Spied - Tata Aria Facelift continues testing, but when will it launch?

02/09/2013 - 15:11 Tata Aria, Tata Motors, Spy pictures Anjan Ravi

The Tata Aria Facelift continues testing and the latest set of spyshots come courtesy of MotorBash. In early March this year at the Geneva Motor Show, Tata had shown this facelifted Aria with a few updates. And even before its Geneva debut, the Aria facelift had been spied on Indian roads.

The Aria refresh carries a lot of subtle changes. The headlights for example gets smoked lenses and the taillights receive clear lenses with a chrome border. The Aria shown at Geneva sported different seat fabrics and a dual-tone exterior paint job.

Tata Aria facelift dashboard — The Aria facelift shown in Geneva had a revised two-tone interior with an AT.

The Geneva show car also had an automatic transmission and the 2.2-liter diesel engine was putting out 158bhp rather than the current 140bhp. Was it producing 18bhp extra because it was an auto transmission variant? Tata did not go into details.

Tata Aria facelift spied rear — Rear gets a clear lens taillight with a chrome surround.

However, Tata has not shown any signs of launching the refreshed Aria. Even during the Horizonext event (which saw a slew of Tata products being updated), there was no mention about the Aria.

Tata Aria facelift spied — Is this Aria testing an automatic transmission?

Sales of the Aria have been abysmal since its launch in October 2010. After managing single digit sales figures for the months of April, May and June (8, 3 and 2 units respectively), the Aria sold 26 units in July. Tata may be banking on the refreshed Aria and the additional automatic transmission variant to give the sales a much needed push. Will it work though?