Only 88kW from 3 litres?. Review on Tata Safari DiCOR

I have not yet seen a Tata Safari Dicor in the flesh. In photos it looks great, the styling is good and a nice upgrade from the earlier model (which was itself a handsome car). If Tata have retained the excellent headlights of the earlier car (the best I have ever used), well and good. Hopefully there has been an upgrade to the quality of the interior fittings, which was extremely poor. The seats should have been retained, they are fabulously comfortable on trips although the fabric quality was dubious - at least the coarse weave let the seats breathe.

One thing or two about the new model springs to the attention of anyone who knows anything about diesels. The vehicle which eventually replaced the Tata in my garage has a 3 litre common rail engine. First generation common rail, from around 1997 or 1998, although it could be argued that it's not common rail at all, just very high pressure (joint Caterpillar/Isuzu design). Whatever, it's now an old design, yet it puts out 107kW, and that's not intercooled! Intercooled, it puts out close to 120kW! Torque is around the 300Nm mark, rising to around 330Nm when intercooled.

How is it that in 2005, when European, Japanese and Korean manufactures are getting 140-160kW from 3 litre diesels (now up to 3rd generation common-rail), does Tata come up with an engine putting out a mere 88kW or so? There are 2 litre diesels with this output! The old 5-cyl 2.9 Mercedes engine still used by Ssanyong puts out 88kW at it's not even common-rail!

On top of that, the Safari Dicor has gained an extra 200kg of heft, when it was already a bloated, overweight design, without even ''strength'' to show for massive slabs like the alleged ''sump guard'' (which broke 3 times on my car, and weighed about 30kg).

The fuel tank is still too small, and the 3 litre is unlikely to be more economical than the 2 litre.

Once again, Tata has missed the boat. Bump up the power and put the Safari on a severe diet!