Sumo Gold pushes Tata sales

Tata Motors is upbeat over the launch of new Tata Sumo Gold. The Mumbai-based multinational auto major further expects that the new model would boost sales — and is expecting to sell 18,000 units of it by the end of the current financial year. The company is targeting rural, semi-urban market and taxi segment in the urban market with this new SUV.

Tata Sumo Gold

Tata Motors’ head (utility vehicles, product group) Ashesh Dhar said on Friday that the company initially launched the product in four markets — Maharastra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. “We got overwhelming response from all these markets,” he told BS. Prior to the launch, the company — South Asia’s largest automobile company — was selling 1,100 units of Sumo a month. “Now we are selling 3,300 units per month. Considering the sales figure, we are hopeful about selling 18,000 units of new Sumo Gold. The sales figure (including all Sumo Model combined) is likely to touch 24,000 units by the end of this fiscal,” Dhar added.

The 1945-founded Tata Motors, with auto-manufacturing and assembly plants in Jamshedpur, Pantnagar, Lucknow, Sanand, Dharwad and Pune, is targeting rural, semi-urban market and the taxi segment in urban market, he informed, adding, “We have aggressive plans to launch across India by the end of this year.”

Meanwhile, the company — earlier called Telco (Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company) — launched all new Tata Sumo Gold, the most powerful SUV in its category in Punjab and Chandigarh market. “The Tata Sumo Gold is a result of extensive consumer studies and field tests,” Dhar said.

The new Tata Sumo Gold is being launched in 4 variants — GX, EX, LX & CX — along with a warranty of 3 years or 100,000 km, whichever is earlier. Its price will be available from Rs 5.35 lakhs onwards (ex-showroom, Chandigarh).

Source: BS Motoring

Tata Sumo Gold Launched at Starting Price 5.04L Ex-Showroom

Tata Motors Limited has just launched a revamped version of its workhorse MUV, the Tata Sumo. Dubbed the Sumo Gold, the MUV gets a raft of improvements and a complete makeover to take on the likes of the Mahindra Bolero and the upcoming Chevrolet Tavera BS4. This facelift of the Sumo range by Tata Motors comes close on the heels of the Bolero’s recent makeover, which has given the best seller Bolero more ammo to maintain its leadership position in the Indian MUV market.

The biggest change is in the engine department where the Tata Sumo Gold gets common rail direct injection in its 3 liter unit, which has been doing duty for many years now. The other engine also is a new unit, as the 2 liter TCIC unit from the old Safari has been dumped for a new 3 Liter TCIC diesel unit, one which produces lesser power but more toraue than the older 2 liter TCIC engine. The transmission remains the same 5 speed unit for both engines although Tata claims smoother shifting.

The 3 liter turbocharged DI diesel engine now in common rail guise gets a power bump up to 80 Bhp(up from 70 Bhp of old DI 3.0 unit), while torque output also goes up to 250 Nm(up from 223 Nm of DI 3.0 unit). The 3 liter TCIC, direct injection diesel engine has been tuned to deliver lesser power of 80 Bhp(down from 90 Bhp of the previous 2 liter TCIC unit) while torque output has gone up to 250 Nm(Up from 190 Nm).

The 3 liter CR4  engine now delivers an ARAI certified 14.07 KMPL, which will be what the salesmen at Tata dealerships will hope to sell the Sumo with. Tata also claims plenty of work having being done to the suspension for a more pliant ride quality even though the suspension set up remains the same, coil springs at front and leaf springs at the rear. On the rear, the bumper is new and so are reflectors on the bumper.

Always a butch looker, the Tata Sumo, in Gold guise gets a brand new front end, replete with new headlamps, a bumper, a chrome insert on the grille, a new grille design and fog lamps. On the inside, the dashboard sees a total redesign to become more upmarket. Cupholders and a factory fitted music system are just two of the many changes that the Sumo Gold’s dashboard sees, in a bid to match the new Bolero.

A rear wiper also makes it into the equation and so do rear folding jump seats, that will liberate space when not used. The seating retails the similar 2+3+2 layout although cab operators will manage to squeeze a couple of more people at the bare minimum in the Sumo Gold. Tata Motors does offer the Sumo Gold with a nine seat option, which will go down well with the cabbie crowd.

The Tata Sumo comes with an outstanding 36 month, 100,000 kilometer warranty for non commercial buyers while cabbies get a 2 year, 75,000 km warranty. Tata will offer the Sumo Gold in four variants, GX, EX, LX and CX for the 3 Liter CR engine while the 3 Liter TCIC engine gets three variants, with the GX variant missing. The entry level variant of the Sumo Gold is priced at INr 5.04 Lakhs, ex-showroom Delhi!

Click on image for enlarging

Tata Sumo Gold Prices

Sumo Gold TCIC CX – Rs. 5.23 lakhs
Sumo Gold TCIC LX – Rs. 5.6 lakhs
Sumo Gold TCIC EX – Rs. 5.96 lakhs
Sumo Gold TCIC GX – Rs. 6.6 lakhs

Sumo Gold CR4 CX – Rs. 5.49 lakhs
Sumo Gold CR4 LX – Rs. 5.84 lakhs
Sumo Gold CR4 EX – Rs. 6.1 lakhs
Sumo Gold CR4 GX – Rs. 6.74 lakhs

Source: Indian Cars Bikes & Motorbeam

Tata Sumo Gold Specifications

Check the broucher of yet to be launched Tata Sumo Gold. Earlier we reported that Tata Sumo Gold is going to be launched around Diwali this year.

Click on the image to expand

Click on the image to expand

Source: Team-BHP

Tata Sumo Gold to be launched by Tata Motors Near Diwali

Tata Sumo Gold Rear View

No, this is not a special edition to celebrate 5,000 years of Indian jewellery.

Tata Motors’ next target is to revive sales of the Sumo brand which has come under intense heat of the Bolero. The Bolero has managed to eat into the Sumo’s marketshare and to fight back, Tata plans to refresh the original Indian SUV by giving it a new name, cosmetic upgrades and a new engine.

A few weeks ago, Tata dropped the Sumo nameplate from the Grande while highlighting the DICOR suffix. By doing this, Tata hopes the Safari imagery will be recalled on seeing the new Grande. To differentiate it from the Safari, the Grande lacks the kit and safety features offered on the Safari.

The Sumo ‘Victa’ brand will be partially or fully replaced by the ‘Gold’ brand and under the hood, a new 3-liter CR4 engine meeting BS4 norms will be shoehorned. The new Sumo is expected to get minor cosmetic touches and a clever marketing campaign to woo customers back into their dealerships. Tata will be looking to use the spending spirits of the festive season to gain the required traction.

Tata Sumo Gold Front View

Source: Indian Autos Blog

Tata Sumo Grande Facelift Scooped: Oncars

Tata built the Sumo "Grande Mark I" in 2008 to take on the Toyota Innova and the Mahindra Xylo. After a tough time at the hustings, they went back to the drawing board to effect a few changes and a year and a half later, the Sumo Grande Mark II was born. The MPV still couldn’t do much to dislodge either of the Innova-Xylo duo. Never the one to give up easily, Tata Motors is at it again, this time with the facelifted Grande Mark II.

Our friends at OnCars have managed to snap up a facelifted Grande Mark II testing. That said, the big changes on the exteriors of the Grande are the Mark II and Sumo badges missing apart from new graphics on the flanks of the Grande.

While it is still a little early o confirm whether the Grande will indeed lose the Sumo moniker along with the Mark II badge, thereis a fat chance that it could. We’ve seen this happen in a plethora of Tata products, ranging from the Tata Indica Vista which now sells as the Tata Vista and the Tata Indigo Manza which now sells as the Tata Manza. Tata products, value for money and spacousness being their strong points often times sell very well in the taxi market.

While this brings brisk sales to Tata as a manufacturer, more often than not, family car buyers are dissuaded by the Taxi images that many of the Tata cars come tagged with. The Tata Sumo has been around for the better part of a decade and a half now. The able MUV has had its days of glory and Tata might finally have decided that the Sumo brand is what that has been slowing down the Grande’s sales.

Hence, the Sumo(Incidentally the Sumo was named after Suman Moolgaonkar, TELCO’s late ex-chairman) name could go out of the window for the MPV to now be rechristened as only the Grande. Tata Motors will hope that this name change could change the fortunes of the Grande MUV, which for starters is quite a capable vehicle. This apart, the changes in the Grande will mainly be on the interiors and perhaps also on the suspension.

The Tata Grande’s interiors had many rough edges which Tata Motors will probably have ironed out during the course of the facelift. Another change expected is in the suspension department as the Tata Grande’s suspension was quite bumpy for the rear occupants due to the leaf spring layout at the rear as opposed to the independent coil springs on both the Toyota Innova and the Mahindra Xylo.

The engine however will remain the same, tried and tested 2.2 Liter DICOR mill, tuned to produce about 120 Bhp and 250 Nm, making it the class leader when it comes to engine output. So, the Grande does have reasonable ammo to turn out to be a winner in the segment, if and only if, the stodgy taxi image associated with the Sumo is eliminated. For a start, Tata seems to be on the right direction. The coming days will reveal much more. Watch this space!

Tata Sumo Grande to get a makeover in November

Since 1997, The Tata Sumo was the undisputed leader in the Indian MUV segment until a certain Toyota Qualis came along. Ever since, Tata Motors’ multiple attempts to fight back and regain lost ground with Sumo variants like the Victa and the Victa DI has only become an uphill task with a multitude of capable MUVs like the Mahindra Bolero and Chevrolet Tavera nibbling away at market share.

Tata Sumo Grande MPV

In the meanwhile, Toyota withdrew the QualisMUV at the peak of its demand, much to the surprise of most, and replaced the ultra successful Qualis with the Innova MUV, which soon became a best seller too.  Mahindta responded in a while with the Xylo MPV, which also is a brisk seller. Tata however was quite late to come up with an Innova challenger and when it did, the Sumo Grande was born.

But the sales for the Grande however have bee less than encouraging with the MPV remaining a distant third, behind the Innova and the Xylo. In yet another attempt by Tata to win back some market share and keep the Sumo Grande relevant in the MPV market, a facelift is being planned for the month of November, according to our sources. The Sumo Grande in itself is a very capable MPV that has plenty of potential.

For the uninitiated, the Tata Sumo Grande come with a 2.2 Liter DICOR diesel engine producing 120 Bhp. This engine mated to a 5 speed transmission endows the Sumo Grande with sprightly performance. The Sumo Grande also handles much better than the boat like Mahindra Xylo which pitches and rolls like a drunken elephant making for a very hairy high speed driving experience.

 The price of the Sumo Grande too is lower than both the Xylo and the Innova. So, the Sumo Grande does have some inherent strengths that Tata could really use to give the Sumo Grande a proper makeover by ironing out the rougher edges like the flimsy plastics, the notchy gearbox and the bumpy ride due to the leaf springs suspension layout at the rear.