[kaviprem]

Originally Posted by mxx

Anyone planning to try out tuning box with aria?

check this out
Tata Safari Dicor 2.2 VTT / Power: 140 PS (103 kW / 138 bhp) / Torque: 320 Nm (236 lbf/ft) | Diesel Tuning with CHIP Express

182PS
426Nm
yummy!!!

I dont know how many Dafari DICOR 2.2 owners use this CHIP express. Do we have any hands-on within TBHP-Safari riders ?
I am sure, the ARIA buyers wouldnt go for this so fast

Prem.

[ACM]

Originally Posted by suman

ACM, Congrats & an excellent summary which will be helpful to many. More so because it comes after back to back test drives.

Have fun with your Aria when it arrives & do keep us posted - I, for one will be keenly following your thread.

Originally Posted by wanderlust

Nice summary of both the vehicles!! But, I kinda like how everyone is now speaking of Aria and Fortuner in the same breath.

Originally Posted by VeluM

Congrats ACM!!! Hoping to see ownership threads soon!

Originally Posted by psbali

Congratulations ACM.. Even I found the aria to be very fun to drive and be inside.. Saying that Tata motors is at the moment not interested in offering all black leather interiors. What do you think?? Plum is better than all Black???

And do let me know if you get a specific delivery date for your Aria.. As the Tata motor's guy that I spoke to said that Aria is a made to order product. So can take 8 to 9 weeks..

Originally Posted by Latheesh

@ACM - thats a good summary and all the best for your ARIA experience.!

Originally Posted by driveanddrive

Congrats ACM! There was a Night Shade Black Aria on display when I went to check it out. It looks really classy. The paint job is awesome.

Originally Posted by ajay_satpute

ACM: Congratulations on the great buy.

I am not sure if I missed it reading in your review, but which variant of Aria have you booked?

I also think you should go for white. White looks stately in big vehicles.

You can not imagine how happy I am when you chose Aria over Fortuner, which would have been the most obvious choice.

Originally Posted by kaviprem

ACM - It was a very nice, precise, swift comparison done b/w the ARIA & FORTUNER [at last].
I have a question - Many people talking about "Rid & Handling", "Body Roll" and "Cornering" - Did you get a chance to compare ARIA & FORTUNER on these 3 and what's your conclusion on these 3 ?

Prem.

Originally Posted by mercedised

@ACM:

A bang on review. The Fortuner even though with a acceptable build quality and Toyota tag fails to put a remark on the head of the driver. I drove all the three 2.0L TCIC, Fortuner and 2.2L DICOR. I was impressed by the DICOR over Fortuner.

What about the TCIC? Are you gonna sell it.

Originally Posted by gshanky

ACM: Thanks for a wonderful comparison from a user/buyer standpoint. And congratulations on "the decision to buy ARIA".

I am assuming you are going for the Prestige Variant (with reference to the 5 lakhs price difference in your post). I am wondering why you didn't go for Pride variant if you were really considering fortuner also.

Originally Posted by teamveevee

Congrats ACM, Leave the white for politicians...

Originally Posted by rrsteer

@ACM - If I could I'd rate your post listing the +ve & -ve of Aria a 5 star rating! Having gone through an evaluation of Aria myself with a number of people I can say your comments echo the general sentiment.

Originally Posted by crazycardude198

I would just like to know from people the time-frame when the car would be delivered to you.

I booked the vehicle at Concorde Motors Hyd on the 25th and I was told that it would arrive Nov 15th-20th.

Originally Posted by mxx

Anyone planning to try out tuning box with aria?

check this out
Tata Safari Dicor 2.2 VTT / Power: 140 PS (103 kW / 138 bhp) / Torque: 320 Nm (236 lbf/ft) | Diesel Tuning with CHIP Express
182PS
426Nm

Thank you all of you. Rrsteer, Lateesh, Ajay, VeluM, Wander Lust, psbali, Suman, driveandrive, will post a detailed buying and usage experience from about the 20th.

Booked on Saturday 30th Oct.
Booked PRIDE Model in NIGHT SHADE BLACK - Black and Plum Upholstery.

I did love the Pearl White as well and it is a regal colour and will post a seperate post on how I and my wife managed to choose Black over White - what the wierd logic was.

For those who asked Expect Delivery latest between 15th to 20th Nov. Am not in India between 11-14th so it will either be before 10th or after 15th.

Crazy Car Dude Yes earliest deliveries are officially 4 weeks + and TATA has recommended commiting 6 weeks. It is worst for the Pride model.

Black and Black is not available in Pride model presently.

They had estimated higher numbers of Prestige and lower of Pride, but all three variants are going equally well. Pride model seems to be doing better than TATA expected and has the longest weight period. Prestige has the shortest period.

Aria has as per the dealer not affected Safari numbers.

WAsan was at 15 Aria's by Saturday, Galaxy at 5 and Fortuner at 5, - as per the dearlers. I booked at Wasan - Through a DSA - Will detail why and the experience in my ownership thread.

MXX Will consider a Remap after 2-3 years.

gshanky the Pride itself is about 5L less than the Fortuner OTR in Mumbai.

Mercedised, the TCIC stays for now as also the Laura, it will be a big emotional moment for me to say TATA BYE BYE to by my faithful companion of 10 years. Might sell it to a Safari Lover, or give it away to a relative or friend who will take care of it the way I have. In fact it goes into a repaint next week. It will be hard to maintain with low usasge going ahead.

Teamvee this is one car that one feels politically correct in white and even other wise, but it's back for me.

Kaviprem on the points that you raise questions about.
Fortuner / Aria
Ride - ARIA
Handing - Fortuner by a small margin but its brakes inspired lesser confidence than that of the Aria
Body Roll - Equally average.
Cornering - Equal - Love it or hate it

So in real life conditions the Aria would be better, though the Fortuner offers the possiblity of true offroading and faster accelerations, in both one would settle at the same speed on the highway, and it would tend to be a number one is comfortable with in both cases lower than the top speed.
Expressways are likely to be at about 140-150 k for me, but though I tested them at speeds on the Extern Express Highway, it was not the expressway.
I have once driven the Laura at 170 kmph on the expressway for about 25 mins straight.

Colours - White and Sardenia Red seem to be the most favourite colour presently.

Night Shade Black does not look black in light is more burgandish and looks black only at night.

Insurance presently confirmed at 34K - Negotiating for a better rate. (dealer rate 60k)

Also got 3K discount from the Dealier (from Registration amount)

[crazycardude198]

I did see the car in Night Black and Pearl. I felt that the pearl was a really awesome finish but the Black really brings out the headlights and the chrome finish which is one of the highlights of the design.

[StarrySky]

I went to the Tata showroom today to check out the Aria. Unfortunately, the TD vehicle had gone out and did not return in the 15mins I spend at the showroom - so no TD was possible.

The Prestige variant was on display in white color.
- The Aria surely has great presence. Pictures don't do justice to it.
- Getting in and out of the Aria is easy.
- I tried the rear seat (middle row) first. There is enough legroom at the rear. With the middle row seats pushed back, there'll be more than enough legroom for 6 footers as well.
- I didn't have an issue with the headroom, but I suspect 6-footers will.
- Didn't try the last row. Looks quite cramped.
- With all three rows in place, there is enough room for 2-3 bags in the luggage space.
- I think the middle row seats are short on under-thigh support. But, this is something I 'felt' about the car after I came out of the showroom, so I'm not sure about this one.
- Front seats are comfortable. The driver's seat gives a commanding view of the road.
- Footwell is very cramped - on both sides.
- The doors close with a nice thud. I liked that.
- Interiors are much better than any other Tata vehicle I've seen. The difference between the Aria and the Safari displayed right next to it was quite considerable. Forget Safari (which is somewhat old), the difference to Manza too is huge.
- The overhead storage looks nice and open in slow-mo, but I have my doubts about their usefulness. For one, most of them are quite shallow. Secondly, I think they are not very ergonomically placed. If you open them from the middle row, you will inconvenience your middle seat passenger. If you are on the left or right in the middle row, there's probably only two storage spaces you can reach comfortably without too much strectching, especially if the vehicle is running.
- The dashboard looks quite nice and well laid out. In fact, it looks quite premium. But, take your gaze down to the area around the gear lever - and the plastics don't look or feel quite as nice anymore.

The Prestige variant costs 15.96L OTR in Cochin and the Pride variant costs 17.49L OTR (hope I got the variant names right).

[psbali]

@LobsterB

Really sorry for a bit of

but have been waiting for your initial ownership experience.. The wait is getting really torturous.. As till now we haven't been given an exact date for our Aria. They only say that the first Pride version to be manufactured after launch will be alloted to us.. And I am getting really desperate to hear something more about the Aria. Now that people are not really discussing anything further..

Gosh I am really excited about the Aria.. Have read the review 6 times already..

[rangarx]

Originally Posted by prmd_cochin

Not at this price, its retailing at twice Innova's price which is ridiculous.

+1 to that.

I have always been fuming the steal going on the country by the foreign companies.

Toyota and Honda consider themselves as GODs and pricing the products to their Whims and fancies.

And when a Tata product (read ARIA) is put up with a 15L+ price tag it raises every eyebrow..

Had this been a Toyota or Honda product, I doubt whether all this hooplah would have been made over the price.

[crazycardude198]

Originally Posted by psbali

@LobsterB

Really sorry for a bit of

but have been waiting for your initial ownership experience.. The wait is getting really torturous.. As till now we haven't been given an exact date for our Aria. They only say that the first Pride version to be manufactured after launch will be alloted to us.. And I am getting really desperate to hear something more about the Aria. Now that people are not really discussing anything further..

Gosh I am really excited about the Aria.. Have read the review 6 times already..

I can assure you I am more excited than you!! I have read the review everyday since I ordered the car!!

[LobsterB]

Originally Posted by psbali

@LobsterB

Really sorry for a bit of

but have been waiting for your initial ownership experience..

Sorry... Please find ownership report thread here Will add more details later tonight.

[shankar.balan]

I dont think anyone on the Forum considers Honda's pricing to be sensible especially when it comes to the CRV. Despite the quality and all other positives of Honda, it is still over-priced.
The Toyota Fortuner though it is expensive, is still however somewhat more sensibly priced given its genetic make up and quality/ reliability.
The real issue here is that Tata who have as of now ZERO credentials when it comes to design, development, production, sales and after sales service of a PREMIUM vehicle, have in fact rather audaciously priced the Aria in line with the wannabe Premium segment! This is the only thing that causes raised eyebrows because they have hitherto been playing in the Value segment. As mentioned before it is easy for an existing player in the Premium Segment to make the journey towards Value but for a Value segment player to succeed while attempting the reverse journey, is extremely difficult indeed.

Originally Posted by rangarx

+1 to that.

I have always been fuming the steal going on the country by the foreign companies.

Toyota and Honda consider themselves as GODs and pricing the products to their Whims and fancies.

And when a Tata product (read ARIA) is put up with a 15L+ price tag it raises every eyebrow..

Had this been a Toyota or Honda product, I doubt whether all this hooplah would have been made over the price.

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

I dont think anyone on the Forum considers Honda's pricing to be sensible especially when it comes to the CRV. Despite the quality and all other positives of Honda, it is still over-priced.
The Toyota Fortuner though it is expensive, is still however somewhat more sensibly priced given its genetic make up and quality/ reliability.
The real issue here is that Tata who have as of now ZERO credentials when it comes to design, development, production, sales and after sales service of a PREMIUM vehicle, have in fact rather audaciously priced the Aria in line with the wannabe Premium segment! This is the only thing that causes raised eyebrows because they have hitherto been playing in the Value segment. As mentioned before it is easy for an existing player in the Premium Segment to make the journey towards Value but for a Value segment player to succeed while attempting the reverse journey, is extremely difficult indeed.

Yes Sir,

Every consumer has his different views,

You might well be in for a surprise if you ask your nearest TATA dealer on the Booking rush for the Aria.

Certainly looks like TATA's have hit the Bulls eye this time with the Aria.

Well, i am yet to get my TD

[kapss]

Originally Posted by PAVAN KADAM

Yes Sir,
You might well be in for a surprise if you ask your nearest TATA dealer on the Booking rush for the Aria.
Well, i am yet to get my TD

That might well be true, the booking rush thing you mention. But if that perception is based solely on not getting a TD, I would not be convinced. Its difficult to get a TD of the dead horse which went by the name Sumo Grande MK2. Tata Motors sales and after sales works like the govt machinery, that too of the 80's.

[kaviprem]

There was a discussion about whether Safari customers are treated better.
Yes - They are.

I was in CM [Dairy circle] last week for something else and discussing with the RTO agent about my RC.
Then, suddenly, I hear ... "Hi Prem, How are you and your Safari ? All doing good ?". It was Mr. XYZ from TML whom I was interacting with while my Safari transaction was going on. I was very happy to get this greeting from him after 8 months !

XYZ - Have you driven ARIA ?
Me - I didnt even had a TD booked and said "NO, not yet. But, you know, I cant buy one now ".
XYZ - NO need, I will send a SA and you should ride it to see how it is different from Safari, but you should go in for highway drive.
Me - I will, but cant drive in Highway now. I dont have time. We shall see sometime later.

Its not just me. I met another Safari owner [6 years with Safari] and surprisingly, he is NOT AWARE of TBHP !!! He got the same reception and he is now thinking b/w Safari & ARIA. I just added to his confusion by suggesting him to wait till April 2011 for Refreshed Safari

Coming to a short TD
1 - The vehicle was absolutely in bad shape [physically], a lot of bumper scratches and super shave on the front wheel arches.
2 - It ran for 4.5K KMs and it was KL registration and the SA while getting in told me this is a pre-launch test vehicle. So, this is just to get the feel of ARIA, but dont conclude anything with this.
3 - I had to take this since the actual test drive vehicle [which is a PRIDE] has gone out for another TD.
4 - Pick-up is nice and engine is very responsive, better than Safari.
5 - With this 4.5K of all test KMs [I am sure many would have driven it with both good and bad intention], the vehicle was in good shape mechanically.
6 - I liked the range in 3rd Gear - 30 to 60 KMPH, its very much like a Safari, but the vibration was ABSOLUTELY NONE @ 30 in 3rd gear as opposed to Safari which has good amount of vibration in 30 @ 3rd, basically around 1K ro 1.5K RPM.
7 - Suspension is super cool and didnt any feel any of road bumps - Again, a 4.5K badly driven vehicle.
8 - Like few others mentioned, I didnt get hit by the stearing controls. May be, I was super consious since others have already mentioned it.
9 - Maneuvering was better than Innova for me in the CITY/Bumper-Bumper traffic. Needless to say, its much better than Safari [as expected]
10 - Talking of service center for ARIA, its going to Mysore road and the Hosur road [Begur]. I dont know about the Mysore road, but the Begur work shop is just like a TRUCK garage. As a matter of fact, everything in that street [Skoda and one more] look like a truck garage only. Moment I asked about it, SA replied me "Most likely, ARIA customers would be engaging pick-up and drop-off service sir". But, I replied "No, I wouldnt and am not doing it for my Safari itself".

All in all, a very good package.

My observation with few others who were watching ARIA in CM that day - If we get a solid built Safari [SUV style] with this feature listing in the same platform, I am sure, we will see more upgrades to that from the current Safari instead of Safari to ARIA.

Forgot to add - CM, Dairy Circle has got 25 ARIA bookings as of last weekend.

Prem.

[VeluM]

Originally Posted by kaviprem

There was a discussion about whether Safari customers are treated better.
Yes - They are.

Good, if this filters down the chain, it will certainly help change the Tata A.S.S. image.

Originally Posted by kaviprem

Forgot to add - CM, Dairy Circle has got 25 ARIA bookings as of last weekend.

And an ownership thread on Team-BHP already

Well done Tata!

[rkg]

344 in the first 20 days ( Oct 11 -31st) for TATA vehicle priced like ARIA is indeed good. especially when one considers the response TATA got for Sumo Grande priced at half the rate

[NetfreakBombay]

too early to gauge numbers for ARIA. These numbers are for dealer shipments, actual sales numbers would be seen next month onwards.