Bought a 2023 Tata Safari: Driving experience & niggles after 800 km

I had a Hyundai hatchback before this SUV, so driving such a muscular car on the road feels a bit overwhelming.

BHPian flameofforest recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hello everyone,

I received the delivery of my New Tata Safari on 19th Dec in Hyderabad from Prathammalik Motors from the Financial District showroom. It’s a 7S Accomplished Cosmic Gold variant.

Here is how my journey has been so far

Delivery Experience

Was okay. The dealer didn’t go far in pampering us with flowers and cakes but there was a chocolate box. Didn’t get any keychain or God idol as a souvenir (coming from the Hyundai family so a bit of nit-picking).

There were no yellow fiber TR number plates considering Tata considers this to be a premium car (Anyways, I fitted it myself by spending Rs 600 extra from aftermarket). Gives a nice touch to the car.

Accessories Experience

Took 3 accessories from the dealer:

• 7D Mats – fits well
• Mud Flaps – don't fit well on the rear side like others have also mentioned.
• Side Steps – fits well. The same side step is also for Harrier and Safari. Reason for taking it from the dealer was this OEM part is in the line of the door and doesn’t protrude outside like some other aftermarket ones. Bit on the pricey side though.

Aftermarket

• Then came the dilemma of Ceramic vs PPF. The cost factor pushed me towards Ceramic coating. Got it done from 3M Car Care situated in the Nallagandla area. Took 3yrs package with a booster every 6 months.
• Got Garware Ecolite sun protection film (govt. approved 50% transparency) on the glasses. (again coming from Hyundai we had tinted glasses so used to a bit of shade)
• Lastly, still figuring out which dash cam to buy.

Driving Experience

• Nothing short of just WOW! The pick-up and road presence enthrals you with happiness and awesomeness. At the same time, you are an eye-candy for others on the road because of the new model.
• I was driving a hatchback before this so for sure it was a bit overwhelming to drive such a muscular vehicle on the road. Still getting used to driving in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Always get that feeling whenever the two-wheelers and auto-wallahs come near or cut off suddenly.
• Driven so far 800KMs with a 400KM trip to Sri Sailam from HYD. 6 of us travelled in the car and all were happy with the comfort till the last row.
• Music system is really nice with all the modes.

Coming to the niggles

Radio Reception

This is pretty bad no matter if you are on the highway or in the city. It's kind of hit-and-miss. Went to the service center and they upgraded the software (the delivered vehicle was Sept 2023 and now it's Oct 2023 - you can check yourself the version in settings) but still the same issue. So they said they would take a look during 1st service for wiring or antenna.

Gesture controlled tailgate

Was not working at the time of delivery itself. After the s/w update that setting came and we enabled it from the infotainment system. Now working.

TPMS error

TPMS was giving random errors a couple of times during driving but after the s/w update this is not seen.

Scary episode - Vehicle Stalled – Error on display “Drive mode malfunctioned”

Called Tata helpline and the emergency assist came in 1.5 hours as it happened in the city. He identified that Diesel was over so the vehicle stalled. This was very odd as when I started from home it showed 80KMs to empty. Anyways after filling 10L of diesel, the car started. But, it seemed the display was faulty. After the S/W update, I could see it showing me the right quantity of fuel and a much more accurate DTE. But this episode taught me to have some more gas in the vehicle at all times.

Cruise Control

The actual speed of the car was always more than the set limit somehow. The car was trying to correct that but was slow in doing that. Haven’t tested this after the s/w update though.

Rear A/C control from infotainment system

Always get error “Settings can not be updated” even after s/w update. Service center said that maybe in a future version, it will be fixed.

Rest all is working fine in the car. ADAS works perfectly. Sometimes so much that you get irritated with all the tings and tongs. On a lighter note – hats off to the team at Tata who identified so many different sounds for so many different sensors.

Some questions to other owners

• Radio Reception - So if anyone here had a similar issue and how was it resolved – any tips will be really helpful.
• Mood Lighting – For me, it only lights up on the dashboard center and sun-roof liner. Any other places it should also light up?
• Right Knee Support – I am used to driving a hatchback for 8-10 hours at a stretch where my right knee used to rest on the doorside. But in Safari there is a big gap between door and the right knee so it's always in a sort of hanging position. Is anyone facing this issue or is this limited to me and my sitting posture?

I will rest here for now. Waiting to hear more from this group and learn together.

Cheers.

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