Team-BHP - Driven : 2021 Tata Safari XZA+ 6 seater

Thanks for the 5 star scoop @ram87pune. Now thats a real scoop. All details in the open. And beating everyone. A surgical strike of sorts! :D

I myself am a chrome hater. However - I prefer the Safari's chrome loaded grille over the Harrier's somehow. I like this car in general anyway over the Harrier. Interiors really look very high quality. Loved attention to detail. Stylish 3rd row AC vents, thoughtful power points upto the 3rd row.

Overall - a wonderful car package. Very good place to be in for sure. The inevitable constant comparison with Harrier and the limited set of additional features over the Harrier would always be a bane for the Safari. This is the reason why they kept Harrier in 140PS tune originally I always feel. The Safari would have had a clear advantage with 170PS. Covid19 delays threw a large monkey wrench in that plan for sure.
I'm not convinced about their insistence on having SO MANY variants from XE to XZA+ and what not. Those are fine for cost effective cars for buyers in lower segments. Someone spending 20+ big ones, needs things simple & to the point. Just looking at all the variants will frustrate me - especially since there is a high possibility that the sales staff will never be able to explain the differences to me when I ask.

In its current avatar, the car sure looks a good all round package. Worthy contender in the segment where it will land. The true distinguisher will be an AWD. A birdie tells its on the anvil & hopes should be held on to. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by vigsom (Post 4986652)

No SUV or MUV other than the Xylo has provided comfortable seating for the third row.

Couldn't agree to this more. I have said this to a lot of people - many of them fanatics about Innova (that is the only good car on our roads they say) - and been beaten black & blue for saying this. But I stand by it. XYLO was the only true comfortable people mover we have got in recent past - for all occupants.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ram87pune (Post 4986301)

Hello bhpians.

After a very long wait, finally got my hands on the all new Safari a few days ago thanks to my sources. So without further ado here's what I thought of the Safari after spending more than a couple of hours with it both in the city and out on the highway.

Dear ram87pune sir, thanks for the insider perspective and quick scoop.
Lots of amazing details and I love your comparison to Hexa at places being another Hexa owner and lover myself who would be looking for an upgrade shortly. I will ping you on PM to pick your brains again for more questions and feedback.

On the car itself, I hope Safari does good numbers for TML. I would only compare it within the segment. I feel the pricing will be the key here. Its already packaged well, lods of features. Love or hate the name, its got enough pages filled on TBhp and good interest from owners.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reinhard (Post 4986718)

In its current avatar, the car sure looks a good all round package. Worthy contender in the segment where it will land. The true distinguisher will be an AWD. A birdie tells its on the anvil & hopes should be held on to. :)

Do you both really see any chances of AWD added in future for the Safari and Harrier twins ? This will be truely a game changer then.

Seems like a MUCH/WAY BETTER planned Car-launch compared to the Harrier in every way.

The step up in overall NVH compared to Harrier is surprising but welcome change.:thumbs up

One thing I noticed is that the alloys are single-tone all l-silver as against Harrier’s dual tone Silver-black alloys. I guess they are trying to have the claimed differentiation of classy-edgy between Safari-Harrier.

Even the longer & other Full size SUVs like Hector, Fortuner, Endeavour etc have failed to nail the 3rd row seat comfort. So if Safari 3rd row is comfortable for kids and younger/shorter adults, then it’s fine. They should provide accessories to load more luggage on the roof rails to compensate the low boot space with 3 rows up.

The centre console with the EPB oozes premium.

No matter which way we look at it, the name change to SAFARI will be massive crowd & sales puller even though it was a last moment decision. This will have a bigger impact than all premium features like EPB, all-discs, sunroof, Connected-tech etc combined.

The only important feature missing is a better/360-degree/front-view camera. Front parking sensors must be standard on such a large SUV. Other things like TPMS, wireless-mobile charger etc should be available as accessories or can even be bought and installed after-market.

I hope they add the Air-purifier from Altroz XZ+ to Safari/Harrier at least in the top XZ variants for 2021 models.

@ram87pune : Only one concern. Why no pics of side profile in the exterior section? I wanted to know how the side profile changes with bigger 18” alloys.

Thanks Ram for the review.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ram87pune (Post 4986522)

... this naming fiasco was a last ditch effort by Tata to somehow grab eyeballs in the ever crowded 20 lakh SUV segment. This was supposed to be the Gravitas till almost diwali last year. It was "never" meant to be a Safari from the get go..

And with that, Tata has pretty much killed the "Safari" brand name. There is no way now to have another goood SUV with the Safari name - unless they rebrand this one, or altogether terminate this 7-seater.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ram87pune (Post 4986522)

Other points

...

Also my suggestion would be to not keep on adding features and other improvements every 6 months or so so as to make the initial customers shortchanged or cheated like they felt when the V2 Harrier was launched.
....

I totally agree with this suggestion. Tata has done this repeatedly with every car they have launched. This speaks to poor market research and product planning. This is before we even get into the engineering aspects. Every car manufacturer makes improvements in new models to solve initial niggles but rarely do those improvements transform the car drastically in the way of Tata cars.

Value engineering is a core principle of many companies - provide just enough value (in terms of performance, features, etc, at a certain cost) to satisfy the user needs and expectations. Adopting VE techniques helps in reducing cost and improving quality.
The trick is accurately identifying the needs and expectations of the user and judging what would satisfy them. This is where Tata seems to be getting it wrong repeatedly, as demonstrated by the continuously changing set of features and performance. Always late to the party...

FYI, despite the criticism, I'm actually a happy Tiago owner.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline (Post 4986696)

Based on the points mentioned in the review, the Safari brings zero value addition to the table relative to the Innova. It doesnt have a 3rd row that is as comfortable. It doesnt have a boot space that is as much as the Innova. It is a mild soft roader like the rest of the lot. And they expect people to pay 26-28 lacs ? And what's with this huge list of variants for a supposedly premium product ? Do they want to cannibalise the Harrier ?

+1
I also don't see real upgrade over Harrier. Tata should have planned proper seven seater ground up MPV design instead of adding just third row to the Harrier.

With ever increasing crowd and scarcity of parking places in India, compact SUV or a proper MPV that can accommodate seven people comfortably makes sense but not bloated up hatchback for the sake of third seat. It is neither in compact SUV nor in MPV territory.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DicKy (Post 4986707)

True. Add to that their older models had hydraulic struts a decade ago. The Harrier/Safari bonnet is heavy too.
But then again, the struts in Safaris wouldn't even last half a decade. So maybe TML way of ensuring a part doesn't fail. Remove it.

Hey DicKy.

I beg to differ on this. I drive a 2007 model Safari Dicor. The struts still work good. No maintenance on them whatsoever till date. And I know handful of people who own Dicors and Stormes (We have a Safari Owners group in Hyd). None of them had a strut failure in their vehicles.

Cheers.

Ani

Quote:

Originally Posted by vigsom (Post 4986652)

2. No SUV or MUV other than the Xylo has provided comfortable seating for the third row.

Are you sure you checked the 3rd row in Marazzo? It has lots of space accumulated and 3 adults can easily fit in.

Quote:

Originally Posted by condor (Post 4986753)

IMHO, this is too early to say this, I feel positive come back with this idea. Pricing will decide it's future now.

The interior of the spied base variant looks awful. Infotainment display of the base variant looks to be MONO LCD, looking cheap for a SUV of 20 plus price bracket. Gone are the days when the cars were bare bones in the base variants. Its how you equip base variant nowadays that impresses buyers like me who want bang for their buck. This product is Killed before launch itself. Poor Execution and planning, what are those engineers worth.:Frustrati

I for one after owning Safari for 2 decades am very unimpressed with the recent Tata strategies in the SUV/MUV segment. If I was given charge of TaMo I would have sacked the entire planning & executing segment of engineers & those so caled IIM's at the very first day of joining. This is how a angry Tata Safari fan reacts after!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ram87pune (Post 4986301)

Negatives

1. Questionable safety of the product as Tata is yet to test the Harrier as well as the Safari at NCAP.

I think this was not necessary to write since the word "questionable" is used very negativly where one is trying to imply that it is not upto the standards. I'm sure this is not what the reviewer is trying to say here. Moreover, we don't use this word for any other car reviews which have not been crash tested yet.