I live in Australia and in January was able to purchase a Safari 2nd hand. It had done a little over 100, 000 Km and 2yrs old.
My previous vehicle was a Mazda utility and although I needed a vehicle with similar capabilities I could not go past the safari as value for money.
Here in Australia TATAs are relatively unknown and some early model utilities left a bad taste in the mouths of the motoring fraternity with poor performance and a bad servicability record, but a lot of this fault must be laid at the feet of the purchaser, expecting far more than the vehicle can deliver.
A recent trip into central southern Queensland covered some 3500 km, the roads were a mixture of good bitumen(2500 Km),
good dirt or gravel roads (800 K) and poor bush tracks.
Driving times exceeded 8 hours on one day and was usually 5-6 hrs, the comfort level is great with no cramps or aches, the vehicle performed extremely well on the dirt, able to travel at 100-120 KmH with 4WD selected.
This might seem a little high but these roads are 50-60 metres wide, in excellent order as there has been no rain in recent times and there is no other traffic on one day we drove for 4 1/2 hours and did not see another vehicle or person but a large number of Kangaroos and Emus.
Body squeaks were not bad but probably caused by the hard trim within rather than metal to metal causes. The ride was great with torsion bars and coils far better than leaf spring suspension.
Fuel consumption was in the order of 10-12 Kpl or 9L/100K
and this dosen’t vary much between city and country driving.
The only serious problem I have so far encountered, was a broken injector line 3weeks ago, the 200K trip home was a bit slow but the vehicle still ran at 100 KpH.
The gearbox is a bit slow to change with the odd crunch and perhaps lacks another gear if one lives in a hilly city as I do, 1st is just a little high and the jump from 2nd to 3rd a little long.
A great vehicle.
perhaps not in good taste but my friends call it Fred’s
TAliban TAxi.