Tata will no longer sell the Safari DICOR in India and the carmaker has removed the SUV from its website. The move will allow the brand to focus on cars like the Safari Storme, Hexa and the upcoming Nexon compact SUV.
Sales of the Safari have been dipping by 40.77 percent (as in Jan-May 2017) compared to the same period in 2016. When launched back in 1998, with an 87hp, 2.0-litre, four-cylinder diesel engine, the Safari was the premium SUV to buy, there wasn’t any real serious competition. In 2005, a heavily modified Safari, with a 3.0-litre DICOR turbo-diesel mill pumping out 116hp and 300Nm of peak torque, was launched. The 2007 revision saw the 2.0-litre motor make way for a Euro-4 compliant 2.2-litre DICOR engine that makes 140hp and 320Nm. The car came fitted with a five-speed manual.
With cars like the Mahindra XUV500 now available, the Safari faces tougher competition. The DICOR’s stable mate, the Tata Safari Storme, is sold alongside the car. The Storme is based on a slightly more modern Tata Aria X2 platform and comes with a more powerful Varicor that makes 156hp and 400Nm of peak torque, mated to a six-speed manual transmission.
The Tata Safari Storme is priced from ₹9.79 lakh and goes up to ₹14.47 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) for the top variant.