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Originally Posted by PatchyBoy  CrossCap,
Let me try and give you a firsthand ownership experience with the Palio:
The build quality of Palio is very good. I have driven my Palio for 8000 kms in the past 3 months on excellent roads, not so good roads, ghat roads, no roads - literally everywhere. No rattles so far. |
Patchyboy, thank you for your prompt reponse. During my short period of test drive I also realized that this car can be driven on any road.
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Originally Posted by PatchyBoy The Palio 1.1 is not as responsive as the other cars in this segment, but can hold its own if driven sedately. I did meet with an unfortunate accident when the car was just 10 days old and had to get the left fender and front passenger door replaced. The process took 10 days. Not sure if this is reasonable time. Maybe if was Maruti they could have fixed it faster. Other than that I have not needed any spares so far. So I am not in a position to comment on availability of spares. |
Sorry to hear that patchyboy. Hope you didn't get seriously injured.
That reminds of a question which I forgot to ask the dealer. What exactly does the extended warranty cover? Anything mechanical + electrical? Or something specific? Were those bumper and front door got replaced under warranty?
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Originally Posted by PatchyBoy As far as quality of service goes, I am satisfied with the service, though I would expect a bit more proactivity from the service center. For example, I requested that the wheels be rotated in the second service at 7500 kms. While that was done, the service center did not clean the inside of the alloys. |
Okay, great news. The dealer promised that they will take good care of any problems with either Tata or Fiat car so long as I am in Alld. Since the dealer found two prospective buyer from my Inst(myself and my colleague), their area sales manager and senior branch manager landed up in my office. I frankly asked them whether they treat fiat cars as their stepchildren. The senior manager said that under JV they have to explain in every details of sales figure to both the seniors in Tata and Fiat. So they try promote both Tata and Fiat cars in an unbiased way.
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Originally Posted by PatchyBoy I get a constant milage of ~14 kmpl in City with 50% A/C. The best highway milage was 16.8 with 60% A/C. |
Sounds encouraging. I thought it would be less, as it weighs more than any other hatchback in its class.
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Originally Posted by PatchyBoy The Palio however lack ABS & Airbags, even as options. |
Yeah, I know that. Very few cars come with such option in this segment.
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Originally Posted by PatchyBoy Coming back to your budget and OTR, please also include costs for Music system ( Palio does not come with one). |
Aha... you raised a very good point. I love to have music system installed in my car. My plan is to use that extra cash discount towards installing the music system. The Tata dealer here provides Blaupunkt music system. How are they? I somewhere read that they are better than sony.
Did you try to get any deal on the music system from the dealer?
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Originally Posted by PatchyBoy You may also want to get your tyres upsized, as most cars in India come with skinny OEM tyres. |
Aren't the stock tyres good enough? Okay, I shall keep that in mind.
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Originally Posted by PatchyBoy My total OTR cost came to Rs.500,000 - including ICE installation, Alloy wheels and tyre upsize and leather seats.
All said and done, buying and owning a FIAT is more of a passion than a decision made with a level head. FIAT owners in this forum (including me) will go all out to defend FIAT, as they love their cars - so much so that they are willing to put up with poor A.S.S and other niggling issues as the pleasure of owning this car outweighs these issues. |
Quite encouraging. I still need some time to think about my choice : which one to go for? I need more time for research.
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Originally Posted by PatchyBoy Hope this helps,
Cheers,
Rajan |
Certainly, yes. Your first hand experience had been quite helpful to me. Buying the car for the first time in my life in US was much more difficult than this time. I didn't have such a nice friendly forum like this in US.