[harishnayak]

I think lot of the upcoming matter that you’re going to read would be a part of lot of Safari owners and potential Safari Owners. Like every teenager even I was awestruck by the looks of safari and have always wanted to own one. Owning a Tata safari has been on my Bucket list since last 10 years and finally after owning 6 cars , 2 bikes and 1 scooter over the last 10 years it was time to take the PLUNGE and live my DREAM of owning a Safari.

Hell broke loose when I announced that I was thinking to buy one with rebuttals from everywhere like “why do you want such a big car” , “ you’ll have parking issues” , “TATA vehicle – A big NO “ etc etc however the heart took over the mind and I decided to buy one

COMPETITION – Safari won hands down as I wanted a SUV which had road presence , comfortable seating , Indian make and above all within the sub 10 lac bracket. The only other option was a scorpio and Duster which was yet to be launched when I was considering the safari in Jan’12

DEALER – My friend had recently bought a white safari LX and basically it was the TD that I took in his car which made my decision even stronger to go for this beautiful machine because it behaved very well with a very silent engine. He had bought it from Autolinks Hauz Khas Delhi and I did not bother too much to hunt and zeroed in on this dealer as he promised me a good deal. I got a good 60 K discount as I even refused to take the accessories like bull bar , rear bumper bar , mats etc and squeezed out everything possible to make it as low as possible. Oh ya and I wanted to go for LX as it gave me all the comforts which I was looking for at a very pocket friendly price.

The sales guy was very friendly and also my friend accompanied me couple of times to close the deal at the best price possible. All the formalities went on smoothly ( obviously as he wanted to sell the car ) and I asked for 9th March as the delivery date as it was a lucky day ( I personally have taken all my vehicle deliveries on 7th of a month but this one was not possible as there were some religious issues at that time{maybe shraad – I’m not sure }.

I wanted a Black LX on 9th regardless and I was very clear about it and this guy ensured that I get it on 9th March. The loan etc. was processed /payment made and I reached the showroom around 3 pm and he promised me that by 5:00 pm I would be free. I also wanted a VIP number and had made all the arrangements and had taken the letter from the Authority ( 0700 ) along with me as I wanted the car to come out of the showroom with this number.

The entire process at the dealership took about 4 hours instead of promised too and I also felt that the guy doing the final cleaning of the car was doing it heartlessly as it was me who monitored him for good 1 hour and made him clean all corners as there were some grease marks etc. I also checked the year/month of the car by opening the bonnet ( Thanks to TBHP thread on checking the same ) , the sales guy was shocked to see how I figured that out and yes the car was manufactured in 2012 so it was officially a 2012 model

FEATURES

• Power steering
• Power windows – all 4 doors
• Rear wiper
• 2 charging points
• Motorised Internally adjustable RVM’s
• Manual central locking
• Mid row blowers
• Clock
• Outside temp gauge
• Beige interiors

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE/COULD HAVE BEEN INCLUDED

• Mileage calculator – even comes in a swift Lxi
• Sub standard mats
• Clock on the dash

The beast has done 13,500 Kms as I’m writing this ownership thread and has travelled from Khardungla top till MP even before the 3rd Service ( Covered Leh/Ladakh/Nubra/Pangong/kargil/Drass/Srinagar/Jammu/Rohtang and all other passes/Manali/PB/CH/DL/HR/RJ/MP )

WHAT I LIKED – SO FAR

• Excellent road presence , You feel like the KING OF THE ROAD ( well haven’t we heard that before  )
• Excellent view of the road – You get to see over the roof of the car in front of you leading to better maneuvering
• High Seating – Almost equivalent to a TATA 407’s driver seat
• Big seats – Drawing room type seating
• Silent engine as against the common notion of a noisy chap
• Mileage 11 kmpl~ in city & 14~kmpl on Highways

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE – SO FAR

• AC water leaking – Fixed after multiple visits to TASS
• Some squeaking sounds – I’m sure we all know about this feature
• Rear wiper stopped working – fixed
• Cig lighter malfunctioned – Fixed
• Change drawer malfunctioned – Fixed
• Petrol lid had its own mind – Fixed
• Rear door did not open from outside for 4 months even after changing 2 latches – Now fixed

Hey I just realized that it’s 9th Oct today which means that the Beast completed it’s 8th Month today which means a monthly run of about 1687.5 kms per month. The LTD sticker had to obviously go on to the car and I would like to specially thank fellow BHPian Nitin Ralli for donating a Spare sticker to me.

TIME TO RECLAIM MY LIFE

Here’s a picture of the beast at the time of the delivery and few other pictures

I had taken tonnes of pictures from my BB playbook when I bought the Vehicle however unfortunately the BB software gave way and I had to send it to Bangalore to get it fixed and the recovery of the pictures was not covered under warranty due to which i’m not in a position to share those pictures.

SEATING COMFORT

Since I had already test Driven my friends Safari few day before I purchased mine so I was already in love with the feeling. Me and my wife had gone to take the delivery and post all the formalities it was time to drive back home so she jumped into the spark and me into the Beast , I was following her in my Safari and was pinching myself to see if I actually owned one or not because the I felt like a king sitting on a throne and the Spark looked like a NANO from the Safaris driving seat . Anyways..On the way back home I stopped on the ridge road as the steering was making some noise and I was not too happy about it and wanted to quickly share the same with wifey , she suggested that we go back home and check with the showroom guys on next day however when I posted on the TBHP 2.2 issues forum I got to know that this was a standard drawback amongst all the dicors and that I had to live with it no matter what.

FRONT SEATS

Coming back to the driving comfort the seats were truly king size at front and I also like the armrest provided in the LX model although I felt it’s a little too far on the left and was comfortable in using only while cruising and not in city traffic for sure. Also compared to sedans and hatches the space was waaay to much on the front seats

MIDDLE ROW

Found the middle row seats to be very comfortable as compared to scorpio which has lesser leg space and straight seating. There is a little bit of challenge in getting the partition seat down for a passenger to go to the rear seat from the middle row – I faced this challenge on multiple locations as my cars rear door was locked for about 4 months and the rear passengers needed to go through the mid row

REAR SEATS ( 3rd ROW )

I personally did not like the 2 small seats at the back as they were crampy and even a guy like me ( 5’9 inch ) did not fit in too well forget the 6 ft tall guys thinking about sitting in the last row for long distances. Also the head space seems to be very less and one is prone to his head hitting on the roof on a bumpy road

My take on the performance

ENGINE

I think the engine is pretty powerful on straight roads with 3rd gear being the magical one , the vehicle just flies..so if you have to show that mean side of yours once in a while then this is the gear to be used. I'm a safe driver and try too keep the kmph in the range of 80 - 100 kmph on the highways and 60-80 in city and the engine performs pretty well in both the scenarios

TRANSMISSION

To be honest the shift between the 1st and the 2nd gear can be a little pain for the guys with weak knees and you feel that you're going to burn the clutch plates within the range of 35-40 K kms range however need to wait till then to see if that's actually the scene.
One thing that bothers me is the right speed to drive on in the city @ speed of 60-70 kmph because the NVH increases on 5th gear and 4th gear doesnt seem to be appropriate for that kind of speed , so i'm since most of my driving has been on the highways so i'm still getting on terms to driving at the right speed

HANDLING

Since i've already traveled half the country from K-TOP to MP so one thing i've observed is that going over 110 kmph on this 2 tonne beast can spell disaster if you're not a experienced highway driver. I had multiple close shaves @ speeds over 110 kmph and some of them were death defying , lessons learnt so have been very very careful and have also advised my wife to drive below 100 kmph

BRAKING

Very impressed with the BRaking and would give 5 stars however the vehicles swerves a little bit to one side but has saved me from many mishaps on multiple occassions. Sometimes i wonder if it has a ABS

ISSUES POST DELIVERY ( Excerpts from my email to Tata Motors )

1ST SERVICE

• A simple service of just washng and check up took my time up from 10:00 am till 7:30 pm and again i had to struggle my way into looking into the nitigrities of getting everything done..especially post washing there are grease marks etc everywhere and when you ask them to clean it they show a indifferent behaviour which pisses off the customer but since it's your car so you have to bear it and get the work done.

• The surveys are filled in a pushy manner - I was kind of forced to give atleast some good marks basis personal rapport which i've stopped doing now

2ND SERVICE - NIGHTMARE is the word that comes to my mind

• Gave my car for 2nd Service 5 weeks back ( dont remember the date but can provide on request ) and again had to struggle till the evening to get it back and the same issue of them not cleaning it properly and me standing there and doing certain things myself cos i wanted it spic and span

• 2 Days after the 2nd service the oil started leaking and the AC water started coming into the cabin ( Drivers seat side ). I called up Autolinks and they said please dont bring it on saturday as we are already full etc ( imagine the oil leaking and water coming inside the cabin and this response on top of it..SHOULD I HAVE WAITED FOR ALL THE OIL TO DRAIN OUT/ENGINE TO CEASE BEFORE THEY COULD FIX AN APPOINTMENT?? - Anyways i pushed my way through and went there on saturday. The car was inspected and they fixed the oil leaking issue however again told me that AC issue is a big one and you'll have to come on a weekday..besides me requesting multiple times i was pushed to come during weekday to get it fixed

• Since i could not manage on a weekday so i booked the appointment for next saturday ( was also getting SMOG from the AC vents and no cooling too ) ..After i went on saturday they said that it's a BIG task and that i'll have to leave the car till monday EOD since Sunday they were closed. I followed up on Monday and they said that ISKA DASHBOARD KHUL KE SAB THEEK HOGA and that it would take 1 more day..I said OK ( as if i had a choice ) and finally got the car back on Tuesday around 5:00 pm

• All looked fine untill i switched on the lights at night and everything went dark in the car ( No cabin light , no cluster light , no back red and reverse lights were working ) - I thanked my stars as atleast the Headlights were working.

• I called up Aneesh ( autolink advisor ) again and told him that this time it would be impossible for me to come personally so please get the car picked from my house and drop it back after fixing this issue

• SO 3rd CONSECUTIVE SATURDAY/MONDAY ( dont remember ) after 2nd service my car again went to the service station and the light issue got fixed

• After driving the car for couple of days this time the rear wiper/rear water booster stopped working and this time the water started leaking from co-drivers side and reached till the back seat :(

• I again called up Aneesh yesterday and he asked me to book a fix up again and when i called autolinks booking they told me that they were booked on monday 27th Aug and the entire week and that i need to speak to their manager Mr Rupesh Pathak if i had to get things fixed.

• I called up Mr Rupesh Pathak and requested him for the same and he asked me in turn to call up Aneesh and tell him that he has approved it ( he could have very well done it himself - ISNT IT?? )

• I called up Aneesh and told him that i needed someone to pick the car/get the issues fixed & drop it back on Monday and then he finally spoke to that booking department with me online and finally it's fixed for Monday ( Luckily i have 2 more cars so i can manage but what if i did not have?? )

[nitinralli]

A Big Congrats Bro. Though i did this long time back And Thanks for posting a small pic of my beast as well.

[harishnayak]

@Nitin Ralli - Thanks bro

Here was my first cut reaction on the niggles

• The steering once completely turned started making a HISSS noise which i enquired on the Dicor forum and got a clarification that it's a standard feature and nothing to be worried about
  
• The Temp gauge had a mind of it's own and used to come on half soon after driving few kms - Again got to know that it's perfectly normal
  
• Was unable to set the time and change the tyre as there was no demo given to me ( also i did not know where the Jack lever was ) - Complained about this to the sales guy and he came home to give a demo of both the queries
  
• Did not know how to open the Bonnet as i was unable to locate the lever post opening it from the lever inside - The sales guy showed me on his visit ( refer to previous point )
  
• The check engine light came on within the 6th or the 7th day and i jumped from my driving seat after seeing this and immediately drove back home and called the CC number mentioned on the customer booklet. After them trying to help me open the bonnet ( which i was unable to - sounds foolish i know ) they arranged for a support van @ 1:30 am in the night as i was hell bent on getting it fixed right then. As we all know that most pains go away when the doctor comes to examine you so similar incident happened with me when the breakdown support guys game in..The engine check light went off , so they recommended me to get it checked during the 1st service

All this happened before i went for the 1st service

[dZired]

Note from Mod: There are several spelling & grammatical errors in your posts. This negatively affects the board experience for other readers.

Kindly ensure that you proof-read your posts prior to submission. Also, it would be a good idea to use spell-checkers.

[nitinralli]

Originally Posted by harishnayak

@Nitin Ralli - Thanks bro

Here was my first cut reaction on the niggles
[list][*]The steering once completely turned started making a HISSS noise which i enquired on the Dicor forum and got a clarification that it's a standard feature and nothing to be worried about

That's what i noticed in my XUV as well few days back. The insurance guy came for a check and was looking for chassis # under the front wheel arc and he asked me to to turn the wheel completely. Then i came across this HISS sound for the first time. I was alarmed for a bit, but then i also came to know its normal.

[kingofkings]

" I Always wanted to quit Monday moning..."
Really I did. Congratulations on reclaiming your life mate. Its truly a monster.I can see by the pictures that you have done quite a bit of what your title alludes to.
Please keep updating and hope you have many more adventures with your beast.

[n.devdath]

Congrats Harish: I believe you had an Alto before this, correct?

The Safari will serve you as a comfortable highway beast for a long time. Drive Safe.



@Mods: Shouldn't this thread be in the "Initial Ownership" section?

[columbus]

Hi! Harish

Congrats for the Safari. It was very nice meeting you and your family at the War memorial. Here is wishing many a safe miles to you.

[harishnayak]

Found some pictures from my Blackberry Handphone which i took during the PDI/Delivery/While driving back home



The first look. Was spell bound and could wait to lay my hands on her



Bugged this guy for an hour to get the the car cleaned perfect to the T



Just before getting my VIP number 0700


From the Cabin , That's my wifey driving my sparky sporting the "LIVE TO DRIVE" sticker. Sparky actually looked puny from the cabin and no prizes for guessing how happy i was about this view

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Initial Ownership Section. Thanks for sharing!

[Harry1983]

Hi Harish

Congratulations!!! I see that you already did some great trips. Keep having fun.
I own a Safari white which I bought last year and it has the same issue with Fuel Cap. Service Center tried 3 times but the issue remains. Do you know what they did to fix the issue in your case?

[harishnayak]

Originally Posted by columbus

Hi! Harish

Congrats for the Safari. It was very nice meeting you and your family at the War memorial. Here is wishing many a safe miles to you.

Hey Columbus - It was nice meeting you @ Kargil War memorial. Although we had planned to meet in Jammu however i bypassed Jammu on day 1 as i reached there pretty much early but Boy was i excited on seeing your Fortuner enter the war memorial and what timings too .

Attaching few pictures of a small TBHP meet @ KARGIL War Memorial

Grey Fortuner - Columbus , Black DL Safari - Harish Nayak


We caught up for some snack about 5-10 kms after Kargil war meorial , The elderly gentleman was a contractor who just wanted to get clicked with us so we obliged


Left - Columbus , Right - Harish

Originally Posted by Harry1983

Hi Harish

Congratulations!!! I see that you already did some great trips. Keep having fun.
I own a Safari white which I bought last year and it has the same issue with Fuel Cap. Service Center tried 3 times but the issue remains. Do you know what they did to fix the issue in your case?

Thanks Harry , BTW Harry is my nickname and the entire world calls me by that name . The denter at autolinks did something and it got fixed , i would owe it to purely his LUCK than workmanship in fixing this

[Alive2Drive]

Congrats Harish on your ride !!!!

Have seen you go places on your Alto, Enfield and now the Safari.
Hope you know who I am.? :-)

[Harry1983]

Originally Posted by harishnayak

Hey Columbus - It was nice meeting you @ Kargil War memorial. Although we had planned to meet in Jammu however i bypassed Jammu on day 1 as i reached there pretty much early but Boy was i excited on seeing your Fortuner enter the war memorial and what timings too .

Attaching few pictures of a small TBHP meet @ KARGIL War Memorial

Grey Fortuner - Columbus , Black DL Safari - Harish Nayak

We caught up for some snack about 5-10 kms after Kargil war meorial , The elderly gentleman was a contractor who just wanted to get clicked with us so we obliged

Left - Columbus , Right - Harish

Thanks Harry , BTW Harry is my nickname and the entire world calls me by that name . The denter at autolinks did something and it got fixed , i would owe it to purely his LUCK than workmanship in fixing this

We have lot in common, nicknames, original names and also our rides :-)

[harishnayak]

Originally Posted by Alive2Drive

Congrats Harish on your ride !!!!

Have seen you go places on your Alto, Enfield and now the Safari.
Hope you know who I am.? :-)

You forgot to mention Spark amongst the other vehicles up there . I've sent you a PM. Please check.

Originally Posted by Harry1983

We have lot in common, nicknames, original names and also our rides :-)

You bet. Way to go , hoping to meet you some day on one of my cross country drives.