To be fair, however, this is an old-school SUV that was never designed to handle well on tarmac. There’s a bit of an off-roader hidden under the Safari Storme’s skin, and to attest to this there’s a small rotary knob with three settings – 2H, 4H and 4L – under the music system. Take it off the beaten path and the SUV feels much better. We only got a taste of it as we didn’t really go off-road but rather down an unused graded road with some inclines and gradients for the photo shoot, but it did feel like the Safari Storme wouldn’t be entirely out of its element if you were to use it for a bit more serious off-roading.
For braking duties the Safari Storme gets an all-disc set-up, which is great because stopping over two tonnes of metal from any speed isn’t an easy task. Hit the brakes from 100 km/h and you’ll realise that the brakes have decent bite even though they could do with a bit more progression. Nevertheless, they feel adequate enough.
On the whole, the new Safari Storme is certainly an improved product compared to its predecessor. At Rs 14.35 lakh, ex-showroom in Delhi, for the top-of-the-line 4X4 version, the Safari Storme seems to offer decent value at first glance. But look closer, and you’ll see that there are others (albeit without 4X4) who offer as much kit as the Tata Safari Storme for less money.
