Tata Mine Protected Vehicle review, test drive

It’s one of those calls, the type you get only when you are in a desperately busy. “Good morning sir, and how are you doing today?”goes the infuriatingly high-pitched female voice in a slow, deliberate sing-song tone. “Sir, we are calling on behalf of Tata Motors and would like to offer the Tata MPV for a test drive.” “We’ve-already-tested-it, thanks,” I reply as quickly as possible, only half-listening.

“But sir, it is an eight-seater with four-wheel drive.” “Yes, yes, I know,” I reply, getting impatient. “And it is very heavy and very big and . . .” “Ok, please send it to our office,” I interrupt, desperately trying to end the conversation. “No, no, no, no sir. We can’t, it’s very, very heavy. It weighs 14 tonnes.”  

Fourteen tonnes. F-o-u-r-t-e-e-n tonnes! Sure, the Tata Aria is overweight and heavy, but 14 tonnes is a bit too much, even for Tata. Of course, what the lady was referring to is Tata’s confusingly named MPV or Mine Protected Vehicle, an armoured personnel carrier manufactured by Tata Defence Solutions. It’s big, it’s brutal and even on paper looks tough enough to drive through a wall. We just had to ask: could we road test the beast?

Checkout the complete range of Tata Combat vehicles here