[condor]

Murugan : In summary I am sold on the Grande and am likely to make a booking shortly.

Murugan, may you be the first on TBHP. We'll be waiting for the Grande entry ..

Murugan : there is a sunglass holder above the front glass.

This feature was seen earlier on the Indigo Marina, but it was a joke with the quality & construct. Hopefully things have changed.

Murugan : The external paint quality and fit and finish is stunning and belie the fact that the Grande is from the TATA stables.

Looks like you have missed out on our earlier discussions about the quality of painting on Tata cars.

Murugan : Height and lumbar adjust seats are a boon.

Has been available for a while. Definitely helps.

Murugan : ...according to another dealer one of the reasons for the delay is the lack of a GO/ RTO clearance for white board (private vehicle) registration as it seats 8. Is that likely to be true or is it just an uninformed dealers mumbo-jumbo?

More like dearler mumbo-jumbo. Without such clearances etc, would the vehicle have even left the factory ?! Sumo Victas, Innova's, Tavera's & Scorpio's are all available for pvt registration & usage in both 7 & 8 seat configurations.

[Akshay1234]

condor - if your buying a car through your company anything above a 7 seater has yellow plates.

[rkg]

today's hindu bangalore edition carried a review of sumo grande.
here is the link
The Hindu : Metro Plus Bangalore / Wheels : Grande plans

[condor]

A fair review, I'd say. But looks like the features are not of the base version, though the price shown is so. Another mistake there is the WB - shown as 2250 mm instead of 2550 mm.

@akshay1234, thanks for that piece of info. Then again, these vehicles are available for personal use in both 7 & 8 seater configs. The Sumo (regular) is officially a 10 seater, and avlbl in white-board.

[LLL]

Originally Posted by condor

Looks like you have missed out on our earlier discussions about the quality of painting on Tata cars.

This i can vouch for...Grande's external paint quality is as good as any other manuf. Its way better than any other tata vehicle.

Though internal plastics are flimsy...when i checked the car at a dealer, salesman ended up breaking a lever trying to fold the 3rd row seat. And some of the plastic components are so thin that u are scared that they may break if u apply too much force.

[zenx]

Originally Posted by rkg

today's hindu bangalore edition carried a review of sumo grande.
here is the link
The Hindu : Metro Plus Bangalore / Wheels : Grande plans

Looks much better in that colour. The interior "looks" decent too - tho the plastic parts are usually built to a price point in most Tata vehicles (hence the terrific pricing on the Grande). On the other hand, I have seen some well maintained 5-6 year old Indicas and Marinas the interiors on which look quite passable - and comparable to my 7 year old City's. (not that the City's interiors were a benchmark, but I'd paid a loooot more for the car - well - maybe just the engine )

From the article : "[SIZE=2]you can’t adjust the seat height with the door closed" - now that sounds very very shady. Can someone please verify this.[/SIZE]

Also - the "better-than-the-Safari's" FE stated in the article seems to be a little lower than what the TBhp experience seems to have been - unless I've read too much into a couple of posts.

[Spinner Wheelz]

Originally Posted by suman
How did you figure that out mate?

Hi Suman

I sat in the front ( driver's seat ) and my cousin ( who is 5'11" ) sat sat in the middle row exactly behind me.

My knees went into the dashboard, and were almost touching the the turn signal indicator switch.
The seat was in middle position. When I adjusted the seat to the back position, I could feel my cousins knees in my back ( and not to mention his yelling ).
The third row seat is totally useless.
And after filling the car with 7 passengers where would the luggage go ?
The car ain't got luggage rails on the roof

So space is less.

Spinner Wheelz

[Torqy]

Originally Posted by Spinner Wheelz

Hi Suman
And after filling the car with 7 passengers where would the luggage go ?
The car ain't got luggage rails on the roof

So space is less.

Spinner Wheelz

That would be the case with most 7 (and above) seaters. Luggage space is NEVER talked about. Bolero is a 7 seater...but there is no place for luggage. Luggage rails can be fitted as an accessory.

-- Torqy

[Murugan]

Originally Posted by rkg

today's hindu bangalore edition carried a review of sumo grande.
here is the link
The Hindu : Metro Plus Bangalore / Wheels : Grande plans

Saw the article in the Chennai edition too. It appears that The Hindu might have an association with Autocar India for the review. The wordings and language are very similar to road test No 430 in the March 2008 issue of Autocar India (:: AUTOCAR INDIA - CAR AND BIKE MAGAZINE ::) although the photographs are totally different. The color of the car is the same in both.

While some of the photographs of the TATA Sumo Grande in the magazine display a temporary registration from Maharashtra (some photos have none), the Grande in the newspaper does not display any (just a plain white board in the front and back) eventhough it is on a road; is that legal?

The writer in The Hindu, Shapur Kotwal, is the associate editor of Autocar India. So may be there is a tie-up eventhough there is no byline.

[aravindwarrier]

Earlier, once i had observed that the Q&A section of Hindu Metroplus -Wheels Sections was mostly composed of old queries in AAA(Ask Autocar Anything).Didn't bother to checkup this,though Im pretty sure of this.

[Murugan]

Originally Posted by zenx

From the article : "[SIZE=2]you can’t adjust the seat height with the door closed" - now that sounds very very shady. Can someone please verify this.[/SIZE]

During the test drive of the Tata Sumo Grande I wanted to adjust the driver's seat height. The space between the driver's seat and the door is so small that my 'big' hand would not reach the control handle easily and I could do the adjustment comfortably only with the door open. May be it is a safety feature; Tata does not want you to adjust the driver's seat height with the door closed as you may be driving when the door is closed and doing so might make you hit the accelerator/ brake more than intended and lose control of the vehicle!

[1100D]

Originally Posted by Trapezio

By the way, not all roof rails can carry load.

Carrying heavy loads on the roof is a big turn-off. But unfortunately thats what we have to resort to, if we have to carry >5 passengers and their luggage for a vacation of 10 days. Head nodding getaway.

[nitrous]

@Murugan: Yes, The Hindu has an understanding with Autocar India.
A lot of newspapers around the country do.

[condor]

1100D : Carrying heavy loads on the roof is a big turn-off.
Torqy : That would be the case with most 7 (and above) seaters. Luggage space is NEVER talked about. Bolero is a 7 seater...but there is no place for luggage. Luggage rails can be fitted as an accessory.

And not very safe, while contributing to higher drag.

Luggage space is not talked about because of the vehicle being categorized as a 7 seater, and also because the last row has the flexibility of being used as luggage space.

Bolero has very little space at the rear, behind the 2nd row inspite of it's over-all length.

Tavera's, Innova's & most cars do not have a roof railing. Yet you can get luggage racks for them. All it needs is a customised clamp, like you see for Tavera's & Innova's, which I find to fit well. Would be only a matter of time before get a proper luggage rack for the Grande.

All this discussion we are having about lack of luggage rack mount point for the Grande seems to (at least partly) come from the point that the Grande does not have a rain-water drain for the roof like the Sumo has. This was a very useful place to mount the luggage rack.

After all the effort that Tata Motors would have put in towards the vehicle design, I doubt they would have over-looked something like this -esp for a people carrier.

[jaysmokesleaves]

1100D : Carrying heavy loads on the roof is a big turn-off.

What do you mean by TURN-OFF....