Congrats Fiat!
Very happy to see that Fiat is launching some good cars here. Linea sure looks good and according to many that car will change the whole mishappenings of Fiat soon. Punto will also be welcomed with a huge round of applause, I think.
But before I see those cars actually being launched here, Please look into somethings which are not very pleasant now and won't be a nice feature in this newly lined up cars!
I was in a Fiat Petra for the last whole week including the weekend. I did some nice distances in it. Blr to Cochin and another 500kms+ inside Kerala.
To be frank, the car is good for a normal diesel car. Ofcourse, there're plenty of improvements to be done in this department. But overall, that was a nice car to drive around. The car also returned some good mileage too.
I was quiet impressed with it until I got to my Grandpa! He asked me about his baby and I started my nice words. He listened to it with lot of happiness and patience. Everything was nice and I thought that was it.
Then the most inevitable happened. Yes, one of the biggest fan of Fiat in my family actually started speaking against it. His biggest problem was the maintence bills he was getting from Fiat and this car coming out from the service station with almost every problem staying intact as it went in. He also had problems sourcing spare parts for the same. Guess what? He decided to trust his 60year old local mechanic with this car for some problems and Fiat was not even ready to have the goodwill of helping him with some important parts. All the Mileage benefits he gets from this diesel car has been very duely sacrificed at the service station. And what satisfaction does a person gets from it? Smiling at lower fuel bills and crying on service bills.
A clutch overhaul costed near to 50k!! I would've got a whole new powersteering assembly and got it fitted too for that amount in a Maruti/Suzuki car. And to add to the woes, the car's clutches gave up flat before the car clocked in 40k on odo!
And is there any real driving satisfaction from this car? I doubt so. It's just an okay car. Nothing special here. The brakes are good, the torque is good, wheelspins in 2nd gear etc... But the brakes do lock after some mild torture, they also fade a bit and forget wheelspinning in 3rd!! So, what's so special about owning this one??
Ok, Now before it's said that it's just one car's problem, I have seen (many a time used myself) my friend's Palio 1.2 going thru almost every problem mentioned above. And that car is good only for drives from a Petrol bunk to next! The fuel efficiency has dropped to 6-7 and sometimes 9 kms per litre!!!
And may I also count the problems faced in aftermarket upgrades in a Palio? Their 98 PCD is very famous. Almost zero availability of alloys. So, fit in 100 PCD alloys with slight modification by a local blacksmith!! And the wheel nuts (or better said; Wheel screws) will cause trouble by fooling around with brake liners etc.... So, get cheap & good for nothing screws from the local hardware shop!!! And they will lose the screw patterns due to incompatibility with the factory screw patterns. If you happen to have a puncture, you are stranded!! Don't remove the wheels!! Because it's very likely that the screw will come out bald and wont fit back in.
And the best part is TVS or any other authorised service guys for Fiat has any idea about this problem or a slution to it.
Oh!!! Forget it, lets just not fit alloys or anything aftermarket which will spoil the heritage of Fiat!
Is this the way a car supposed to be? Will the new Linea etc.. be the same? If it is, then my humble request is to please stop the launch plans as soon as possible. Nay, I would rather love to see the current cars getting better, cheaper and easy to obtain spare parts rather than new cars from Fiat's side.
The wide smile which many Fiat owners have planted on their faces are many a times watered with warm tears at the service stations.
Doesn't Fiat want that to be stopped? Yes, that will be far better than a Linea, Bravo or Brera on our roads!! Period!!!! |