[shortbread]

In the Aria one can notice the major improvement Tata has made in watching the weight of its products. From whatever specs available so far one can notice that the Aria, despite its size, features safety and otherwise, a full time 4wd system, more no. of seats, is 200kgs lighter than the Safari.
I hope Tata can replicate this in the upcoming upgraded Safari as well, even a weight saving in the range of 100 to 150 kgs would be a welcome change.

[Amartya]

Originally Posted by shortbread

In the Aria one can notice the major improvement Tata has made in watching the weight of its products. From whatever specs available so far one can notice that the Aria, despite its size, features safety and otherwise, a full time 4wd system, more no. of seats, is 200kgs lighter than the Safari.
I hope Tata can replicate this in the upcoming upgraded Safari as well, even a weight saving in the range of 100 to 150 kgs would be a welcome change.

Very good observation, the Safari seems to carry too much "dead weight" with it. Using tailored blanks (or honeycomb structures), the body can be more rigid than actually using more metal per square inch.

With each car, Tata is moving ahead in quantifiable steps. Here's to the Aria being a quality car.

[Tron]

Finally the geniuses at Tata grew a brain and put airbags and ABS in a car instead of marketing gimmicks such as DVD players and calling a small sedan as a "limousine". 140bhp seems rather underpowered for this minibus though.

[canonball]

Hopefully the same geniuses could use the same australian automatic tranny used in the Scorpio as an option on both safari & aria. anybody at Tata listening?

[aslambhai]

Originally Posted by Rahulk76

However, Aria costs TML 10.xx to make so now we all can wait and watch the prices we would pay

One thing is confirmed that the quality is going to be top notch

can you please elaborate?
how do you know it costs this much? and have you seen one in person to confirm the quality?

[rjalihal]

Originally Posted by aslambhai

can you please elaborate?
how do you know it costs this much? and have you seen one in person to confirm the quality?

Autocar India came out with a review of the TATA Aria. According to them, the estimated price is 12-14 lacs (for the high end probably).

[romeomidhun]

Saw one Aria on Chennai OMR. Launching sooner?

[sumannandy]

I think Tata cars are good in general, but the problem lies with the service center. Let me give an example.

My safari driver side door was rattling. Took it to the service center. they could not fix it and suggested me to go for door pad replacement etc. which would cost thousands.

Incidentally I visited a local mechanic who works with lock and electricals. He fixed the problems in less than an hour. The cabin was silent. Cost is less than hundred rupees for the work.

I think Aria will be a great vehicle from the specs. For that matter, I think every other vehicle from Tata or Mahindra are great. I have owned and / or driven a number of other vehicles for extended times including Honda accord, Honda CR-V, Ford explorer, Nissan Sentra, Toyota Corolla, Pontiac, Chevy aveo, Toyota Rav4. Apart from explorer and sentra, and Aveo, and partly CR-V, no vehicle I have driven comes close in comfort in my opinion. A drive for over 7-8 hours in Honda accord gave us back pain. Same story with Rav 4. Sentra was extremely comfortable. CR-V was not bad either, just the suspension was hard I think. Compare that with Tata Safari. I have driven close to 20 hours with some breaks, but no back problem ever.

Talking about reliability, my CR-V windshield wiper was not working within 30k miles. Toyota corolla had head gasket leakage. Pontiac suspension was bad. Compare the road conditions of U.S.A. and India and how they are driven. In identical conditions, I don't think they will differ much, provided the QC is done well. That is one department Tata might be lacking, based on the reviews of the owners.

Tata cars may have minor issues, but they are value for money in my opinion. Consider the total money paid on purchase + maintenance, I think that would be still less than what you would pay for the foreign brands.

My cousin brother has a trouble prone petrol indica. He is still considering Safari as his upgrade. That speaks a lot.

Everything said, I would still like Tata to improve QC and Service quality at the service stations so that there is zero minor issue. Just because there are problems with other brands should not be an excuse for not improving QC.

P.S. These are my personal opinions. Foreign brands make great cars. But I think overall indian manufacturers are not behind.

[airbender]

Originally Posted by sumannandy

I think Tata cars are good in general, but the problem lies with the service center. Let me give an example.

Originally Posted by sumannandy

My safari driver side door was rattling. Took it to the service center. they could not fix it and suggested me to go for door pad replacement etc. which would cost thousands.

Incidentally I visited a local mechanic who works with lock and electricals. He fixed the problems in less than an hour. The cabin was silent. Cost is less than hundred rupees for the work.

I think Aria will be a great vehicle from the specs. For that matter, I think every other vehicle from Tata or Mahindra are great. I have owned and / or driven a number of other vehicles for extended times including Honda accord, Honda CR-V, Ford explorer, Nissan Sentra, Toyota Corolla, Pontiac, Chevy aveo, Toyota Rav4. Apart from explorer and sentra, and Aveo, and partly CR-V, no vehicle I have driven comes close in comfort in my opinion. A drive for over 7-8 hours in Honda accord gave us back pain. Same story with Rav 4. Sentra was extremely comfortable. CR-V was not bad either, just the suspension was hard I think. Compare that with Tata Safari. I have driven close to 20 hours with some breaks, but no back problem ever.

Talking about reliability, my CR-V windshield wiper was not working within 30k miles. Toyota corolla had head gasket leakage. Pontiac suspension was bad. Compare the road conditions of U.S.A. and India and how they are driven. In identical conditions, I don't think they will differ much, provided the QC is done well. That is one department Tata might be lacking, based on the reviews of the owners.

Tata cars may have minor issues, but they are value for money in my opinion. Consider the total money paid on purchase + maintenance, I think that would be still less than what you would pay for the foreign brands.

My cousin brother has a trouble prone petrol indica. He is still considering Safari as his upgrade. That speaks a lot.

Everything said, I would still like Tata to improve QC and Service quality at the service stations so that there is zero minor issue. Just because there are problems with other brands should not be an excuse for not improving QC.

P.S. These are my personal opinions. Foreign brands make great cars. But I think overall indian manufacturers are not behind.

+1 to that. One more thing Tata's need to work on will be to speed up new vehicle launches. They never provide a time frame for their launches and most of the times they get delayed. Some of their product's have been in the market for too long(eg:safari).

[Rahulk76]

Originally Posted by aslambhai

can you please elaborate?
how do you know it costs this much? and have you seen one in person to confirm the quality?

i cannot share how I know the costs, aslambhai
Yes, i have seen it in person to vouch for the quality

[the VTEC guy]

Team, Lets stick to the topic "Aria".

After reading the initial review by Autocar here are my thoughts.

Likes -
1. I am impressed with the styling. The front shot of the car is so impressive with the bulging wheel arches.
2. Overall fit and finish of interior and exterior looks good. Atleast in pictures.
3. The 2.2l 140 bhp engine is a well known in terms of capabilities.

Dislikes -
1. the 8 storage compartments on the ceter of roof look too many atleast when opened all at once.
2. need more engine options
3. Auto transmission please

[SmartCat]

It looks like those storage compartments will remain mostly empty in all the cars. What can you keep in there? Income tax returns? Property papers? Junior's homework?

They ought to get rid of all of them and replace it with a large sunroof.

[entropy]

Originally Posted by smartcat

It looks like those storage compartments will remain mostly empty in all the cars. What can you keep in there? Income tax returns? Property papers? Junior's homework?

They ought to get rid of all of them and replace it with a large sunroof.

Couldn't agree more. A nice idea overdone. I'm concerned with all the rattles over your head that may not be so nice for longer trips and over the roads we have in India.

[amitk26]

Originally Posted by smartcat

It looks like those storage compartments will remain mostly empty in all the cars. What can you keep in there? Income tax returns? Property papers? Junior's homework?

They ought to get rid of all of them and replace it with a large sunroof.

With So many toll gates these days and more being added with each passing day, if you travel from Kashmir to Kanya kumari even 8 will be less to store toll receipts in case you want to preserve them

[aslambhai]

returning to the topic of discussion (as other topics aren't worth discussing with people who are so hard bent to see no good in TATA)

saw the Aria in person a few days ago at good luck chowk, pune. it was not camouflaged. the rear looked much better in person.
lot of photos are already there in the forum, so didn't bother snatching some more. :P