The new Tata Safari offers a good drive but you wonder if the car deserves a ‘Safari’ tag

Let me be honest for a second, the new Tata Safari is the best ‘new’ Tata car I have driven in a while. But therein lies the rub because one has to ask the question whether it is a new car or just a longer version of the Tata Harrier. Don’t get me wrong, that is not a bad thing because despite major initial teething troubles, my friend Bharat having major steering issues with his very early build Harrier, Tata Motors has progressively made the Harrier a competent car. And the overall build of the OmegaARC platform and the Kryotec engine are actually quite good. But you keep on looping around to the same question over and over, does this car deserve the ‘Safari’ name?

Seriously, had Tata called this the ‘Gravitas’ as they had showcased it at the Auto Expo a year ago, I would be here waxing eloquent about this car. I drove the six-seat version with a six-speed manual transmission. Frankly, the only issues I had on the drive were around the fact that I stalled a few times, but I’d blame myself and my automatic addiction of late for that. While Gravitas is an awfully serious term and well, not exactly a name suited for a car, Tata Motors went with Safari. If you believe the rumours, one reason was that the Old Man himself wanted the name.

Truth be told, sticking an older brand name with some serious connotations to this car makes evaluating it quite difficult indeed. See, as a Gravitas or any other name it is a perfectly good car. Indeed, I’d believe this to be a better bet than some other three-row cars out there like the Hector+. With the last row down, this can be a great long distance luxury ride, the Pearl white interiors are nice, although there are open questions about how well white interiors age in a dirty and dusty country. But the second row captain seats are fantastic and with those seats accessing the third row isn’t too difficult, indeed the captain seats mean that third-row passengers can stretch one foot out. But there is no luggage space when the third-row is in operation, so it is good enough for a school run or an evening out but not for long distances. Sure, on the base models without the sunroof, the roof rails are load bearing so one could technically load up the roof with luggage. But I’d rather have the panoramic sunroof, even though I’d be the first to tell you that sunroofs are useless in North Indian summers and panoramics are especially bad, but my infant son really likes staring out the top when he is strapped into his car seat. On the safety front, the Safari comes with ISOFIX anchorages, lots of airbags and I’m pretty sure with the work Tata Motors has put in of late, it will get a great safety rating. It is a good vehicle and once the prices are revealed it is going to be great value as well, although going head-to-head with the Toyota Innova requires cojones. One can safely assume that the Safari will have a price advantage along with far superior features. The Innova remains the best retainer of value in the Indian market and we will have to wait and see how the Safari ages. Tata vehicles are much improved from a decade ago, but reputations are not easy to remove.

This allows me a segue into the Safari aspect. The Safari of yore, all the way to the Storme were well-known as cars that could go off the beaten track. As often happens when I go on test-drives, rather ‘first drives’ where the car is still very new or yet to be launched, where I get pulled over by potential buyers, car enthusiasts and even police — there was this one time when I was driving the M5 in Portugal with Hormazd Sorabjee and we got pulled over the cops. I wasn’t speeding since I was behind a white Renault van when the police pulled us over. Well, they were just curious about the car — so with the Safari I was pulled over three times in and around Lodhi Colony and Khan Market. The top-end Safari has a nine-speaker JBL system as well as appreciation for third-row space, not to forget that the third row gets USB charging ports. But this is Delhi, while the Safari has a ‘Terrain Management System’ (TMS) that adjusts the traction control and stability programs to deal with very wet and very rough roads, the Safari available today does not have a four-wheel drive system.

There are many viewpoints on this. But the truth is that front-wheel drive monocoque Sports Utility Vehicles are much more capable today than they were a decade ago. While some reviewers did take the Safari off-road and I must admit that I did not. Honestly, I do not believe that other than a handful of Safari’s that will be sold over its lifetime will go serious offroading. The TMS should be able to deal with most conditions. But, there is a large class of buyer who wants a 4x4 system, especially since the car wears the Safari badge. While I understand the logic of Tata Motors not equipping the Safari with a 4x4 system, maybe a top-end variant with a 4x4 would have done a great service in terms of image. Of course, there might have been major cost considerations involved, given the engineering costs of fitting a 4x4 system in the OmegaARC platform.

Sure, design has not been a Tata Motors’ problem and Pratap Bose, the company’s design guru is the best car designer to emerge from India. The rear third of the car definitely has a Safari feel to it. I wish a bit more differentiation had been done on the front of the vehicle and maybe even given the owner a hint of what s/he is driving inside. So yes, good to look at, good to sit inside and even drive. But a Safari? Hmm, I’m not sure.