Not much of dicor here. Review on Tata Safari DiCOR

Firstly I should say that I kinda like Telco vehicles having owned one for the last 4 years and driven them for ages. I had a lot of hopes from the time rumors were floating about a safari with a CRDi engine, then came the ad and was glad that they launched it. Call in for a test drive and was astonished by this car from telco!!!

Exteriors - same old with a few low end changes that you could buy off the shelf in the local market and would probably make the car look better as well. Side cladding looks even more crude than before and finish and paint quality not really upto the mark.

Interiors - This is where I could write a book. Seldom does a company take the good parts of a car and make it bad, the dicor is just that. The regular safari had plush interiors right from the base model with a lot of gadgets. The dicor has a very cheap plastic feel to everything that makes one think you it was designed but the chinese and not meant to be sold at that price. Arm rests are the same as you get on plastic chairs from Nikamal!, seats don’t feel that good. Roofing and carpeting - no great improvement given the fact that there have been cars like the innova being launched with a real plush appeal. Tata has a history for interiors that don’t last long and this is sure going to keep up their name on this front atleast.

Engine - the so called hyper raved CRDi engine is far below even the lowest car freaks expectations. A low revving, sluggish, rough engine that makes one feel like you have your hands on a mixie while grinding turmeric sticks. the acclaimed engine management does nothing to improve the drive and just results in fluctuated responses from the accelerator. Max RPM on an open road was about 3000rpm which supposedly is the peak power rpm.

Gearbox/drive train - gears seem ok but the clutch was like working in a gym and releasing the same felt very much the same as when you shunt a railway engine with a huge load, delivery is not at all smooth and is definitely something anyone would expect from a car that costs 9 lakhs. Why was something so critical overlooked in such a crucial change.

Wheels/tires – The great Dicor comes with 16” wheels and this is something that is a great improvement from the old safari. But I guess that’s the only thing better cos the choice of alloys was not so great and design looks flimsy, something that would suit a car rather than a SUV. The tires are 235 but looks rather thin since it is a 16” as against the 15”. I hate to think of how the standard model would look with steel rims and hub caps.

General – the car didn’t really break any speed record on the test drive nor did it break the braking record. After driving a tata sierra turbo, this car felt like a regular safari. Pickup is not that great and you still have to work your way through the gears using the bulworker for a clutch and then when you get there--- it’s a traffic signal. The most interesting part was that when I braked hard the car dragged to the right and scared the living daylights out of me. Stability on highways is also something the dicor lacks with the rocking syndrome that seems to be evident in this model. The old safari was a million times better.

Overall – Think this is one big mistake of telco’s but then again all version 1’s of theirs have been an out and right flop. There is a lot telco can learn from Mahindra’s – see the scorpio. Id rather suffer with the scorpios problems than go in for this. Suggestion – if you plan to buy the dicor wait for atleast a year and see if these problems are sorted out and look out on the side of every road to see how many are stranded in a dicor or better still check the work orders at any service station.