2023 Tata Safari Facelift Review

Quick question to the Safari facelift owner and pre facelift owners:

Is there a safeguard against locking the car with key fob inside? I am talking of the keyless entry versions where one locks unlocks with a request sensor on door.

I am asking this because I recently had an incident of getting locked out on my pre face lift XZA+ version. I was really not expecting this and had heard that such cars don't allow you to lock from outside if key is inside. What followed is another story but first I would want to know what is expected behaviour.

Cautionary Note: MRF Tire Vulnerability on Safari

Just a heads-up on a recent snag with my Safari's MRF tires. I'm not sure what I hit for it to tear like that, but apparently, it's 100% my fault. So I contacted the dealership, and the CRM told me it's impossible to make a claim as there is no damage to the vehicle, something got stabbed in the tire, which means it's the driver's fault in this case— it's me. They tried getting an extra one from MRF, but apparently, these tires are so new that there's no free stock anywhere in Kerala yet. It will take two weeks on order, so I just made one as the spare wheel is a disgrace.

Please be careful with your 19-inchers, as this proves the sidewall is as soft as a cake. I'm not going to lie, given its name Safari, I used it a bit roughly to test its capabilities, and I was initially impressed. Still, this one issue will forever be remembered, and therefore, the car will be a mall crawler from now on.





I am forced to run with this for the next two weeks, which I'm not sure how to feel about, but it's quite unfortunate. I was getting way too much attention on the road that people keep saying it's just the evil eye. Well, whatever, it's a car, and these kinds of things happen to the best of us. I'm very much disappointed in MRF's sidewall strength though.

The dealers always recommend keeping the physical key in a separate place. That means taking it out of the keyfob and keeping it somewhere accessible. In cases where you accidentally lock yourself out (as the car won't do it by itself), it will be easy to unlock the car.

No. I test drove in both city and Highway. The car doesn't pull left. The dealers are always pushing me to the top variant. I am looking for this for my brother. I am only see the top variant (Accomplished Plus) in both the dealership.

Sorry to hear your ordeal with the tyre episode. Hope it's sorted soon.

On the key fob question, I think you have misunderstood my question. Am not looking for tips to avoid situation but wanting to know what is it by design.
Can the car be locked with keyfob inside? One would expect that not to be the case and I am sure I have read about cars refusing to lock if key is left inside.

Yes, the car can be locked with the keyfob inside, and here's how it happened to me previously with my Nexon. One random fine day, I was in a rush, so I locked all my home doors, got inside the car, started the engine, and placed all the keys and my mobile - including my main door keys, in the storage area near the gear shifter. Unfortunately, this is where 6 out of 10 times, the car keyfob's lock button gets pressed in my case. In my hurry, I failed to notice this, got out of the car, closed the car door to open my main gate, and returned to the car only to realise that I was FULLY locked out. I couldn't even get inside my home nor call for help, as all my essentials were inside the car with the engine running. After 7 minutes of contemplating life, I went to my neighbour, looked up my insurance RSA online, and thankfully, they arrived in 40 minutes to unlock it.

Here, the key fob lock got pressed accidentally and the car got locked with me inside with the driver door open. I got out and closed the locked door. Today, a few hours ago while cleaning the Safari, I tested with the key inside (all over the car including boot and dashboard storage spaces) to see if it gets locked on its own, and it didn't.

This is not surprising at all. 55mm sidewall for such a heavy SUV was never going to work well on our roads. Manufacturers are going for looks over practicality. Tata had already faced this issue when they had launched the Hexa with 19" wheels but had to downsize due to such issues. I wonder why they repeated the same mistake here. The only solution, in my opinion, is to either downsize the wheels and get higher sidewall tires, or drive your 'SUV' like a low-slung hatch.

Finally the issue seems solved (better to say not yet re occurred).
Battery got replaced and fixed on 17th November around 6 PM, vehicle kept ideal at service center until Monday 20th November 10 AM and attempted to start and it worked. I took the delivery around 11:30 AM and parked at office until 7 PM, then taken back to home and parked by 8:30 PM. I attempted start again on 24th Nov Friday 6 PM (a real-time scenario as i usually take this beast once a week) and worked.
So shall we conclude that the issue is with the faulty battery that got fixed during the manufacturing in the month of August 2023?

That is correct - The car won't let you lock using the door key button if the key is inside. It will also sound that annoying alarm (horn honking for 10 times) which makes you realise you have not taken your key out. Happened to me twice with Safari and n number of times with Tigor EV. Not sure how your car got locked with key inside - after all technology is scary.

Not sure from where you got that number; the sidewall is about 135mm which is quite good in my opinion.

Even with 135mm, it's vulnerable to tearing apart easily with hardly any effort. The incident happened to me while I was going 25-30 km/hr on a crushed concrete road. The cost of a new one from MRF is Rs 14,515/-. Maybe I'm just one of a few hundred who are unlucky with their close-to-being low-profile tires.

Did you check the air pressure in tyres before the tyre cut happened? In my Hexa which is a 2017 model with 235/55 r19 tyres i always make it a point to maintain air pressure as per manufacturers recommendation at cold temperature. Low profile tyres are susceptible to damage with low pressure.

Folks, I tend to disagree on Safari's tyre being low profile.

Low profile typically means aspect ratio of 25, 35, 45 or likewise.
Anything above 50 is a normal tyre. Safari has 55 aspect ratio.

Also, 15K is quite a normal price for 19 inch 245 tyre. A good low profile 245+ for 19 inch rims cost upwards of 30k+

Ofcourse, any tyre can get damaged depending on what you hit, how sharp it is, angle of impact, speed etc.. The case on this thread is just bad luck I wud say. Consider it so and move on. Things happen while you are on the move!

I meant the aspect ratio is just 55, by mistake typed 55mm. Point still stands, 55 sidewall is too thin for a vehicle of this size, as evident here.