Somehow I feel Storme would be a better success if they re-designed the
exterior a bit. It should have been able to compete with likes of Rexton & Fortuner,
but costing under 20 lakhs. Changes I would suggest -
1) A raised hood-line. I feel as if the hood is too low for a vehicle that tall,
it may be just me...
2) A fully redesigned front bumper. The present one is rather non-awe inspiring (!).
3) The headlamp cluster (especially the blue projector lamp) is flawless as
far as my opinion is concerned. It is so attractive...all thats needed is to take that
god-forsaken chrome strip away from the top of the lamps. Let it settle in between
the two headlamps' upper portions on the sides and the grille to the bottom,
but don't let it cut across like that.
4) Maybe...a fully functional hood-mounted air dam, like that on Fortuner & future
MU-7 to add to the macho feel. Not really necessary but good if added.
5) The back-end is simply bad. The chrome is good, the matte grey patch is good
(and refreshing) but the tail lamps are are not really great to say the least, and they
spoil the rest of the look too. Tata should consider replacing them with something more exiting...like those of the new Range Rover.
6) The sides need some polishing, they should remove all the clutter and give it
a simpler and smarter and more modern look, I don't mind fine design lines running
across, but they've dug AC canals there!
7) Coming to the interior, the dashboard is simply unexiting. Its way too simple
for a car costing well over 10 lakhs. They should add a hell lot of more features
to sex it up.Add more buttons, a touchscreen interface, 2-DIN music system, and
some chrome detailing on the inside.Streeing-mounted audio controls should also
be good if added.
It appears to me that Storme cabin is exceptionally well-built, quality is the best
among all Tata vehicles built to date, only fault in that this is simply too plain for
a car meant to be driven around 21st century India...and to fulfill the 21st century
Indian's desires.
8) The 1st and 2nd row seats are very comfy and no problem with them at all,
Ive sat in the rear seat in a showroom Storme and found it best among similarly-priced SUVs.
They should add leather seats option on the top variants.
The problem however lies with the 3rd row. The jump seats are ugly and impractical. They need to be replaced with seats similar to the 2nd row, or atleast bucket seats. I like the 2nd row "chairs" you get in one of the Xylo E9 trims, Storme should have something like that in the 3rd row. They may need to strech and play around with the vehicle's dimensions quite a bit in the meantime but since it's based on the Aria's X2 platform, streching it may not be a big problem.
9) Weight. It weighs over 2,000kgs. I feel as though it needs to get the 156bhp engine fast to compensate for the weight and make the 0-100kph figures closer to the XUV500. It currently takes some 15 secs to achieve 100kph from 0.
10) While Storme is much better than XUV off-road (atleast I think so), it needs to get some improved Hill Descent Assist features and the like. Tata should make use of Land Rover's expertise in this area.
Given all the changes I suggested, Storme my cost some 17-18 lakhs or more, but would still be great value given the legendary SAFARI image and features that could compete with the likes of Ssangyong Rexton, Toyota Fortuner, Chevrolet Captiva, Isuzu MU-7 all of which cost well above 20 lakhs and ofcourse, the Mahindra XUV500, the Storme's
VFM rival in the Indian market.