[ramji_or]

Wow! I would like to know and pat the genius behind this marketing decision. This is not a part in engine bay which will stay hidden from most of the customers. And in a market like India where alloy wheels are being offered by the manufacturers as a premium feature, this deception would directly equate to 'Cheating the customer'.

IMO, Tiago always had enough attention from the market and considering the launch of JTP twins, the marketing campaign is at its peak now. Such a dumb decision at this time and this is the result of greediness to promote 'cost-cutting' as a premium feature.

[400notout]

Originally Posted by PrideRed

Not everyone is a auto enthusiast and could easily spot a difference.

Nope. Will have to disagree here. I have seen the car near the showroom many times and all were without the wheelcaps and it looked even more hideous. What I'm saying is that there is no secret going on here.

Originally Posted by Gildarts

"Durable dual tone –4 spoke DurAlloy wheel that enhance the strong muscular design." This is how TATA motors website describes AurAlloy Wheels.

Well that's what marketing teams do. Give fancy new names or adjectives. But one look is usually all it takes. Yes these people put salt in our toothpastes and lemons in our soap but only on advertisement covers.

The DurAlloy is at most a communication gap with the product planning team wherein the marketing team were left to explain why this model doesn't have regular alloys.

[jsanket]

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[parth.jain]

Well, It is an incredibly smart design to uplift the look of the car but it is an incredibly stupid move by a company which is trying to win the hearts of people by their day by day improving portfolio.

Fun fact: They have stopped making rear wheel brake shoes for the Zest, instead they are pushing Nexon's brake shoes for Zest. The mechanics install them by drilling holes in it to make it compatible for the same (due to different design)

[Arjun Reddy]

Originally Posted by parth.jain

Fun fact: They have stopped making rear wheel brake shoes for the Zest, instead they are pushing Nexon's brake shoes for Zest. The mechanics install them by drilling holes in it to make it compatible for the same (due to different design)

This is no fun fact. If you have some photos and some evidence, this deserves a new thread. Hoping that Tata has some integrity here. It is one of the business houses that I would trust blindly.

[parth.jain]

Originally Posted by Arjun Reddy

This is no fun fact. If you have some photos and some evidence, this deserves a new thread. Hoping that Tata has some integrity here. It is one of the business houses that I would trust blindly.

Stating it as a "Fun Fact" was pun intended

Sorry, I do not have any evidence regarding it. It was just a verbal conversation regarding this matter. And actually I came to know about it because I first went to my FNG for change of brake shoes and ordered a pair from a shop (pretty much trusted shop, getting spares from them since years) near to my house. When my mechanic tried to replace the worn out brake shoes, he told that the new brake pads which were bought are of some different model as there is a 'pin' instead of a hole in the brake shoe. I went to my spare parts guy to return them and he said that the company has changed the design and you will have to drill a hole in it to fit it in your car. I told him that what he is saying is rubbish and return them and refund my money as he does not have OEM brake shoes for Zest.

Then I went to an ASC for some other work as well as for change of brake shoes. In a casual chat with the mechanic/SA (I don't remember whom), I told him about unavailability of brake shoes for Zest in the market and the seller is asking to drill holes in the available brake shoes to fit them in the car. He replied "Arre sir, hum bhi toh aise hi karte hain (Sir, We also fit them like this) He also mentioned that the company is making only Nexon's brake shoes and it is just a minor modification we have to do in the brake shoe to fit it.

I knew about it because I get work done in front of me at my FNG and discussed it with someone at the ASC, someone less interested in how the work is done won't even know what's going on.

PS: This was around 2-3 months ago.

[Pranava VS]

Originally Posted by Gildarts

"Durable dual tone –4 spoke DurAlloy wheel that enhance the strong muscular design." .

They refer to the enhanced muscular design only and not any additional muscular strength.

It's a cheap play of words from the company which speaks highly of its code of conduct which I suppose has gone duuur out of the window. It's max a coat of duralloy over the steel wheels for its properties like anti corrosion etc.

The doctrine of caveat emptor: Let the buyer beware applies here.

As someone earlier mentioned, I think we need to get our PDIs detailed more for such foul play of words and missing elements.

[arunrajk81]

Originally Posted by Spinnerr

If we have such good design engineers, I am sure Tata stable will have some well designed products on the roll soon.

I should say they have better marketing guys than designers.

[crdi]

The thing looks so neatly integrated, so much so that I was looking at similar alloy wheels on other cars and wondering, why the hell the budget cars or lower end trims wouldn't give this as an OE item?

There would have been showers of praise instead of brickbats, only if they had marketed it appropriately.

Hope that the ones who coined this "duralloy" terminology and marketed it, learns it the hard way to be level headed and respect the customer.

[Gildarts]

Originally Posted by Pranava VS

They refer to the enhanced muscular design only and not any additional muscular strength.

Even that part of TATA's marketing is false. Technically it is only the wheel cap that enhances the Muscular design. If that's taken away, the wheels look puny to say the least.

The design and product are awesome. It could have been sold better - "You get the bling of alloy wheels at a cheaper price" It's just plain stupidity to damage the brand's image at this critical time, when the company is reviving its fortunes. The JTP twins, Harrier, Nexon,.... - the products are all good. But now the customer will be wary because of this fiasco.

[aniketi]

DurAlloy is a Hindi word i guess, meaning Dur se Alloy dikhta hai!

My first reaction was I was laughing at it and at the same time I was admiring the guy's who must have thought about this design. It's really done intelligently and looks really nice and one can easily assume it as a proper alloy wheel. This really looks nice on car and enhance its looks.

But from customer point of view, its a cheating done by Tata. I think this is dealer's and company's responsibility to tell this to all customers. They should clearly tell that its not a proper alloy wheel and has this so called look-a-like wheel cap. Come on Tata, this is not expected from you when you are doing so good with your recent cars. Please don't fool any of your customers, after all customer is GOD.

[GTO]

If your car has steel wheels, you better make that clear! Like Jeep.

Thanks to Chethan Vishal for sending this information in. Heartfelt gratitude for sharing it with other enthusiasts via this Team-BHP page!

The Compass Sport edition doesn't come with alloy wheels, but it's clearly mentioned in their specifications that the car has stylized steel wheels.

https://www.jeep-india.com/compass/specifications.html

[PearlJam]

Originally Posted by kiku007

Just couple of days back I was proud of Tata and I see this now.

Originally Posted by GTO

The Compass Sport edition doesn't come with alloy wheels, but it's clearly mentioned in their specifications that the car has stylized steel wheels.

I think Tata Motors have finally made changes to their website! They now have a "star" and a microscopic footnote (which wasn't there in @kiku007's post), here it is:

https://www.tatatiago.com/tiago-nrg/features/design



And then at the very bottom, they now have:



Better late than never. This is the power of the community!

[kiku007]

Good find @pearlJam.

Same BS as before but with a disclaimer. Small win I suppose.

TATA - Obviously you are watching the thread. After running out of the existing stock please consider doing the right thing. 😃

[Santoshbhat]

Originally Posted by kiku007

Good find @pearlJam.

Same BS as before but with a disclaimer. Small win I suppose.

TATA - Obviously you are watching the thread. After running out of the existing stock please consider doing the right thing. 😃

No, the disclaimer now makes it pretty clear that it's an alloy wheel lookalike. The disclaimer reads "DurAlloy wheels are stylized wheel made of alloy steel with alloy wheel look-a-like wheel caps". They made it a point to use the word steel in there and when the say ' alloy wheel look-a-like wheel caps' they are clearly conveying to the customer that it is not an alloy wheel. This is what was exepcted in the first place. Better late than never