[Hoopoe]

I and my wife went over to the neighborhood showroom to take a look at the Aria. My wife's in not easily impressed but she was all praise for the Aria. We will take a TD in the next few days. But I observe that it is ridiculous to compare Aria with Innova. I have owned the top model Innova in the past and frankly never liked it. Aria is not a van/people mover that Innova is. Aria addresses a young and involved clientele. Forget about anything else, the Aria looks fantastic, seems to offer truly useful features, reflects a lot of clever thinking by the TATA designers that shows really passionate work in its development and puts forward a truly fantastic package with great fit and finish. I have nothing but praise for this giant effort by TATA.

I am sure the TD will be equally impressive.

BTW, I have driven the fortuner as well. As far as I felt, it simply is an oversized Innova that is a pain to drive around with its engine that lacks grunt at lower rpms. It fails to involve and relate to the driver just as Innova does--and with parts shared between the two it seems funny inside. Let's agree that in recent years Toyota has lost it's touch (the huge international recall was a fact highlighting this). Further, our Fortuner did not have a great stopping ability--something Toyota did not agree for a long time till, on it's third service, they replaced the brake components (possibly pads) without charging any money. Apparently, all owners complained so they decided to replace the cheap local parts with the original Indonesian (read imported) stuff.

So, let's agree that most of us are still mesmerized by the 'imported' brands and tend to overlook their flaws rather too easily. If we all focus our comparison to comparable crossovers, viz., CRV and Captive--both of which lag far behind in offering--we will be able to se what Aria is and what it does--and we will see that it is a great step in India automotive history and it enters the arena in great style.

[damodar]

In Bangalore Fortuner ex showroom cost is 19,72340 and Aria top end model is 15,57710 a difference of 4.15 laks or 5.09 lak for the on road prices.The fortuner does not come with a sattelite navigation,rain sensing wipers with variable speed accordimg to the intensity of the rain.Automatic headlights,curtain airbags,and some more features are not there on Fortuner so the true comparison should be with the second variant of Aria with the leather option at 14,56824 which brings the difference to 5.16 laks on the ex showroom prices.This difference will be 6.32 lak when we compare the on road prices.It seems the earlier comparisons got this figure down to a mere 3.2 lak for Aria pride and fortuner!

[dhuli]

Originally Posted by damodar

This difference will be 6.32 lak when we compare the on road prices.It seems the earlier comparisons got this figure down to a mere 3.2 lak for Aria pride and fortuner!

Damodar, Your logic to compare models is more accurate. I agree with you. The stretch is more 6+ lakhs. However, I am still undecided and am waiting.

[n.devdath]

Originally Posted by dhuli

Damodar, Your logic to compare models is more accurate. I agree with you. The stretch is more 6+ lakhs. However, I am still undecided and am waiting.

Dhuli,
As mentioned by GTO and a few others, it makes no sense to compare a vehicle/s based only on their features. Features do not make a vehicle. In depth engineering, steady build up of reliability and most of all, exemplary ASC does. TATA still needs to build its core strengths on all these aspects.

Hope it does it with the Aria.

Features are, again, as mentioned by others, only an icing on the cake.

[HappyWheels]

Originally Posted by n.devdath

Dhuli,
As mentioned by GTO and a few others, it makes no sense to compare a vehicle/s based only on their features. Features do not make a vehicle. In depth engineering, steady build up of reliability and most of all, exemplary ASC does. TATA still needs to build its core strengths on all these aspects.

Hope it does it with the Aria.

Features are, again, as mentioned by others, only an icing on the cake.

Dev,

Tell me you just didn't post this! Seriously!

You are joking, right?

And you know what I would have told you if we were face-2-face. ( )

Man...

[wildon]

Its a new vehicle, and TATA is well known for its niggles. hope i don't see any specific ARIA thread in Technical Section like all other TATA models.

Tata and Hyundai competing with the segment leader Toyota, Interesting .

[Santy]

If you see last 2 years with TMLs launches

Vista, Manza & now ARIA, one can assume Tatas are successful crunching the learning curve

hope to see ARIA niggle free

Originally Posted by wildon

Its a new vehicle, and TATA is well known for its niggles. hope i don't see any specific ARIA thread in Technical Section like all other TATA models.

Tata and Hyundai competing with the segment leader Toyota, Interesting .

[raj_5004]

Originally Posted by HappyWheels

For (1): I wonder why a sliding seat was not provided on the 3rd row. With so much of space in the boot, it would have definitely been possible.

true. only reason can be lack of headroom.

but coming to that, does any car has a sliding third row which is foldable? is it possible? what about the rails? will it fold along with the seats?

For (2): This one is strange. If this was a SUV, I can understand, but for this fellow, I never expected the stability to be a concern, that too at around 100kmph.

i guess its over hyped just like in case of safari & scorpio where the duo was compared to the innova. i bet the aria is being compared to the CRV or captiva.

Aria has a ladder on frame chassis & is bound to have some body roll unlike cars like CRV which is a monocoque construction. especially, as reported by all, since the ARIA has a great ride quality (which matters to indian families), the suspension setup maybe on the softer side & not meant for sudden lane changes or cornering.

[LobsterB]

Originally Posted by LobsterB

With the second row in full-back I was not able to sit properly. Once I (rather the sales guy) moved the second row forward I was able to put my feet down properly. Also with the upright second row backrest don't remember the knees touching the front. Will try to do this again tomorrow.

Originally Posted by HappyWheels

For (1): I wonder why a sliding seat was not provided on the 3rd row. With so much of space in the boot, it would have definitely been possible.

Tried out the third row seats today again. I found it to be as good/bad as innova's. My wife who is 5'8"+ was able to sit more or less fine with seemingly ok thigh support.

If they had increased third-row seat height any further (for accommodating a slider mechanism?) a 6'+ person then his/her head would have touched the roof. Perhaps more travel for second row slider would have been better with center AC vent also moved forward. But then the reach/use of center/B-pillar AC vents and C-pillar seat-belt top could have been an issue(?) at the extreme ends of the slide range.

Somehow the current design seems like a reasonable one for this kind of a vehicle. Is there any other vehicle with similar dimensions that provide significantly supreme third row comfort. Not sure about Xylo's height, but don't remember its third row being much better when I tried it at showroom.

Originally Posted by HappyWheels

For (2): This one is strange. If this was a SUV, I can understand, but for this fellow, I never expected the stability to be a concern, that too at around 100kmph.

At 110kmph on 6-lane Hosur Road it was a breeze overtaking and cutting across lanes. Felt more safe than an NHC, but then, the soft suspension of NHC was not the best for 100+ kmph speeds.

Didn't get a chance to try cornering at 60kmph+ speeds.

[dhuli]

Originally Posted by n.devdath

Dhuli,
Features do not make a vehicle. In depth engineering, steady build up of reliability and most of all, exemplary ASC does.

Dev, I dont disagree with you and clearly recall GTO's point. I believe Damodar's point is about which of the three Aria models should be compared to Fortuner on the price parameter only. I agreed with him that, to stretch from an Aria Pleasure/Prestige to a Fortuner is more like 6 lakhs than the 3.2 lakhs, which seemed more appropriate.

Leave that aside. Going off topic.

For argument's sake, I think while comparing two or three difficult things, even apples and oranges, where there is a great deal of subjectivity involved, it is not an 'Either-Or' situation. A feature-by-feature comparison appeals to me as much as a 'whole is greater than the sum of its parts' thing. These are simply different granularities for comparison. That said, a detailed comparison only contributes to the overall perception of which is a better choice. So, by saying ABS+EBD+ESP+6 Airbags gives a great sense of security. Then when someone mentions it doesnt feel well planted at high speeds, say unlike Innova or that Aria under steers, we are comparing experiences. The latter being more subjective. At an individual level, a feature like a chiller's appeal to me might grossly distort the perception. Again as a group of users, there may be a by and large common perception that Tata engineering reliability or *** is poorer than say that of Toyota in India. It is my opinion that VFM is an aggregate of all these comparisons. The point of these illustrations is that all kinds of comparisons have their value and one is not superior to the other. One can only prefer one or the other. As for me, I like all comparisons...so much richer!

[patil]

No doubt tata aria is a very good vehicle and has created a new segment in india. The pricing is a little high considering tata badging. People in india would have paid even more than the present prices if the same vehicle would have been launched by Toyota or some other international brand.
Today i got see on one of the news channels that tata has plans of developing a smaller crossover based on the tata aria platform. It will be great to see a small crossover based on tata aria platform priced below 10 lakhs with the same features available on the present tata aria. I have been looking for a reasonably priced 5 seater suv or crossover suitable for driving on the indian roads and I believe so many others are also waiting. Present tata aria is considerably big vehicle and it will be difficult to drive it and find a place to park it. So as the mahindra is coming with a mini xylo hope tata comes with a mini aria soon as possible and tap the indian compact suv crossover market which is non existant due to non availablity of reasonably priced compact suvs or crossovers.

[ACM]

Agree with Dhuli and Damodar, the difference between the Aria and Fortuner pricing is effectively about 6L and close to 33%

Aria seems more and more VFM in a different kind of way the more logic one puts to it, infact it to some would offere better seating postion, and practicality than the fortuner, and will definately boost TATA image,

By the way if offers 3+1 years warranty of 150000 kms so that fine.

All TATA showrooms presently do not have the ARIA, this maybe a consicous decision by TATA and only the ones eqiuiped in a certain manner have it.

[DicKy]

Originally Posted by patil

Today i got see on one of the news channels that tata has plans of developing a smaller crossover based on the tata aria platform................ So as the mahindra is coming with a mini xylo hope tata comes with a mini aria soon as possible and tap the indian compact suv crossover market which is non existant due to non availablity of reasonably priced compact suvs or crossovers.

@patil, which news channel did you see this and any other concrete news?
What all on the X2 platform?
Safari(SUV),Sumo(MUV),Xenon(pick up truck) and now a small crossover(mini-aria)!!!

[PAVAN KADAM]

I had booked for a TD, but the dealership promptly calls me today and apologizes for not being able to arrange for a ARIA TD, since they will do a first set of TD for those customers who have done bookings.

As per their information, the Bookings has started since last 3 days and they are already having 20 customers waiting to feel the ARIA.

So i shall wait for my time.

[kaviprem]

^^ Same here - I too booked for a TD and I got the call from KHT saying it would be ready by next [this] week and followed by TML [Pune] asking if the dealer called !
Seems like, ARIA is taken seriously. Good to see this attitude to begin with.

Prem.