[DHABHAR.BEHRAM]

Dear Ebonho - "Sahebji" and "Hello there, Doc"! I am so glad that you got Beastie home. I will be following your thread very closely now! By the way, I also happen to own a 1998 model white Zen.

Its time to get my new company car. I am entitled to LX only (I think), time to take the plunge, I guess! Mine is also going to be black only! Nothing else looks good on this beast!

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

[stormerider]

Originally Posted by DHABHAR.BEHRAM

Its time to get my new company car. I am entitled to LX only (I think), time to take the plunge, I guess! Mine is also going to be black only! Nothing else looks good on this beast!

Dear Behram sir
It's so good to see you watching over storme ownership thread. I also have a black lx, and agree that it looks its best in black!
Now that you are also going in for an lx storme, I hope I can get some of my concerns addressed. Will fire my questions after you take your plunge. Good luck for your beast!
Regards

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by DHABHAR.BEHRAM

Dear Ebonho - "Sahebji" and "Hello there, Doc"! I am so glad that you got Beastie home. I will be following your thread very closely now! By the way, I also happen to own a 1998 model white Zen.

Its time to get my new company car. I am entitled to LX only (I think), time to take the plunge, I guess! Mine is also going to be black only! Nothing else looks good on this beast!

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

Sahebji Behram bhai kem ccho!

Thanks for your wishes bro and am really excited at the prospect of having you get a Storme too.

Maybe then the company will allow you to answer some queries as an "owner" and not necessarily as a contracted senior employee.

Incidentally, strong Tata genes here too.

Dad like the Japanese was a Tata man (TISCO) from his GT days to the day he retired.

Younger bro with Tata Sons at Bombay House now.

Sister briefly with TCS.

Fua ex-pilot for the Tatas.

And many other more distant relations.

We also make Steel! (the little boy running the race and breasting the tape triumphantly first, from that iconic ad of the late 80s, is my younger brother)

[ebonho]

Got the Waeco TB-15 Car Cooler yesterday from the Storme approved accessories provided by TML.

Cost : around 4500/-

Capacity : 15 Liters

Can keep things cool and warm as well.

Gets pretty cold within under 10 kms from my office to home.

[storme'd]

Congrats. I have also recently bought an 18 litre version from tropicool. Really big on space but didn't cool as effectively as I would have liked. Probably also coz I stuffed it too much. Do you have an accessory socket in the 3rd row? That's something I miss as I needed to pass the wire till the front cabin so that it doesn't get stuck in my daughters feet.

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by storme'd

Congrats. I have also recently bought an 18 litre version from tropicool. Really big on space but didn't cool as effectively as I would have liked. Probably also coz I stuffed it too much. Do you have an accessory socket in the 3rd row? That's something I miss as I needed to pass the wire till the front cabin so that it doesn't get stuck in my daughters feet.

How much the 18 L one cost? I too saw the Tropicool in an outside accessories shop, but in the end preferred to go safe and go with what TML has recommended.

On the cooling, these are not technically fridges (you get those as well - but they cost nearly more than a real household fridge) but just cool to a temperature 20-25 degrees cooler than ambient temperature. Somewhat equivalent to the fruit/vegetables box at the bottom of a fridge.

I too miss the socket in the 3rd row - have mentioned the same in my ownership review. Very silly cost cutting for Tata to not give something so small to EX and LX owners. I don't think the total cost add on would be more than a couple of hundred bucks.

I have routed the wire under the carpet mat and into the socket in the middle row (under the A/c blowers), and the cooler is in between the two jump seats in the 3rd row.

[storme'd]

This cost me around 10.5K including some discounts. I don't think this would lead to any warranty issues with tata considering it works on standard 12V.
I preferred the front input as the rear one I basically use for tv screens which I use for my daughter.

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by storme'd

This cost me around 10.5K including some discounts. I don't think this would lead to any warranty issues with tata considering it works on standard 12V.
I preferred the front input as the rear one I basically use for tv screens which I use for my daughter.

Aaaah .... that is the next step here too.

Which headrest screens did you go in for? I am assuming one of them is the DVD player as well? How is the quality of the picture and how much did it cost? Did you hook up the sound from the Storme's amp through the aux so as to use the car's speakers or is it through the inbuilt speakers? Can you use IR headphones with these?

Sorry for the tons of questions!

These are the ones I am looking at (the AVN 1004 Zephyr model) -

http://avninc.in/Headrest-Monitors.php

Its a subsidiary brand of CASKA and the picture quality was superior to most of the other makes I saw (Black, Circuit, Red Soul, RD, etc.)

[storme'd]

I bought a dual combo of portable DVD players from Philips. One of them is a DVD player as you said. The picture quality Is fantastic though one problem I face is that it has no slot for USB. I bought it off ebay in UK and cost me around inr 12K. Benefit of begin portable I that I can take out the main unit and use it in the hotel for her to watch her cartoons or any movie.
The inbuilt speakers are good enough though I sometimes hook it up to the aux of the system. Nope you can't use IR headphones with them. Will send you a link soon. Considering its philips, quality I top notch. Hope I answered all of your questions. Will go through your link by night at the hotel and comment. Am at Bangalore for work so a bit tight.

[ebonho]

Nice ride (oooops .... drive) on the expressway this Saturday with my brother-in-law for company. Lovely misty weather with patches of humongously heavy rains. So heavy that even with wipers on full speed, the hazard lights of the vehicles in front are barely visible through the mist and spray. Pune and the ghats surounding are really heaven on earth during the monsoons man!

A photo on the way back, as we stopped to take in the valley bathed in mist and fog and rain, while climbing back up to Lonavala.



The purpose of the drive was not to get anywhere. It was just to drive, and stretch Beastie's city-choked legs, and see what she can do when given the road. Well, we were surely not disappointed. Neither the handling, the poise, the NVH, or the legs gave me any cause to complain or regret going in for the Storme over the more highway accomplished XUV500 and the stablemate Aria. Turned around when the expressway ended at Kalamboli and drove back. Lovely way to spend 4 hours (including two food mall and one valley break) on a rainy weekend afternoon.

[n.devdath]

Originally Posted by ebonho

Nice ride (oooops .... drive) on the expressway this Saturday with my brother-in-law for company. Lovely misty weather with patches of humongously heavy rains.

Doc, need a favor from you.

A friend is about the book an EX in black tomorrow but the dealer doesn't have any display or stock vehicles using which he can show the interiors to my friend.

Can you please take detailed photos of the interiors and put them up here?

It will help him a lot.

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by n.devdath

Doc, need a favor from you.

A friend is about the book an EX in black tomorrow but the dealer doesn't have any display or stock vehicles using which he can show the interiors to my friend.

Can you please take detailed photos of the interiors and put them up here?

It will help him a lot.

People from the motorcycle section who have seen my skills as a photographer must be banging their heads in anticipated agony right now bro!

But I will oblige. Soon.

[Tgo]

Originally Posted by ebonho

The other thing is, and I don't know if this is normal, but again fom years of prior experience on non-ABS brakes, when you hit the pedal, you expect a certain amount of resistance from the pedal as feedback, which teaches you how to modulate your foot pressure. When the ABS kicks in, the pedal feedback goes out of the window. You feel "spongy" under your foot, instead of the firm feedback. Which I guess is preventing me from apply ing increased pressure properly.

Hope all this makes some sense to you. Purely amateur stuff!

I salute your modest nature in calling yourself an amateur when you could pin point one of the most striking side-effects of the ABS being active (Pedal becoming spongy). I have had quite a few occasions of emergency braking and that too in different cars:

1. 2007 Swift Petrol with 5 People on board
2. 2003 Accent 1.6 Petrol with 4 people on board
3. 2010 Figo Petrol with just me driving
4. 2012 Duster 110 with 2 people on board

In all these instances except with the one in the accent I could distinctly hear the tires squeal. It was in that one instance only that I had not turned the steering to avoid hitting something (= No steering input while braking)

I can guarantee that the ABS had kicked in because I remember feeling the brake pedal pulsating but I do not recall the ABS lamp glowing in any of the situations.

But you are bang on target about the brake pedal becoming spongy. Does it actually become so or is it just what we perceive it to have become with all the pulsating happening in it.

[condor]

Originally Posted by Tgo

.. one of the most striking side-effects of the ABS being active (Pedal becoming spongy).
I can guarantee that the ABS had kicked in because I remember feeling the brake pedal pulsating but I do not recall the ABS lamp glowing in any of the situations.

Have twice had the ABS kicking in on a Storme - both at sub-30 speeds. Once on the TD vehicle, once on mine. But don't remember any spongy-ness.

[n.devdath]

Originally Posted by condor

Have twice had the ABS kicking in on a Storme - both at sub-30 speeds. Once on the TD vehicle, once on mine. But don't remember any spongy-ness.

+1 to that.

I tested my friend's vehicle at the yard yesterday and deliberately had the ABS kick in with hard braking on a sandy surface. The only thing I felt was the pedal pulsing under my foot but there was no sponginess at all.

@ebonho: His vehicle is at the yard and he has he has his own set of interior pics now. Someone is very prompt I must say...!!!