Tata Aria Pride 4x4: Owner's pain & frustration. EDIT: Saves 3 lives in an accident!

[LobsterB]

Shocking. Hope soon your issues get sorted-out or your vehicle gets replaced.

ACM's gearbox issues recently had me already worried. Mine has finished 45000Kms. Had a weekend drive to Red Hills near Ooty after reading Fauji's travelogue. Was driving in forests around Portimund, with no cell coverage or people living closeby, and this is when the questions of reliability becomes a real deal breaker. So far, so good, but really wonder whether I was indulging in 'great' adventure as far as the vehicle is concerned. If I had seen your report earlier, would have perhaps gone to Ooty town or just sat at home!

[narayan]

On a lighter vein with M&M its a lottery to get the booking allocation(XUV500) with Tata its a lottery to get a niggle free car.
Maybe this is the reason for the region wise launch of the Storme. This thread really gives one the jitters ( especially for some one who is considering the Storme ). I wonder why there is not a single TBHPian who has reported having booked a Storme despite many coming in and praising it

The region wise launch of storme creates doubts in my mind. This type of launch shows the manufacturers inability in creating a successful product. launching it in regions and checking the acceptability levels amongst its customers is very bad. The same was the case with XUV, which is filled to the brim with niggles. i see very few are satisfied with XUV to the brim.

Many manufacturers test their products in india, to test their reliability in worst conditions. Tata motors, being a priviliged company in india, having centres at every nook and corners. They could test their product to its limits. This provides a significant amount of trust to the manufacturer. Let the scoops come out. Test it correctly. Test it to the max. Launch a reliable product which could sell on its own rather than which sells on manufacturers past. There is a significant cost associated with it. Take the risk, The returns are fruitful always.

The bare bone feature less fortuner which sells for 25L is still considered as VFM by buyers. Why? just because it is reliable under all conditions.

If Tata motors could launch such a product, the price shouldnt be a concern to them. There are thousands of customers who are ready to pay the price for a niggle free quality product.

May karl understand this and launch all products by testing them thoroughly.

[bravo82in]

Originally Posted by narayan

On a lighter vein with M&M its a lottery to get the booking allocation(XUV500) with Tata its a lottery to get a niggle free car.
Maybe this is the reason for the region wise launch of the Storme. This thread really gives one the jitters ( especially for some one who is considering the Storme ). I wonder why there is not a single TBHPian who has reported having booked a Storme despite many coming in and praising it

Every where they are launching the Strome they have a whole back up team ready in case anything goes wrong with the vehicle. There are incidences where old safari's engine failed even before the owner could drive it home from showroom. Xuv has its own share of niggles, Atleast they kept the price right. I know XUV customers who sold off their vehicle in less than 6 months of use and shifted back to the reliable scorpio. But since it selling like hot cakes its not difficult to find a prospective buyer. Tatas own resale shop is not ready to buy Aria even at 50% onroad price i paid
A net savvy buyer will never touch a Tata unless he owns a tata workshop.

Originally Posted by LobsterB

Shocking. Hope soon your issues get sorted-out or your vehicle gets replaced.

ACM's gearbox issues recently had me already worried. Mine has finished 45000Kms. Had a weekend drive to Red Hills near Ooty after reading Fauji's travelogue. Was driving in forests around Portimund, with no cell coverage or people living closeby, and this is when the questions of reliability becomes a real deal breaker. So far, so good, but really wonder whether I was indulging in 'great' adventure as far as the vehicle is concerned. If I had seen your report earlier, would have perhaps gone to Ooty town or just sat at home!

I have been stranded thrice, twice on highway and ones within city limits. I have lost the confidence of taking this car on highways. The very purpose of buying the car is defeated. Now my Aria does city duties (which is not a pleasant experience either) while i trust my micra for out station trips.

Originally Posted by GTO

If it can't keep this minuscule number of owners happy, well, I'm just glad the Aria isn't selling 2,000 units a month! What matters is the number of dissatisfied customers per 100 or 1000 vehicles sold. It's here that Tata greatly loses out due to its shoddy reliability track record. To put things in perspective, perhaps 2 Honda Citys out of a 100 face problems. With a vehicle like the ol' Tata Indigo, that number is probably closer to 20, if not 30. Thus, there will always be 70 "satisfied" Indigo owners. But the number of unhappy folk will be 15X that of Honda.

GTO there is no better way to put it in words. "No. of dissatisfied owners per 100 cars sold." You have given me the right words to dissuade people from buying Tata.
So frustrated with Aria my family had boycotted every Tata product, right from Tata ka namak to titan to tanishq. We would have given them enough business in 10 years to cover the cost of Aria. Let Tatas pay for the sins of Tata Motors.
Had the Aria been selling in good numbers i would have been saved from R&D to some extent. I guess tata motors must start paying its initial bunch of customers for contributing to their R&D.

Originally Posted by Aceman82

What is extended warranty duration with the Aria ? Is the Aria parts available in open domain to be able to service the same with any local mechanic/independent garage ?

What would happen if the warranty runs out and these issues persist since TASS service cost are through the roof plus the regular skimming tactics like "Sir Clutch will fail in another 2000 kms , Disk brakes would fail anytime , radiator needs servicing ...etc". Since it is Tata vehicle once would not have much idea on if the service adviser is telling the truth or just trying to meet targets since anything can fail any time here. Hence once extended warranty runs over maintaining a Tata car itself is costly but maintaining a Tata lemon would break the bank. Hence cutting the loses and selling it would be the best option when the warranty is about to get over.

Also i don't think that posting in forums would negatively affect Tata motors in any significant way. Most of the car buying is word of mouth in India and when anyone buys a Tata car nowadays the question which everyone asks is "Why Tata , was there nothing else available".

Extended warranty of Aria is 4 years and 1.5 lac kms and that's more than the life of any Tata vehicle I have no plans of keeping it beyond that.
TASS have a different approach towards Aria customers. Every time you get your car serviced you get a call from Pune asking you to rate the service on various parameters. Any score of 8 or less from a possible 10 reflects badly on the TASS. For any unresolved issues regional Tata motors office gets in touch with you. They do a regular followup till the issue is resolved. They call you up every month to ensure the product is running smooth. While they take action of service related issues, they turn deaf when you talk about Arias quality issues.

Open Domain??? Parts are not available at their own workshops. It took them 3 weeks to procure an engine and turbo for my aria. But the brighter side is for any thing less than the engine they get a mechanic to come and fix it at your place.

There is a way to by pass the Skimming tactics. Shoot a mail to Tata customer care for even the slightest doubt and get Tata motors involved for any repair/ replacement work.

Posting in forums might not effect here but will certainly have an impact on global aspirations of Tata motors. Not to forget that Aria and strome are global product.

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[dgupta]

It's highly likely your car is a verification prototype which has been dressed up as a customer car and shipped to the dealer. I am not sure if it is your right to do so, but I think you should ask TATA to share with you the build history of the car using the VIN. TATA may have every right to refuse this. What I am getting at is try to decode the VIN and see if there was any extended duration between the time the car was built and you took charge of it. Speak to other Aria owners here and get an estimate of the normal duration between build and customer handover.

Search within the following thread to decode your VIN.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/buying...cture-vin.html

Last but not the least, try to get hold of someone who works for TATA motors and can help you get some inside info on your cars history before it was delivered to you, trust me it will solve all your queries. You may not be able to use that information officially, but it will help you deal with them in a better manner.

[blackasta]

Sorry to read about your ordeal with a new car.
This is a clear case of a lemon delivered to a customer - TATA owes you a brand new car, an exhaustive apology and something more (say free extended warranty) to retain you as a customer. But I guess under Indian law, nothing of those would be possible.

[mayankk]

You should pull a skodaesque stunt on them, provided you are not in any court ordained interactions with them.
Get a rear screen blind printed with warnings to others about the failures on tatas part, and drive around with it.
We'll " spot" it on facebook and other places.

[bravo82in]

There is a difference of 4 months b/w month of manufacturing and delivery which IMHO is acceptable But cant the manufacturer manipulate VIN no. before dispatching the vehicle?
Requesting all Aria Owners to kindly update me with the build and handover dates.

Originally Posted by mayankk

You should pull a skodaesque stunt on them, provided you are not in any court ordained interactions with them.
Get a rear screen blind printed with warnings to others about the failures on tatas part, and drive around with it.
We'll " spot" it on facebook and other places.

I was thinking of something like this.


What was the 'skodaesque stunt'? I am not able to locate it anywhere.
Only thing i am worried of with the rear bind stunt is that I dont want my registration no. to come up in public domains, if someone puts a snap of it online.

[discoverwild]

It is absolutely sad that 'bravo82in' had to go through so much of torture on such a premium vehicle. That said, this happens with every manufacturer in India. We have had failures to fires in all vehicles that have already been posted here.

Much of the blame goes to the manufacturer who is not able to rope in the dealers. I have borne the brunt of dealers ever so often having bought vehicles from the stables of Maruti, HM, Tata, Ford and Toyota. It does not make a difference.

I have had all the vehicles in the Tata stable with the exception of the Aria and have been stranded only once in the Marina when the timing belt broke. This, I attribute to my misjudgment of a friend/broker/mechanic who sold me the car and used to service all my cars. I particularly asked him if the timing belt had been replaced at he said it was done only 6000 kms ago when I picked up the car second-hand at 94000 kms. The vehicle is still doing duty at 151000 kms.

Like Akhilesh mentioned, if the engine or any part was leaking oil, the engine is bound to fail even if it is a Merc or BMW. This certainly is the dealer's fault for not having checked it thoroughly, which ended up with so much heartburn.

Bravo, Do get in touch with anupam00 who has promised to help you out. I wish things are taken care of and you have many more years of riding pleasure.

[sandeepmohan]

There were so many signs right at the beginning that indicated that you might wanna give the Aria a miss. I wish you had followed them.

The Ford Endeavour cannot be compared to the Aria. It is on a another level when it comes to reliability and overall quality. I agree that the Ford is uncomfortable but that is about it. Though old, the Ford is so much more a complete and well engineered product and has proven itself.

As for the Innova, I would put up with the cab image and buy one. This is the most bomb proof product in the segment.

I suggest you take the losses and get rid of the car at the earliest.

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by bravo82in

.... I was thinking of something like this.

What was the 'skodaesque stunt'? I am not able to locate it anywhere.
Only thing i am worried of with the rear bind stunt is that I dont want my registration no. to come up in public domains, if someone puts a snap of it online.

Read about latest Skoda horror below.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...8-gurgaon.html

[Rigid Rotor]

Originally Posted by akhilesh51

Personally, Tata is improving by leaps and bounds with every new product and the dealer network too is improving but the pace may be mismatched.

Many a times, the product is perfectly fine but negligence on the part of customer or dealer can make it go wrong and picture itself as LEMON. In this case too, I have felt much of the issues are dealer related and rest assured TML too will take the case of the dealer if it is so.

-And just how large are the "leaps and bounds"? Your post seems to suggest an ever-upward climbing graph, which I do not think is very true.

We need to be more objective in our analysis here.

I have owned a Tata Sierra and an Indica V2 and have correlated with experiences of my colleagues of ownership of Tata vehicles - so I can state with the hindsight of some experience.

Their QA effort appears to be more like a sine-curve : periodically going up and then down again!

The Sierra had some very incurable ills - basic design flaws such as:
- A very irritating and expensive inability to maintain the front wheels in alignment, no matter what preventive maintenance measures were taken..
- Rusting body panels (no electrostatic dip treatment).
- Poor placement of battery directly exposed to the engine compartment - the lack of of a -protective heat screen resulted invariably in even maintenance-free batteries drying up if one neglected it beyond a month or two.
-Oil leaks!
-etc, etc
The Sierra's ills could perhaps be forgiven in the overall context as it was essentially a first effort by Tata Motors.

Then came the Indica - which was essentially a work-in-progress project. My colleague's Indica from the Pre-V2 era had some spectacular failures, including an engine mount giving away whilst driving in city traffic, failure of electric fan, premature wear of tyres and inability to maintain wheel alignment, etc.

The Indica V2 2002-04 models were actually a significant leap forward. I understand there were tremendous efforts made in R&D to cure the suspension related ills including wheel alignment, wear and tear issues, reliability and other problems including the engine. I understand from press releases from those times, they made genuine and effective efforts to control the production and even to great lengths to correct the production line in the event of a snag. My Indica V2 (2003 model) along with another colleague's (2004 V2 model) were fairly reliable cars, barring a few snags.

Of course, they were maintenance intensive and aged early - nevertheless they were a "leap forward".

Unfortunately, this momentum in improvements was not carried forth - the later models again had niggles coming forth.

That trend of niggles and problems appears to have increased in other types such as the Safari and Aria.

Just check out the Team-BHP threads for the same.

There are horror stories that abound here in terms of failures.

You said the Aria's tyre alignment is cured with a Rs 21/- part or mod or whatever. Well that's Deja-Vu as far as I'm concerned - this tyre alignment thing should have been a thing of the long forgotten past of the Sierra, they had solved it in the Indica V2 - why is it recurring now?

I remember asking for a test-drive of the then new Vista - the TD vehicle from the showroom had a couple of rubber bungs missing from its doors.

During a chat with the TASC advisor, I asked as to why they had not opened a FIAT servicing facility at their workshop. He had replied that FIAT had insisted in a Clean-Room to open and service the FIP of the 1.3 L MJD, whereas there was no such requirement from TATA. The same engine is used in FIAT and Tata, however the requirements are relaxed for servicing in the case of Tata vehicles. Maybe that explains in part the early ageing of Tata vehicles.

We also have a Vista as a staff car and having driven it a fair bit, I can state that although its an improvement on the Indica, I'm afraid it can't hold a candle to its contemporaries in fit or finish. As far as reliability is concerned, we will have to see.

By now, the chaps at Tata Motors should have learnt the Art and Science of productionalising their designs with near bullet-proof reliablity, instead of repeating their mistakes again.

Its not just a case of too little too late. Its a problem of repeating the same mistakes again as if in a roller coaster of a sine-curve cycle.

[jaysmokesleaves]

Originally Posted by bravo82in

20. 9 new issue come up within 10 days of inspection. Car is stranded by roadside on day 10. If Tatas Engineers cant ensure smooth running of car for next 10 days how can they expect the customer to believe that their products will last another 4-5 years

Sad story.
Tata engineers have not been able to reduce the long throw on that 18 year old gearbox that now does duty in the new Safari and Aria. Its wrong to expect anything better from them.

Tata engineers cannot diagnose anything. They have no knowlege nor experience and it shows. All they do is hook up the laptop and try to diagnose. I even doubt their diagnostic software now.
Goodluck with ur Tata. Say tata to it if u can.

[condor]

Originally Posted by Rigid Rotor

..FIAT had insisted in a Clean-Room to open and service the FIP of the 1.3 L MJD, whereas there was no such requirement from TATA.

No T.A.S.S services FIP's. Even IDI FIP's are sent to Bosch / TVS.

[sasi405]

Originally Posted by roy_libran

So, for me, I am now left with considering either the Nissan Evalia or the Force One as my next upgrade. I think I can live with another Force vehicle than live with a Tata! I think that IS saying SOMETHING!

Some friends from another group had embarked from Gurgaon on a GQ tour when their Force One stalled all of a sudden somewhere before Varanasi, in the middle of he night. Nothing they did could start the vehicle and even after two days of various people from Force Motors checking it and trying their best, nothing happened. Ultimately, the vehicle was towed / transported back to Delhi and they cancelled their trip. To date, there is no information as to what happened.