Tata Aria Pleasure 2014: Buying & Ownership Review

[abhijeetp]

The only thing I feel would be kind of rattle in the over head storage on bad roads. But I guess if you use some kind of insulation may be a sponge or a napkin, then i guess that would be taken care of.

The base of the compartment does have a soft insulation, so even on bad roads no rattling is heard. The rattling is heard if there is an object that rolls in which case the object keeps hitting the side walls of the compartment that do not have insulation. Example - I had once put marker in one of those and it kept rolling across making noise on hitting the side wall.

 

[abhijeetp]

Just verified that the side walls do have insulation, but rolling object does make some sound on hitting the wall.

 

[abhijeetp]

Last weekend took Aria on a long drive. We had been to Kurnool-Orvakal (Rock Garden)-Belum Caves covered over 2 days.
Overall journey 840 KM. Got a fuel efficiency of 14.2 (tankful method) with front and rear AC on all the time at minimum level. The speed was always in the range of 90-110.
The drive was an absolute pleasure with no fatigue at all. Except for couple of small patches near Belum caves the road was excellent.

This was the firt time I used the glove box chiller, bit disappointed with the cooling. I had placed few tetrapak's juice which were originally at room temperature and it didnt cool as much as I thought it should. But with plain 500 ml water bottle cooling was better.

Now onto one issue which has been bothering me for some time-
I have been driving the car for over 2700 KM and always thought the odometer reading of Aria is little more than what it should be. Finally verified it by driving my wagonr to office and it showed 9.7 KM. Next day I took Aria on the same route and to the same parking place and it showed 10.2 K.M . So roughly it is 500+ metres more for a distance of 10 KM. This looks to be more than 5% and its definitely a fault.
One reason I could think for this is that Pleasure variant has wheels of size 16", The top variant (Pride) has wheels with 17". If the odometer is calibrated for Pride variant with 17" tyre, it will result in a variation of 1/17 per rotation of the wheel for 16" tyre which results in 580 metres over 10 KM.
This would result in incorrect calculation of fuel efficiency (even with tankful method) of 5% since the odometer reading itself is showing 5% extra.
So if Tata is using the same odometer in all variants of aria then my analysis could be correct. Ideally they should use separate odometers or use same size tyres on all variants.

Members, any thought on this? Can you suggest if this can be fixed by anyway other than upsizing to 17"? I will check with service center in the next checkup but doubt if this can be addressed at service center level. I doubt if the odo can be calibrated for 16".

Can any owner who own a Pure or Pleasure variant confirm if they ever verified the actual distance travelled as against the reading shown on the odometer?

I know i am being a bit finicky but still feel that 5+% is too much of an error in odo reading !

 

[vikyjoshi]

Finally verified it by driving my wagonr to office and it showed 9.7 KM. Next day I took Aria on the same route and to the same parking place and it showed 10.2 K.M .
...
I know i am being a bit finicky but still feel that 5+% is too much of an error in odo reading !

Are you sure, Wagon R Reading are correct?

 

[abhijeetp]

Are you sure, Wagon R Reading are correct?

Yes, i am pretty sure that wagonr odo reading is correct. I had verified few times on my long distance trips with wagonr earlier and it used to match the mile stones readings over a 50-100 KM distance. The variation if any was within a km or so.
In my last weekend trip with Aria, I checked through google maps for the routes that I took and it totalled to 810 KM, whereas the odo of Aria showed 848 km. So definitely there is some deviation in Aria's odo.

 

[abhijeetp]

Further update from me-
Completed a 1500 km trip over 4 days during the weekend. It was Ganpati holiday and drove from Hyderabad to Pune and then to Mumbai and back.
The ride quality was absolutely great.

While going to Pune started at 3:30 pm from Hyderabad after picking up my son from his school, reached Pune at 1:30 in the night, with total break of 1 hour and 20 minutes. Journey from Bhigwan to Pune for the last 100+ KM was in very heavy rains, but Aria was very stable and rode very well. Never felt short of confidence in driving the car even in heavy rains.

Got an overall fuel efficiency of 13.2 over 1500 KM. Most of the time was driving in 110-120 range. While returning back tanked up at Pune and did a sedate driving (90-100) till Solapur. Tanked up again at Solapur,this time got a fuel efficiency of 16.3!

Likes - During couple of our breaks for lunch/dinner, people come up and ask about the price and fuel efficiency. Aria does attract lot of attention. :-)
Dislikes - Only negative in the whole trip was the headlights, I felt it not as bright as I would have wanted (Maybe the problem was accentuated due to continuous rain during the night journey).

Overall mighty happy with Aria and already looking forward to our next road trip during Dussera :-)

 

[martand_d]

Hi abhijeetp, first of all Congrates on new purchase
Aria really is a specious car. Just wanted to ask how's the leg space in the third row, because in XUV 3rd row is not that comfortable for 2 adults. Can you share 3rd row's pics with us

 

[abhijeetp]

Hi abhijeetp, first of all Congrates on new purchase
Aria really is a specious car. Just wanted to ask how's the leg space in the third row, because in XUV 3rd row is not that comfortable for 2 adults. Can you share 3rd row's pics with us

Thanks martand, regarding 3rd rocw comfort- adults till 5'10 height can be comfortable. Second row can be slid to liberate more legroom. The main problem in 3rd row is that the roof slopes down at the back so headroom is not sufficient for tall adults. Will try to post pictures later.

 

[Shail1061]

Recently had sat in the third row, it is definitely better than XUV

@abhijeetp please take AMC as it is peace of mind with TATA cars

 

[rkg123]

Recently had sat in the third row, it is definitely better than XUV

@abhijeetp please take AMC as it is peace of mind with TATA cars

Concorde, Bangalore told me ARIA has less maintenance cost than safari(old)

3 years/1lakh Km warranty is there. Why worry. Generally they cost more once warranty is over. so no meaning to take MAC in warranty period
ARIA has 1.5 lakh Km warranty on engine and all its components

 

[Shail1061]

Concorde, Bangalore told me ARIA has less maintenance cost than safari(old)

3 years/1lakh Km warranty is there. Why worry. Generally they cost more once warranty is over. so no meaning to take MAC in warranty period
ARIA has 1.5 lakh Km warranty on engine and all its components

Brother, you are not understanding as you are new to tata, i have owned all cars in tata like vista, manza, aria etc. AMC covers everything except weights added to wheel balancing.

If you take 2 years package you will get everything covered for service and other parts for 10k rupees approx. Single clutch replacement costs 15k plus, brake pads another 4k, if any thing else u have to pay from your pocket.

Please do understand and make a vice decision.

 

[abhijeetp]

@abhijeetp please take AMC as it is peace of mind with TATA cars

Concorde, Bangalore told me ARIA has less maintenance cost than safari(old)

3 years/1lakh Km warranty is there. Why worry. Generally they cost more once warranty is over. so no meaning to take MAC in warranty period
ARIA has 1.5 lakh Km warranty on engine and all its components

Brother, you are not understanding as you are new to tata, i have owned all cars in tata like vista, manza, aria etc. AMC covers everything except weights added to wheel balancing.

If you take 2 years package you will get everything covered for service and other parts for 10k rupees approx. Single clutch replacement costs 15k plus, brake pads another 4k, if any thing else u have to pay from your pocket.

Please do understand and make a vice decision.

I have taken 2 years 30K Kilometres Gold AMC and cost me 14K.
Except tyres, battery and weights added to wheel balancing everything else is covered.
Even if there are no problems, 30K package itself will cover two oil changes at 15K and 30 K where the 14K gets recovered.

Took the AMC more so for peace of mind.

 

[abhijeetp]

Update from my Aria -
Back from 1660 KM road trip. Trip was for 6 days and covered Hyderabad-Kolhapur-Chivla Beach-Malvan-Devbagh-Goa-Hyderabad.

MID showed an overall fuel efficiency of 12.2 for the entire trip. This is lower than what I have been getting on my previous trips where I was a bit sedate in driving.

In this trip the maximum speed I touched was 130 during the return journey. I think its better to maintain 90-100 speeds so that F.E improves.
The ride as has been so far was excellent over both great roads as well as some of the worst roads that one could encounter.

Overall the roads were good for major part except for a very poor section of 40 KM before Kolhapur.
One major irritant was in the return journey between Belgaum and Mahboobnagar every village has this awful practice of putting huge speed breakers!! So one is never sure of the terrain. One really needs to slow down to less than 10 to cross the breakers smoothly. On couple of occasion I was quiet late in spotting the speed breaker and resulted in taking the vehicle over the breaker at some speed. After second such incident the Door ajar warning started coming on intermittently. It started flickering showing driver side door being ajar. It remained so for almost an hour. Tried switching off the car, locking/unlocking but the light kept on flickering. Later on the flickering light went off on its own and now the issue is not reproducible. Luckily I had taken a video of the flickering light, will take it to service center and get it checked. It must be some lose connection.

Maximum distance I traveled in a single day was 697 KM on my return journey to Hyderabad from Goa. Initially I was bit hesitant considering we were traveling with 2 kids with my daughter being just 1.5 year old, so was thinking of starting from goa a day early halting for the night at Belgaum and then continue from Belgaum next day. But then looking at the time we spent in packing/unpacking and the hassle of looking for hotel in belgaum we thought to do the whole Goa-Hyderabad distance in one day.
Started from Mapusa,Goa at 6:30 AM and reached home at 7:15 PM.

The total journey was absolutely fantastic. There were just 4 of us in the car me, wife and 2 kids. With so much space available, the kids were not at all cranky and the journey was super comfortable!

Posting some snaps of the journey.

Top view of the Aria (at Kolhapur Hotel Jotiba)


Gaganbawda Ghat enroute Chivla Beach



At Chivla Beach in Malvan with cousin's ertiga.


With garlands on Dussera


Sawantwadi-Goa


Goa-Belgaum-Hyderabad through the scenic Chorla Ghat

 

[navnit013]

Top view of the Aria (at Kolhapur Hotel Jotiba)
View attachment 148691

ARIA is such a classy design. No unwanted lines anywhere. All straight curves. Its a pure design. Pre-conceived notion that it looks like Indica has not done any justice to the design.

There was a Mercedes RClass standing by. One of my friends says, "oh this looks like an Innova". Seriously?. Its in our blood, us Indians (that includes me too ). We tend to equate one to another.

 

[vikyjoshi]

ARIA is such a classy design. No unwanted lines anywhere. All straight curves. Its a pure design. Pre-conceived notion that it looks like Indica has not done any justice to the design.

There was a Mercedes RClass standing by. One of my friends says, "oh this looks like an Innova". Seriously?. Its in our blood, us Indians (that includes me too ). We tend to equate one to another.

Very True. Infact the top view of the Aria is simply awesome. Never seen any aria pic like this before.
Infact yesterday, I was with my senior colleague and chatting after office parking our cars near tea stall. When we were ready to leave, he unlocked his aria, and internal lights glowed on.
The entire car with those lights, the dark ambiance, the silhouette of the car exuded pure class. I kind of feel in love with that car again. ( I have my beast to love but that doesnt stop me from loving another car )