Grande adventure

Blue blood not gasoline runs into the cylinders of two imperial British marques Jaguar and Land Rover. Aspirational icons that pride themselves on their heritage are now on the brink of being bought over by Tata Motors, a company from the former jewel in Britian’s imperial crown. Tata Motors has turned the tables and with the mass hysteria that the Nano has generated, Tata Motors, to borrow a cliché, is rocking.

A testimony to this is Tata’s continued success (and headline-grabbing) in the passenger car segment. Its MUV department on the other hand has not witnessed much action, save for the occasional facelifts and new engines for the Safari. The Sumo, on the other hand, has been left to its own devices for a while and that’s surprising considering that the Sumo was for long their main bread winner and volume generator.

Launched in 1994, the Sumo was the first vehicle from the truck manufacturer (then called TELCO) to garner great success in the passenger vehicle segment. In a market dominated by Willys Jeep-derived Mahindras the aggressive pricing, immense spaciousness, comfort and  pseudo Mercedes G-Wagen looks managed to draw hordes of buyers (private as well as fleet operators), setting a new record for the fastest 100,000 sales. In fact the Sumo was the first vehicle to give serious impetus to the MUV segment in India  and for a very long time was the staple of tourist fleets across the country. Over the years, to counter the competition, the Sumo’s 2.0-litre engine got turbo-charged (to meet emission norms and also to address the power shortcomings), then came the downgraded Spacio (with the 3.0-litre DI engine from the 407 light truck and fabric roof) and also the upgraded Victa with a revised nose and improved interiors and underpinnings. But while the Spacio is still doing great numbers in rural India, the Sumo Victa has lost steam when compared to the Tavera and Scorpio - a balance that the long overdue Sumo Grande will aim to address.