[negi15]

Updates about Car Protection
I went to 3m store near my home for getting quotation on underbody anti-rust treatment, paint-sealant/ceramic/ppf and engine bay detailing. It seemed they had their hands full and didn't want any more customers or anyone looking for budget work. No one followed, even when I said I will drop car next day morning and missed it due to some urgent work. Went again with car in evening and no one cared to provide details about how it was going to be done. Stayed there for sometime and then left. I must say along with new cars, detailing work is also in high demand. Then, I checked with another 3m store near my office. They were proactive and provided me with all details. Finally, I decided to get paint sealant done with underbody rust coating along with silencer coating. Engine bay detailing was also added to package. At last minute, I don't know what struck me, but I added PPF protection as all corners, orvm's, bonnet and foot-boards. They offered complementary ppt on door edges and door cups below handles. Also asked them to apply PPF to few places inside cabin on piano black finish, which are frequently exposed to objects like automatic gear level setup. I dropped Wanderer at scheduled time next day and they did all required things at promised time, so that I could pick up car after office the same day. I was satisfied with the work quality. Will check how PPF works for some weeks and if convinced, may also get it done on some other parts. Since, I was at office full day, couldn't take pics of the work done. Sharing one final snap taken post detailing.



Also, we took Wanderer on four day trip to Sambhajinagar. Covered 900Km in fours days including Ellora, Grishneshwar Mahadev, Lonar. Will share more details about ride in another post. No issues except for "key not found" warnings 3 times in 4 days.

[rooster.ram]

Originally Posted by negi15

I checked with my friend again. He did get call from M&M itself stating that delivery are starting from September end. He has not yet contacted the dealer chosen by him during Scorpio N booking.

Ok, they are starting the deliveries in September 22, however they may not have confirmed when your friend is getting the delivery. Thanks for the update.

Originally Posted by negi15

Updates about Car Protection
I must say along with new cars, detailing work is also in high demand. Then, I checked with another 3m store near my office.
.
.
Finally, I decided to get paint sealant done with underbody rust coating along with silencer coating. Engine bay detailing was also added to package. At last minute, I don't know what struck me, but I added PPF protection as all corners, orvm's, bonnet and foot-boards. They offered complementary ppt on door edges and door cups below handles.

Sharing one final snap taken post detailing.

Car shine looks stunning after detailing, can you share the cost for part protection applied?

[negi15]

Originally Posted by rooster.ram

Car shine looks stunning after detailing, can you share the cost for part protection applied?

Here is breakup
Paint sealant package: 19K/-
Inclusions: Under body anti-rust coating. 5 years warranty, 12 free inspections at 6 month interval, Engine Bay detailing with anti rodent spray. Silencer coating. Internal vacuum cleaning(Complementary)

200 micron PPF : 25K/-
Areas of application: Bonnet, Corner pieces, Foot board, Some parts of piano black finish on dashboard, door edges and cups under door handles(complimentary)

[negi15]

Originally Posted by negi15

[b]
Also, we took Wanderer on four day trip to Sambhajinagar. Covered around 900Km in fours days including Ellora, Grishneshwar Mahadev, Lonar. Will share more details about ride in another post. No issues except for "key not found" warnings 3 times in 4 days.

Hi All, Recently we went for family vacation trip to Aurangabad(soon to be called Sambhajinagar). So, here are the impressions with first out station trip with Wanderer covering around 900Km in four days. ODO now reads 1700Km in 1 month. First two rows occupied by us and third row flattened out to load all the travelling essentials.

Here are the stats for full journey.
Total Distance: 890Km.
Run Break-up : 85% of highway, Rest in city.
Drive Modes. : Eco mode used on highways. City modes within city.
Cruise Mode. : Cruised at around 75kmph for 60% of highway runs with frequent breaks in cruise.
AC usage. : Always on in auto- set at ranges between 20-22 degrees.
Off Roading: Around 10kms of off-road conditions.
Magic Number attained: 16.4kmpl
Maximum Top speed: 92kmph

The Route:
Day 1: Pune -> Ahmednagar(through city) ->Aurangabad. Local(mini taj)
Day 2: Aurangabad ->Grishneshwar ->Ellora Caves-> Aurangabad
Day 3: Aurangabad -> Lonar -> Aurangabad
Day 4: Aurangabad ->Ahmednagar(through city)-> Pune.

Drive Experience:
Handling and drive was excellent. Steering feedback was the reason I choose Safari over others and I am happy with it. I felt some click sounds on steering while reversing and taking out wanderer from tight space, on the day we started the trip. However, this soon went away. I will keep a check and report it in service centre, if it occurs again. As recommended by manual, I kept the speed and cruise control under check around 80kmph and did not let it cruising for longer durations. I must say 80kmph which was top side speed in my accent felt like bottom side speed in it. Warning tone after crossing 80kmph was irritating, but I used it to limit my top speeds. Car feels very stable and planted on slow turns.


Ride Experience:
Ride was very comfortable in 2nd as well as 3rd row. Once, we had made Aurangabad as our base station, both kids occupied one row each for their sleeps and were really happy with the amenity space offered to them. Of-course the clean-up required after trip was massive. Better half stayed with me in co-driver seat for full trip. Wanderer took the bad roads in its stride and filtered all small undulations. Thanks to google map, we also did a sort of off-roading where it took a short cut via a non existent road with big potholes. However, beast gave us the confidence to keep going. However, there was still one place where body flattened out. Will inspect the damages by taking it to service centre.

Niggles: Minor niggles included:
1) "Key not found" warning occurred 3 times in four days. It's irritating when you have arrived after long drive and this warning pops out when you are locking and leaving the car.
2) Infotainment restarted twice on its own. Seems like, maps on android auto along with music played from phone makes this happen.

Overall, we had amazing time. No one felt any fatigue even after long distance travel. Looking forward for more miles with Wanderer. Below are some snaps from trip.

Lonar Lake:


Ellora Caves





Tata charging station at Smilestone before Ahmednagar.
Must say push from Tata for EV's is really showing up.


Keep Revving!!
Negi

[negi15]

Sharing couple of observations about auto-hold and rain-sensing feature from our recent long drive:

1) Auto-hold: If auto-hold is active for 3 minutes, APB is automatically applied. MID will show auto-hold inactive and parking brake sign will show up. However, APB gets disabled as soon as you press accelerator. Is this to reduce stress on break-pads which is holding the vehicle in drive mode? Any suggestions.

2) Auto-sensing rain wipers & sun-shade connection: I understand that sun-roof being connected to auto-sensing rain wipers feedback. It should close as soon as wipers detects rain. However, looks like sun-shade on/off control is also linked to same mechanism. In case, you are using auto-sensing wipers which are active, even if you try to keep sun-shade open, it gets closed automatically. You shift to manual windshield wiping and sun-shade can be operated normally.

[negi15]

1st Service Updates:
I got the first free service done of Wanderer today after driving it for 1800Km in one month. Got an idea of how much Tata service centres are overloaded. I tried to book with Saibaba auto service centre Kalewadi(bought vehicle from them). Booked via TSMC app for today and got confirmation on app. Just to ensure that this system works, called the service centre and was told that they don't have appointment slots available till 14th September. Gave me appointment for 18 Sept. Tried few other service centres multiple times, no one picked up the call. Finally tried Garve service centre at narhe, who had slot availability for today.

Took the vehicle at 10am in morning. Took around 2 hours for servicing. Must say Nexon has been a hit, as majority of appointments belonged to them. Below issues are fixed:
1) Tailgate alignment
2) Driver door alignment.
3) Under body inspection for any damages I suspected during offloading on way to Lonar. However, looks like it was water gush which I felt in underbody while wading into water. SA confirmed that there are no damages underneath body.
4) DEF topup
5) There were some other consumables top-up also.
6) Total cost was 1081/-.

"Key not found" issue still showed-up. However, I have started to live with it now.

Main issue regarding rubber beading is promised to be done around October/november time frame.

I think the did DEF regen also. I am guessing this, when I started back from service centre all trip meters were reset and were showed that vehicle was driven for 40 minutes at an average speed of 10kmph. However, ODO did not match this observation.

I am satisfied with service. Washing took similar time i.e. 2 hrs. So, I had to spend 4 hours at service centre. Washing was ok. However, I would not opt for washing from next time, as its not worth it. Better to get service done and straight away drive to professional detailing centre for wash.

Will soon post update about the drive and mileage post first service after an upcoming trip.

Till then.
Keep revving..

[negi15]

Something funny to share about:

So #JET edition was launched with much fanfare. All social media have photos of three siblings(Nexon, Harrier and Safari) dressed in same clothes. This reminds me of some movie scene where each kid of family is dressed in a similar manner irrespective of age. Punch may be feeling neglected. That's not fair.

Anyway, the above para is just to setup the background which resulted in my first interaction with Tata Motors regarding fit and finish issues in my Wanderer. I saw the #JET edition promo at some social media site. I don't know what prompted me but I just added a comment regarding fit and finish issues in my Wanderer(already mentioned in earlier posts) and mentioned hopefully #JET edition won't have these issues.

To my surprise, I was contacted by Tata Motors regarding the post and they mentioned that their team will take care about it. Dealer also called and I summarised everything over an email(with snaps) which had dealer as well as Tata Motors people on it. Four days passed and nothing happened. So, I asked them about any updates.

Now comes the funny part and it comes directly from Tata Motors. I got an email reply mentioning that their team had a good look at issues raised by me. All the fit and finish issues I reported are "characteristic" of the car and I should not be "apprehensive". It also mentioned that they can also demonstrate such "characteristics" on similar variants of Safari. So, actually their QA departments has turned the fit and finish issues to "characteristics" of car., instead of resolving them over two years since launch. Or may be I am only one who reported these issues to them. I have given them my piece of mind over same email chain and mentioned that I would take the liberty of sharing email reply with any Tata Motors higher management in case I could find any easily and hopefully they should not have any issues. I also mentioned to tell them to all dealers that such issues are characteristics of car and they should not promise to get them resolved in coming days. Even better way is to list out these characteristics as feature in brochure so prospective customer can know about them too.

However, I still have requested them to "demonstrate" the gap between seat frame and fabric on second row on both sides. Recently went to fit side-steps at some shop and found another Dark XZA+ owner who mentioned he doesn't have such issue. Hopefully, they don't revert and say that this other Dark XZA+ I am referring to is not following characteristics of Safari and hence will be fixed instead of mine.

Well this instance makes me think that Tata Motors primary focus lies on mid segment. Harrier and Safari are just there to make portfolios. With God's grace the Wanderer has been running fine and its 2K on ODO. I do wish my interaction with Tata Motors remains minimal. Amen...

Keep Revving!
Negi

[negi15]

Originally Posted by negi15

Something funny to share about:

However, I still have requested them to "demonstrate" the gap between seat frame and fabric on second row on both sides. Recently went to fit side-steps at some shop and found another Dark XZA+ owner who mentioned he doesn't have such issue. Hopefully, they don't revert and say that this other Dark XZA+ I am referring to is not following characteristics of Safari and hence will be fixed instead of mine.

Negi

On a serious note, post my email, I got a call from Service Advisor Mr Hariom who asked for snaps and video for frame/fabric issue for 2nd row seats. Once shared, he said he has arranged for material to fix it and asked me to drop car. I dropped Wanderer at 9am at SC and he was present. As promised the issue was fixed in evening by 4pm and and I picked up the car. Mr Hariom was very courteous through the interaction. He mentioned that they have fixed rubber beading issue for few cars, but since vendor was same, quality was not up to mark. Also, there have been several complaints regarding rubber beading issue. He also clarified that rubber vendor is expected to be changed soon and then rubber beading finishing can be fixed once new vendor provides good quality finishing material. Seems like Tata is gearing up for Safari facelift and finishing issues along with much avaited 360 degree camera and bigger infotainment would get updated. Hopefully they also provide 360 camera installation as accessory for existing Tata Safari.

An observation: Tata Service centres are overloaded with work. I could see service area was fully packed and it really needed very good driving skills to manage cars in the area. Even many cars were parked on the roadside. SA specified that they have taken around 1 acre land just behind existing SC and once that is up and running, more service appointments would be handled in better manner. They were so much overloaded that I asked for accessories list as I want to install few, but there was no response. Looks like they don't even have time to install accessories.

Lesson learnt: SC are overloaded. If you want to get your work done, loop in TATA Motors.

[negi15]

Hi All,
Used contimobility tyre repair kit first time. Here is the experience:

After a trip to nearby Bhuleshwar temple, rear left tire was found deflated completely next morning. Took out the puncture kit that came with vehicle and used the tyre sealant solution as per steps specified on kit. Tyre was inflated to normal pressure and driven for 10kms. Again checked the pressure after drive and there was no pressure drop. So carried over for next full week and covered 400km till now. I was apprehensive about using it for long trip as the kit mentions to use tyre for maximum of 200km after fix. I took the tyre to nearest puncture shop, but could not find any nail/sharp objects and leakages. Raised official query to Tata Motors and finally got below confirmation from two people in SC.
If there is no drop in air pressure for few days, minor puncture has been fixed by tyre sealant solution and nothing to be done for tyre in question. It can be used normally.

I have asked Tata Motors to provide the tyre sealant refill as I could not find it online. SC mentioned it is not provided to them by Tata Motors. So, they will check about its availability and get back to me.

Will update soon, once there are more updates.


Also, now have 3K on ODO in 1.5 month of ownership. So wanted to share more experience.
Please bear with me.

More Updates about Wanderer long trips:
Last weekend, we made two day trip to bandardara with above tyre fix. Covered around 450Km in two day. Onward journey was through google suggested route, which was shorter, but roads were in shambles and went through secluded ghat areas. First near to off-road kind of thing for wanderer with full load. I must day as the day are passing, I am getting more confident with it. Rides on rough patches is comfortable. On narrow ghat roads, where there is space for one and half car on road, I did not need to think twice before putting left side wheels out of their comfort zone.

About FE: I did not use this trip for checking FE. After first service, there has been improvement in FE in city limits too and it has gone up from ~10kmpl to ~12kmpl now. For onward journey, I tracked FE on MID and it gave 15kmpl.

About Drivability: I have used the manual transmission couple of times for daily 50km run to office. ECU gave several warnings about denying early shift initially and scored my driving as poor on IRA. However, on second day I adjusted to the shift limits as per my first day experience and same route gave me FE of around 13-14kmpl, which come around 11-12 in automatic city drive mode. Please note, manual mode is always sports mode, you cannot select drive modes. From my experience in manual mode if acceleration is uniform, 2nd shift can be done at 10kmph, 3rd shift at 30kmph, 4th shift can be done at 40kmph, 5th shift around 55kmph. Could never reach 6th shift in city. However, I found if I do quick acceleration, ECU allows shifts at lower limits that specified above, but it does have impact on FE then. Also, you just have to do up-shifts. On slowing down, down-shifts are done automatically.

Terrain Modes Usability: I used to think that these modes are just there to add to feature list. But I must say modes(at least wet mode) are usable and you can feel the difference. I have used wet mode extensively now. You can feel confidence boost given on wet road as soon as you switch to it from normal mode. Please note again, once you select rough/wet terrain mode, economy and sports mode are not available and cannot be selected.
Have not yet faced rough roads to try out rough terrain response mode till now.

Hill Descent Control This again has turned out to be very useful feature for ghat trips. It can be switched ON through HDC switch and will be highlighted on MID. When HDC engages, its symbol on MID will blink and descent will be automatically controlled at the existing speed. However, please note HDC will be active only if you keep speed below 30kmph. If you go above 30kmph, HDC will not get activated even when there is sufficient inclination angle for it to be active. Beauty of this feature is you can descent at speed at per your choice, but once press the brakes to reach speed at which you want to descend, you can take off your foot from brakes and vehicle will have controlled descent at same speed.

Rear Wiper Practicability Rear Wiper does almost 180 degree sweep and therefore very helpful in existing rains where rear glass gets clogged by slush on wet roads. Water jet comes out through spoiler and 180 degrees sweep clears the rear glass for safe driving. I have seen that scorpio N rear wiper only does little more than 90 degrees and driver side glass is not cleaned up. Initially, I didn't think these small things matter. But, it surely matter s for pune, where quarter of year has good amount of rain

Sun-roof Practicability: I was not a big fan of sun-roof initially. But now that I have got it, I must say it does enhances drive experience during trips in monsoon times. For a city like Pune, I think sun-roof is manageable. Kids have really enjoyed it. They have slept on 2nd and third row looking at cloudy skies with rain drops rolling off the roof. This provides one extra thing to keep them busy during long rides. Not to forget the experience sun-roof provides in misty ghats. Kid in me really missed the experience as I am only driver in family as of now.

The Bad Rear view camera position is not good. It sits in the open and easily gets covered by rain drop and road slush. Also, camera quality is not up to mark. It would have been good if integrated front parking sensors are provided for top end model. Initially, it were must have for me. But as the days are passing by, I am getting good hold of vehicle size and now it is not much of issue to me. Wipers screeching sound is random. In heavy rains they don't make any sound. However, in light drizzle, the screeching sound is very irritating. So, for light drizzle, I used manual mode instead of auto rain sensing mode. I will get this checked in SC soon.

Add-ons After a long thought-process, I finally got two after-markets for Wanderer.
Side-steps and dash-cam. Below are thoughts above their usefulness till now:
Side-steps: They do add visually to Wanderer's stance on top of ingress/egress convenience. On top of that as someone mentioned in other thread on forum, it is really useful in monsoons, when you want to stand on it and jump over to dry land after parking. However, it does carry lot of slush on it, which you have to clean up with bucket of water after the trip.
Dash-cam: I installed ROAV C1 dashcam by anker. Resolution and night clarity is amazing. On top of safety reasons, it is also helpful in case you want to capture a specific scenic drive and watch it later or share with someone.

Attached are some pics from trip. Enjoy!




Keep revving..

[negi15]

Hi All,

Went for weekend visit to Bhimashankar Jyotirlinga with full load. Here is the experience.

Took the route via Rajgurunagar. Roads were in good condition although tight for two cars to pass at some patches. I found handling at turns to be better with full load. Ride was smooth. No issue during onward journey. Mileage was around 12kmpl with full load and AC on for onward journey of around 100km.

Stayed at MTDC in night. Went for Darshana early morning and after some sight-seeing came back via Manchar. While returning had to go over an under construction bypass road connecting to Nashik-pune highway. It had lot of loose gravels. After coming out of the stretch, heard a screeching sound from from underbody. It was unbearable on increasing the speed. Stopped and inspected tyres. Did not find anything so called service advisor and informed about situation. He mentioned there must be some stone stuck in disk brake assembly which is not covered. Couldn't find any such thing on superficial inspection. Reversed the beast for good 15-20 meters to reach a just crossed hotel for proper inspection and issue was gone.

Checked this in THUG and SOUL groups and found this to be issue faced by few other owners also. For some, reversing the car solved the issue. For one owner, pulling the brake pedal in reverse direction solved the issue. Checked with SA for follow up and he mentioned nothing to be done as of now. Came back to home and no issue till now. I also found that this is not specific to Safari and has happened with other cars also. So, assuming this to be non issue now.

Overall, it was amazing trip with the wanderer. Above issue was the one point where I thought "finally I am caught".

Please note that there are interceptors at Nashik Pune highway just after you cross the Khed ghat(if I remember correctly). It's a descent and therefore car easily reach 100kmph. However, at end of the ghat front two cars(who overtook me) were stopped by interceptors. I think they have some way of knowing the speed being crossed at this stretch. I normally keep car under 80kmph. So, this was second time I crossed same section without being stopped(last time being bandardara trip).

It's 3400km on ODO in two months and so far no issues.

Below are some snaps from the trip.

Matte finishing done by nature


Off roading for me


Some random clicks from the route

[negi15]

Originally Posted by Solo84

Congratulations on owning the beast . I feel TaMo should design an app where the customer gets to share know how on various aspects of the vehicle and service feedback can also be tracked by the manufacturer.

Tata motor do provide two apps. Manual app which is interactive to check any car feature and tmsc app through which you can provide feedback about service

[negi15]

Hi All,
Just returned from one-week trip to Goa. Drove around 1200km with total drive time of 24.5 hours getting 16.2kmpl as per MID. Majority of time it was driven in ECO mode on highways with CITY mode for cities and SPORTS mode for ghats.

This was our first trip long drive(10-hour) with single breakfast break. Ride was very comfortable and beast happily ate all the miles and rough patches. All were still fresh after reaching Goa and enjoyed the evening time on beach.

No issues during whole trip except for odd restarting of infotainment system. A minor niggle of brakes squeak sound is observed, which come during initial few kms but goes away after a while. Will get it checked in next service.

To summarize, it's 5K on the Wanderer's ODO in three month of ownership with no issues. I must confess with each passing day, I am getting more confident and finding more reasons to take it for long drives. Hopefully, the good experience continues.

Happy revving!!
Negi

[shibujp]

Originally Posted by negi15

Something funny to share about:

So #JET edition was launched with much fanfare. All social media have photos of three siblings(Nexon, Harrier and Safari) dressed in same clothes. This reminds me of some movie scene where each kid of family is dressed in a similar manner irrespective of age. Punch may be feeling neglected. That's not fair.


Keep Revving!
Negi

Unfortunately the sentiment that if it's a common issue the it's a characteristic is a common phenomenon. Let me explain with Maruti since I own that..

Several team bhpians have been calling out thin metal and lack of GNCAP certification in the Maruti line-up. So these are characteristics. But what Maruti does well is mileage, reliability, consistent above average service experience - you know the rest. And if Mr Sharma has the same problems and does not complain the problem is definitely with you. This not a country for car ownership for people with a quality OCD like the European market.

So what automakers would like us to do is keep quiet and accept a car with issues er... characteristics. You can't blame them because the problem is fundamental - they need to fix suppliers, their QA department, their design department, sell cars at a volume that does not overwhelm service centers so that the after sales experience is pleasant. Continuous improvement - you've got to be kidding. That is done only if a product is a flop. Those that do it have blockbusters. But in today's hustle culture where Twitter and social media presence is more important CEOs cannot be bothered with such silly concerns that you and I raise.

Sorry for the rant and hope that you have a great ownership experience.

Drive on,
Shibu

[Nissan1180]

This is a progress for TML. Earlier their dealers said QC issues are a part of every car. The service managers say that certain issues are normal and if you don’t want to deal with the niggles, buy from other brands.

[iskandariya]

Like you said, other was not having, I believe it is your dealership inability to perform and provide. TaMo trying to save dealer face.
I have 3 dealers in my town and was quick to switch from one to other immediately post delivery, but then again executive at first dealer is still humble polite and gets things checked and done with diligence.
Reason for shift is the service manager in other dealer shifted from MSIL and he knows how i like my car serviced and plus the spare part guy is more friendly in second workshop. I like people who allow me to help them navigate to exact thing which I need.