Tata surely had one of the biggest displays at the 2012 Auto Expo. The Pixel, Safari Storm and Nano concepts surely grabbed many eye balls. What many of us managed to miss was a concept that could prove to be a game changer for Tata. The Aria AT concept can surely eat into Mahindra XUV 500’s sales and help Tata recover some lost ground. It may be noted that Aria could not really click in the market and by the time people started taking notice of the capable crossover, XUV 500 came and played a perfect gate crasher at Aria’s party.
The Aria Automatic concept features Gold & silver finish inner door handles, a new Steering wheel with integrated controls for infotainment system & cruise control, an all new set of roof rails, smoked bezel headlamps & clear lens tail lamps and captain seats at the rear. The last feature here can soon be seen making its way into already existing models.If all these features were not enough, Tata went ahead and installed a Harman audio player with 10 speakers and an amplifier!
The auto transmission has 6 cogs to play with and the tranny is mated to a retuned engine that now pumps out a healthy 156 PS of power and 400 nm of torque. Tata seems to have taken their job very seriously and their new 6 speed automatic transmission sports a tiptronic gear selector with Sport, Economy and Cruise modes. Last but certainly far from the least, this transmission also features a Hill Hold and Descent control!(Phew!) When launched, the AT transmission should be available with both 2WD and 4WD variants. Safely expect the automatics to command a premium of Rs. 80,000-1 lakh over the price of existing models.
If all these features make it to the production version, XUV 500 might suddenly stop looking all that special. Bring it on Tata!