[satz581993Mille]

Fantastic review! Congrats for the ride. The Safari is in my opinion is the best VFM SUV money can buy right now and that 400NM torque makes it worth every penny. Despite being one of the oldest platforms, it still standouts as a macho looking SUV with a superb stance especially in the white shade you've got.

[SamarthMehrotra]

Great Review from a fellow Doonite! Wish you good years with the Storme!

[navpreet318]

Originally Posted by saurabh sharma

..........
What is the FE you are now getting past the run in? City & Highway? ....... Also any experience of 4WD High & Low?

I haven't calculated the FE yet. Should be around the 10 mark with with higher for highway and very slightly lower for city. It's more connected with the speeds. As in the fuel needle moved slower at 100 and faster at and above 120.
I used the 4x4 too. In normal conditions the torque at idle is enough to pull it on inclines without accelerator input. When I had to jump the dividers, there way a step which had to be climbed. This was done easily in 4x4 Low without accelerator input much to the cheers of truck drivers around who had asked me to take a long run up to the divider. I did it crawling. Also during one of the pics at Puri, it got stuck in the sand in front of Hans Coco. Easily pulled out in 4x4 Low. This 4x4 feature for us is more of use to get out of tricky situations and during the times when the heavy Storme gets itself stuck somewhere. But it works in a superb fashion.

Originally Posted by jkdas

Excellent review! I guess you now only have to comment on the 4x4 and the jump seat experience and ya, the mileage.

What is the difference in the AC unit of Storme and older Safari's?

Thanks for reminding. 4x4 performance as above. Jump seats are completely useless. Don't know why they can't think of anything better and completely removable. Those plastic clips holding them are another design failure. They both broke when our dogs accidentally pulled at the seats in our older safari.

The AC performance is God sent. That is a super chilly AC. I have to use it in ECO mode so as to keep it lesser chilly. Huge difference with the older one. The older unit just couldn't cope when the heat was full blast. This one chills even in full mid day sun.

Originally Posted by sen2009

Navpreet.. Congrats on your new Safari. It still has the king of the hill look as always.

I have a 2009 2.2 dicor safari. I have driven it a fair bit on long drivers. It is a really nice vehicle for that.

One small issue I had always faced is that above 80-90 kmph, it cannot pull strongly enough to get out of tight situations quickly. Even if it is pushed harder, it feels that the car wont get stabilized at the desired higher speed in time. This issue bothers me more on long two way highway stretches with lots of truck traffic.

How do you feel about this? Does the extra torque help?

PS - Spot on review with the headlamps.

Oh yes. Absolutely! It pulls and pulls and pulls. As I have written in the review too. It pulls strongly to speeds way way above the limits. A 120 is nothing for it. And it keeps pulling just as strong after it. I was a long way above that when I chickened out.

[DHABHAR.BEHRAM]

Originally Posted by navpreet318

1. The headlights are superb in high beam. On the highways which are unlit and require a long throw the high beam leaves nothing more to be desired. Perfect combination of throw and spread. Overall I'm very satisfied with the headlights. I had planned to put auxiliary lights earlier but now I have dropped that plan. I don't even plan to put HID's in the projector. 2. Good reliable vehicle. I would have never said the word "reliable" earlier. But now after this 4300Kms storm of a drive in the Storme, I am reassured that indeed Tata has made a good vehicle this time around and frankly my decision to not go for the Scorpio instead was a wise decision.

Dear Navpreet - thanks (you know why ) for all your comments on this thread as well as the other one. Already taken up for action, including communication to the vendors! My comments on your above statements numbered 1 and 2 are as follows:

1. Thanks! This was done on a (then "burqa" clad) burgundy colored vehicle in December 2011 / January 2012, inside the vendor's laboratory room in Hinjewadi and also in the dead of night on the old Pune-Mumbai highway between Dehu Road and Khopoli. I remember setting the high beam on the prototype, 26 times to be exact, to get the perfect beam height and exact center convergence. It was nice to remember, so I took out the report and saw it just now. There is so much to learn in headlights!
2. A VERY BIG THANK YOU! What more can I say! I have extensively used "that vehicle" also, so I know! .

Yes, you can very nicely crawl your way through in 4*4 low due to 2.48:1 ratio. I'll tell my colleague in Borg Warner, he'll be happy as well.

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

[apachelongbow]

Originally Posted by sen2009

Navpreet.. Congrats on your new Safari. It still has the king of the hill look as always.

I have a 2009 2.2 dicor safari. I have driven it a fair bit on long drivers. It is a really nice vehicle for that.

One small issue I had always faced is that above 80-90 kmph, it cannot pull strongly enough to get out of tight situations quickly. Even if it is pushed harder, it feels that the car wont get stabilized at the desired higher speed in time. This issue bothers me more on long two way highway stretches with lots of truck traffic.

How do you feel about this? Does the extra torque help?

I don't know about your Dicor, but I never heard or experienced of this lack of pulling ability over 90kmph on either the Dicor or the Storme. Infact in any gear above 2000rpm the car will pull like mad all the way to 4000rpm. Keeping the engine spinning and you will see some surprising speeds on the speedometer. Overtaking is a peice of cake in my Storme with the 5th gear being an automatic from 60kmph till the high top end. I never had to drop gears to blow past trucks on a single lane highway, also the bullying ability is top class and I regularly put vehicles off road, who jump out of my way when they see the Storme blasting head on on the single lane.

[ISO]

Dear Navpreet

Could you please comment on performance of Safari in 6th gear?

My experience was dulled response of throttle in 6th gear during my longish test drive.

[navpreet318]

Originally Posted by ISO

Dear Navpreet

Could you please comment on performance of Safari in 6th gear?

My experience was dulled response of throttle in 6th gear during my longish test drive.

I did a couple of shades under two tons in it. Fantastic! It is the 6th gear, you have to factor that the ratio such that you cannot have instant acceleration. The engine has to spool up and build the torque. It happens at low rpms only. Once rpms are built and then if the throttle is reapplied after leaving it, it responds instantly.
Infact if you try you can find the similar kind of response in the 5th gear as well. I would put it down to gear ratio unless Tata has put in specific engine and throttle response maps in the ECU for the specific gears. Overall I did not find it a problem in this 4300 kms drive or the total of 6900 kms which we have done till date.

[Seek]

Hi Navpreet, Congrats from one new storme owner to another. I bought mine on 25th Jan 16 http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...km-update.html!

Agree with all your views on the road presence and driving pleasure the storme provides. Unmatched in its segment or even a segment above.

I have some comments on the negatives you have listed

Originally Posted by navpreet318

[*]Certain vibrations from the car have already started. Vibration from the overhead AC for the middle row. It creaks sometimes.
[*]Coming to the issue of vibrations and judders. Yes there are still certain vibrations which arise at rpms lower than 1000 at a higher gear. That is bound to happen.
[*]I just am not able to understand how to adjust the time on the Media unit no matter how many times I have read the manual or tried all kinds of buttons.
[*]Tata After Sales Service is like a moody person. Has its ON days and its OFF days.

Yes, I also have a slight creaking sound from the rear overhead AC on bad roads, nothing very disturbing though but I plan to get it looked at in the first service

Vibrations and Judders : Mine has been to the workshop for it and diagnosed as some vibrations from the gear level linkage. After multiple observations and discussions with the TML team, the gear knob was chnaged today and surprisingly the noise that was coming in 4th gear while decelerating is reduced by 50% or so. "Maybe" you can also look at that angle to the problem. Behram Sir can also comment on this.

I have cracked the time setting problem, took me a lazy day and lot of fiddling to figure out. I set the time and now after 3 weeks I am unable to figure out how I did it Will certainly find out and let you know tomorrow. It was in a very unrelated setting.

After sales service experience has been pretty good for me with folks in concorde motors and tata motors being responsive to the questions raised. No issues at all.

May you have a happy time with the beast.

[navpreet318]

Originally Posted by Seek

.............
.

I have cracked the time setting problem, took me a lazy day and lot of fiddling to figure out. I set the time and now after 3 weeks I am unable to figure out how I did it Will certainly find out and let you know tomorrow. It was in a very unrelated setting.

After sales service experience has been pretty good for me with folks in concorde motors and tata motors being responsive to the questions raised. No issues at all.

May you have a happy time with the beast.

Hi Seek. It'll be great if you can recall and share how you corrected the time on the infotainment system. I have just given up on it. So much that I forgot to even ask the guys at the service station to do it.

Thanks.

[Seek]

Originally Posted by navpreet318

Hi Seek. It'll be great if you can recall and share how you corrected the time on the infotainment system. I have just given up on it. So much that I forgot to even ask the guys at the service station to do it.

Thanks.

Here you go. Figured it out again on the way back from work.

1. Switch on the system
2. Click on the settings button (the small one next to the Bluetooth button)
3. It will show you speed sound curve.
4. While it is here, click on the next track button on the right side of the screen
5. Click it till it reaches the adjust time setting and then use the dial on the left to set the hours and minutes.

You will see all the settings while doing this and maybe add some from here to your surprises section

Let me know if you still can't get it. I'll send a video over tomorrow.

Cheers
Ankush

[dkamath]

Originally Posted by Seek

Here you go. Figured it out again on the way back from work.

Thanks, Ankush! This helps much. Have been living with this time abberation for over 8 months now, without figuring out how to fix it! :-)

While at it, can you please share if there is a way to set a particular station for the radio? Everytime i turn on the unit, an AM station with 531 kHz greets me with a jabberish buzz until i flick the modes to a preset FM station.

Regards,
Damodar

[navpreet318]

Originally Posted by Seek

Here you go.......

Thanks a lot Ankush!!

Done and got the other settings as well. Superb!

[Seek]

Originally Posted by navpreet318

Thanks a lot Ankush!!

Done and got the other settings as well. Superb!

Welcome. There is also another useful feature I picked up I think from rohansachar's ownership thread. In case you have turned off the vehicle and taken the keys out and realise any of the windows are down, you needn't switch on the vehicle again to put them back up. You can directly use the power windows switches as long as you haven't opened the driver side door. It works!

Maybe we can start a tips and tricks thread for the storme!

[Bageera]

Congratulations on your decision to go with King of the Road.

As it has been said already so many times, most of us dream of owning a Safari/Storme, only a few privileged ones get to own it!

Truly a mile muncher. Happy Touring

[ScarySkulls]

Even though I haven't seen one of these in person, I really enjoyed the thread. Coming from you of all people, I believe this new Safari is no less fun than the earlier ones.

Thanks for posting this. Looking forward to a test drive now!