Each and every car manufacturer in the market have a specialization in a particular type of vehicle. For instance, the king of the MPV segment is the Toyota Innova and some way or the other companies try to conquer the top crown by defeating the king. If you don’t know, Tata also tried to snatch the crown with its MPV Aria. It could have been an Innova killer but it never was crowned one. How Tata Aria might have defeated the MPV king? Let’s have a look.
Tata Aria | 2010
In the Delhi Auto Expo 2010, Tata launched its first MPV 7-seater crossover. The Aria was way ahead of its rivals. After all, Aria was the flagship vehicle from Tata’s line up. The MPV came with many first in class features making it a mouth-watering package. It was based on the Tata Xover (pronounced CROSS-over) platform which was a concept showcased at the Geneva Motor show in 2008.
After the launch, the sales of the vehicle were not up to the Tata’s expectations and surely was nowhere near the Innova’s market. Hence Tata decided to give the MPV a facelift.
Tata Aria Facelift | 2014
A facelift in India is considered a voodoo for customers. This is because if a car gets a different grille, new alloy wheels, and is slapped with some new decals it is considered as a Facelift. Tata launched a facelift in the year 2014 with similar intentions. Fun fact, the facelifted car didn’t even get a different grille or alloy wheels. What were the changes then? you may ask. The only noticeable changes were the blackened headlights which gave them smoked effect and at the rear Aria got transparent tail lights instead. The same story is carried on the inside, with no noticeable changes.
The major changes were under the hood. The new 2014 Aria got the same engine but in a different state of tune. That gave the car more power and torque figures.
Powertrain and Transmission
The only engine option available with Tata Aria was a 2.2 Di-cor engine. The motor came with a 5-speed manual transmission driving the rear wheels or all the wheels depending upon the variant opted. Yes! Tata Aria came with a 4X4.
The engine in the pre-facelift vehicle produced about 140bhp and 320Nm of peak torque.
On the other hand, the facelifted version of the MPV was capable of producing 147bhp and the same amount of torque. The new engine set-up was called the Varicor engine.
Features
This is where Aria beats its rivals hands down in 2010. The car came with
- Steering mounted audio controls
- Intuitive infotainment system
- Automatic climate control
- All rows got their own AC vents with 3 different blower settings.
- The infotainment system had Bluetooth telephony with AUX connectivity.
For Safety the car came with
- 8 airbags
- ABS with EBD
- Rear Parking camera with sensors
Why the MPV didn’t make its mark?
For starters the time it was launched the prices were a bit high considering the built quality and fit and finish of the vehicle. Though Tata had put their engineering in the car, they weren’t of the Innova standards. The Innova was still more comfortable and came with better NVH levels. Afterall MPV segment is all about hauling people or family members without compromising on comfort. Later in 2017, Tata pulled the plug on Aria and instead launched Hexa. Hexa is also based on Aria’s platform but this time around the MPV was even better than before. Let’s leave Hexa for some other day.
For reference, the Aria prices used to start at ₹11.5 Lakhs and went all the way up to ₹15.5 Lakhs.
