Making the MarK?

The Tata Sumo was a runaway success when it was launched in 1994 and although it had many niggling problems in the early years, Tata went about correcting the problems and worked hard at improving the product. Over the years the Sumo spawned many variants and Tata tried to take this people-mover more upmarket but with their low-end Spacio catering to the rural-markets and also being the call-center favourite, they really needed to launch a new product since there were several other fresh MUVs available that were attracting the eye of the urban consumer. With the basic design of the Sumo going well past its product life-cycle date, Tata then launched the Grande in the first-quarter of 2008. However, it didn’t catch on as well as Tata would have liked it to and they’ve taken the feedback quite seriously and worked on the Grande. We were lucky enough to be able to sample the Grande MKII before its official launch later this afternoon, so do read further to see what they’ve worked on and what we think of the MKII.

On the exteriors there is really very little to identify the older Grande from the new MKII. The major differences will be the new paint shades – Walnut Gold (as pictured), Platinum Beige and Castle Grey. Apart from this, there’s the new MKII logo on the rear tailgate, a 2.2 Dicor badge above the side-indicators on the front fenders, a chrome lined front grille and indicators on the side-view mirrors. The MKII now sports meaty looking five-spoke steel wheels but retains the same tyre size – 235/70 R16. The one other addition we really do like is the rub-strip (with chrome inserts) on the doors which somewhat give the rather bland looking slab-sides, some design relief.

Tata have worked on the overall NVH, refinement, drivability, as well as ride & handling and have done a fair bit of work on the suspension. Even before we found out what all was really changed under the skin, the difference was quite apparent just after a few kilometers of driving. The vehicle felt quieter, more composed and was better to drive. It had perceptibly much better body control and less roll in comparison to the older Grande. This we were told is thanks to the redesigned front anti-roll bar and the stub-axle, not to mention a thicker rear anti-roll bar. Rear seat ride quality also was an issue on the Grande and passengers did get tossed around on bad patches at speed, so they’ve now changed the stiffness on the rear leaf springs as well as the damper settings for re-bound. The changes do really make a difference as we experienced and it does now attack corners and bad roads with a lot more composure than before and feels even more sure-footed at speed.

On the insides, the interior is now a mix of beige and black and this does look a lot better than the all-beige interiors on the older Grande. No doubt, it’ll be easier to keep clean as well! The seat fabric is soft to the touch and the front seats are quite comfortable. However, we do feel the rear seat legroom isn’t as good as could have been. The steering wheel is all new as well and the steering feels a lot better to hold and also feels more direct than before. Braking is marginally better but the center pedal still feels a tad spongy but there is progressive bite. However, we’d like to do a complete roadtest before we pronounce a final verdict on this. The MKII, we are told, sports thicker brake discs upfront, new lining material for the rear drums and a slightly tweaked booster module.

There is overall much less vibration from the engine and almost no vibration on the new gear lever in the MKII. The first Grande had a really ugly and painful gear lever and the new one is just so much better. The shifts also feel more positive and precise with none of the vagueness of the older Grande. There’s almost no powertrain vibration that filters into the cabin and the new body-mounts along with acoustic damping do help in making the cabin a lot quieter and refined than before. The only one grouse (which is characteristic of the engine itself) is that is does tend to sound really buzzy and harsh over 3500rpm. However the MKII does feel surprisingly quicker off its feet and better through the gears and this is thanks to the revised rear-axle ratio of 4.1 from the previous 3.73.

The MKII is a significantly improved product and feels much better to drive and is a more confident and comfortable cruiser than before. However, thanks to the overall slab-sided design it can get caught out by crosswinds at speed. That said, we were actually quite surprised with very little wind-noise in the cabin at three digit speeds. Some plastic bits are still an issue on the Grande as are some shutlines and finish. The seat height adjust handle on the drivers seat came off in our hands, the plastic cupholders are functional but feel miserable to the touch and some dashboard plastic bits are just plain awful. The fuel filler lid is a shutline nightmare and we sure do hope that Tata works on these small details to make the MKII more of a success. Watch this space for a pricing update when the vehicle is launched this afternoon.