News

Upgraded to the 2023 Safari from my old Storme: 9 points of difference

6th September 2024, 12:11 by Ananth Iyer

Test drove Scorpio-N but felt it was too cramped for its size and the huge size just didn’t translate into space inside, especially compared to the Storme.

BHPian Familyguy recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I finally took the plunge and got the Safari Dark Edition ACC+ 4 days back. I was driving a Safari Storme for more than 9 years and planned to keep it for another 6-8 months before parting ways with it, but unfortunately last month the AC conked off and I felt it was time. I sadly let her go last month. I drove her for 150K KMs and have the most cherished memories with her!

Background

I had been looking for a suitable replacement for my Storme for quite a while but just couldn’t find the car in my budget which pulled at the heartstrings like the Storme did. I had closely followed the launch and subsequent journeys of the 3 cars prominently - XUV 7OO, Scorpio N and New Safari.

XUV 7OO is a great car mechanically, with better engines than the Safari but the looks never appealed to me. So, I waited.

Test drove Scorpio N but felt it was too cramped for its size and the huge size just didn’t translate into space inside, especially compared to the Storme. So, I waited some more.

Test drove the pre facelift Safari and was underwhelmed to be honest. The exterior had started showing its age and the interiors, with that awful screen and infotainment, were very meh. More wait!

Bit of a disclaimer at this point: I’m sort of a Tata loyalist and have owned 4 Tata cars over the last 20 years or so! I’ve been following the Tata journey since they launched the Indica in 1998 and have followed all their products very closely. So naturally I’d been excited ever since I saw the H5X concept in Auto Expo back in 2018 and followed the car through the launch and its subsequent iterations. Same for the New Safari, since it was called Buzzard, and was waiting for the correct iteration before giving it a serious look. And that iteration was the 2023 facelift.

First Impressions!

My views are largely keeping in mind my previous ride(Safari Storme), since it’s natural for me to compare every aspect of the car with a clear reference point in mind, including my muscle memory since 9 years is a long time!

NO glitches/ niggles, yet! It was almost as if I was expecting some error or the other to pop up the moment I pressed that ignition button! But thankfully, the car ran without any error in the 4 hours that I’ve driven it over 4 drives in mad Mumbai traffic with rains.

Driving position - I am coming from the Safari Storme and the driving position of that beast was something else! I never felt fatigued after driving that car for hours and hours at a stretch, the view from the seat was amazing and it was terribly easy to manoeuvre because of the great visibility all around. So the new Safari had BIG shoes to fill in this regard. Unfortunately, I’m yet to find a driving position that clicks for me. While I knew that it won’t be as commanding as the Storme and I’ve made peace with it, I still need to find the best possible position here.

Engine and drive: I feel the engine vibrations are minimal and I really don’t feel them while the car is stationary. I feel and hear the grunt while accelerating but in a good way! Haven’t yet got a chance to go beyond 30-40 kmph(Just Mumbai things!) yet so will not comment much on the 3 digit speed behaviour.

Ride and suspension: The car feels solid and really well put together, and it comes through while driving on bad roads. Yes, the ride is on the firm side but I guess that’s how an SUV ride should be. Obviously, there’s hardly any bodyroll compared to the Storme which had crazy amount of body roll due to its high center of gravity.

Infotainment : Oh that screen! It’s everything I thought it would be after reading and hearing universally good things about it! It’s responsive, intuitive and the display amazingly crisp! Surely a benchmark in this segment. To top it all off, the music system is fantastic, and I haven’t even gotten around to tweaking the settings yet! I have a question here though, I read on this thread that the infotainment theme and ambient lighting for the Dark Edition is different from the other variants. What’s the difference exactly?

Headlights: One thing that’s far from impressive in the car. It almost begs for better headlights. Not sure what Tata was thinking!

Build, Fit and finish: Frankly, I wasn’t expecting much since I’ve been a Tata customer from its Indica days and I know it’s not Tata’s strong suit! But I was pleasantly surprised! Apart from very few cost cutting bits - the printing on the control stalks is horrible -I think they’ve done a good job and car feels premium. Love the thud of the front doors!

Delivery and booking: Buying a car from Tata is a learning experience! And every time you learn new things about human behaviour, trust me I know since this is my 5th Tata car! This time also it was the usual - overcommitment, erratic responses, and under par delivery experience - my car was delivered without footmats! And they still don’t have it 3 days after delivery. While they kind of redeem themselves every time after a couple of escalations but you need to escalate nevertheless. Every. Single. Time!