Tata Aria Pride - Zero Pride in Ownership

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::Frustrati 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:Frustrati 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)

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