Indian Autos Blog is carrying pictures of the Sumo Gold which is supposedly the replacement of the Victa. As already reported the new Sumo has a bigger and more powerful engine and better upholstery and Tata hope that this version will resume its fight with the Mahindra Bolero and pull back some numbers from the Bolero which sells more than some hatchback cars. Though the Sumo was the third passenger vehicle from Tata after the Sierra and the Estate, it was the first to bring in volumes for Tata and help establish itself as a player of consequence in the passenger vehicle space. Though it too like the Sierra and the Estate based on the mechanicals of the one tonne 206 Tatamobile pick up, it captured the taxi space as well as personal vehicle space in the mid nineties. One hears again and again the apocryphal story that the Sumo was short for Sumant Mulgaonkar, and he was the person who pushed for Tata’s entry into passenger vehicle space and started the process with the Tatamobile which is now the grand daddy of the Xenon. The Grande is also based on the Sumo and started life as the Sumo Grande but recently Tata dropped the Sumo from the Grande in order to position it as a personal vehicle. Interestingly the Gold moniker was first used on another version of the Sumo called the Spacio (it looked just like the Sumo but had an agricultural diesel engine) and one would therefore believe that the Sumo is going again for the jugular of the tourist taxi trade.
Picture courtesy: Indianautosblog.com
