A spruced up interior, jazzed up dashboard, extra row of seats and pocket-friendly price tag brings the Victa up to rival-bashing status. But will it woo back enough private buyers?

It's been a long time coming and finally she's here - the new Sumo. A decade old this year, the Sumo has always done extremely well for Tata Motors clocking in excess of 270,000 units since '94. However in the face of ever improving competition her market share has taken a considerable beating and today she appeals only to fleet operators. For private buyers the Sumo rarely registers on the horizon, the Toyota Qualis, Mahindra Scorpio and now the Chevrolet Tavera making hay in what was once the Sumo's private playground.

Tata Motors has finally responded to the challenge posed by the other players in the MUV segment and freshened up the Sumo. Badged the Sumo Victa, the biggest change is inside, rather than outside, with a new dashboard, improved plastics, new seat fabrics and a third row of forward facing seats addressing what were her biggest shortcomings. The basic design of the dashboard had continued unchanged since '94 and this major shortcoming has now been addressed. The Victa sports a contemporary dashboard that takes considerable design cues from the up­market Safari and which can now claim to be the best in the MUV segment.

A new instrument binnacle, of the same design as the Indica, sports a tachometer. The steering wheel as well as light and wiper stalks are from the Indigo. The switches are from the Safari while the gear shifter knob is from the Indica V2 petrol, as are the door handles. A parts bin effort this but the overall turnout is praiseworthy and leagues ahead of the Sumo of yore. The silver finish to the central binnacle livens up the cabin while the soft-touch plastics give it an up-market feel. We loved the central storage bin that can hold three water bottles upright and flips open 180­degrees to provide the rear seat passengers with twin cup holders. Front seat passengers make do with cup holders integrated into the glove box cover which can be a bit too much of a stretch for the driver. Quality levels don't set the benchmark though with gaps in the plastics being inconsistently wide and rubber parts popping out.

The seat fabrics are more up-market while the front seats also have adjustable lumbar support. These seat backs are hollowed out to increase knee room at the rear. The middle row of seats is split 60:40 and provides access to the rear-most row. Knee and head room in the central and rear most rows is best in the MUV class and now normal sized human beings can contemplate undertaking long journeys in an MUV. The rear most seat can be removed completely to increase storage space to 2160 litres.

In an effort to increase driver comfort, the steering wheel rake angle has been reduced to 31 degrees, matching the best in the MUV class, to make the Victa more car-like to drive. The steering column is collapsible to increase crash safety while the ARAI-mandated side intrusion beams in the doors have also been incorporated. Forget crash testing though since ARAI doesn't mandate it for this class of vehicle and manufacturers aren't in a particular hurry to undertake the same either.

The new steeling column runs between the clutch and brake pedals making the spacing between the two uncomfortably wide. Every time I operated the clutch my shoes snagged the rubber boot at the base of the steering column. In addition the new dash and realigned steering wheel has poached into the driver's space. Tata Motors has gone the Qualis route in minimising front seat travel to maintain the knee-room at the rear - all at the expense of driver comfort. The front seats are supposed to incorporate under-thigh support but I was so uncomfortable behind the wheel and my knees bent so much so that I didn't even notice it. This is singularly my biggest grouse with the Sumo Victa; after all the driver's perch is the single most important seat in the entire vehicle and the lack of space to move arms and legs isn't going to cut the mustard with private buyers who will do most of the driving. A further ergonomic irritant is the handbrake lever located on the right side of the driver's seat. I could access it comfortably only with the door open.

The top-line GX Turbo version that we drove came kitted to the gills, boasting a roof mounted air-con unit for rear seat passengers (no heater), power steering, power windows front and rear, keyless entry with factory-fitted immobiliser, rear wash/wipe/defogger, tinted glasses, front and rear fog lamps, high mounted stop lamp, day-night mirror, internally adjustable wing mirrors and provision for a four-speaker music system.

To minimise the effort required while parking and manoeuvring the Sumo the suspension linkages and mounting points have been optimised to reduce the turning circle radius to 4.9 metres. This is a big improvement and will make three-point turns less of a hassle. The Sumo also benefits from revisions and improvements made to the Safari which include the dual-cone synchro rings in the five-speed gearbox that improves the shift quality considerably. However she still has some way to go before matching the benchmark laid by the Qualis.

Externally the Victa retains the breadbox-on-wheels stance that instantly recognisable as the Sumo, albeit jazzed up thanks to the flashy new graphics and claddings adorning the flanks. The side steps are more contemporary with none of the sharp edges while the wheel caps are also smart looking. The front end is all new incorporating clear-lens headlamps (that from a distance remind you of the Spacio) and a new honeycomb grille. The chrome upper lip on the grille first seen on the Indigo and then on the revised Indica V2 also makes an appearance here and is beginning to form something of a Tata Motors trademark. Fog lamps are recessed in the lower half of the bumper while the bullbar, forever a Sumo trademark is thrown out. The skyscraper-tall tail lamps also incorporate clear lens and that's as far as sprucing up goes.

The Sumo Victa will be available with two engine options, the normally aspirated 68PS 1948cc diesel and the 90PS turbo­charged version of the same powerplant. We drove the turbo-charged unit and while top end performance is more than adequate for this class of vehicle turbo-lag is a big headache. Low down the Sumo has very little to offer and this can become very tiresome, in contrast to the 2.5-litre turbo and naturally aspirated units on other MUVs that deliver tons of low down torque. However Tata Motors is busy working on a (long overdue) family of engines that will address this situation.

The ride quality is excellent, so is the straight line stability. Throw in a couple of corners and the handling limitations are thrown up with understeer and body roll being dished out in dollops. However things never get hairy as she is always composed, unlike her rivals.

So is the Victa enough to challenge the Qualis, Scorpio and Tavera? Interior space has always been a strong point of the Sumo and the Victa has lost none of that advantage offering the roomiest rear seat accommodation. And the new interiors are really classy. However the powerplant just can't match the other MUVs on driveability and useability counts while the ride and handling still has to match the benchmark. Where she scores is on the pricing front, the range starting off at Rs 4.87 lakh ex-showroom in Delhi for the base naturally aspirated version and going up to Rs 5.87 lakh for the top-line GX Turbo. Prices that undercut similarly specced rivals by a significant margin which should be enough to win back private buyers.

Sirish Chandran