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-   -   Tata cars - Reliability and service? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/141301-tata-cars-reliability-service.html)

To all bhpians please notice that i have nothing against tata owners i just want to point out the trend in all the cars that were owned in this post. All of them were perfectly alright when they were new but when they had problems they kept repeating even after visits to the service center and remained faulty during the whole life of the car.

My uncle (mothers brother) is owning tata's from almost 12 years now. In the period of 10 years he has owned 3 tata's

1)tata estate- always had problems with fuel pump. In the period of 5 years the fuel pump was changed 8 times:Shockked:. You read it right 8 times and when the car was sold the fuel pump was on its last legs.

2) tata indigo glx - OMG that car was a big headche. Within 4 years it suffered from overheating engine, loud screaming noise from engine which started in warranty period and even after repeated repairs it kept making that pathetic noise till the car was sold, failed air con, failed passenger side power window, rust in almost all panels. Finally when the car was sold after 4 years it went for a meager Rs.30k.:Frustrati

3) tata manza - He had loads of expectations from this one, he went for quadrajet aura abs model. That car suffered from rust on the boot in 6 months, and now has a useless clutch, broken lumbar support, interior trims falling off even after being repaired several times, i can just keep on going.

My point here is not to say something bad about tata owners but I just want to say that tata cars did not have issues when they were new but when they had problems and were taken to the service center not only did the issue keep repeating but went from bad to worse and are still suffering from those issues. Recently 3-4 of my friends were on a lookout for cars under 10 lakhs but I wasn't surprised when none of them even consiered tata.

My question to tata is why can't they repair the cars in such a way that the customer doesn't need to make the service center his second home.

i owned a tata indigo LX some 4 years back and man was it is nightmare!

in the 2 years and 50000 odd kms i drove it, the clutch was changed twice, complete suspension replaced under warranty, recurring over-heating issue and power steering fluid leakage. had the power steering fluid leak every alternate day and the day i sold her off, it failed twice in a time span of 2 hours. and i knew i'd had enough!:Frustrati
for the record, all the repairs were carried out at authorized service centres. i believe it has something to do with the quality of their spare parts, not up-to the mark!

My uncle had more or less the same issues in his indigo glx. This makes me think does tata actually do any R&D while making a product or do they just think like " ok put a door here, put some plastic here, tie an engine to the front and voila we have a carlol:" Either that or they just don't realise the fact that companies earn more in service than in sales and end up giving third class service to everyone possible.

To make matters worse they tend to appear shocked when the sales fall and blame it on all other factors except for the troublemobiles I mean automobiles they make and their aftersales.

I guess TATA higher ups don't take consumer complaints positively and look into it for not repeating.

Cars are selling let it sell. Why wiry and get things correct. This is their attitude. My dad had visited their showroom for Aria just for the heck of it. No staff attending for half an hour. Casual attitude, no proper knowledge of the products displayed.

I saw 7 complaints being written by customers in front of my eyes, the SA was like OK Sir, we will look into this complaint and call if we find the root cause.

Anurag.

It's the parts. the folks who work at the ASC's are not the difference. The parts tend to last less, and QC is spotty.
But then, they are cheap. But tata cars are VFM only if you have time, and have acess to a local workshop with cheap labour. Else you'll end up spending more on labour than the cheap parts will save you.
I recently had to replace the chassis subframe where the engine and chassis are mounted because of rust. the metal part cost 10k. Labour was another 15k!
If only tata had used better metal!

Either you and I visited the same showroom or most of the showrooms are like that. My experience was terrible, I had gone for a test drive of the safari and was horrified when I was explaining the sales guy about the car rather than he explaining me. He didn't even know the size of the engine that was in the car. Further none of them are properly dressed in any uniform, they were all in casuals. How the hell should anyone know who is a customer and who is a sales person. It seemed that we were more interested in buying than they were in selling. Tata really needs to up its game if it wants to even think of competing with the japs, the germans and the french.

I am a victim of TATA as well. Right now there are 3 TATA cars in my family, a Manza, Aria and an Indica Vista. Needless to say, none of them have served us well. The service centers are useless, the quality of electrical equipment are pathetic and the build quality is unacceptable.

The Vista is going to be replaced with an Ecosport in this month and the Manza will probably be replaced in the first quarter of the next year. The Aria too, going by the number of service center visits needed to keep it running, will be replaced soon.

I have been driving Indica(2003 Driven 1.2 L kms), Indigo(2004 Driven 1.6 L kms) Manza(2011 Driven 30k kms) till date, I am very happy with the over all value the car provides for my investment. I sold Indica in 2011 and got almost 40%(including exchange bonus) of the investment back, that shows the demand of the product in the second hand market. Offcourse there are minor niggles which I dont have to exaggerate that I cant live with it. all cars with the infrastructure we have in India will not last long. I am really happy with the product and will continue buying the same brand again and again as I dont find the value for money proposition in other brands that are in market except Maruti.

Good point noticed. The SA when we visited was wearing sandals with tie.

They give us a feeling like we in the "vegetable market buying vegetables. Buy if you want to else go to the next shop."

Where is the improvement in their cars even after so much criticism?! Tata is a big No for me.

Anurag

:Shockked:

Rust on chassis subframe could be safety hazard. If only TATA were serious, they should have offered you a free replacement.

Heh, My car is in it's 7th year now, and the workshop says it happens to only indicas, but among them its common. Even my hatch door had to be repainted due to rust.
I had my underbody treated when I bought my car, and 2 years ago. Seems like it doesnt make a difference. I will not be doing that to my next car...

I very dear friend of mine owns a TATA showroom. When he came to know i'd bought an Indigo he called me up and said "bhai puch toh leta Tata lene se pehle" and to me it sums it all up!!

Wow, that is a great response from your friend.

Does your friend still have a Tata showroom? What feed back do they get from customers for sales and service? !

Anurag

While all the complaints mentioned in the thread might be true, such a thread can be written nearly for every manufacturer. There may be honourable exceptions about whom there are no complaints whatsoever, but I don't definitely find Tatas to be alone to write such a thread about.

For every manufacturer there are good stories as well as bad stories. For some brands, bad stories are ignored as an exception while some bad stories are attributed as a norm to certain brands. Tatas always find themselves on the wrong side of the equation. There may be some substance to it, but not so much as to deserve a thread targeting them alone.

I DO own a Indica Vista Qjet Aura from the very first batch of 2008.

What iam stating here is my own experiences, not that of my uncle, friend, friend's friend etc

My car has logged 77000 km in the last 5 years( almost)

It has taken me to AP, Maharashtra, Gujarat, MP, Tamilnadu etc.

Highway part of the mileage is about 30000 km

What i had to change in this period apart from regular service

Shock absorbers at 74K on my own

Gear box is fine. not even changed the gear box oil. Fiat MJD has only one inlet for break fluid and gear box oil. so it was topped up three times sofar.

Tyres were changed at 54 K

Wipers at 55K

All the electrical switches are working fine so far. nothing failed including the lights in power window switches. Head lights, fog lamps are stock till now. OEM audio is also fine

Milage was 13.5-14.5 in city and 18 on highway.

Only major problem faced was loss of power at 2K RPM. Concorde has changed the head gasket and one/two valves at the end of 4 th year.

The vehicle has not broken down anywhere on the highway in all my trips.

One trip was 3 K over a period of 8 days.
another for 16 days for 6 K

I had 4 trips of 3k from bangalore to vizag in the last 5 years.

Innumerable trips to tirupati.

Iam thinking of upgrading myself to ARIA in the near future.