[nilanjanray]

My first car was a Tata Indica V2. Bought it because of patriotism and lack of awareness about cars (e.g. bought a petrol because of the minor increase in HP, diesel noise etc.). The ownership experience was instrumental in shifting my paradigm permanently. Not touching any Tata owned vehicle - that goes for Land Rovers. In fact, LRs are not known for their reliability - so don't think that the reliability quotient has increased at Tata Motors in spite of them owning marquee brands.

I am not a DIY auto guy and don't have time to spare for endless visits to the ASC. If I were a DIY types as far as cars were concerned and had a masochistic streak, I am sure I would have enjoyed the Tata experience.

[raj_5004]

Originally Posted by Dr.Suraj

This is RIDICULOUS.

Really really upset & sorry to hear about your troubles.

I completely agree with you - this is thoroughly unacceptable. By ANY standards - Tata or non-Tata.

Very bad - if the company continues like this ..... It will spell doom in a very short span.
Such gross technical problems. Absolutely ridiculous.

At the risk of getting some flak - I am going to stick out my neck & say this -
"Do consider for a moment - that this could somewhere be the fault of the Dealer. Since I have had quite some experiences with them in the past & multiple other reviews. Even Tata Motors - usually does not recommend these particular Dealers. They are not willing to be quoted - but I have known a couple of people who have quoted that since this particular dealer has 'volumes' often they push in 'defective' cars - thus ruining the name of the company with their poor service & pathetic policies. Also - I am sure the service centre is also run by the Dealer with the same name - because THEY are the WORST!"

but if a car is faulty, how is it the dealer's mistake? i can understand if you are talking about poor service.

a bad car or a lemon is manufactured by the company itself & not the dealer.

P.S.: you are right about Wasan. I know about Wasan very well since I bought my car from them & has never gone back to them ever since. Not that the sales experience was bad but have heard horror stories of their A.S.S.

[sam003]

This is where Indian Car Manufacturer lacks, reliability. I have one friend owning 10-15 Xylo, why he bought, cost is the only factor. But why so many, becuase services is the another factor. One or another car keep breaking down and waiting for parts from Pune.
He had couple of Innova's too, but never had this issue. I have under three year old Innova V model covered 50K km, without a single niggle till date. When someone asked why you spend 4L extra for Innova then Xylo, one answer piece of mind. And Toyota has that with Innova.

[umeshnair]

Having seen and heard many experiences of friends using Tata cars, I don't think there is a big surprise here. Like one of my friends said, "Tata doesn't make cars, they just miniaturize lorries". Sorry to hear about your plight though.

The only "relatively" trouble-free ones from Tata are the ones without any gizmos. Last year my friend nearly missed hitting a wall while taking a left bend at a busy road during school time in his Indigo. The issue was identified as Power Steering failure!! He is lucky not to have run over any kids/people on the road. Atleast the brakes dodn't fail then!

[DeKay]

Originally Posted by sam003

This is where Indian Car Manufacturer lacks, reliability. I have one friend owning 10-15 Xylo, why he bought, cost is the only factor. But why so many, becuase services is the another factor. One or another car keep breaking down and waiting for parts from Pune.
He had couple of Innova's too, but never had this issue. I have under three year old Innova V model covered 50K km, without a single niggle till date. When someone asked why you spend 4L extra for Innova then Xylo, one answer piece of mind. And Toyota has that with Innova.

Very true Sam. The Innova is one of the most trouble free vehicles one can buy in the Indian Market. We bought out first Innova in 2008 and since then, it has completed more than 1,50,000 kms. Dad used to take it to our factory almost everyday. (150 kms from Mumbai). He was so impressed with the car, we bought another one this year. The old one is still going strong and is really reliable.

[suhaas307]

You're in quite a pickle. The lemon-kind.

Jokes apart, there is little you can do about this. Shoot a strongly-worded mail to the big-wigs at Tata Motors and CC it to the dealership and your company officials. Make sure you're assertive and firm with them. Demand compensation if things get out of hand. And for God's sake, don't ask or receive any replacements from them.

Just sell them off if you do get replacements and buy two Toyota Innovas.

It's high time Tata treats their customers with some respect. Not all of them are taxi-drivers! Many, in fact, are well off and even adore the brand. Do you want to let them down, Mr. Ratan Tata?

[Palio_2005]

well if this is the quality in 18 Lakh rupee vehicle which Tata makes, they sure have hard times ahead of them. I agree that PDI is important but a PDI will only show some obvious defects like physical damage, dirt, rust etc. there is no way the issues mentioned here will be detected.

It is a real pity that after putting in this kind of money one has to face this kind of a headache. Bad show indeed.

This is the reason why likes of Toyota, Honda command a premium for their not so premium cars. Finally a car has to perform what it is meant for and not just rely on gizmos.

[teamveevee]

Tata bashers, please dont harp on me..The definition of lemon is "a lemon is a new car that you have the same problem with and have to get repaired over and over with no success". In this case, the issues are not repeated if you look at the "Repeat incident flag" in vehicle service history. So not sure whether we can call it a lemon.
Another thing i noticed is, Aria is different Tata car with more electronics and gizmos which can not take the same abuse like a Tata Sumo. Normally the Innova owners take care of the vehicles properly. So Tata need to educate drivers and owners how it is different from other Tata vehicles and how to take care it differently than the other Tata vehicles they owned/used in the past.
It is totally the manufacturers, read Tata, responsibility to maintain the quality of the finished product, but most of the parts that are failed are sourced from outside vendors. So it is Tatas responsiblity to ensure the parts supplied by vendors adhere to the quality standards, and Tata failed miserably in this front due to various reasons.
There are few satisfied customers of Aria in TBHP itself, so it is not that Aria is a very very bad vehicle. I am not justifying what happened, but blame Tata for not taking care of the issue properly and resolving it at the earliest.
Hope your issues get resolved fast and have a better experience with your Aria in the future.

[indian21r]

Originally Posted by teamveevee

Tata bashers, please dont harp on me..The definition of lemon is "a lemon is a new car that you have the same problem with and have to get repaired over and over with no success". In this case, the issues are not repeated if you look at the "Repeat incident flag" in vehicle service history. So not sure whether we can call it a lemon.
Another thing i noticed is, Aria is different Tata car with more electronics and gizmos which can not take the same abuse like a Tata Sumo. Normally the Innova owners take care of the vehicles properly. So Tata need to educate drivers and owners how it is different from other Tata vehicles and how to take care it differently than the other Tata vehicles they owned/used in the past.
It is totally the manufacturers, read Tata, responsibility to maintain the quality of the finished product, but most of the parts that are failed are sourced from outside vendors. So it is Tatas responsiblity to ensure the parts supplied by vendors adhere to the quality standards, and Tata failed miserably in this front due to various reasons.
There are few satisfied customers of Aria in TBHP itself, so it is not that Aria is a very very bad vehicle. I am not justifying what happened, but blame Tata for not taking care of the issue properly and resolving it at the earliest.
Hope your issues get resolved fast and have a better experience with your Aria in the future.

probably calling the car a lemon is wrong technically. But the car is a elctro-mechanical Failure. I feel it is assembled with reject parts. Otherwise how can you explain so may failures?It has been almost a month in total in the service station in the past 6 months. Service center, Millennium Mobility tries their best but each time a new part fails. Next probably steering will get locked or engine seizes. god knows

The latest breakdown is identified clutch failure. Will update the detailed chart when I get it. We had more than 10 cars in our family over the past 10 years but there was no issue of clutch failing and car stalling in the middle of road. And never a problem of this nature in Six months. The car is still in service center from Friday. It may be easier to get parts for Ferrari from italy than getting spares for a car 5 km from its manufacturing facility. This is what irritates me the most more than the part failure.

We take very very good care of the cars. I used to travel in them daily. But now, we use them only when a client or a guest comes and within city. Reason being not sure when the car has to be towed. It will be a big Insult. Last Saturday my team had to do Pune Goa and they hired a Innova. The second aria was just lying idle.

[noopster]

With respect to the point about Arias not being able to take the same abuse as Sumos, perhaps Tata should rethink their advertising strategy then! The TV commercial shows a guy driving around and performing the most outrageous stunts- am pretty sure nothing the OP's drivers did could match any of those

[SushilBajpai]

I am really surprised that even one Aria should develop so many issues. In fact I too seriously considered Aria for our office - mainly on account of safety.

However, my colleagues dissuaded me to go ahead with the plan.

Obviously there are other BHPians who are happy with the Aria, but the manufacturer can't wash its hands off once the vehicle is sold.

I was worried about Skoda ***, when I bought my vehicle, but this really takes the cake.

[1100D]

Was wondering if the other Aria ownerships in Team-bhp have so much Lemon flavour. Or is it that these two cars are more of an exception.

[Shreyance]

Originally Posted by indian21r

I wanted to post this topic for a long time but never took time to write it. Finally it is time the review is posted.

My firm was looking to buy Innova but shifted to Aria due to more than two months waiting period. We ordered 2 Tata Aria's from Wasan Motors, Marine Lines in March expecting a delivery in maximum of 10 days. But the delivery happened after 40 days and the cars were not even washed. We ordered Pearl White and they get them dusty. None of the promised accessories were delivered with the car. Floor Mats, Mud flaps ,Sun Control film and Teflon coating.

The car is fun to drive and rock solid upto speeds of 160 kmph. Though in the range of 120-130 there are a lot of vibrations that you can feel through the steering. It has tons of safety features. Car is purely designed for 4 + 2 kids. The middle seat in the second row with armrest and Floor AC is hardly the seat I would want to be in for more than 5 kms. We were happy to have ordered cars with best levels of safety lower side of Rs 20,00,000/-. But We never expected that it will be such a short lived PRIDE of Owning the Cars. The ARIA’s seem to love the service center more than the road. Below is the Chronology of events rather My SAGA of Breakdowns with the Cars

Car 1: First Breakdown:[*]Oil leaks from the Gear Box and Suspension identified during First Service on 18-05-2011[*]On further inspection it was observed that PDI was not done in the CAR[*]We had to wait forever for the spare parts to be available[*]Finally We got the delivery of the Car after 10 days on 27-05-2011 with Gearbox and Suspension Replaced

Second Breakdown
[*]June 10th 2011 – Car is stalled and indicators, lights run on their own. Failure of electronic components expected[*]But at night 2 am we had to move the Car from its regular parking spot to another premises because it was a Nuisance in the Society. Luckily the car started then[*]On 11-06-2011 at 8 am, the car no longer starts. We were asked to Tow the Car to the Service Station which was promptly done on 11-06-2011[*]Till 15-06-2011 the service Station Mechanics are clueless where the problem lies[*]Finally on 16th the problem was traced: Observation - Checked vehicle through Diagnostic software. BCM Fuse 30A found blown - BCM internally ground. Action taken – The vehicle electrical system checked by Tata experts by putting Test BCM and confirmed proper functioning of all electronic components. New BCM N is being arranged from SPD,[*]After a couple days the auto headlights, wipers and couple of other things fail
[*]First day Mechanic comes from workshop, he does not have a clue how to repair[*]Second day Tata Motors mechanics come and they are clueless[*]Finally third day the team that did the engineering and design work for the BCM module comes with the design drawings but are not able to identify the problem[*]They take the car to the service center again and deliver it after two days on 29-06-2011 assuring that there will not be any problem


Third Breakdown
[*]The third break down happened today 11-11-2011 on NH4 while the car was going to the our project site taking our Project Site GM, a old man of 84 years.[*]Reason identified as Clutch Plate failure.

Car 2: Critical Issue
[*]06-06-2011, The Car Suddenly starts wobbling while it was coming from Mumbai to Pune at 11:30pm in the night[*]Car promptly given to service station on 07-06-2011[*]Reason: Front Disc Breaks failure on the Car.[*]The parts are yet to arrive till 14-06-2011. This after we are based out of Pune and the car is being serviced at the service center closest to Tata Motors plant – Really Disappointing[*]Vehicle finally delivered on 15-06-2011 The car has not even covered 5000kms and parts as critical as brakes have to be replaced? What if the driver was not able to control the CAR?
On top of it we are yet to receive extended warranty for either of the cars which we have paid when we purchased.

This is not the Quality that we were expecting from Tata ARIA after the rigorous testing it had undergone worldwide. I have personally been following the Car from the time the first test Mule was spotted in Europe. Based on the user reviews about improved parts Quality, I was happy that finally TATA MOTORS may have a niggle free car in version1. But they have proven me wrong. I was worried whether I advised my Company a wrong vehicle when 1st Car failed. After the failure of both the Cars I am confident that I made a mistake of not taking Toyota Innova. Their Flagship Product is worse than their cheapest offering, NANO. I have lost Credibility with my Management for taking a decision to buy ARIA when everyone else wanted to go for Innova. I have marked mails to Mr. Telang, CMD Tata Motors, which were acknowledged but I still see no difference

This many breakdowns and part failures in a span of 6 months in flagship product has dented whatever confidence I had in Tata. I was looking at Aria as family car when I recommended it for my office. Now I will never touch a Tata or a Fiat Product until they move out of Tata partnership. (I like the Punto but the A.S.S experience does not inspire confidence yet. Well presales is also bad, I am yet receive call regarding my enquiry online about Punto)

I'm actually doubting the authenticity of this review. No offences please, but the best step would be to go to a consumer grievance cell for redressal and not post a ownership review. Had I been in ur place, I would have used every resource at my disposal to straighten things out, that includes writing to the topmost guy, Mr. Tata and go to the press. I'm actually wondering, should such serious allegations not be moderated and backed by proof before they are published on T-bhp?

Mods, such allegations, if false cost companies their reputation and people build judgements. I'm not a TATA guy, but just a guy who would believe only if they are supported by evidence. Especially such serious allegations. Don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but can't believe this one.

[psbali]

First of all really sorry to read about your fiasco. Being an Aria owner it sends a chill, down my spine, through my body and I am sure my neighbor can sense it too by now.

I don't know whether I can vouch for Aria anymore. I have this fear nowadays driving my Aria around and the first thing I check upon getting down is whether the tires are still intact or not as I got a side wall crack out of the blue on one of the tires.

I am really scared that even though my issues have been sorted out and it hasn't given any major niggle but "any minute now" is always playing on my mind. Which will get even worse for me after going through this thread.

Also did you guys check the VIN code and all before buying the cars? I hope you people did that, as you can trust Tata Motors and especially Pandit Auto to goof up big time. I wont be surprised if they have actually given you test mules.

And also trust me. They will not listen to you over phone or respond if you send emails. Your best bet is to contact Mumbai Mirror and some news channel looking for a hot story and get a report out on the car. Name the dealer and the company officials in that report.

Considering that the cars are full of niggles I dont think so you will get a buyer. Ask for either a replacement or refund if possible.


Meanwhile I will drive my car as sedately as possible.

[cyberwhizs]

@indian21r

My heartfelt sympathies on the various rounds of inconveniences. It is never easy when decisions taken in good faith (read buying a tata v1) begin to go awry.

All the same, just to put things into perspective based on the service history uploaded.
Car 1:
Purchased Mar 2011,
First Service Jun 2011 @ 1004 Km
Running Repairs Jun 2001 @ 3445 Km
Second Service Jun 2011 @ 4547 Km
Third Service @ = ?

Breakdown/Stranded on the road #1: Jun 10 - Jun 29 : Electronics issue
Breakdown/Stranded on the road #2: Nov 11 : clutch plate issue - suspected?

Car 2:

Purchased Mar 2011
First Service May 2011 @ 1496 Km
Second Service Jun 2011 @ 4722 Km
Third Service Nov 2011 @ 16179 Km

Breakdown/stranded on the road: 06 Jun - 15 Jun : Brake grab/shudder/wobbling issue

Points to ponder about
Consider the following facts(please forgive me if my interpretation of the service records are incorrect and do correct me)
1. The cars have been on the road substantially i.e. almost 10K+ km in 5 odd months.
2. Car 1 has broken down twice on road and Car 2 has broken down once.
3. Critical issues/breakdowns seem to have cropped within 2 weeks of the 1st Service for both the cars. Is there some connection here?
4. Subsequently period Jul - Nov has been trouble free where in the cars have been busy munching miles.

Clutch failure @16K Km, Brake shudder/grab < 5K Km or electronic failure < 5K Km are surely serious issues which need to be addressed and probably have been by the ASC but going by the sheer amount of Kms covered within the relatively short period of time neither of these two cars can be termed as lemons ! just because it is a tata?.

PS: PDI is something one simply cannot afford to miss out on.