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Sold my Mahindra Thar & bought a Tata Safari Gold edition

12th January 2022, 08:07 by Rahul Nagaraj

I booked the Mahindra XUV700 but cancelled it due to its long waiting period.

BHPian mukeshannamalai recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Tata Safari 2021 White Gold that Glitters.

Last year Dec’2021, I sold my new Thar AT Diesel. Yes, you are reading it right! I sold my Thar 2020 after 5K KMS, there were absolutely no problems in Thar but it's just not suitable for my liking so I ended up selling it. Mahindra engine is a GEM.

Booked XUV700 Petrol and Diesel AT L on the portal and with the dealer and also through online booking but got a shocking delivery date. I am not keen to wait that long for XUV. The only option I considered was New Tata Safari AT or pre-owned Endeavour 3.2

There were many pre-owned Ford Endeavours but back of my mind there was growing doubt about spares, service, etc hence I dropped the plan. There is no replacement for Endeavour, still dreaming about 3.2.

Visited the Tata showroom and took the test drive of New Safari AT, I always loved Manual transmission but due to heavy traffic in Bangalore I switched over to automatic many years ago, a lot has been said about Tata Safari in terms of size, space, etc, I liked the vehicle during the test drive, even the low-speed steering was not that heavy but later I realized they must have jacked up the tire pressure to give better steering feel on low speed.

I initially booked the top-end variant (XZA+) white colour and the dealer said they can deliver the car in 3 weeks, I prefer white colour. Later when I checked about the Gold variant availability, the dealer checked and confirmed it can be delivered in one week, I went ahead and booked, processed the loan and paid everything in straight three days. got a call from the sales exec that the car is in their stockyard and ready for PDI, checked everything and found few paint quality issues but otherwise, everything was looking good, took the delivery of car exactly after one week of booking.

The sales and delivery experience was not that exceptional, my sales and delivery experience was exceptional when I took Hyundai Venue, I just wondered why Tata is unable to provide that kind of delivery experience for 29Lac worth premium vehicle, even the delivery executive had no knowledge about Tata Safari, no proper washing done.

The next day after the delivery and customary pooja, started for a short trip from Bangalore to Chennai, never crossing 100 km speed. I always wanted a car with better driving dynamics and good NVH, it's a mixed feeling for me after this drive.

Even before the delivery of the vehicle, I planned for a long road trip to Manali from Bangalore, referred to Team-bhp route queries for better routes and places to stay, etc, well after reaching Agra, we decided to skip Manali due to very cold weather and we decided to explore Rajasthan.

Coming back to how Safari Performed in this long 5800 KMS trip, we decided on the following route:

Bangalore - Hyd-Nagpur-Agra -Pushkar-Jaisalmer
Jaisalmer-Ahmedabad-Mumbai-Davanagere-Bangalore.

I booked 7 seaters with 3 middle row seats because the three-seater in the middle is very convenient for my family.

Luggage: Five of us on this trip and the last row seats were folded two weeks of luggage, I am sure the space is more than adequate after folding the last row seats to carry our luggage, so I would give 10 out of 10 for luggage (after folding last row seats).
Middle row Seat: The 2nd-row seat is very good for every passenger, the leg space, under-thigh support is good, no passengers complained wanting additional space to stretch their legs, the sliding middle row seat really helped us to gain additional leg space. the sliding seats really help.
Front passenger seat: I would not say it's fantastic but adequate for a long journey, I would have liked a little bit wider and a bit more under thing support Seat, the footwell length is also adequate for long travel but a little bit wider and deep footwell would have given us premium footwell space however no front passenger complained of it, they are comfortable throughout the 5800kms journey, it's my personal feeling that I needed additional seat width and under-thigh support, I am 5'11, I would rate 8 out of 10.
Driver seat: It's definitely not uncomfortable but I would have liked a little bit more width and a bit more under-thigh support, also there are a lot of comments about inadequate footwell, honestly, I would have liked a deeper footwell to keep the left foot but in my 5800kms of driving I never felt the uncomfortable or tired leg, so I would rate 8 out of 10
Front Ventilated Seat: I was never a fan of the ventilated seats, but oh boy! I thoroughly enjoyed the ventilated seat, the moment you switch on, it gives a cool effect on your back and trusts me, it gives you wonderful effect and makes you feel so good and takes away your tiredness a little bit. I would rate 10 out of 10 for the ventilated seats. The ventilated seats are only at front driver and passenger, but if you have captain seats in the 2nd row, we get ventilated seats.
Steering: Under Parking speed I, steering is heavy definitely, not so happy about it. even the steering feel is not consistent across every speed, it is like steering has multiple personality disorders, but I liked its sharpness and started liking it after driving it for a few hundred KMS but Tata needs to fix low-speed heavy speed steering, I would rate 7 out of 10.
NVH: The NVH is good up to 100-110 km, the moment you cross this limit you will hear engine noise, I would have liked a better NVH and silent cabin for the car worth 29Lacs. it's not noisy inside but I personally would have liked a silent cabin. I would rate this 7 out of 10.
Brake: Brakes are good and throughout my 5800km never felt the need for more stopping power, I would rate 9 out of 10 because it’s not excellent though.
Tyres: During my trip to Chennai from Bangalore, the OEM stock tyres are not that great and noisy, after my return from Chennai, I changed it to Continental, this is the right decision made and the tyre noise was reduced significantly along with the difference in handling. Went to Tyre empire HSR, did alignment but left pulling still persists, I don’t know if its fixable.
Ride Quality: It does not give plush/cushion ride quality but you won't get tossed around for sure, you will hear thud noise over rough roads, those continuous small speed breakers and suspension noise enters the cabin, it's not as silent as I expected. I would rate 8 out of 10.
Infotainment: No complaints about the sound and music, it's just perfect for me. The quality of JBL is not outstanding but it's great to listen however the infotainment screen is not suitable for Map viewing during daylight, it’s just totally unusable during bright sunlight, it’s useless, I wonder how the car worth 29L (Bangalore) has such useless infotainment. On my long road trip 70% of the time I ended up using my mobile for Map. There is so much glare on the screen, I tried using my polarized sunglass but no change in glare, wireless Android is still not stable, it has its own mind, it works sometimes and down sometimes. I rate 4 out of 10 for infotainment.
Driving Pleasure: Tata New Safari brought my smile back and pleasure on highway driving, the handling is sharp, the engine has adequate power and enjoyed throughout my 5800 km of a road trip, I would rate 9 out of 10
Quality: This is one area where Tata needs to bring better people on board. Are they not getting the right people in this world for QC? e.g when I picked up my car, I noticed white paint on the door beadings, my Hyundai Venue worth half the price has better quality but Safari worth 25L+ has poor quality. I would rate 5 out of 10. The dealer did not even fit the mud flap properly. Poor guys, they are so busy that they fit only one screw instead of 3.
DEF Oil: The dealer gave the new car only with half-filled DEF, after I reached Adilabad during my trip and gave them for the first service they charged me and filled up the DEF, it was filled when the car was at 1200K, now after 7K ODO, its 1/4th and getting Def warning light. so it looks like every 7K-8K the DEF needs to be filled up.
Speed Warning Beep: The speed warning beep is not an irritating one unlike my Hyundai Venue, it is manageable.
Headlight: Although I restricted my road trip to daytime driving, sometimes the drive went until 11 or 12 midnight, the headlight is good until 80-90 on highways, headlamp requires an upgrade.
AC: Absolutely no complaints, the fan blower was not that noisy as well. overall it performed well.
Boot Door: it is definitely heavy and I am wondering who designed the latch, it is not easy to lift using that latch, they should provision auto boot open or a better latch to hold.

Overall I am happy with my purchase and do I miss anything? yes, a good Infotainment system for Map, Adaptive cruise control, better low-speed steering, better NVH but these are not deal-breaker for me in selecting Safari, after my long road trip I understood what Safari can offer and its nothing but a fantastic driving pleasure and that's what I want.

First Service

This is another story, on the way to Nagpur, stopped at Adilabad for the first service, I later regretted why I gave the car there, I asked them to fix two things, 1. Wiper spray, 2. Left pulling, nothing was fixed, only the DEF oil got refilled, some nuts/bolts checked, it was becoming dark and I was in hurry so took the delivery after wash, they even made the seats dirty inside. I kept insisting to put a cover before they sit on the seats but they just ignored and made the seats dirty. I rate 0 out of 10 for this experience.

Pictures of Conti tyre, random pictures from my Bangalore-Jaisalmer road trip.