It was in July this year that we told you that Tata is readying a facelift of its flagship SUV, the Safari Storme which will get a grille inspired from Land Rovers (here) and here is a visual proof of the same! This spyshot of the Storme facelift by Cartoq.com clearly reveals the new face of the refresh which Storme will get. This mule, spotted in Pune is running with a camouflaged front grille and bumper.
The rear should be decked up too although it may just be a minor niptuck job! It’s the inside that should get more changes and a dashboard similar to the Aria’s is expected while the top-end variant might get the superb Harman Kardon infotainment system.
Also, though we can’t see headrests for the third bench in this spy shot, we still believe that the new Storme will have a front facing third row of seats, at least as an option. The current jump seats are not really comfortable for long runs.
Mechanically also we might be up for a surprise and the new Storme may get the 150PS version of the same 2.2L VARICOR diesel engine, like the new Aria. Contrary to what you may think, this state of tune also betters the fuel efficiency (at least on the Aria)!
The bigger surprise could be the addition of the six-speed automatic transmission that Tata already has developed for this engine. The current five-speeder would anyway continue to power the 4×2 and 4×4 variants, and if at all the automatic does come into the picture, it may be offered as a top-end model only with the price hovering around the 15-lakh mark.
At present, the ex-showroom prices for the Safari Storme variants in Delhi start at around INR 10 lakh and go up to around INR 14 lakh. We expect Tata to launch the Storme facelift around or before Diwali…
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