the 3rd gear as long you dont have to slow down lower than 30 KMPH. Even in 3rd gear with 60 KMPH, you will not touch 3000 RPM. Thats the power of Safari.

Enjoy !
Prem.

Dear doc-zeus - hello to you. Thank you for the "KING OF THE ROAD" title, I have also given the same title, as I rule the road every time I drive it! :). Please provide a little more details on the 2nd, 4th and 6th gears, it will help. There is a small audio-warn on reverse engagement, this is because the 5th / 6th gate is a double gate next to reverse, which is not so in 5 speed gearboxes. On the city drive mode behaviour, the numerical value of each overlap of the gears, coupled with the perfectly (tall-ish) final drive ratio of 4.1:1 and the additional torque that the engine delivers, all come together to provide you with a very comfortable and effective mile-crunching cruise with excellent NVH levels! You may orient (not necessarily change) your gearshift pattern slightly, to effectively exploit the 6 speed gearbox. This happens to some people when they upgrade from the 5 speed. It won't take more than a couple of days.

Enjoy your vehicle! :).

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

Sir, I was quite surprised with the NVH levels at high speed cruising in Storme. Added to this is the speed dependant volume control. I've not gone beyond 100kmph and I plan to follow the same till I cross 1500-2000km on the odometer. But I'm extremely happy in regard to the NVH levels.

About the gear box, on the day of delivery I went on a small highway ride of about 130kms. I felt very difficult to shift from the 6th or the 4th or the 2nd gears(All the lower half of the gears). But had absolutely no issue at all while shifting up or down from 1st or 3rd or 5th. Only the lower half of the gears were stuck while shifting. I made atleast 3 or 4 attempts just to slot the gear back to neutral. The gear was stuck literally. While I was returning back from the short trip, I didn't feel this issue much. The stickiness issue of the 2,4,6 gears isn't completely resolved now, but I can feel a mild difference when compared to the rest of the gears. I hope you understand what I'm trying to convey sir.

Reverse is still difficult to slot. Even the test drive car that I drove before delivery had the same issue. That vehicle has nearly 2000kms on the odometer. The gear won't go past the 5th/6th mark. After a few attempts I'll finally slot the reverse. I don't know whether I'm doing it wrong.

But pedalling that throttle makes me forget all these small things. Now I'm knowing why everyone calls this vehicle a beast.

That was exactly behavior of XUV 500 but Safari starts very smoothly from stand still and cruise without any vibration. If vehicle jumps means you are not yet accustom to clutch throttle synchronization.

Congratulations! Wish you thousands happy miles and yes like a King indeed. That grey storme sticker is looking great. Wish it was a bit more dark or a bit brownish for the pearl white.

I wouldn't be able to comment on the gear box issues as mine is a 5 speed one and had no issues with it from day one. May be I felt it much better as I was used to the old Dicor's buttery shift. Hope it will be better after a few hundred kms on the ODO.

Reclaim your life!

Thank you very much BipB. Gear box indeed is a lot better now, except for the reverse gear. May be i wasn't using the clutch pedal properly earlier.

Planning for a coorg, chikmagalur, KA trip today. Will update with the drive experience.

Today while driving for some distance on a national highway (NH 6) in the thin traffic (momentary), one vehicle from the opposite direction was approaching my SUV. From a distance, the chrome treatment on the grille made me think that it was a Wagon R Stingray approaching, till it came nearer and wow ! It turned out to be a Tata Safari !

The point is that such an SUV needs to have an aggressive look especially for our Indian roads to make its presence felt. The older Safaris were at least okay on the frontal looks department. This one "Storme" seems to have been botched up and the designers may have got fatigued designing refreshed looks so many times.

Tata needs to gear itself up to make its presence felt in the SUV segment as the Safari Storme hardly sells vis a vis its competitors.