[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
  1. First day Mechanic comes from workshop, he does not have a clue how to repair
  2. Second day Tata Motors mechanics come and they are clueless
  3. 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
  4. 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)

[ghostrider]

I'm appalled to read your post. Talk about a complete failure by Tata. How do they have the audacity to put a car on the market with such appalling engineering quality and workmanship??

If I were you, I'd write a letter to senior Tata management outlining the various issues and breakdowns you've had right from the point you where you had to take delivery of dirty unwashed cars.

[black12rr]

Sir ,you or whoever ,why did they take delivery of dirty cars without doing PDI in the first place ?

[SDP]

Really unfortunate!

One vehicle a lemon, I can understand. Two vehicles by the same owner having critical failures, that is very difficult to dismiss as coincidence.

Please take this up at the highest level till all problems are sorted to your satisfaction. The bigger problem you would have is ever trusting these vehicles even after the problems are fixed. If reliability and peace of mind are high on you priority list (aren't they for most of us?), please do consider offloading both the vehicles in near future and moving to the reliable "T".

[extreme_torque]

Incredible that a manufacturer with global ambitions charging 18 lakh rupees for a car still cannot provide you with niggle free experience. It tells me that something is terribly wrong with the fundamentals of the company. Makes me want to think twice about recommending Vitsa to my friends.

[kartikk]

Shocking.

Can you please post some pictures for fellow readers to get a bit more details of the inexplainable sins.

[cediafan]

This is extremely shocking. First time I am hearing such things about Aria. Did you experience any issues post June? Were all the repairs done as a part of the warranty?

[drpullockaran]

Originally Posted by ghostrider

If I were you, I'd write a letter to senior Tata management outlining the various issues and breakdowns.

Please please do not advice anyone to write to the management. They care two hoots about any letter that you might send.

In my Junkindica's case I have a letter personally written to me by RATAN himself which I have kept safely in the bank locker which I shall be publishing along with the case files and court order of one managers arrest in the consumer case I filed more than 10 years ago. The case is still going on and he is out on bail. Next hearing is on 15th November.
Absolutely no one cares after a sale is made in the TATA fold. You might shove a letter from the chief of the company into the face of the main guy in your district but it will get you no where. There is probably an unwritten rule about ignoring letters from higher ups. Probably union culture taking its toll.

[krish82]

Looks lik even a Tata indica is better in terms of reliability. This really confuses me as i was recommending Manza to my friend as a true VFM product. I think i should advice him not to buy that, other wise i will lose his friendship.

[scuderiamania]

Originally Posted by black12rr

Sir ,you or whoever ,why did they take delivery of dirty cars without doing PDI in the first place ?

The problems that he has faced are most probably unidentifiable to the layman. How on earth is a non-expert expected to identify a manufacturing defect on brakes, suspension and clutch?

[shankar.balan]

its sad that the Tata's havent been able to bring in even one single success story in the passenger vehicle segment.
other than the cheap as chips Indica and the breadbox Sumo which do some sterling work in the Taxi segment despite being mistreated every day of their lives, none of their other cars have really set the charts afire.
wonder why this is happening - because they are such a good organization and such a trusted name overall.

[diffsoft]

@indian21r - I appreciate your candid reporting and really sad to hear this. I recall aruproy's (?) story on T-BHP where he sued Tata Motors and Manipal Motors right up to the Supreme Court on a malfunctioning Sumo and got paltry recompense. I told myself never even to remotely have their cars in my consideration set.

If the Tatas read your thread they will get pointers to why their Nano possibly made more money publishing a book on "Making of the Nano" than the car itself.

Cheers,

[swiftnfurious]

Man, this is truly shocking ! Thank God that none of the occupants had to go thru any accidents. Would it happen that some of the batches had problems with quality of parts? We hear about problems for two cars which came together.

TATA should understand at-least now that they DON'T have any rights to charge any premium for their cars till they can roll out cars with zero niggles in the first place. Fit & finish is not everything, reliability IT IS !

[DeKay]

This is really shocking and unacceptable. Even we own an Aria pride and it has been giving us problems since day 1.
The problems we have been facing are;
1. USB isn't working properly since the first day of ownership. It stops and starts working on its own. (TATA replaced the whole HU but still the same problem persists)
2. The navigator starts acting funny on various occasions.

There are many more such small problems which have been shown to TATA time and again, but still they have given us no permanent solution for any one of them. Another problem is that there are constant rattling noises from the boot and dash even when the car is running on a smooth surface. No solution.

Contrary to what many people believe, TATA does NOT treat its Aria 4x4 customers specially. Even when you are buying the most expensive vehicle they manufacturer, they treat us like someone who drives a Nano. Just a couple days ago for example, I called their service center in Kandivali (Mumbai) for a service appointment, I was asked to get the vehicle to their service center two weeks later.

[mannubhai]

This is a shocker !!!

I drove a Tata Indigo for a good 6 years. I must admit on one front, the ASC is pathetic. Probably they see a lot of Cabbies who do not own the vehicle and care a penny of the car. They adopt the same style to the owners also.

Now isnt there a way, where the buyer can ask for replacement of a vehicle if he is facing so many daunting issues. ? Is service the only way and one needs to live with it ?