Sold my Safari Dicor, bought the new Tata Safari: Likes & Dislikes

The new Safari drives amazingly well on highways, very well planted. On the mountains as well the performance was brilliant, hill hold works like a charm.

BHPian SaurabhSaran recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Can someone buy a new Safari again after driving Safari Dicor for almost 10 years?

YES!

What I was driving: Safari EX, June 2012 with 1.36L on the odometer, I was happily driving my humble Tata Safari Dicor 2.2 which had given me fuss-free ownership experience. Except for routine services (twice a year) nothing more this car demanded from me. 2 times the battery changed and once the tire changed, at 85,000KM suspension work was done and that's it. Once the clutch plates were changed under warranty due to noise (was not that loud).

Reason for the change: Diesel cars can run in NCR for 10 years and need a proper 7 seaters for 4 adults and 2 kids.

The background: From late 2019, I was looking to upgrade as the family needed a proper 7-seater to move around with 6 people onboard. Harrier 7 seater was ready to enter the market and at the same time, BS6 norm was ready to be rolled out from April 2020 so waited further then come Feb 2020 when in general enquired about the Hexa 4wd and dealer offered a deal on BS4 Hexa 4x2 XT of 2.5 L discount, I was about to opt for this for two reasons: first, the Hexa was an awesome product and second the big discount amount. But it was only offered on an in-stock vehicle, which was in Royal Blue colour and somehow I didn't go ahead with it, my choice was White and it was a deal breaker. Then came Covid-19 in mid-March 2020. Thanks to the dealer for not stocking white else the car would have been parked for 2 years due to lockdown and work from home.

Cutting it short, now comes the year 2022 and I had to sell off the Safari Dicor due to the 10 years of ruling in Delhi-NCR. Despite of being a happy customer for the last 10 years somehow there were thoughts in my mind to look for some other car.

Other cars which were in my thoughts:

• Toyota Innova Crysta: A fantastic car but found it too boring (personal opinion, no offence to the fellow owners)
• Mahindra XUV 700: Due to its long delivery period (10-12 months when I enquired in Feb 2022) didn't even ask for a test drive else might have opted for the AWD variant

Finally, I decided to move ahead with the New Safari. So I will be driving the same iconic brand name "Safari" again!

Choice of variant: Must have safety features which nowadays come with modern age cars. Being from NCR, the sunroof when given as an option was no pick. The #Dark edition was on display, family was inclined towards it but I managed to agree on White as maintaining black colour is a task, so I picked Safari XZ, Orcus White

The booking experience was smooth with the dealership (Sagar Motors) and the Sales Advisor offered a test drive of Safari XZA+ but I wanted a manual transmission considering my next purchase will be electric so wanted to enjoy manual transmission for the next few years but I must acknowledge that the AT was very refined and just to have a feel of manual transmission I was offered Harrier, as the TD vehicle was a manual transmission and I liked it. The only issue I noticed that Safari/Harrier with manual transmission is that it will shut if the speed is less than 10KMPH and it is not in first gear. After the test drive, the next day I made the booking for Safari XZ, Orcus White. Within 2 days, I got the welcome call from the dealer to confirm the booking and a WhatsApp group was created by them with SA, Sr. Sales Manager and Sales Head of the dealership and they shared contact details (name, email) of the regional manager from TML. SA (Sumit Singh) was always polite and supportive during the entire process from TD to delivery.

Initially, I got 4-6 weeks of delivery time but it took around 8 weeks to get my hands on my new Safari. After 6 weeks I had to reach out to TML regional manager and customer care (via email) as there was no clarity on the allocation of the vehicle from TML and the dealer had shown me many email exchanges from their side asking about allocation against my booking. I explained the issue in the email that I need to sell (exchange) the Dicor as it has got only 2 months time to get NOC from the authority to transfer the vehicle to some other state. Don't know if this email communication worked or as per the booking sequence the allocation was done 2 days after my email communication. Within 7-8 days the car reached the dealership's stockyard and then to the dealership where I did the PDI as per the Team-BHP checklist and proceeded for the payment. The ODO was at 79 KM.

Finally got the car in May 2022 with one key only, the second one will be given in a few weeks (probably at second service), because of chip shortage. On the day of delivery, with a heavy heart handed over the Dicor to the dealership.

Delivery experience, it all started with strange beeps!

On the day of delivery, all formalities were done within 2 hours (including handing over of my Dicor in exchange) and the dealer got the cake (wasn't expecting anything this sort of based on previous experience of buying Tata vehicles 10 years ago!) with the sales team around to congratulate us. Tata has come a long way in the last 10 years but still needs to go further.

The moment I took the car out of the showroom, the first beep sound came, first I thought it might be due to low fuel in the vehicle, headed straight to the fuel station and got the tank full expecting the beep alert will not be there now but it was beeping at an interval of 30~40 seconds. I was stressed and headed back to the showroom :( the technical team member came along with me and asked to drive so that he can check what it is but even after 4-5 beeps he was clueless about this and one can understand what I was going through. Luckily when this beep came I saw some white text appear (over the maps on the infotainment screen), I waited for the next beep and I noticed the message stated "Wireless charging started." My phone, the OnePlus 9 Pro, supports wireless charging so it was coming but for some reason, the charging stopped after 30~40 seconds and again it was starting so the beep was coming. Even the technical person wasn't aware of the beep, he said "Sir, aaj pehli baar dekha hai." (Sir, I experienced this for the first time). Then to identify that this is a problem with the wireless charger I again reached the showroom and tried putting the phone in the display vehicle there were also similar things that happened with that car, that assured me nothing wrong with my car, seems the OnePlus 9 Pro is not supporting charging with the provided wireless charger. What a relief!

Here are some pictures of my New Safari

Here is the video of the beep issue due to wireless charging

The next day, I realize that the car is not locking/unlocking with the request sensor, called the SA and he asked to come to the showroom, reached there and it was observed that on locking the car with the remote the horn were giving alert which I was thinking comes when the car is locked, the SA told me that for 5 doors the display shows if any door is open however for bonnet it only gives alerts on locking/unlocking and it was found that bonnet was not closed properly, this was a big mistake at their end, probably while putting up the ribbon to the bonnet it was not closed properly by the person doing the job. Requested him to take this as serious feedback and cross-check in all new car deliveries. The second issue is sorted.

After 10 days, on my way to Nainital, again a warning beep started coming with some yellow icon on the instrument cluster, now what? I tried to figure it out but as I was driving on a highway so after some distance got on the side to check but couldn't find anything to understand the issue in some time it disappeared. Thought might be some software issue but it came back again. This time I was able to read the message "TPMS error" then on checking the TPMS screen it showed "TPMS error, check tire" and again it disappeared on its own. The kind of stress this adds is too much. Also, the infotainment system should have an option to see at least the last few error alert messages.

Now, coming to the good part. Safari drives amazingly well on highways, very well planted. On the mountains as well the performance was brilliant, hill hold works like a charm. Earlier I had to manage the clutch and brakes so well that the tank should not move back if needed to stop while moving towards the height. The suspension set-up is perfect and you won't feel bad road patches inside the cabin. the feedback from the steering is good, it is a bit heavy but not that much that it will be a deal breaker.

What I like:

• Engine performance is good
• When the engine starts it doesn't shake up the entire body, initially, I was missing that car start feeling that I was getting for almost 10 years
• Interiors look premium
• Safety features, except ADAS it has all safety feature
• Good driving manners
• Brakes inspire confidence
• Flawless Android Auto connectivity
• Silent cabin
• Nothing falling from here n there (Dicor owners knows it well)

What I didn't like:

• Driving position is not commanding like the Safari Dicor
• It is a front-wheel drive and even the AWD option is not on offer
• White interiors are hard to maintain, something similar to Harrier interior (tan colour) should be there
• Even after years, headlights are not adequate
• Please take a few more thousand and offer automatic rear door open and shut
• Sluggish interface of the infotainment system
• Ventilated seats are not offered in XZ trim, only available in XZ+, XZA+ (personally, I didn't want to have a sunroof)

What more is needed:

• 360-degree camera, I was more confident in my Dicor while parking than in this new Safari
• Fast and better user interface of the infotainment system
• AWD option (are you listening to TML?)
• Total revamp of service centres, this area needs major improvement

I have shown trust in Tata Cars after owning one of their flagship SUVs for around a decade with the hope that the new Safari will live up to my expectations.

Would be interesting to know if any other BHPian has upgraded from Dicor 2.2 to the New Safari.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.