[Zappex]

Originally Posted by @tombum

Wow! Superb detailed review! All the points covered and my workplace productivity goes for a toss!

This is one Tata car that is for keeps!

Well, what can I say, It is for keeps.

Originally Posted by nkrishnap

Fantastic review!. I was so engrossed reading it, did not know that my boss was standing behind me reading as well.

Enjoy many more happy miles with the car.

Be careful next time! Thanks for the wishes.

Originally Posted by himanshugoswami

in post number 4, seond pic where you are showing the panel gaps, i noticed a bit of paint chip and the sign of rust. please get this check and rectified ASAP.

That's just a small chip with a bit of dust, nothing to worry. The detailed picture might have caught your eye.

Originally Posted by himanshugoswami

the more I look at the Aria, the more this baby grows on me.....if only it were available for about 4L less!

It certainly does grow on you. For 4L less It wouldn't be the same then would it?

Originally Posted by Ace F355

Has to be one of the most detailed reviews I have seen from Team BHP users, sans the official reviews! What attention to detail! I enjoyed every single bit of your writing.

Congrats on your new ride and I wish she serves you faithfully and trouble free for years to come! Though it depends on buyer's specific needs and requirements, I personally find Aria a much better VFM vehicle than a Ford Endeavour or Toyota Fortuner for that matter. Looking forward to see regular updates on this thread. Rated the thread a well deserved 5 stars.

Glad you liked the review, VFM is really a matter of perception. I still don't find it VFM but I love it for what it is.

Originally Posted by shk 8896

Congrats Zappex on your indian beauty aka tata aria.Exhaustive review.Rated it five stars.Nice photos too.Superb attention to detail.Drive her safe.
Regards
Sreehari

Thanks a ton for the wishes. I find it nice to know that you enjoyed the review.

The Signature shot:

[ACM]

Zapex superb review, voted 5 starts. A Zapping review if I may say. Read it late but read it all at one go.

A few points if the Wasan guy who sold you the Aria has a name starting with "L" I believe he has been asked to move on. So the wall has crumpled.

The panel gaps near the bonnet area seem to be intentional for better internationally required pedestrian safety standard passing requirements.

I think you should explore the features of the GPS a bit more, I have actually found it to be really usable for many of my trips. If I were to do a check with a route that I know well then yes it could be better, but for routes that I was not aware of it has taken me to destination quite well. Select the half map half direction mode for the screen, and enable voice guidance.

Yes a touch screen would have been better and one does need to put in a bit of effort in the initial destination selection process. Also do save your home and office addresses in the system (give a name to the position when you reach the locations) so that you can easily get back to these locations from which ever place you go to and return leg is then easy. (Half the work done.). In Mumbai one needs to select the right mumbai (so that ones works in the correct zone) and it is usefull if one knows the full name and short names of the road that one is trying to reach. It could have been more intuitive but with time this should work for you. Do note if you get an external systems then it will not mute your integrated audio system when it needs to give a direction etc.

Great review, keep it coming.

[Zappex]

Originally Posted by ACM

Zapex superb review, voted 5 starts. A Zapping review if I may say. Read it late but read it all at one go.

Thank you for the comment, really appreciate your view.

Originally Posted by ACM

A few points if the Wasan guy who sold you the Aria has a name starting with "L" I believe he has been asked to move on. So the wall has crumpled.

Nope. The wall still exists, His name starts from "N". I believe he is more confident than ever. God help those unsuspecting customers.

Originally Posted by ACM

The panel gaps near the bonnet area seem to be intentional for better internationally required pedestrian safety standard passing requirements.

The bonnet line is raised for the above mentioned reason, but the panel gaps are not meant for that. They are purely a manufacturing glitch.

Originally Posted by ACM

I think you should explore the features of the GPS a bit more, I have actually found it to be really usable for many of my trips. If I were to do a check with a route that I know well then yes it could be better, but for routes that I was not aware of it has taken me to destination quite well. Select the half map half direction mode for the screen, and enable voice guidance.

I agree that I have not used much of the OEM GPS. But whenever I have used it I have been let down. I guess this is the first time you are using a GPS system. I am using MMI ever since I had my Scorpio. I lost my navigator too as it was in my car. Coming back to the topic; Once you have used the MMI GPS it is very difficult to adjust to such a rudimentary setup.

Originally Posted by ACM

Yes a touch screen would have been better and one does need to put in a bit of effort in the initial destination selection process. Also do save your home and office addresses in the system (give a name to the position when you reach the locations) so that you can easily get back to these locations from which ever place you go to and return leg is then easy. (Half the work done.). In Mumbai one needs to select the right mumbai (so that ones works in the correct zone) and it is usefull if one knows the full name and short names of the road that one is trying to reach. It could have been more intuitive but with time this should work for you. Do note if you get an external systems then it will not mute your integrated audio system when it needs to give a direction etc.

The OEM unit is really helpful and I am in no way disputing that. The system has its benefits like fast satellite connection etc. But the map detailing and ease of use cannot be matched to the MMI unit. It is like comparing apples to oranges. That said as you mentioned the OEM does help in certain cases. But overall to use the OEM GPS is like going a step back for me. Use the MMI unit once and you will be by my side.

Originally Posted by ACM

Great review, keep it coming.

Glad you liked it, will not be able to match your pace. Will surely keep it coming.

[Alazar]

Excellent review! I loved your Write-up and attention to detail!

The signature shot of yours is truly amazing (Wallpaper Material). At first I thought that I was looking at some wallpaper!

Keep updating this thread regularly (Will be following it). I am sure once more Bhpians read this thread it would be rated among the best!

PS: Congrats on the buy!

[Zappex]

Originally Posted by Alazar

Excellent review! I loved your Write-up and attention to detail!

The signature shot of yours is truly amazing (Wallpaper Material). At first I thought that I was looking at some wallpaper!

Keep updating this thread regularly (Will be following it). I am sure once more Bhpians read this thread it would be rated among the best!

PS: Congrats on the buy!

Thanks a ton for the wishes and complements. It was indeed tough to get that "signature shot", I had to wait for the lighting to be perfect. It is hard to believe but it is a completely natural shot that I clicked myself.

@All: I am really amazed by the positive response I have received, Thank you for your contribution.

Before I forget; I had told you'll about the free accessories offered by the dealership. Well, got them fitted a long time back but did not update here.

Freebies: Sun-films, Teflon, Matting and Mudflaps.

To be truthful here, I really did not Involve myself during the Installation because I was tired of hearing "Sorry Sir". Dad decided to drop off the car for a couple of hours and get the job done. Well it took two days as the concerned person was not available and the car had to be dropped off a couple of times but in the end got the accessories fitted. I do not know what sun-film the guy's installed there and nor did I bother because of the mismanagement of things at the dealership.

Here are few pics after the installation:


The sun-films look darker because of the reflection in reality however they are legal & light. Notice Mudflaps.



On the front mats the neatly stitched "Aria" looks great.



The Mats at the rear.

Overall a neat installation, Don't know how they handled the car there but apart from a few stains. Did not find much wrong. They claim that they did the "Teflon coating" but I seriously doubt it. The "Teflon" they have is useless anyways so doesn't matter.

[kaushikr]

Zappex, a truthful report about Aria and very well written.

For me the looks of Aria are a deal breaker more than the price. But hey, looks are always subjective.

Congrats and drive safe.

[slalom]

Great and realistic review , a lot of details .
Great snaps too !
Nice to know that you enjoy your vehicle.
Let this be a stepping stone for Tata ,let's pray that they better the quality and bring in great products !
Enjoy your ride !

[safari_lover]

Superb review, Zappex. Kudos. Wish you a happy and peaceful ownership.
All the Arias on Team-BHP have got a very positive review from their owners. Tata will definitely benefit from reviews like this.
Keep this thread updated as you munch on the KMs after KMs

[Mallya_2010]

Excellent review of the Aria. Tata has been steadily advancing the quality of its cars. I am using an Indica Xeta for the last 5 years and have hardly faced any problems.Despite the lacklustre dealership and service experience the car itself is a good product. Excellent photographs.What equipment are you using?

[shankar.balan]

Mirrors:

These deserve a special mention; the side view mirrors (F430?) are by far the best I have ever used, superb sideward's view. To explain this in a better way; one can see two lanes from a single mirror. The downside is that one needs to be careful as they tend to brush against other cars in traffic.

Lovely detailed clear and precise review - thank you for sharing it. Much much better than the rubbish doled out to us by the car magazines!

Please tell me one thing. When driving on a well surfaced, smooth highway or at speeds of say 60-80-100kmph, do the mirrors vibrate at all?

And while driving at such speeds on a well surfaced, smooth highway, if a car comes up behind you and you spot him in your ORVM, can you read the numberplate or does the mirror vibrate too much for you to be able to read it?

I ask because I recently observed that I could easily read the numberplates of cars coming up behind me, while driving a brand spanking new Subaru Forester on a motorway. And it would be nice to know since the Aria seems quite easily comparable with that Forester in general terms.
thanks

[ACM]

Shankar, if Zapex doesn't mind..

The mirrors don't vibrate, like they do in the Safari.

One can read the number plates in on the car in the rear view mirror if one does take one eye off the road for long enough, saw that I was able to read them but never acutally read a full number. Don't know if it is as clear as in the Subaru obviously can always be better.

One can see two lanes in the mirrors on each side (even the LHS) They are really wide and the width hides the height at the height point giving them a neat shape.

Also The mirrors are not likely to be knocked off by cars at they are mounted at a height but trucks can be a danger to them. The transparent plastic lane change indicators on the mirrors last a few blows at least. The mirrors if dislocated in an encounter give a bit of grunt before they come to the positon in which they should be - this requires pressing the mirror fold button a couple of times.

Always skip a beat when they bend due to an elbow rub but till date have been able to get the pulse back to normal soon with the power fold button itself.

[shankar.balan]

Lovely! thank you very much.

Of course one wouldnt wish to take one's eyes off the road for long, but I find I can read numbers of cars behind me quite quickly - I put it to the test in that Subaru.

yes I do agree that these larger mirrors can be harmed quite badly in our narrow lanes, indisciplined traffic and extremely vain pedestrian scenario!

The lane change indicators on the mirrors are an excellent feature indeed. I wish it were mandatory on all larger cars/ SUV's.

Originally Posted by ACM

Shankar, if Zapex doesn't mind..

The mirrors don't vibrate, like they do in the Safari.

One can read the number plates in on the car in the rear view mirror if one does take one eye off the road for long enough, saw that I was able to read them but never acutally read a full number. Don't know if it is as clear as in the Subaru obviously can always be better.

One can see two lanes in the mirrors on each side (even the LHS) They are really wide and the width hides the height at the height point giving them a neat shape.

Also The mirrors are not likely to be knocked off by cars at they are mounted at a height but trucks can be a danger to them. The transparent plastic lane change indicators on the mirrors last a few blows at least. The mirrors if dislocated in an encounter give a bit of grunt before they come to the positon in which they should be - this requires pressing the mirror fold button a couple of times.

Always skip a beat when they bend due to an elbow rub but till date have been able to get the pulse back to normal soon with the power fold button itself.

[aviorp]

Congratulations Zappex! Superb review, with detailed pictures. Sorry to hear about the stolen Scorpio. Wish you miles of happiness with the Aria. I loved the signature shot. Very creative!

[kiku007]

Star rated review!
The front look of the aria is menacing, the rear is a let down though.

Wishing you many happy miles with the car.

[rosh_aveo1.4]

Well, I think Team-BHP has to give you the award for the most longest write up ever! It's massive and you made proper uses of space, formatting and such. How long you even took to do this?!