Palio Spare Parts Prices and TATA Service network step motherly treatment

[rao_battula]

I am just coming back from garage after collecting the estimated cost to repair my damaged dear. Yesterday I rammed into a Tata Indica who halted all of a sudden because of some biker stupid driving. Every one was speeding up and I had to stop and there was no time to react it. I tried hard avoid the guy but could not. I felt like as if the car does not have brakes. Speed was around 20 - 30 and the estimated cost could be around 37K and I would be paying nearly 20K from my pocket. Same as my speed :(. Thank god, all 5 were unhurt. I can not help blaming myself and car too (no feeling of brakes at all).

Apart from this, garage guy has given me shock quoting the prices. They are sky rocketing. Let me quote them:

Price Paint Labour

Bonnet -> 7020 1800 150
Front Bumper -> 2350 1600 150
Head light -> 2175 100
Radiator -> 7500
Radiator Fan -> 7200 250
A/C Condenser -> 7200 550
Bonnet Upper lock -> 180
Bonnet Lower Lock -> 90
Front Frame -> 1875 150
===========================================
Total Costs: 34575 3550 1200
===========================================

Grand Total: 39325
=====

Insurance company will pay me 50% of all the parts except Bonnet (75%), paint costs and labour charges.

50% of 34575 - 7020 = 50% of 27555 = 13778
75% of 7020 = 5262
Paint and Labour Charges = 4750
=====
Total 23790
=====
From my Pocket: 39325 - 23790 = 15535
=====================

Mechanic says we can repair Bonnet, Front Frame. Radiator Fan is intact but frame is broken. Palio 1.2 Sport frame is different from other variants. He will try to get them. If we can repair these my cost would reduce to greater extent. He will let me know the spare parts availability by tomorrow. He said Bonnet is not available at this moment and we need to source from some where.

On top all these, Reliance does not have association with Concorde, Autofin or Mallik in Hyderabad for FIAT vehicles. The company mentioned some shops which I have never heard of. I have chosen Solar instead. I will pay up from my pocket and get the amount reimbursed from the company.

Shocking Truths:

1. Palio Spare parts are very costly
2. TATA show rooms does not have an alliance with one of the major insurance company for FIAT vehicles. They have it for TATA vehicles. A point to be escalated to FIAT A.S.S.
3. The assumption Palio's Sponze brakes a fact?

I will keep you updating.

-BSR

Mods,
Please move it to appropriate section if this is not the right place to post this.

[karanraheja]

@ BSR sad to hear about the accident. My Petra D had met with an accident 2 months back when a lorry had taken a suddent turn in the highway and my car had rammed into its tyre. The front part was totally damaged-especially the right side. It took me 40 days to get the car.
I got a bill of 1.5 lacs! I could only claim 1.1 lacs from the Insurance.
Radiator,front grill,headlamp, A/c were all totally damaged. I do agree Palio/Petra spares are quite expensive.

[tsk1979]

Initial estimate is always more.
When they open up the grill etc., you would see many things intact. So charges from your pocket will be more like 12K rather than close to 20K.
Spare parts will be a problem. No getting away from that. When you give your car for work, be aware that you will be without a vehicle for more than a month atleast. The upper limit can be higher, as long as 2-3 months if a rare part is broken.

[aaggoswami]

Sad to hear about the accidnet.
When our Baleno rear ended Accent , we ended up paying 1.17 lakhs.

I suggest that let authorized service center take care about the repairs as they can handle repairing the frame member in better way.

[sridharps]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Initial estimate is always more.
Spare parts will be a problem. No getting away from that. When you give your car for work, be aware that you will be without a vehicle for more than a month atleast. The upper limit can be higher, as long as 2-3 months if a rare part is broken.

Whew, this is news for me, at least. I have, of course, heard about Fiat after-sales, but still this shocks me ..2-3 months upper limit!!

[tsk1979]

Search this forum for markviv's thread about FIAT accident.

[speedzak]

Oouch! That hurts.
Sorry to hear about your accident. Any car if met up with an accident will be expensive to repair compared to any other repairs.
In your case (the car being a Palio), availability of the spares will be more of a problem than the prices itself. Keep contacting the workshop everyday to know about the work.

As told by TSK, get ready to stay without the car for atleast a month or 2. Fiat has a very bad record on this and hope they're improving on this part. But now, it is better than earlier after they have tied up with Tata. Incidents like Markiv's were very common earlier.

What exactly is the step motherly treatment you've faced? The insurance part? Or more? Please explain.

[eclectix 1st]

Originally Posted by rao_battula

1. Palio Spare parts are very costly

3. The assumption Palio's Sponze brakes a fact?

Dude, sorry about the unfortunate incident.

AFAIK

1.Palio parts are expensive because most of the parts are imported. Only the Palio Stile variant is reasonable, on account of using some Indian made parts.

3. Brakes are fine in my experience with Bangalore's traffic. Could be a specific issue. Get it checked.
cheers:

[musicmanaman]

Sorry to hear about the accident, after reading your post, it's the only time I felt good about not buying a second hand Palio, the cost of spares seem expensive.

Some time back an article had come out in Autocar India mag, where the spare parts prices were mentioned for call cars in various catogaries, as far as I can remember the Palio spares were not as expensive as mentioned by the service center you are working with, you may want to cross check.

[rao_battula]

Originally Posted by musicmanaman

Sorry to hear about the accident, after reading your post, it's the only time I felt good about not buying a second hand Palio, the cost of spares seem expensive.

Some time back an article had come out in Autocar India mag, where the spare parts prices were mentioned for call cars in various catogaries, as far as I can remember the Palio spares were not as expensive as mentioned by the service center you are working with, you may want to cross check.

TATA has increased them recently. Bonnet use to cost 3.2K now it is 7K. Headlight used to 1800 now it is 2150. Bumper cost was 3000 with all painting and now it is 4100.

-BSR

[speedzak]

Does Tata have the right to do that? ie.. Increase the rates without Fiat's concern?
I don't think so.

[sanjaymugur]

cost of PALIO spares are comparable with Swift, Autocar did a overall check & swift cameback as a costelier car for regular maintenance & also in case of accident...

palio bumper used to be 3000+ without painting, this is 1 year back..

except for FIAT 1.6 alloys none of the prices have changed drastically......

FIAT, always...

[speedzak]

Keeping all the magazines out, it was always a well known fact that Fiat spares are expensive in many instances.
Everybody knows it and we don't need any magazine to prove that. Do we?

[vinit.merchant]

I hope this is not turning out to be a bash between Swift & Palio again !

The technology used in Palio's years back was years ahead of what was used in the then available maruti's. Once Maruti has come up with advanced technology, even its spares will come out to be expensive.
Yes, because Swift sells more, this will help in reducing the Spares cost for sure. Palio doesn't sell so good, so the cost of spares is bound to be high, and we are talking about a discontinued design. So parts which are not common in 1.6 Stile ad 1.6 Gtx will cost more.

But any technologically advanced car, if it meets an accident, will give out big repair bills for sure.

IMHO.

[speedzak]

@Vinit. You don't have to turn it into one. There's no need to compare it to any other car. In this thread atleast.
All were just clearing up the doubts Rao had about expensive parts and step mother treatment he recieved from Tata.