[Harry1983]

After more than two years of reading every thread on Tata Safari and dreaming about it, finally the time has come to post some of my own.
Brief History:

My previous car was Zen Estilo VXI which I bought in 2008. To find more details about it visit

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-t...-vxi-ltor.html

This wonderful car introduced me to the pleasure of driving and increased the passion for driving to a great extent.

The Safari Dream:

It all started with one minute ad which I believe must have influenced many minds. That ad made me start reading the posts on Safari on TBHP and I was amazed to see the capability of this vehicle. The wonderful travelogues by Tanveer, Suman and others made me dream about owning it someday and experience incredible India.
At one point I thought this will only remain a dream as I had to move to US for work. I had an oppurtunity to come back and the first thing on my mind was to buy Tata Safari without wasting anymore time.

Link to the Ad

Tata Safari Dicor - TV Commercial - "Reclaim your Life" - YouTube

Buying Experience:

Time has come to turn the dream to reality and those were the longest 3 weeks of my life. My first priority is to get a good price for my 2008 Zen Estilo but did not disclose it to the dealers till I got their final discount price list.

Also after lot of research and thought process, I decided I won't need a 4X4 for my Safari as I am not a big offroader. Also the other reason for this decision is they stopped taking orders for 4X4 on EX and GX models. So, if I need 4X4 I need to opt for VX which is over 3lacs than EX.
In the month of November, all dealers in Hyderabad offerred Free insurance and I thought its a good deal. I got the quotes from Concorde Motors, Malik Cars and Tejaswi Motors. The least was given by Concorde for 10,52000 and Tejaswi motors promised they will match it and also their showroom and service center are only 3kms from my house.
Now the time to discuss the exchange price. Again Tejaswi was the winner and offerred 10k more than others. I selected Safari Perl Which which was available in stock and I checked the VIN number and found it to be Oct 2011. Thanks to TBH thread on VIN numbers.
I booked it and they asked me to take the vehicle on Dec 4 but I was on vacation in Mysore and Bandipur so postponed it to Dec 11.

First Experience:

Finally years of waiting the day arrived and as usual I was sleepless over night. The delivery was quick as I completed all the formalities previous day. Had the interiors cleaned one more time but I am still not satisfied and the dealer asked to bring it back for a free interior cleaning.
Time to go to the temple and complete the formal pooja. Off we went to a temple in which we performed the pooja for the first car. After the pooja , its time to have fun. I hit the Hyderabad Outer Ring Road which is over 50kms express highway. At the end of the day the ODO is 176kms.
My observations from first experience
- Amazing pickup and power
- Great comfort in both front and second row seats
- After driving till 10pm in the night without sleep previous night , I am not tired.
- Audio by Alpine is OK with 6 speakers but may be I need a woofer later.
- The plastics as usual are not good quality
- The stock head lights are useless for the SUV of this size. Need to upgrade the lights ASAP.
- Noise levels are high below 60kms , I guess I need to get used to the Disel engine.
- Cleaning this beast is a night mare. Any tips are appreciated.

Some pictures at the showroom.





Early morning drive on Day3:

Its 5am in the morning and woke up suddenly because of a loud sound of our watchman's dog barking. Its still very dark went out to check if the every think is fine with Safari. It was resting happily and was shining from the moonlight. Came back and tried to sleep but the image of shining white Safari is not allowing me to sleep.
I could not resist and woke up the Safari for a quick. The quick ride only took 2 hours.
Even on a cold morning it started without any issues. Drove it with windows open and did not notice much difference in engine sound, wind noise. I see that its giving me a milage of over 13kmpl but should wait till my next refill to get the exact number.

My thoughts about my Big Buddy

Road Presence:

Gone are the days when autos, cyclists and maniacs on two wheelers cut infront of the car from all sides. Everyone is thinking twice before they come infront of this 2 tonner. Even the RTC buses in Hyderabad are now giving way which never used to happen even after doing a lot of dance with my Zen Estilo. As for the looks, hard to take eye of this one when parked especially with a scenic background.








Ride Quality:

Huge improvement from hatch backs and sedans. Suddenly I and my wife dont feel bad anymore for paying huge amount of road tax for Hyderabad roads. It takes on everything from unmarked speed breakers to big broken roads in the middle of highways without any complaint. Overall it made my life so peaceful without having to worry about the route to take to reach my destination

Filled Nitrogen in all four tyres and can feel a little change in the ride. I think its little smooth compared to normal air.

Interiors:
If feels great to sit in a new car with shining interiors. Tata did a good job with the interiors (except the quality of plastics) by providing lights for all switches including key. Multiple lights in the front area for reading and utility.
The follow me home feature is very good, gives us enough time to get to the stairs/elevator in the dark. Lot of small pockets to keep things and also forget













Mods:

Changed the stock Osram headlights to Philips Essential Light 90/100w. However, the accessories guy changed the bulbs without any relay. He mentioned its required only if I go for 100/130. Is this OK?

Ordered art leather seat covers at XENEX hyderabad for INR 6800 and will get it tomorrow.


ICE:

Nothing yet but thinking about a woofer to add to the exisiting speakers.


Coming up pictures with new seat covers...

[Tapish]

Let me be the first one to congratulate you on the fabulous buy.
The pics indeed are awesome, especially the first one.

Do post a detailed overview, including more pics (offroad too ). Also, were no other vehicles considered? that is some level of dedication

[Harry1983]

Thank you Tapish. Have good plans for the weekend and hope to get lot of pics. Yes no other vehicles considered.

[Guderian]

Hi Harry,
Congrats on the new acquisition. Nice colour there.
What caught my attention was the set of snaps. What an entry - of literally descending from the skies as it were. Must be an unique set of snaps on TBHP as an introduction to a new vehicle.
Well done.

[SDP]

Harry, that's one good looking Safari!

Looking forward to a lot of pics and travelogues.

Congratulations and drive safe!

PS: I love that Ad that you have mentioned! In fact, I love all the ads from that series.

[Harry1983]

Originally Posted by Guderian

Hi Harry,
Congrats on the new acquisition. Nice colour there.
What caught my attention was the set of snaps. What an entry - of literally descending from the skies as it were. Must be an unique set of snaps on TBHP as an introduction to a new vehicle.
Well done.

Thank you. I felt the same way. Its was a great experience to see it descending from the first floor.

[HappyWheels]

Congrats Harry.

Wish you many KM's of safe travel.

And, thanks for sharing the advt.; the best ever automotive advt made!

[ghpk]

Congrats Harry, Thats a best looking Safari I've seen recently.
Hope you are enjoying every bit of it, The colour looks very pleasing.

The Pic of bringing the SUV down from 1st floor is great hope you have more pics for us to enjoy, if not, Take the camera and spend sometime shooting the interiors and other places like under bonnet etc.

Drive Safely and keep us posted with your experiences.

[himavanth_m]

Congrats on your purchase. And I love this color in Safari.
And the ads really make you feel to buy this vehicle.
Could you post more pics of the interiors. The new Safari has completely different colors and I did not get a chance to check out closely the new interiors. Mine is an old one and just want to see a comparison.

Drive safe and hopefully you will get a trouble free ownership of this vehicle

[lsp]

The first pic reminds me of Sher Khan coming out of his den, in the Jungle book animation series which used to be aired on Doordarshan. The camera angle was same if I am not wrong. (and those two dealshiup guys seem like the foxy sidekicks :P)

Congrats on the beast mate!! Enjoy many many miles with your Sher Khan.

[mayankjha1806]

Congratulations, wow thats an amazing way to deliver a Safari. Cleaning this beast is not only a nightmare its expensive also. My friend has to pay more for is monthly safari cleaning then cleaning his Esteem car.

Any plans on changing to alloys? Also for the headlamps you might have to upgrade to 90/100 (Although its not legal, it seems).

[ghodlur]

@Harish,

Congratulations, thats a fantastic looking Safari.

I can echo yopur sentiments when during college time and early career days I used to drool on the safari which IMO was the symbol of machoism. Till date I dream to own one.

Looking forward to reading more travelogues from you. Happy mile crunching and drive safely. Do updates on the mods planned.

BTW why was the car being lowered down from the first floor? Was it stocked up there?

[kaviprem]

Congratulations Harry. Ofcourse, the entry is good and like someone pointed out, I think, its first of its kind. Great Capture.
Welcome to the Safari club. There are a lot out there in TBHP.

Prem.

[motomaverick]

Congrats on the white elephant Happy motoring for miles to come. First day on the outer ring road for 176kms? wow cool, i have been on that road its an awesome road to drive, but i would suggest dirving the beast more in normal traffic in the first 1k kms so that the engine gets varied speed while settling down.

[Harry1983]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

@Harish,

Congratulations, thats a fantastic looking Safari.

==============
BTW why was the car being lowered down from the first floor? Was it stocked up there?

Thank you. Yes after the car gets ready for delivery, they stock it up on the first floor. When the customer is present for delivery, they lower it using huge platform.

Originally Posted by ghpk

Congrats Harry, Thats a best looking Safari I've seen recently.
Hope you are enjoying every bit of it, The colour looks very pleasing.

The Pic of bringing the SUV down from 1st floor is great hope you have more pics for us to enjoy, if not, Take the camera and spend sometime shooting the interiors and other places like under bonnet etc.

Drive Safely and keep us posted with your experiences.

Thank you GHPK. I will defintely post many pics, unfortunately I took it on Sunday and am back in office from Monday. Did not get enough time to spend with the new family member.

Originally Posted by motomaverick

Congrats on the white elephant Happy motoring for miles to come. First day on the outer ring road for 176kms? wow cool, i have been on that road its an awesome road to drive, but i would suggest dirving the beast more in normal traffic in the first 1k kms so that the engine gets varied speed while settling down.

Thank you for the advice. I will keep that in mind. Actually I drove around 100kms on outer ring road and another 70kms to Gandipet lake and other near by places with bad roads to get a feel of the beast. Unfortunately, it was dark and could not take any pictures. For this week it will only be office and back.

Originally Posted by lsp

The first pic reminds me of Sher Khan coming out of his den, in the Jungle book animation series which used to be aired on Doordarshan. The camera angle was same if I am not wrong. (and those two dealshiup guys seem like the foxy sidekicks :P)

Congrats on the beast mate!! Enjoy many many miles with your Sher Khan.

Thats a great comparision, except that this Sher Khan is white

Originally Posted by mayankjha1806

Congratulations, wow thats an amazing way to deliver a Safari. Cleaning this beast is not only a nightmare its expensive also. My friend has to pay more for is monthly safari cleaning then cleaning his Esteem car.

Any plans on changing to alloys? Also for the headlamps you might have to upgrade to 90/100 (Although its not legal, it seems).

Thank you. I am not planning to change alloys at the moment. I upgraded to 90/100 on my previous Zen estilo and I am going to do it for Safari at the earliest.