First Drive Review: Tata Aria 4x2 Pure and Pleasure variants

Back in October 2010, the Aria dethroned the Safari as the new flagship model for Tata’s passenger car division. It not only introduced the word ‘Crossover’ to the Indian masses, but also presented a new face of the company – with the kind of quality, design and features that one would’ve seldom associated with Tata products in the past. The same level of quality is slowly trickling down into other Tata vehicles as well, with the Manza Elan being the most recent example. When we reviewed the Aria 4x4 a few months back, we loved the styling of the exteriors and the design, quality and feel of the interiors. 

However, when Tata announced that there was a cheaper, 4x2 model range of the Aria coming, it had us waiting eagerly with a few questions – would the cheaper price tag make the Aria 4x2 lose out on the quality and plethora of features that its 4x4 sibling is known for? Will it be the same crossover that we loved or will it be a disappointment like most luxury cars that are stripped down to lure the fleet operators? These questions were quite short lived though – shorter than the quick drives we had in the Aria 4x2 Pleasure and Pure variants to get our answers. Read through to know what we found out and more importantly, to understand what has changed in the Aria 4x2 as compared to the 4x4...