[lazy]

Originally Posted by apachelongbow

Who will live with a boring van for a decade? No matter how much one praises an Innova, it is yawn inducing, by a wide margin.
Besides in 10 years EV will be the norm and IC vehicles will have hear zero resale values.

Well said.
This comparisons with Innova and Safari resale is applicable when resale value is the paramount criteria during a car purchase.

While it make prudent financial sense and is extremely common, there are a vast majority for whom resale though important isn't the "most important" criteria and looks/style also matter, and more importantly view cars not as mere appliances (which they actually are btw).
Would one park their Innova and looks back at it while walking away?

cheers
lazy

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by Iyencar

Even if I were to sacrifice that option, it's not easy hoisting luggage, especially a large suitcase onto the roof or off it.

I have a roof rack on my Storme. My friends hate it. My service advisor hates it. I immediately realized that it had a drag effect on my speed and mileage. And yes, if you think it's tough hoisting luggage on to the top of the squat new Safari, try doing that to the original tall boy. It helps that I have a 6'3.5" son and I'm not short either. But tying it down is a workout.

Bottom line is that the older Safaris and Stormes are essentially 5 seaters. I'm not really convinced that the front facing 3rd rows of newer SUVs are really usable for long highway drives. Peer into the back side glass of a Fortune and see what I mean. Ditto for any others.

And add to that the fact that you are coralled into a tiny space with no doors to open, no glass to put down and breathe some air. It's a miserable place to be in. The sort of training we put our tankies and submariners through.

So if you have a family of 5, and the kids are growing up, you eventually have 5 full sized adults. It negates the one big advantage of buying a Safari, that is space and luxury, if you stack your luggage into a third of that space and essentially make it inaccessible to a family member. For stretching out or reclining. Or even taking a nap. Or just freeing up some space in the middle row for two occupants instead of three.

The roof rack is a boon in such a scenario, regardless of all the resistances mentioned above, and I'm grateful for the sturdy weight bearing functional roof rails my Storme comes factory fitted with.

If the rack were easy to remove and put back on by myself, I might have toyed with removing it and keeping it stored in my garage for the longer drives. But I've seen how the car decor guys fitted it. It's a two man job, with one of those men perched on my roof. It's definitely not something I want to do more than once.

So it stays.

Cheers, Doc

[varman742]

Any idea when the prices will be revealed for the new Safari? I have been checking with few dealers in Pune about the display vehicle, TD etc. and they don't seem to have a clue when the vehicles will be available. Hope some magic happens on the 4th Feb and they have the vehicles at-least for display.

I am actually sitting on the fence w.r.t. Safari. My heart is saying to go for it immediately but head is saying to wait till new XUV500 is launched, compare and then decide!

[vibbs]

I have a question to all SUV owners and prospective owners.

There are so many posts here lamenting over the lack of Boot space with three rows occupied. Unless it is for airport runs, how is this a deciding factor?

I mean if you have a large family using all the three rows and planning to go on a road trip, what boot size would you need ideally? Will 300 litres suffice?

I find it just enough even for my family of 3 when I am on a longish road trip. With a family of 5,6 I would certainly need more Boot space than even the 300 litres that is offered by Innova.

So does it really make a difference for those long road trips?

Airport runs, yeah it does.

[nainan]

Originally Posted by vibbs

I mean if you have a large family using all the three rows and planning to go on a road trip, what boot size would you need ideally? Will 300 litres suffice?

If you go by airline luggage dimensions(I assume you would at least pack for the domestic luggage limit for low cost carriers) it would be 7 Kgs hand + 15 Kg check in. If you look at the volume the 7 Kg is to be carried in 44 litres of volume which converts to 94 litres. So per person it totals to 94+44 = 138 litres. Even if we round off the hand baggage its roughly 100 litres x7 = 700 litres. So 300 litres wont be ever sufficient.

I think if you are going on a trip the best bet would be having no more than 5 people per car. Remembering my experience with the 2.2 DICOR the last row was never used as no one could sit in it for longer distances even if we had less luggage.

I also think not just for this reason but from reviews mentioning the width of the captain seats, thin armrests and the difficulty in accessing the third row will make going for the bench in the middle row the better proposition.

BTB the capacity of the roof rails on non-sunroof versions is 75 Kgs as per the Safari website. It says "*Roof Rails are functional (can carry loads can carry load upto 75kg) in Non Sunroof Variants."

[rrsteer]

Originally Posted by lazy

Well said.

Would one park their Innova and looks back at it while walking away?

I maybe in a minority of one, but I do. The looks of the Innova have grown on me. Mine is a grey one and I have painted the wheels all black, have painted those garish chrome wheel arches black and stuck them on the van to give a black outline to the wheel arches and have wrapped the roofline along the windows black. It looks fine, actually quite good to my eyes.

Btw, I transitioned from Safari (2 Safaris across 8 years) to Innova and resale was not the criteria. A much better car was, and looks though a criteria weren't paramount.
It been 9 years now with the car- sorry van- and I have no plans to sell it. So, as you see resale was no criteria.

[pseudo_coder]

If I buy the Safari, I would use it as a 7 seater for city use, and as a 5 seater for highway drives.

Within city, one doesn't carry much luggage, if at all. That can be adjusted in the boot, on the parcel tray, on lap or near legs.

On outstation trips, luggage is must. So put luggage in the boot and sit no more than 5. This also takes care of the last row safety issue.

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by rrsteer

I maybe in a minority of one.

Btw, I transitioned from Safari (2 Safaris across 8 years) to Innova and resale was not the criteria.

I've been trying to make my head convince the rest of me to do the same from time to time. But to no avail.

I also owned three Bullet 500s at one time, so maybe there's a clue in there somewhere. Lol

Originally Posted by pseudo_coder

If I buy the Safari, I would use it as a 7 seater for city use, and as a 5 seater for highway drives.

Within city, one doesn't carry much luggage, if at all. That can be adjusted in the boot, on the parcel tray, on lap or near legs.

On outstation trips, luggage is must. So put luggage in the boot and sit no more than 5. This also takes care of the last row safety issue.

How to you plan to take care of those 2 extra persons on highway drives? Or do you draw lots for who gets to stay home?

Cheers, Doc

[jkrishnakj]

Ditto with me. I had two safaris that served me well for a little less than 2 L km and I now have my Crysta that makes me happy each time I hit the highways. I probably may not turn back as much as I used to with my earlier safaris, but I do love my Crysta.

With both my safaris, I hardly recall instances where anyone wanted to sit in the 3rd row seats. It was purely for luggage hauling and was a huge benefit when the family did trips to Rajasthan and Gujarat.

[pseudo_coder]

Originally Posted by ebonho

How to you plan to take care of those 2 extra persons on highway drives? Or do you draw lots for who gets to stay home?

Cheers, Doc

My family is 4 adults + 2 toddlers. On local trips, sometimes guests are present, that time 7 seats are useful.

[CoffeeBeans]

Originally Posted by varman742

Any idea when the prices will be revealed for the new Safari? I have been checking with few dealers in Pune about the display vehicle, TD etc. and they don't seem to have a clue when the vehicles will be available. Hope some magic happens on the 4th Feb and they have the vehicles at-least for display.

I checked with the SAs that I'm in contact with at both Bafna and Rudra and they have updated that demo cars have arrived today and will be put on display tomorrow. They were not sure about TD car availability tomorrow but promised to arrange by Saturday 6th at showroom. As per them pricing will be revealed tomorrow as well.

[arun_kun]

None of the 7 seaters are good enuf for long distance trip with 7 passengers and luggage with out mounting the luggage on roof. So i do not think there is any point in highlight this specific to Safari.

[zadoom]

Originally Posted by ebonho

If the rack were easy to remove and put back on by myself, I might have toyed with removing it and keeping it stored in my garage for the longer drives. But I've seen how the car decor guys fitted it. It's a two man job, with one of those men perched on my roof. It's definitely not something I want to do more than once.

So it stays.

Cheers, Doc

Can completely relate to that as I myself had got one put up on my Storme and going by how difficult it was to install (the distributor getting some customised brackets made for the Storme roof rails and all the other things that you mentioned), I also went with the approach of not touching it again.
However I noticed after some time that at one of the 4 touchpoints, 1 of the bracket was touching the roof (very very less clearance which ended up touching when flexed under load) and eventually had started making a mark on the roof. Thankfully it was not deep and hadn't started rusting yet so I cleaned it off. But yeah that was the last time I used the roof carrier. Eventually gave it off with the Storme when I had to sell it off.

Cheers,

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by zadoom

Can completely relate to that as I myself had got one put up on my Storme and going by how difficult it was to install (the distributor getting some customised brackets made for the Storme roof rails and all the other things that you mentioned), I also went with the approach of not touching it again.
However I noticed after some time that at one of the 4 touchpoints, 1 of the bracket was touching the roof (very very less clearance which ended up touching when flexed under load) and eventually had started making a mark on the roof. Thankfully it was not deep and hadn't started rusting yet so I cleaned it off. But yeah that was the last time I used the roof carrier. Eventually gave it off with the Storme when I had to sell it off.

Cheers,

The reason for that is the forward slope of the stepped roof of the Safari/Storme and the very short section of free roof rail where the U brackets can be mounted.

So what happens then, because we need to leave place for the antenna in front as well as not have an overhang beyond the line of the front windshield, is that the roof rack is mounted such that the 4 clamps are pretty close together, and more towards the front of the roof rack, with a large part of the roof rack "floating" free and unsupported behind.

If its a good quality expensive and stiff/strong rack, then it does not flex up to a point. However, you need to plan your loading of luggage in such a way as to have the heavier units directly over supported clamped part, with the lighter bags towards the unsupported rear.

Hope this photo clarifies ...



Cheers, Doc

[zadoom]

Originally Posted by ebonho

The reason for that is the forward slope of the stepped roof of the Safari/Storme and the very short section of free roof rail where the U brackets can be mounted.

Indeed, that slope and the brackets being more front biased does play an important part. However I realised, after checking the photos of your carrier on the other Storme thread, that your carrier has pretty nice clamps. In mine they were still left hanging a bit below the roof rails and had sharp edges, which basically caused the problem.

PS: for some reason could not see the image that you uploaded so still referred to the other image/thread.