Tata Aria Prestige - Pearl White, Fabric Trim

[crazycardude198]

Originally Posted by pk_del

Crazycar: Congrats. That is a beautiful vehicle to own.

I had requested for test drive but alas no one showed up for it or even contacted me.

Is that Srisailam high way near international airport?

-PK

Actually its the stretch of road before the international airport. It links Cyberabad with the international airport and continues to Srisailam from there.

With regards to the test drive, its better to go to the showroom personally and book it there. Thats what I did anyway. My guess is that they are overloaded with requests from outside the city and thats why its not available. Good Luck

[damodar]

Hi, We are considering the Pride variant but could not find one vehicle at any of the dealerships to check out.It will be helpfull if you can post some photos of the exterior and the interiors as we are paying the booking amount by tommorow.Thanks

[damodar]

what is the tyre size of your Aria since it comes with 16 inch Android steel wheels?

[Furebo]

Originally Posted by damodar

what is the tyre size of your Aria since it comes with 16 inch Android steel wheels?

I think you are confused, this is a ownership report of the Prestige (Mid-variant). The 16" steel wheels are present on the Pleasure (Base-variant).

[crazycardude198]

SIX MONTH SERVICE UPDATE

Greetings and Salutations! It has been quite a long time since I posted last on Team BHP. A combination of factors meant that I was not able to spend time writing my thoughts. Anyway I just returned from the 2nd free service so I'd like to update you guys. I wont be going through the same points over and over which is why this post is not as detailed as the last service update. Anyways here's whats happened so far.

1) I make it a point every weekend to take the car on a high-speed drive since the ORR in Hyderabad is nearly always empty. On several occasions I had noticed vibrations in the steering wheel. This should be a textbook WB issue but I had a doubt due to the road itself. You see the ORR is not completely flat and level. There appears to be some "wrinkling" in the tarmac which tends to be a bit bumpy. Needless to say the balancing was done and I will go and check it tomorrow.

2)I am certain other Aria owners have pointed this out but there is a strange noise emanating from the rear of the car on certain bumps. For me it is not that obvious but it did occur on some occasions. I pointed it out to the service advisor and he claimed that he had renovated it. I will let you know in due course if this is the case.

3)I have noticed that the area around the grab handles can get dirty quite quickly. I did ask the guys at the service center to clean it which they did. However make sure your hands are clean when you enter. It stains very easily.

4) I have no major mechanical issues to report however certain bits have been shaken. The right door lock and the light in the glove compartment seem to be a little more loose than usual. I mentioned earlier how the glue on the steering pad came off. Well it seems the same glue was used for some components. In all fairness these are not issues worth cribbing over. I am just being as open as possible.

5) A very interesting point I would like to make here is that the Tata Aria actually comes with a very interesting "error". I know that sounds strange but bear with me here. Apparently every Aria has an cpu which tracks the performance cycles of the car. If the car is inactive for more that 5 complete days, the system shuts down. In other words the entire car goes into sleep mode. This means that the remote WILL NOT WORK and you can only enter the car using the key on the lock. But here is the catch, if you open the door lock using the key and open the door, the Alarm goes off!!

According to the engineer I spoke to this mode is called "transport mode". Its designed to prevent the battery from discharging during long moments of inactivity. Which begs the question as to why the dealer does not deactivate this mode to begin with. Once the car is delivered this system should be turned off. However it seems that the genius engineers have hardwired this function into the car and it cannot be deactivated. I will let you guys make up your minds on this one.

Which brings me to the real development in the car. Two issues have come up.

SAFETY RECALL

It turns out that the initial batch of Aria's or at least the batch my car belongs too, had a problem in the fuel pump and delivery system. When I took my car to service they informed me that a "examination team" from pune had come to check on the car. I immediately put 2+2 together and figured out that this was a recall( On the service form it is noted as a retro-fit). In any case the entire fuel system was replaced. Has any other Aria owner been through this? I would love to know.

A related development was that three people came to my house about 3 weeks ago. One was an engineer from Pune, another was the head engineer in Hyderabad and a third was a representative from AC Nielson. We sat for about 2 hours taking about the car and taking my feedback. This included a brief test drive. It seems that the lack of sales has made Tata nervous and It seems they are seriously considering improvements for Aria 1.5. I truthfully like the fact that Tata are taking the Aria seriously. As a customer this is reassuring.

Well thats it for this time. I apologise for not having a long and super detailed post. I promise that I will write and extended review for its next service appointment. Until then Ciao!!

P.S About a month ago I gave a talk at Pecha Kucha Nights in Hyderabad. The talk was about India and the Automobile, i.e Indias relationship with the car and how it has changed us. I've posted the link here. Let me know what you think!!

YouTube - India and the Automobile

[Ace F355]

Congrats on your Aria. It looks really nice in white. Wish you thousands of happy miles on your new possession! Nice, crisp update too!

P.S. Even though I understood your point about designs in your presentation, your talk about Civic Vs Cruze didn't hold water in my POV!

It is the opposite in real life! It is the Civic that has the horrible fuel economy and it costs a bomb compared to Cruze!

Yet, people are buying Cruze because it is fully loaded with gizmos, has a new muscular design, comes in diesel and looks much more VFM compared to Civic which despite being one of the good looking cars on Indian roads, has been a bit long in the tooth!

Was your presentation only 7 minutes long?

[crazycardude198]

Originally Posted by Ace F355

Congrats on your Aria. It looks really nice in white. Wish you thousands of happy miles on your new possession! Nice, crisp update too!

P.S. Even though I understood your point about designs in your presentation, your talk about Civic Vs Cruze didn't hold water in my POV!

It is the opposite in real life! It is the Civic that has the horrible fuel economy and it costs a bomb compared to Cruze!

Yet, people are buying Cruze because it is fully loaded with gizmos, has a new muscular design, comes in diesel and looks much more VFM compared to Civic which despite being one of the good looking cars on Indian roads, has been a bit long in the tooth!

Was your presentation only 7 minutes long?

I know that the comparo between the Cruze and civic was not entirely balanced but I was not focusing on the fact that one is better than the other as a package.

As you can see from the Wagon R and Beat there is a significant difference in sales figures even though these cars are similar. This is due to the fact that these two cars have different customer profiles.

What I was illustrating with the Civic was the fact that despite being established and trusted design it was losing ground to the Cruze which is the newcomer meaning that in the eyes of the customer the Civic hase lost some brand value and they are now going to the interesting
alternative.

You argue that the Cruze is well equipped and runs on Diesel and thats why it is selling more. That is true but if that was the case then the Civic would have been defunct long ago and the sales numbers would have been much much worse. The Civic and for that matter the City have proven that customers will go for petrol if they believe the brand value justifies it.


Petrol and Diesel does play a role in the buying process surely. But it varies depending on customers and need. The Wagon R comes in LPG and petrol. The i10 only comes in petrol yet both cars are neck and neck in sales. And dont forget the Wagon R and Beat. Both cars are similarly priced and have similar efficiency yet there is a 12000 unit deficit in sales.

And when I mentioned the Cruze has bad fuel economy and cost a bomb, I meant compared to the Wagon-R, not compared to the Honda Civic.

What say?

[psbali]

hey.. what a coincidence that you happen to mention about sleep mode that gets activated after 5 days.. I got an earful from my dad in the afternoon for not using Aria for almost 2 weeks and remote unlocking got deactivated. We feared that the battery has gone down and we would now have to get it jump started.

But he went down and unlocked the door with the key and the alarm went off..

I would say neat..

And how did you confirm whether the fuel delivery system has been replaced?? I wasn't informed of such a replacement. How to confirm whether it has been replaced or not??

Enjoy

[crazycardude198]

Originally Posted by psbali

hey.. what a coincidence that you happen to mention about sleep mode that gets activated after 5 days.. I got an earful from my dad in the afternoon for not using Aria for almost 2 weeks and remote unlocking got deactivated. We feared that the battery has gone down and we would now have to get it jump started.

But he went down and unlocked the door with the key and the alarm went off..

I would say neat..

And how did you confirm whether the fuel delivery system has been replaced?? I wasn't informed of such a replacement. How to confirm whether it has been replaced or not??

Enjoy

Honestly I dont know psbali. This was told to me orally by the service advisor. However on my delivery slip it is mentioned "RETROFIT" only and nothing else. However come to think of it I do remember getting some strange readings from the fuel meter. This was probably a response to that. Has the dealership got in touch with you. Apparently all the cars in my batch had to have the unit replaced. You should definitely check this out.

[sahakar]

Originally Posted by crazycardude198

Honestly I dont know psbali. This was told to me orally by the service advisor. However on my delivery slip it is mentioned "RETROFIT" only and nothing else. However come to think of it I do remember getting some strange readings from the fuel meter. This was probably a response to that. Has the dealership got in touch with you. Apparently all the cars in my batch had to have the unit replaced. You should definitely check this out.

Its been quite some time since you have posted.

Any updates will help. Hoping that your update is not similar compared to the multiple failure threads going on currently.

Cheers