Tata picks up on pickup demise
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by Toby Clark • CM has driven two vehicles from Indian manufacturer Tata, on sale in the UK from this week. The Loadbeta range consists of a rear-wheel-drive pickup truck and van, imported by Motor Vehicle Imports of Birmingham.
The Loadbeta 2.0D Pickup enters a market that has declined sharply in the last couple of years, largely —according to MVI's Marketing Director David Bray —due to the demise of the market-leading Ford P100 and Peugeot 504 pickups. Now the lower end of the market is occupied by Fiat's Fiorino, the FS0 Truck and the Tata.
Payload
The Loadbeta has a 1,948cc diesel derived from the Peugeot XD, producing 68hp (51kW) at 4,500rnin, with peak torque of 871bft (118Nm) at 2,000rpm. The Pickup has a GVW of 2,540kg and a payload of 925kg, power steering is standard and it costs £6,996 (ex-VAT).
Initial impressions are good: the Pickup looks handsome, well-finished and sturdy, with panels of heavy-gauge steel mounted on a separate ladder chassis, and a removable load compartment. The interior is less impressive, with a bench seat and "umbrella" handbrake; a rev-counter is standard, but a tripmeter is not.
On the road the Pickup did not come up to the standard of most modern vans: the double wishbone front suspension and leaf-sprung rear axle were not troubled by roll, and ride quality was better than for most of the Japanese competition, but roadholding was limited. The power steering was vague and lacked feel, there was too much footbrake travel and the controls felt generally imprecise. The gear change is a Mercedes-Benz-style dogleg-first five-speeder.
With only 400 miles on the clock, the Pickup naturally felt underpowered; a thoroughly run-in Pickup, however, seemed to have much more power, although its substantial laden weight was all too noticeable.
This 35,000-miler had better roadholding and steering too, though we noticed that it wore 205/70R15 Bridgestone tyres rather than the round-shouldered 195180R15 Indian Dunlops fitted as standard. Other examples showed slight but noticeable variation in handling and performance, T h e Van has a shorter wheelbase and rear five-link suspension: roll was more pronounced, but turn-in and grip seemed better, and at 2.050kg GVW it accelerated more briskly than the Pickup.
The Van is priced at £8,495 (ex-VAT) and has a payload of 435kg. It is better equipped than the Pickup, with central locking, electric windows, separate seats (with a conventional handbrake) and a side-hinged rear door with twin wipers. VAT laws mean that the rear side windows must be replaced with opaque panels in the UK. Like the Pickup, the Van looks sturdy and long-lasting, if lacking some refinement.
MVI has a network of 73 dealers established, and offers the Loadbeta with a comprehensive three-year, 60,000-mile guarantee. It aims to sell around a thousand pickups and 500 vans in 1995—this seems quite possible (the French importer sold 2,000 vehicles last year) as long as the price is right and quality control is up to scratch.
Tata has an annual turnover of over £2 billion; subsidiary TELCO—the Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company Limited—founded in 1945, manufactures cars, vans, buses and trucks.
A past collaboration means that there is some family resemblance with Mercedes-Benz, but TELCO's vehicles are completely home-produced.