Ladies and Gentleman – Its been almost close to a month now that my love has come home. Its my new Tata Safari VX 4/4 (Arctic Silver). I have not had the opportunity to post my buying experience or my initial review all this time, but here it goes. Sorry, my writing style may not be very perfect, so excuse me for that. If you have any questions on my buying experience and initial ownership, please do let me know.
My love for the Tata Safari began ever since I was in college and saw the advertisements of the car (probably started about 1999). Till date I watch it every other weekend. In 2008 I came close to buying the car as I was going to replace my Opel Astra. But wife was not convinced with the car due to its huge size and parking problems in front of the house. So finally settled with the Fiesta 1.6S. Finally in 2011 I decided that I am going to buy the Safari (and a 4/4 version) with my bonus amount. No stopping me. Lots of arguments with wife, but finally man prevailed (though I have to compensate her with the next bonus from office
).
In September this year, I started my search again and visited Autolinks in Hauz Khas to take test drive. They did not seem interested in selling the car at all. Their sales person was least interested in giving a test drive and said no TD car available. Visited their showroom twice and got the same response. God only knows how they sell cars with that kind of sales people. Finally I tried Rama Motors at Okhla. They were very forthcoming with the TD (though overall experience with them was not very satisfactory). Took the first TD and was convinced thoroughly. After 2 weeks took another TD and then decided to plunge into it.
Well, in the mean time I did take a TD of the XUV 500. I was considering about buying it, but finally backed out of it. Yeah, it definitely has a lot of amazing gadgets, superb functionality, good looks, but somehow I did not feel as if I was driving an SUV (after having TD the Safari). It seemed like a sedan to me. I do not doubt its a good car, but it was not suiting me very well. And well yes, heart mattered a lot over the mind in this case.
On November 5th I finally booked the VX 4/4 paying a down payment of Rs. 3 lakh (I was stupid – should have paid the minimum amount and let the remaining earn interest in the bank until final payment). Since I wanted the Arctic Silver color, they said the delivery date could not be ascertained immediately. If I would have booked the black or white color, it was available immediately and they could have given me immediate delivery. I even saw their stock data of the immediately preceding day and it seemed true. No silver in 4/4 version, but white and black available. But wifey wanted Silver. Did not want to let her down, so booked Silver itself though there was some waiting period. Negotiated on discounts a lot. Overall got almost 60K discount. Tata Regional Sales Head also gave an additional 10K discount just before I booked the car.
Here is the break up of the price:
Ex-showroom - Rs. 1255688 (Rs.5000 extra for pearl white. I bought the Arctic Silver so I did not have to pay this extra)
Insurance - Rs. 39381
Registration - Rs. 162031
Extended Warranty - Rs. 7000
Logistics - Rs. 3500
Others - Rs. 2250 (basic accessories)
TOTAL - Rs. 1469850
Discounts: Insurance (39381) + Corporate discount (6000) + Additional Discount from dealer (5000) + additional discount from TML Sales Head
Total discount - Rs. 60381
Total price paid - Rs. 1409469 (1469850 - 60381)
Freebies - Car cover + perfume + gear lock
Well, in here came the part about financing some part of the cost. HDFC was giving me an ROI of 13.5% (fixed). Whereas SBI (through a DSA) was giving 11.25% floating. Finally went ahead with SBI itself. See my discussions on what is better, fixed or floating on the page
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...erience-2.html. Paid the DSA 5K, though I should not have. But I must say that he was really helpful. Except for one day when I had to visit the branch to meet the branch manager, he did everything else for me (including verification by some branch personnel) and I did not have to do anything other than sign papers. He came and gave me the bank draft along with sanction letters etc. Within 3-4 days of applying for the loan. Its a long story about the DSA and financing, but would not get into much details of it. You can get more details of it on the following link
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...erience-2.html
Somehow they also told me that they expect the car to be delivered in about 2 weeks time since by then the manufacturing would be done. So after booking I waited for a couple of days before asking for an expected delivery date and status of the vehicle. The sales people suddenly became out of touch. Now suddenly their phones were switched off, or kept on ringing etc. When they picked up, they said they are trying to figure out the status and would call back, but they never called back. This happened a couple of times after which I was really bugged. I even called the regional sales head but he did not pick up my calls.
Finally one evening (after 2 weeks of booking) I mailed the top management of Tata Motors. Wrote a mail addressed to the Vice President (Passenger Utility Vehicle Division), President (Plant Manufacturing), and some other top bosses. I told them very clearly that I had made the booking with certain expected delivery dates, however I have not got any response from the authorised dealer or even the regional sales head (I think that was his designation) and that they have been avoiding my calls and sms. Told them that it was very disappointing to see Tata Motors working this way. And of-course a couple of more stuff. The very next day I get a call from the regional sales manager (I think that was his designation) who I realised was **** scared. He was literally crying on the phone as to why did I write the mail to the most senior people in Tata Motors and started apologizing and giving excuses as to why he could not take my calls. Apparently the mail was forwarded by the senior management to other regional heads for immediate action and the regional sales head must have had his job on the line due to this
. He immediately promised to give me daily updates and told me the status of the vehicle. From the very next day he kept calling and telling me what the chassis number is, if the vehicle has been despatched, status on road etc. That was impressive. Seems work gets done only when there is pressure from top. If only the lower rung guys would work well, Tata would not have had such bad names. By the way, the dealer guys were not cooperative in this situation at all. I think its not about Tata itself, but the attitude of the dealers, and the kind of people they hire. They have stopped looking out for professionalism, which finally hurts their own image against customers.
Finally the vehicle was delivered in Delhi sometime towards the end of November. I was out of town, and came back to Delhi on 5th December. On 6th December I went to the showroom, got the vehicle thoroughly checked. Did my PDI. And also did a lot of checks that I should have probably done earlier at the yard. However thankfully everything turned out to be perfect as per the checklist I downloaded from the team-bhp website. There were no issues with the car at the time of delivery. I took about 3 hours with the inspection.
There was some confusion about them giving me copy of the insurance policy since their servers were down and they could not get the same printed. After a lot of insistence they used their 3G cards to access servers. Also got my registration done the same day. Receipt was delivered after 3-4 days since the RTO was closed in the mean time for some festive reason. Sorry no pictures from the day when I took the delivery. Forgot my camera actually.
Some pictures of the car are posted below. Have not had the opportunity to take her out for a photo shoot, but will post some nice pictures soon...
Ok, now about driving experience with the car.
It has been 25 days with the car now, but have driven only close to 600kms. Actually did not get any time to get on to the highway due to office work, and also have to drive the Fiesta occasionally. So far, my experience has been great. The driving experience has been just awesome. With the seating position, the view is commanding. Have had no problems with driving this huge car, after driving a Fiesta. I have certainly realised that this car is not meant for speeding. Its not as agile as Sedans. Its like an elephant. You ride it slow and steady. You realise its capabilities only when you are off-tarmac. If you are in a hurry, take out the sedan!
The only small issues I have faced are as follows:
1. The driver side door has this squeaking noise occasionally.
2. The front left window rattles a bit when kept partly open.
3. There is a slight noise coming from the rear side, but do not know from where. It is certainly not any squeaking or rattling of the rear door. But its definetely from the inside. May be some loose part.
4. There is an occasional loss of power for a micro second when accelerating in the 3rd gear around the 1.5-2.5K RPM range.
Will get these checked on the 1st service.
Touch wood I have not faced any other issues with the car as yet.
As regards the ICE, I think the HU is quite nice. The stock speakers are absolutely pathetic. Will change it soon. Have been reading up a lot on the ICE section, so will come up with some configuration soon. However, since the HU did not have any AUX output, I got in touch with the Alpine distributor in Delhi (their office is in Gurgaon actually). They gave me a cable (Alpine KCA 121B) which they fitted behind the HU. I just had to buy a 3.5MM male jack (both ends of the wire – RCA cable) to connect my Philips Go Gear. Did it myself as a DIY. You can find more details about what I did with the HU Aux input on the following page
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/ask-gu...it-alpine.html
Car is running great as of now. Plan to take her out on a long drive soon (right after first service which is due on 5th Jan, 2012). And looking out for some off-roading adventures too...
My overall take on the car?
1. Amazing looks.
2. Sturdy.
3. Imposing stance on road.
4. Very decent features and specs.
5. Though not personally experienced myself, but am sure it can create my own road next time.
6. Slight niggling issues (which can be easily handled)
I am loving this car. Everytime I drive this car, I just remember that last ad "What would you remember?" I will remember the times I had with this car....not the corner office definetely...Wish me luck for mile and miles ahead.
Will post further after I have driven the car for a few more kms.
-----
Sourav