San Storm | An Unknown 2-Seater Convertible Made In India

It doesn’t mean if a car is running on the road it is successful. It takes a lot of efforts and the right pricing for the right offering. Some cars just don’t deliver what we pay for and they usually end up in the trash. One such car is the San Storm. If you never heard about the car or the company it is not you to blame and surely you’ll not be the first one who doesn’t know. Well, what went wrong with the car and the brand? let’s find out.

San Motor India LTD. | Insights

For those who don’t have an idea what San motor is, well it is a rarely heard automotive manufacturer. The company was established in the year 1996 what a bunch of people having a passion to build cars and deliver them to the customers. The company’s first and the last car was the Storm which came in 1998 in the Indian market.

San Storm

The San Storm is a roadster capable of carrying 2 people. It was designed by a French firm called ‘Le Mans Group’. Even the engine was provided by the French Carmaker Renault. The car was launched in the late 90s and did make a good mark in the Indian Automotive market.

Powertrain and transmission

• The engine from Renault was a 1.2-litre petrol engine pushing just 60hp and about 90Nm of peak torque.
• The engine was merely adequate as the car used to weigh just over 760kgs.
• On the transmission front, the engine was mated to a 5-speed manual transmission driving the front wheels.
• The car took almost 13 seconds in going from 0-100km/h that is nearly an hour in terms of automobile acceleration.

Safety Features

• You’d wonder the car gets many safely features to justify its price. Well, I’d have to disappoint you in safety terms too because the car comes with just bare bone safety.
• The car comes with seat belts, Semi-collapsible steering column, Front Crash Protection beam and that is all. San Storm offers no Airbags, no ABS, no EBD, no ESP, no electronic aids what so ever.

So-called Features

The car might get a lot of features to justify the price tag. A big no, the funny bit is the features mentioned on the website are not even the features a person is looking for. Those are just present in the Car.

• According to the people at San Motor, the car includes Air-Conditioner, Alloy Wheels, Body-coloured bumpers, body-coloured imported mirrors, leather-look dashboard (Not even genuine leather), Soft-touch steering wheel. Not just that the Storm also comes with a Tachometer (Like Seriously?), Front seat belts with warming lights, Moulded Door Pads with Magazine Pocket, Centre Console with Storage.
• The car didn’t even offer bottle holders in the door pockets rather a magazine holder.
• The only good part is the car’s colours which were Viper Red, Mellow Yellow, Star Silver Nightfire red, Magic black. On the other hand, you had an option to get the Storm with the colour of your choice but yes it wasn’t free.

Just for your reference, the car used to cost around ₹6.5 Lakhs (ex-showroom)

Also Read: BS6 Hyundai Venue Diesel fuel economy REVEALED!

Verdict

Even though the company efforts were commendable it wasn’t at all a good try to take the Indian market. The production of the car ended with the end of the company. The company, ‘San’ lowered its shutters in the year 2013.

Fun Read: Mitsubishi and Why the brand Failed in India?