Grande O Grande Where Art Thou!

On my recent visit to the Tata Showroom I finally go a chance to get up close and personal with the New Tata Sumo Grande. When it was launched I was quite taken aback by the bold design cues and it kind of me excited as showed the path TATA Motors are going to walk down in terms of styling of all new products from here on.

Then why have we not seen the roads chock-a-block with Grande's? (Given the excellent price point.) Why are they not flying of the ramps as I first thought? For one the rubbish advertising campaign did not help. Tag lines are strange creatures, they help build your brand when you get them right and mostly singlehandedly can also kill your product if you get them wrong.

"A Family Car that looks like an SUV" is a great example of the latter. This line tells us that the Sumo Grande is neither a family car, nor a SUV. It has been sent to the wasteland of insignificance in one fell swoop.

Leaving the ads aside let us actually look at the product. For one it is cramped inside. All 6ft of me could not get into the drivers seat without a big knee rub courtesy of the steering column. The driving posture is more 1908 than 2008. In a rush to fight the Scorpio and the Innova, TML has got the internal design all wrong. Space has not been fully utilized. The much touted 3 row A/C vents are a waste as the third row of seats is purely ornamental. Plastics continue to be El Cheapo.

So really from the inside out it is not much different than the Standard Sumo. All it gets is a smart new skin and that's it. Let's hope the next big product launch from TML is more than just skin deep.

Fuelorama!

Apart from the fact the fuel prices across the world are going through the roof, us Tata Safari 2.2 owners have the luxury of still choosing the "best" fuel for our beasts. My personal choice has been normal diesel with additives. I did use HP turbojet for about the first 2000 kms but found the engine to be quite noisy and unsettled with the same. As you probably know I have tried both System-D and STP. With System-D the following was reported:

• Engine became smoother and even more silent.
• Vibrations lessened.
• Slight increase in pick up.
• Overall better running in the city.
  

With STP this was the story:

• The pick up really improved.
• Engine smoothness increased.
• Overall better results on the highway.

Have almost done ten thousand kilometers now and the engine is zippy like never before. I have resorted back to System-D for now as I feel the engine sounds a bit harsh with STP in the city. At the end of the day the difference between the two is only slight in the city in terms of performance. On the highway though STP is the clear winner. Anything after 120 kmph with STP seems/sounds less strenuous.

Please note I am not an automobile engineer and am just sharing with you all my layman experience with the different fuel/combo options I have tried.

Trip to Mumbai coming up this week.