[.anshuman]

Full Throttle Trails is a series of half day off-roading events held across various cities by Tata Motors for its customers. Team-BHP was invited for their recent event in Ludhiana. This event is a customer focused event aimed at introducing UV owners to Off-roading. All Tata UV vehicles including 2wd can join this event.

[.anshuman]

This was a half day event, starting after breakfast with around 5-6 obstacles which included inclines and declines in sand, slushy crossings, uneven crossings near the the river Sutlej. The obstacles were easy for 4X4 SUVs, most 2wd cars cleared with slight effort and some of the 2wd cars needed to be pulled out. For the last set of trails they did not allow the Aria's as limited ground clearance was big limiting factor. The participants were pretty enthusiastic for the event. The event was organised well with good attention to the safety precautions and nice choice of trail which made it quite an interesting event to participate. A little briefing on tips on off-road driving especially for 2wd owners would have made it a lot smoother experience for all, since most of the participants were first timers they had no clue on tackling some obstacles, some were rushing through damaging their vehicles, other were unnecessarily slipping clutches where good amount of momentum could have saved them the trouble. I'll let the pictures do rest of the talking..


^ I was given this Aria AWD to drive.


^ Lineup where the trail started.


^ Most of the trail was dusty.


^ We spent most of the time idling waiting for our turns.




^ Most of the customer cars were 2wd. You are sure to get bogged down trying to cross slushy section in a heavy 2wd Safari in second gear without enough momentum. Revving it when bogged with half clutch means smell from clutch. Attaching the rope at the wrong place, meant damage.




^ Effort to pull out the stuck Safari with this 4wd was not sucessful. Finally the stuck Safari had to be winched out using a Xenon. Most other vehicles cleared it with ease.




^ Waiting for their turn, some participants decided to try their hands on offroading. Sand was not very forgiving to 2wd vehicles without momentum.








^ Only few cars were 4X4.


^ How does an obstacle with lots of 180 degree turns sound to Safari owners?






^ Parked at the event. Punjab's love for bling is unmatched in our country.

[.anshuman]

Tata Aria: Performance and other comments.

Before the event i was given an option pick a vehicle among Xenon 4x4, Sumo Gold 4x2 and Sumo Grande 4x2. Without even thinking twice i expressed my choice as Xenon. Just a few moments before the event i was told the Xenon had some technical issue, so options were revised, i was asked to pick either a Sumo Gold or a Aria AWD, i chose Aria. I wanted to drive a SUV with a proper 4x4 low range, either a Xenon or Safari, but still an AWD sounded more promising than a Sumo Gold 2wd

This smart maroon colored Aria looked promising from a distance, though it was not cleaned but why would i want a clean car for off-road event. My happiness faded within 2 minutes of being in the car. The AC was not cooling at all, there was no fuel in the car, no windshield washer fluid for a dusty trail and endless list of stuff not working in the car. I instantly remembered this thread: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ownership.html

They asked me once again if i wanted to swap the car for a Sumo Gold, after giving a thought and thinking between AC and AWD, i decided to keep the Aria. But i was wrong, finally Sumo Gold 2wd proved more capable than Aria with AWD, with its limited GC and large overhangs and fragile underbody Aria could not even compete in last set of obstacles. Being without a low range, a generous amount of clutch slipping had to be applied at places where the speed was limited due to ground clearance, Golds and Grandes were moving comfortably in 1st gear.

A mechanic from Tata motors was accompanying me in the car. While he could not do anything to fix the AC or any other issue, we spent all of the time discussing the technical issues in Tata cars including Aria. A long of list of known issues that i never knew of were discussed including the frequently failing Dual mass flywheel and damage prone low placed intercooler. When mechanics know of most known issues, i am sure the Tata technical team higher ups must be aware of each of these issues. I feel stronger anti lemon laws and consumers laws are required in our country.

As we cleared the first dusty obstacle which was a sandy incline, our Aria started shivering violently like a massage chair. Aria is allergic to dust, two other Aria's including another Media cars started vibrating as hard, the reason was traced to the radiator fan. My guess is this car must have done 60-70k kms, even the mechanic had a similar guess, since the odo display was blocked by low windshield washer fluid warning.

PS: I am not listing other issues here. Will discuss them sometime later in the niggles thread.






^At the end of the drive, the mechanic told me the AC in this other media car was even worse than our car.



Disclaimer : Tata invited Team-BHP for the event. They covered all the expenses for this driving event.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the 4x4 Excursions. Thanks for sharing!

[amitwlele]

Thanks for the report.

One question - Are Aria's and Innova's the right fit to be part of such events? Why try them out on such trails?

[Irish]

Anshuman,

You were too close to our property there in PB. I love this place but it's too hot out there during day time. There are lots of safari lovers in this area with wide tyres (255) and chrome alloys.

It seems you didn't cross river Sutlej and took a left (or right?) before Toll Booth? What's the exact location and date of this event? I was there on last weekend but didn't notice any such event from tata.

Can you please share known issues of Safari, as discussed with that mechanic with you?

BTW those are the nice set of pics. If you have more pics, then please share.

Cheers!
Irish

[.anshuman]

Originally Posted by Irish

It seems you didn't cross river Sutlej and took a left (or right?) before Toll Booth? What's the exact location and date of this event? I was there on last weekend but didn't notice any such event from tata.

We took a U turn from the toll and took left off the road. We did not cross the River, last set of trails were near Sutlej bed. Choice of trail was very good, i would consider going there for softroading again(obviously in a group) if i was a local.

The event was on Sunday, starting from Park Plaza Hotel on Ferozepur road.

[SS-Traveller]

Nice report, Anshuman. What was your impression of the performance in this event, of the Xenon vis-a-vis the Safari 4wd?

[.anshuman]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Nice report, Anshuman. What was your impression of the performance in this event, of the Xenon vis-a-vis the Safari 4wd?

The trail was quite effortless for 4x4s(except ARIA, which could have cleared too but with damages to underbody).

My cousin owns a Xenon, i have reservations on this vehicle's capability for serious off-roading, mainly due to the fact that some of the mechanicals are hanging too low. Along with long wheelbase and not much weight on rear axle, this is not the kind of vehicle i'd recommend for an OTR, quite opposite to what the butch looks may suggest. Best reserved for soft-roading.

[svsantosh]

I remember the chequered Aria's somewhere in north europe in snow and all. Had high hopes then that finally a well engineered TATA may hit our roads. Sadly not to be! Little OT - since TBhp isnt a place for Venture owners, not many horror stories are heard here! It is nearly a Dud in every sense, so many engine/drive train failures!


EDIT
Were there any Sumo 4x4s? Love to see one in action!

[benbsb29]

With all due respect to the organizers, what were they thinking when vehicles with no A/C were given for media drives under the hot sun? Did they expect that these would not be reported?

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by benbsb29

With all due respect to the organizers, what were they thinking when vehicles with no A/C were given for media drives under the hot sun? Did they expect that these would not be reported?

Actually the vehicles had ACs, they just stopped working.
I find it really amusing that the company cannot maintain the vehicles owned by them, yet they claim to offer world class service to others.
Such events will actually expose lots of problems in vehicles.
Most of the owners have never taken their vehicle over a speebreaker higher than 10 inches. Now they take it offroad.

[R-Six]

Originally Posted by .anshuman

As we cleared the first dusty obstacle which was a sandy incline, our Aria started shivering violently like a massage chair. Aria is allergic to dust

This statement made me

An AWD UV taken for mild off roading on a dusty river side. Well, did you enjoy the so called massage, .anshuman?

But, the fact is, these type of events actually exposes these small niggles to their customers which might have gone unnoticed otherwise.

Could be an embarrassing situation for the organizers though.

r-six

[.anshuman]

Originally Posted by svsantosh

Were there any Sumo 4x4s? Love to see one in action!

Only 2wd Sumo Gold and Grande participated in the event.

[SPIKE ARRESTOR]

Nice report. Good to see Tata's coming into the scene.

I feel this is why the Mahindra oldies like the CL / Major / MM are more preferred in these kind of terrains. Their SWB / MWB, lightweight and the agile nature beat the pants out of their competitors even in the 2WD versions.

Originally Posted by svsantosh

I remember the chequered Aria's somewhere in north europe in snow and all. Had high hopes then that finally a well engineered TATA may hit our roads.

SVS, they do only the outdoor winter tests there, mostly in MIRA.

Were there any Sumo 4x4s? Love to see one in action!

Me too curious !

Spike