Bigger is always better, well, unless it's a tumour or a debt, or a bomb that's about to go off
or a bear that's about to attack you. Bigger's normally better, right? Bigger houses always better,
bigger fridge is to put more food in, always better. Everybody's mother-in-law and themselves
will always say that a hatchback is more than enough, but 8 out of 10 people are lying.
That's an actual fact. No, it isn't. I made that up, but nonetheless, most people do actually
want a bigger car and while bigger cars are of course available in the market now,
the new trend is to make bigger cars of already large cars in the first place. The two newest
cars of this lot, these two, the Hyundai Alcazar and the Tata Safari, of course, they're based
on their, well, slightly smaller counterparts, the Creta and the Harrier. Which one though
is the better car? That's what we're here to find out today.
I'm always stuck to one big statement
that I've always made in my auto journalism career, I'm going to stick to it because that's
what I believe, 99% of the time when somebody gets into a showroom to see a car, it's because
they like the way the damn thing looks. The Alcazar and the safari both have one thing
going for them in absolute spades, both of them have phenomenal road presence. Now,
the Creta on which the Alcazar is base, not so much, but the Alcazar does have a lot more
because of the larger grill. It's got these big, dark chrome pieces on the grill, it just
makes it look more aggressive. Moving to Safari, the changes from the Harrier as compared
to Safari also includes this sort of silver, matte silver, or satin silver finish grill.
And these chrome bits, they just look cooler, it looks more aggressive, it looks more appealing,
looks more modern as a car. Both of these all also run on 18-inch alloy wheels, that adds
to road presence. And both of them have these massive big wheel arches. On the Safari, it's a
little bit more curved out, on the Alcazar, it's a little bit more squared off, but on
the whole, both of these cars as I mentioned earlier, great road presence, you can't go
wrong if you want something that looks like an SUV between these two. Compared to their
standard counterparts, the rears have undergone a much much much more comprehensive transformation.
The Safari for example, is a lot more upright and although it has similar tail lamps as
the Harrier, it looks far, far better. The Alcazar though is a whole different ballgame here.
The Creta's rear end was massively polarising and by making the design a lot more palatable
Hyundai have hit their mark, which one do you like more though? Head to the comments section
and let us know before we go any further.
Okay, then it's time to move on to the inside
and since the Safari is the older of the two cars, we start with that. What is by far the
best Tata Motors interior yet, especially with the light beige seats, and the great
tone wood on the dashboard, the Safari impresses in terms of overall design and we think
this will age well, really well. It does have a smaller screen and the instrument cluster
is part analogue and part digital but, everything in general is in place and within reach
and most importantly, it feels premium.
Now, Safari might feel great as compared to what it is
based on with all that black wood or sort of smoked wood and the
whitish seats, but, step into the Alcazar
and this is what a contemporary modern SUV needs to look like, this sort of brown and
black interior combination. It just looks and feels like it's a 40-50 lakh rupee car,
the quality of everything here is just genuinely a big step up from Hyundai especially from
what the Creta is, and the Creta isn't a band looking interior either, but this one
really genuinely takes it a step up. Now, personally, until very recently, I preferred a sort of traditional
dials, I was not a massive fan of the digital dials. This one, in the Alcazar, is probably
the best digital console you can buy, period. I mean, yes, I know maybe a Lamborghini or a Ferrari
or a very high-end BMW will have something nicer looking but, come on, in the mass market
in the way this looks, that screen with the high resolution dials, it just genuinely feels
and looks really really crisp, really, really nice.
And now for the elephant in the room,
the reason why these two exist in the first place, the rear seats, and of course in particular
that third row. But before we get there, let's talk about that second row, now both of these
cars are available with a bench and individual captain seats and the captain seats or the
six-seater version are the ones we recommend as they are just infinitely more comfortable.
Both SUVs offer decent space but the Safari is marginally larger, although strangely,
the Alcazar does offer a little more butt space. The third row, though, is pretty much an absolute
clean sweep in the favour of the Safari with an exception of maybe shoulder room. As we
have said in our review to the Alcazar's third row is barely usable by adults, and we stick
by that and honestly, it's not much better in the Safari either,
but it's not as bad as the Hyundai.
Could both these be better off if they were just four or five-seater versions with extra booth space?
Well, let us know what you think. But since most of you aren't likely to have all those
six or seven seats filled up at any point, the answer is, in our opinion, a definite yes!
But if that is the case, so, an interesting point to note is the fact that the Alcazar
is a lot easier to get in and out of for the middle row.
Now comes my favourite part,
driving the daylights out of them. Now, I'm going to divide this into three parts, driving
it on bad roads, flooring them on the highway, cruising speeds about triple digit speeds
what normally people do on an expressway or on an open highway, and of course driving them
in the cities. Generally you don't assume or you don't sort of co-relate, Hyundai with
a big burly SUV that, well, this might be.
Coming back to the bad road, there is a bit of flashiness,
and there's a bit of vertical and horizontal movement that you do feel on, especially on
abrupt bumps or sort of vertical bumps where the road ends and there's a big pothole with
a sort of vertical face to it. But on the whole in terms of generally handling bad roads,
this doesn't feel too bad, it doesn't feel very soft and sort of cushy and very, very
comfortable, there is a bit of stiffness to it. But that stiffness does sort of bring
along with it a bit of confidence, you do sort of tend to know what the car's doing at all times.
But now, of course, time to hop into the Safari and do the exact same stretch of road.
Right, so the Safari, now obviously, all of you know that this is the D8 platform
which has been taken from Land Rover and then underpinned the likes of
the Discovery Sport and the first generation Evoque
and straight off the bat I can tell you that this feels a lot better
than the Alcazar on these bad roads, smaller potholes, bigger potholes, undulations, ruts,
all of this is handled with a lot more finesse, a lot more maturity, it feels a lot more solid
as compared to the Alcazar. This definitely is modified or quantified and maybe a percentage
term, I'd say about 20% or maybe a little bit more
better than what the Alcazar feels on these bad roads.
Oh, transitioning from a bad road to a highway like the expressway which is all smooth and
nice, is just such an absolute joy when you have to drive a whole bunch of distances every
day like we do. On the highway. This thing cruises like an absolute peach.
It's a 175hp, 350Nm of torque, all of that really puts you on a sort of very easy going pace,
if you want to triple figures, it's very, very easily doable. It can go much quicker,
obviously not that we recommend it considering the fact that our speed limits are at 100
in some places, so do follow those speed limits. But that said, if you do want to do those
faster speeds, you can, this feels planted, this feels solid. Remember that solidness
that you felt on those rough roads, it still feels solid on a highway, rumble strips, it
still feels solid on a highway as well. Here SUV's engine undergoes a lot of pressure
and strain when going through tough terrain and it's important to have the perfect engine oil
to get the best protection from start-stop traffic, heavy loads and of course during
warm up, and we recommend Castrol Magnatec SUV. Now there are some down points though,
the gearbox doesn't feel as quick and as responsive as I'd like it to be, and there is a bit of
NVH that's maybe a little bit on the higher side if you are pushing the car,
but on the whole, as a Tata product, obviously this is the best we've ever seen, but even in general,
the Safari is a great standalone car on its own.
Moving to the Alcazar though and obviously going to be
talking about one of those big points that everybody seems to have a bone of contention
with, is the diesel powerful enough?
Now, everybody else in the market in this sort of pricing
offers a lot more power and a lot more torque. This is at a 115hp as compared to the Safari's 170,
that's a huge amount down on horsepower, and 250Nm versus 350, on the Safari,
again, a big number down. But, what's on paper not necessarily translates to on road performance
all the time and this is the perfect example of that. Now in normal drive mode, it cruises
really well, it's much quieter than the Safari, the engine feels less a lot less strained,
NVH levels a little bit better and the gearbox is a little bit quicker to respond, especially
in sport mode, that said, again, cruising on the highway, high speeds as well,
this thing feels really, it feels brisk, it doesn't feel slow at all. In fact, I would actually
prefer the way this drives because the way it shifts and responds to what I want to actually do
than the Safari, but I have still like more power, obviously, yes. Is this good enough
for most people? Absolutely yes! There is no question about it.
Now that we're back in the city,
I'm pretty much very, very glad that I'm in the Alcazar. This car is much
easier to drive than the Safari, it just is it's lighter, it's nimbler and that's not
even the best part about it. The best part about it is the fact that it sort of, it compresses
around you, it feels more nimble, it feels smaller than what it actually is. It's the same
but the Creta, the Creta feels a lot smaller than it actually is, it feels like a Venue, it feels like a i20
in some cases, and this feels similar. And honestly, comparing it to the Safari, this
thing just ticks off the boxes every single time if city driving is what you're going to do
99% of the time.
Enter the urban jungle with the Safari though, and it does feel large,
mainly due to the fact that the steering is a little heavier and obviously, because it
is a physically larger SUV too. This one then goes to the Alcazar.
Right, this is a tough one,
as close as these two are as a vehicular concept, there are positives to both.
Safari first, much better on bad roads,
more powerful, really cool name that will make all your friends go
hmm, nice and more space on the inside. Alcazar, much better equipped, more comfortable
and just a lot nicer in the city to drive. But we have to come to a verdict because leaving
it hanging is just, well, there is a well known acronym for that, but I can't really say it
on YouTube, but let me tell you what, it sounds like what a United States police department
would sound like, make your own assumptions.
Overall then, as a package, if we slip into
the shoes of the Indian buyer, as good as the Safari is and it is a damn good SUV, we'd
personally have the Alcazar, for the normal people, it just makes a lot more sense.
Oh, and of course it's a lot cheaper too.