Tata Aria has been the car that despite being a great product, has literally bombed at the sales charts due to the pricing that Tata gave it. Tata cars usually do not command premiums and no matter how good they are, the brand’s inspirational value does not le the cars break free from the image of the company. But Tata is hoping it could get things right with the facelifted model of the very capable car, the Tata Aria.
Our friends back at Motorbash.com seem to have managed to get a hold of the spyshots of the 2013 Tata Aria Facelift new model being tested in the country. Tata is reworking on the rear and front end of the car The rear tail lamp cluster would get redesigned and the headlamps will now get smoked. Reports also suggest that the Aria might get a slightly more powerful motor under the hood which could either be a 150bhp one or the 160bhp motor that they are working on to plonk in the Safari Storme.
The Aria which is exported gets a reworked 2.2 litre DICOR engine and that engine gives 150 horses. A slightly more powerful engine, a better advertising campaign and a way better pricing than the current one could surely help the Aria get sales numbers in four digits which currently are in single digits every month and two digit sales seem a difficulty as matter of fact. The Tata Aria also has a sub Rs.10 lakh variant, touted as the LX one, but even that does not manage to sell.
Tata introduced Aria at a very optimistic pricing and seeing the fact that it’s base model costed as much as the Innova’s top model, people preferred the Innova even though it came it with a lesser kit. Tata Aria could surely use a facelift and a more powerful engine. What we think it could really use is loosing out on all those gimmicks which are of hardly any use in real world and increase the costs of the cars. The Aria indeed is the cross-breed between a SUV and a sedan but manages to sell like neither of them.
Tata has invested heavily in the car and they are not ready to accept the defeat. They instead are working on making it a car better than even and that has led to Tata showcasing the revamped Aria at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show. Tata unveiled a facelifted Aria with an automatic transmission and a more powerful engine with tweaked headlamps and tail lights to keep in sync with the upgrade.
The engine power now becomes 158 BP and the torque figure sees a jump as well. The torque on offer will now be 400 NM instead of the current 320 NM on the manual transmission. The car showcased also featured a dual paint scheme with the roof and bonnet getting a lighter shade of the body colour which was blue. The automatic transmission is a 6-speed unit and this might be transmission that puts Tata in lead as XUV 500 and Innova which are its real competitors do not have an automatic transmission on offer.
There’s news of Safari Storme getting a powerful engine and automatic transmission as well later this year and we expect that bestseller from Tata to borrow that powerful state of tune of the 2.2L diesel engine from the Aria and the automatic transmission as well. Tata did not disclose the details about its Indian launch but the facelifted Aria has been caught testing in India quite a few times so the launch of the newer model in the country might be around the corner.
