Despite what Korean car maker Daewoo would like you to believe, the biggest motor company you've never heard of is almost certainly Tata, writes David Duffy. Virtually unknown in the UK, the Tata Group of companies is the largest and best known conglomerate in India, with an annual turnover of more than 5.7bn and a history that stretches back more than 110 years. The vehicle-making division of the group, which spans everything from engineering and energy to chemicals, consumer products and communications, set up in business 55 years ago to build steam locomotives.

A joint venture with Daimler Benz led to truck manufacture, and rapid expansion since then has created more than 130 models and variations of commercial vehicles, ranging from massive trucks and buses to little pick-ups.

Its latest offering, the seven-seater Safari 4x4, is a ground-breaker as it was the first Indian vehicle designed using computer-aided design technology and computers, for all their faults, don't do a bad job.

My first experience of Tata transport was a couple of years ago with the fearsome 6ft tall Gurkha, which was a memorable, if not altogether pleasant, experience. Rugged it might have been. Refined it was not. Forget the green wellies, the Tata Gurkha was for wearers of black wellies with reinforced steel toe caps.

The new five-door Safari has addressed many of my moans about fit and finish, ride and refinement. The colour-coordinated exterior looks pretty good and has the air of the similarly-sized Land Rover Discovery.

This two-tonne Tata goes further down the road of a purpose-designed leisure off-roader than its predecessors, which were unashamedly based on commercial vehicles with some of the rougher edges smoothed off.

The interior picture starts well enough, with smart grey velour upholstery, but there is a lot of plastic on the dashboard and doors. The dashboard switchgear may be old-fashioned to look at, but at least all the switches are sensibly placed and illuminated for easy night use.

If the lighting and windscreen stalks feel strangely familiar, it's not surprising they are straight off an Austin Montego and the half-hearted windscreen washers feel like they came off a Mini. The doors need a man-sized slam to ensure they shut properly and a locking stay, to hold the huge rear door open, would have been a sensible and safe addition. Central locking is the order of the day, though getting the key into the passenger door lock proves a tricky operation. Anything less than total accuracy with the gearstick delivers a nasty arm-grating shock and siting reverse gear right next to first gear is asking for trouble in stop-start traffic.

On the road, the 2.0-litre, four-cylinder turbo-charged diesel engine, a 90 horsepower former Peugeot unit, built under licence in India, delivers bags of bottom end grunt, but it's no sprinter. It will cruise easily at 70mph and is reasonably quiet but takes a leisurely 19 seconds to reach 60mph. For a Discovery-sized vehicle at under 15,000, the makers have packed in the equipment, from power-assisted steering, electric windows and four-speaker CD player to air conditioning, immobiliser and heated door mirrors. The gearbox also switches from rear-wheel-drive to high or low ratio four-wheel-drive at the flick of switch. Tata drivers are assured of a certain exclusivity because Motor Vehicle Industries, who import and distribute Tata vehicles in the UK, expect to sell about 1,000 Safaris this year a tenth of the number of Discoverys expected to be sold here.

The Tata name may still be a relative rarity in the UK, but the company is clearly not satisfied with carving a niche in off-road and commercial products. The arrival next year of the new Indica super-mini, which has already proved a major hit in India, may be the car to put Tata into the European motoring mainstream.