[ashis89]

For a 80's kid, this is NOT a Safari. But neither was the Storme.

As a kid, that lust that I had for that maroon '98 Safari in my neighborhood and then the 01' white one with the OE bull bar, I was disappointed with Dicor refresh. And finally, I gave up my dream when the Storme came and the Safari was discontinued. What we have today is a smart looking Tata car, not the Safari by any length of imagination!

For me, the best looker was the 1st gen Safari, the one in the 2002 movie Road (the only reason I watched that movie!)


Source

There were references to the Suzuki Zen. I would agree. My thoughts, the journey has been similar to:

Zen -> Zen Classic -> Zen Estilo -> Ignis

PS: The Safari petrol was like Zen Carbon, however impractical each of them might be.
No offense meant to any of car owners.

[Puffdamgcdragon]

I feel a lot of the flak the New Safari gets, is from the early 80s kids, for whom the Safari was an aspirational vehicle. The brilliant Ads for the product also built up the idea. For those lucky few who owned it, it was a source of pride.

However, a word of warning to all of the old-timers (Me included) who look at the cars owned by us/ lusted by us in the past with rose-tinted glasses.

In our wistful recollection, we mostly dwell on the good times we had in our youth, and the car we long for today is strongly connected to our great memories. Many times we tend to forget the bad bits where we had trouble with the car. Or we just put it down to "character", quickly shelf it out of our memory, and focus on the wonderful feelings and the high of our youth.

A case in point from my personal experience- The Maruti Gypsy. I used to own one during 94-2000. It was our family's primary car, as was the case for a lot of families in the hills here -subsequently replaced by the Bolero as the go-to car for middle-class families.

We travelled all around in it, I drove for hours on end and remember driving it at quite reckless speeds on dangerous roads. All in all, great fun and I thoroughly enjoyed the Gypsy.

Now, nearing 50, with enough disposable income and a car workshop at my disposal, I decided to chase the memory and the feeling of my youth and picked up several Auction Gypsys and did them up meticulously. Sold most of them and kept the best one for myself as a second occasional fun car.

But driving it again was a disappointment of epic proportions. Suddenly all the bad bits came flooding back. The Cramped seats with little support, the wheezy engine, the really harsh ride quality, the dismal safety with those thin sheets, the absolute bare interiors etc. Now I'm left wondering why I loved it to bits in the first place and how on earth could I ever have driven it interstate 9 -10 hours at a stretch.

But then I digress. The point I'm trying to make is that when we remember a car we have owned in our youth a lot of time, a lot of us tend to fondly remember only the good bits about our rides. We are actually focussing more on our lost youth and the feeling of sheer exuberance we got with that ride.

In the case of the Safari, if we place the Old Safari 2.2 Dicor (say, in a new condition) and the New (Harrier inspired) Safari, and we were to choose between them. Not a lot of sensible people would pick the old Safari - Iconic name or not.

Apart from the Middle seat comfort and the towering height (Which has its own drawbacks concerning safety and handling), the New Safari beats the old one in ALL parameters. The 4wd was a plus on the older Safari but c'mon. Let's get real here. How many of us actually used the 4wd? And oh, for such a heavy vehicle with a long wheelbase, the 4wd was actually quite useless in real-world scenarios.

I speak from experience as I live in a place where we actually use the 4WD on a regular basis and most country folks here, know the proper use of 4 high and 4 low.

Let's just leave the past as it is and move ahead. Tata has done a wonderful job with the new Harrier and the Safari. They are much better vehicles as compared to the ones we had in the past. If Tata named the Harrier clone as 'Safari" and got more sales because of that, more power to them, I say! Who are we to cry Sacrilege?

[PrasannaDhana]

Congratulations on the new Safari!!

The new Gravitas vs the Safaris.

As already discussed and agreed, making the Gravitas as Safari was a business masterstroke. Honestly, there is nothing in common with old generation Safaris and the new Safari except their names.

New Safari is much similar to XUV500 than it could ever be to the old Safari. Being a repeat Safari owner, I cannot just associate the Safari nameplate to the harrier xl.

While the new Safari may be a much better car in many ways to the archaic old Safari, it just isn't one, atleast to diehard Safari fans and owners like me.

The next logical upgrade to old safari/storme will be the endeavor. No other car provides that comfort, cabin view and character as much. But then, it is twice as expensive as the Safari. As a old gen safari/storme owner, if I cannot afford an endeavor and have to get along with MUVs, I would pick the crysta over the new Safari, but that is just me.

Honestly, the 2.2 Varicor 400 felt better than the 2.0 diesel of the new Safari inside the city.

[Sandman689]

I am sure this came across a lot of minds:

JLR to Tata: Hey! we're going to revive the old Defender but make it worse. Maybe you should do the same to your Safari!
Tata: lol Yeah we are.


(Personally I'd hire the trio from the Grad Tour to do this better though)


I do understand that the new Defender and the 21 Safari are good cars in their own right. But they both have far little inheritance from their much capable older siblings.


I felt gutted to see Tata making the same mistake as JLR. Somebody somewhere needs to get fired!

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by vigneshkumar31

WHAT'S IN THE NAME?

We have to address the elephant in the room before proceeding any further. Please allow me to rant about the issue of nomenclature. When the Gravitas got called the Safari suddenly, the world had only two kinds of people left- (1).People who didn't mind it and (2) Old Safari owners.

Thanks for this post.

I'll retreat back to the Cycling corner now.

Cheers, Doc

[Gamerk]

First of all, excellent thread, really enjoyed reading it.
This thread brought back a lot of memories, we used to have a Safari DICOR from 2013 to 2015 and it was an absolute beast. Dad used to call it a proper truck, mainly because it was our first SUV and we only had hatchbacks before that.

The tall, imposing seating position, comfortable ride and lots of space are qualities I experienced first hand and in the 2 short years we had this beast, it took us on many road-trips comfortably and hauled lots of stuff for our farm, I remember dad being astonished after it went up a pretty steep incline with lots of papayas in the boot.

Attaching a few pictures:









We had to part with it in 2015 after dad passed away because mum wasn't comfortable with such a big car, so we've moved back to hatchbacks

Cheers.

[gururajrv]

This is a neat thread around the perspective of a owner who owns the legendary Safari / the Storme!

Tata Motors was extremely lethargic or lame around naming this extension or Harrier brand and mixing it all up with legend altogether.

They should’ve preserved this name for a car that would carry or upsize the characteristics of the original brand. They just lost this chance that could’ve been used wisely and make good impression.

Nevertheless, this new “Safari” looks absolutely sweet and upmarket. But, kind of loses the essence of originality as it contains engine & gearbox combo of 2 different companies. Just my opinion.

[vaish9925]

There was a reason why it was hailed as the truck, yes, it was hailed, right from the cabin and the gear lever dancing to the towering position one gets when seated. Heck, one could go head to head with the person in a Tata 407.

Then comes the seats, need I say anything ? Whatever people say, the seats of the Safari were the best this side of 35 lakhs, and maybe its sibling, the Hexa comes close.

While the Safari'21 is gracious in its own right, the older Safari had a charm and an emotional connect, which the new Safari lacks, IMO.

It was 17 years ago, I was 6 then, when I saw the Safari for the first time. After close to two decades, I am hunting for a well maintained Safari, just for the heck of it. Because, first love always remains special, be it a person or a machine. And to the most of the old Safari lovers here, the old Safari was, is and will always be more than a machine.

Regards,
VaishaK MurugesaN

[H Karter]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Memers are not making it easy for the marketing guys are TATA!

A built to a cost Defender (it even looks like the original Safari from the rear) would just have been the ideal replacement for the Safari.

On similar lines, if they can do a Winger with old generation Renault Trafik; why can't an old generation LR Discovery become a Tata Safari:



Stepped Roof - checked
Offroadability - checked
Road presence - checked
Body on frame - its fusion actually.

[Kosfactor]

Originally Posted by H Karter

On similar lines, if they can do a Winger with old generation Renault Trafik; why can't an old generation LR Discovery become a Tata Safari:

For our market it's best to stick to locally developed platforms, else the components have to be sourced from expensive vendors, you may have to price the car at a very aggressive price because it is still a Tata and not LR which will hit your margins and then this LR is not exactly known to last long outside of the UK so you lose a lot of customers as well.

Overall bad idea. Kind of sounds like something that happened recently.

[Kalash_6324]

Originally Posted by vigneshkumar31

[center]

NEW TATA SAFARI - PERSPECTIVE OF AN OLD SAFARI OWNER

What a thread sir! Loved every bit of it.

Just one point I'd like to add and would love your opinion on:
Naming this product Gravitas would've meant only the D2 segment left for Tata to enter with the Safari badge, in which case I doubt it would've survived the battle against Fortuner and Endeavour.
Only a slow and terrible death that almost every other competitor has suffered would've been on the cards, along with a stain on the legendary badge.
Injustice to the legacy.

While at the same time if 25 lakhs sound unreasonable for a Tata, 35 or even 32 would sound ungodly.
Tata simply hasn't built that image yet.

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

Congratulations on the new Safari!!

The new Gravitas vs the Safaris.

As already discussed and agreed, making the Gravitas as Safari was a business masterstroke.

For an excercise to be categorised as a masterstroke, flawless execution is a must.
This was more like a last minute-haphazard paintjob where they forgot touching up the rusted door hinges and were caught red handed post execution.
We have a thread on the forum discussing how evidence was left behind.
Not the perfect crime they hoped they'd committed.

P.s. highlights poor QC at Tata.

[vigneshkumar31]

Originally Posted by Kalash_6324

What a thread sir! Loved every bit of it.

Just one point I'd like to add and would love your opinion on:
Naming this product Gravitas would've meant only the D2 segment left for Tata to enter with the Safari badge,.

Not really.
First, we all agree that naming this Gravitas would've killed it on arrival anyway.
For a hypothesis, even if they did call it something else, say 2nd gen Hexa, and had a seperate 2nd gen Safari in the works, (which they didn't) there is no compulsion to fight upwards with the D2.

Tata Tiago Rs. 4.99 - 6.95 Lakh
Tata Tigor Rs. 5.59 - 7.73 Lakh
Tata Altroz Rs. 5.79 - 9.55 Lakh
Tata Nexon Rs. 7.19 - 12.95 Lakh
Tata Harrier Rs. 14.29 - 20.81 Lakh
Tata Safari Rs. 14.99 - 21.81 Lakh

Look at the lineup and you find the 2nd gen Safari has moved itself due north because of the stop gap Harrier. There is no direct Scorpio competitor from TATA, (which was the original Safari). A hypothetical 2nd gen Safari could have co-existed lower, to fight the Scorpio. But we are dreaming.

Mahindra has the vision for three 7 seater SUVs by next season, Tata doesn't have an answer, yet. (Notwithstanding there will be a gap after 5OO takes a temporary hiatus) and comes later after 7OO establishes itself.

Mahindra Scorpio 12.51 - 17.20 Lakh (due for refresh)
Mahindra XUV 5OO 15.48 - 20.00 Lakh (due for refresh)
Mahindra XUV 7OO ?? (launching soon)


In the electric space, There is a wide gap for the Sierra EV, whenever, to slot in.
Tata Nexon EV Rs. 13.99 - 16.56 Lakh
Tata Tigor EV Rs. 10.58 - 10.90 Lakh

[Lalvaz]

Originally Posted by vigneshkumar31

The new Safari seems to tick most of the right boxes and offers a good family tourer if you're looking for one. It has just enough oomph and bells and whistles to pass off under radar of creature comfort seekers. Presently for the next few months at least, it's the only real desi player in this segment and would enjoy first mover advantage. The prospective customers those who are upgrading from a hatch or sedan to the SUV segment, this SUV comes as a great package with stunning SUV looks, good engine gearbox combo and the bragging rights and satisfaction of finally owning a childhood dream - Safari.

The new Safari is for the new Safari buyer.

What about existing Safari owners looking to update their Safari garage with a new one. Like, this author? The very question this thread attempts to answer. Well the original pull for the Safari/Storme against the better specced XUV was always for the unique traits that the Safari was known for and those were exactly the traits, few of us brought it home for. The discerning Safari buyer wouldn't have cross shopped an XUV ever, and on the other end, the XUV buyer would have not even considered the utilitarian Safari. These were two different subsegments of automobiles within nearly same price segment.That line between the two has been blurred with the launch of this new Safari.

Today we face the same dilemma that sprouts up whenever a cult icon from a niche is pushed into mainstream by the company. Just like the Bullet did, when it went mainstream, this new SUV has made the 'Safari' accessible to a larger mainstream populace. And to do this, it had to give up the very traits which made it a Safari in the first place.

Understandably, there is only so much that Tata could've improved on the old gen platform after decades of exploitation, and any expense or effort in that direction in 2021 would have been too little too late and frankly in vain.

Then this vehicle, is perhaps then the unavoidable way ahead for Tata in the pursuit of the modern automobile, that's a full size family SUV. And it has already sold well in its first year of launch, so the market has spoken.

Write your own verdict.

Attachment 2153841

Your communication skills are excellent, and I love the way you've made your point. Totally based on facts and amply supported by pictures and your own firsthand experiences. You've also managed an almost impossible balancing act of praising the Original Safari and also appreciating many traits of the new one, while still standing your ground.

This thread is a gem, and has a ton of very useful automotive information. I think Tata would do well to read your posts in more detail, and come out with a real SUV, rather than slapping an iconic badge on just any darn vehicle.

Thank you so much for writing this lovely post. Made my day, and I'm sure many other older drivers will appreciate the older Safari even more now for its unique proposition.

[OctYFAN]

Second row elitists, third row prisoners,

I have no idea how you are thinking this stuff up.

But yes I was quite disappointed with Tata for renaming this as the Safari. The Gravitas name sounds cooler IMHO.

The Safari used to mean something and had a unique identity. But today it is known only as a larger Harrier.

How have the mighty fallen. Hope Tata doesn't do this with the new Sierra.

The New Safari is a word
The original Safari is an emotion

Cheers
OctYFAN

[BrabarusMark]

Tara's new avatar is to build good looking cars that value form over function rather than build utilitarian cars that value function more than form. The Sumo and Safari SUVs were more utility vehicles that focused on a particular job and did it well. Rural hauler? Get the Sumo. Lifestyle 4x4 that the family won't complain about? The Safari is your car.

You have rightly said that the new Safari is for new Safari owners because they didn't buy the Safari in the past because of this utilitarian image. The new Safari is more palatable and safe, in my opinion, rather than polarizing. With that in mind, Tata should have used Land Rover's 4x4 system. It's the most logical choice and it seems a bit weird that they chose to skip it just for a refresh later. While they're at it, they can give the Harrier an AWD too!

With what you've said about the interiors, I think the problem isn't just with the Safari but with all new cars. In the quest for sleeker lines, manufacturers are willingly sacrificing the airy cabins that make driving with people a joy. I've been in an 800, an Accent, and now drive an SX4 and all of these cars have the feeling of airiness and space that I don't find in many cars these days. There's a reason sunroofs are needed for the modern cars to get the same feeling of space.

In essence, some legends shouldn't be retold or reimagined for the modern taste.