Tata Aria Pride Leather 4X4 - Design Review

Tata Motors has been on a roll for quite sometime now. Apart from staying in the limelight for the Nano and Jaguar-Land Rover acquisition, Tata has also been busy improving its own portfolio. Cars like the Indica Vista and Indigo Manza are proof enough. But their latest, the Tata Aria, changes the associated perception completely. It straightaway highlights Tata Motor's capabilities of building a worldclass automobile. This is also India's first crossover.

Doing a crossover for our market is probably an intelligent approach. We sure have a fetish for SUVs, but when it comes to affordable ones, there's hardly anything except the Scorpio and Safari. Look on the utility side of things and there is the proven Toyota Innova and the Mahindra Xylo. Tata Motors have done the right thing giving the Aria a fine balance between an SUV and a people mover, with generous dollops of style. The resulting vehicle has turned out to be more of an MPV on steroids but a strikingly attractive one at that. The Aria is based on the Tata Xover concept that was shown at Geneva in 2005. And there is a lot of similarity in the concept and the road car.

The Aria has a familiar Tata face that has been reworked in a very contemporary way. The big smiley grille gets some edges and lots of chrome while the wraparound trapezoidal headlamps look futuristic. The Aria gets upmarket projection beams on either side. The large bumper with a big black plastic insert and a more pronounced bonnet give it some muscle at the front and so does the flared wheel arches. The Aria rides on 17-inch wheels shod with fat 235-section tyres that fill the wheel well very nicely and give it a butch appearance. The dimensions are generous and the Aria has a large footprint on the ground. It is a great-looking car and a perfect example of Tata’s evolving design language.

Move to the side and the stylish touches continue. Large glass areas are a functional touch that improves visibility from the inside apart from adding to the looks. Blacked-out window frames give an impression of being a large single unit. The stalked out rearview mirrors are another stylish touch and have integrated turn signals. The chrome strip running throughout the waistline and on the lower rub strip adds to the premium looks. The rear is pretty distinctive too. I like the way the D-pillar comes down as an extension of the roofline and the quarter window curves down dramatically. This cue looks inspired from the C-RV and the Mercedes R-Class.

The rear three quarters is where the Aria looks very handsome from. The rear hatch is the simplest part of the design but a high roofline and unusual D-pillar design attract a lot of attention. Another designer touch is the twin oval exhausts, integrated to the rear bumper. A neat, smart-looking rear. The Aria has presence on the road, and loads of it. It's the best looking Tata car in the market.