Fiat Palio Stile 1.1 - WHY?

[amit]

A very nice thread!

Yes, there is nothing that would make one WANT to buy the Stile and I guess Fiat realise that, proof of which, is in the measly annual sales target. I suspect that the Stile is just a stop gap arrangement from Fiat till the GP and Linea roll out and I, personally, wouldn't be surprised if the Palio is withdrawn from the market once the GP and Linea roll in. If I was the Fiat CEO, I would surely do that.

Still, why do you guys think the Palio Stile 1.1 doesn't sell? Because it takes 20.xx seconds to go from 0-100, it's the slowest to brake and doesn't give class leading FE? I don't think so. The Stile doesn't sell because of it's past, because of it's reputation of being a fuel guzzler and the well known service and spares issues. Sure even the average car buyer would notice the sluggishness and the lack of response BUT if the car had Maruti like service support and a better parent with better marketing skills it would still sell. A member here has put up his Stile report and therein he mentions how his family and friends tried hard to convince him against buying a Fiat. That is the biggest problem that Fiat faces IMO. Even Rtech's post has a similar theme of a prospective buyer not picking Fiat due to the well known issues. Honestly, how many units do you think a Maruti Suzuki Palio Stile would sell every month despite it's sluggishness and non class leading FE?

I have driven across TN, AP, KL, KA, GA, MH, all in my Baleno. Not once has my car complained or even had a flat. But you don't see me tom-tomming it around. The simple fact is, we expect our cars to do that. But a Fiat owner thinks it's a big deal

When I bought the Palio, I was expecting a car with niggling problems and not very good reliablity. Whether you agree or not, non-Fiat owners have been talking with authoritiy for ages about how unreliable Fiat cars are. So successful has this been that even Fiat owners, present and prospective, have started believeing that all this is true! Sure Fiat's are not as reliable as japanese cars but the Palio range, at least, is not as bad as they are made out to be. This raises another issue. Take the example of the Swift. The nigging build quality issues are well known yet the sales of the car keeps increasing. I really don't know why because a Fiat Swift, Chevrolet Swift or Ford Swift with similar issues would be selling in three figure units every month by now and the car maker would have been critised for taking Indians for a ride by selling us hand me downs.

Lastly, I hope someone in Fiat is learning something from the SX4. After all the car started it's life as the Fiat Sedici.

Fiat is a text book in murdering great products. They took the Palio from the car of the year selling in excess of 3,000 units every month in 2002 to a car with an annual sales target of 3,000 units!

[iron_man]

Originally Posted by BUSA

I think there should be WCOTY - Worst Car of the year and Palio 1.1 and Logan will be having a close battle.

the palio 1.1 is ridiculously under-powered. that we all agree with. having said that, i don't think you can spare the new getz 1.1 either. as i said earlier, i think its this excise duty thingy thats causing these manufacturers to lose their marbles.

whats the law on that anyway ???

[goldie_malhotra]

Originally Posted by kvish

I wish they have some decent ad campaign for the stile 1.6 sport. Atleast that is a product which "might" find "some" buyers!!
MIGHT=5% chance
SOME= 10s-100s

They do have one ad for the stile, which most people think is a mobile/ringtone ad until they manage to recognize a facade of the Palio in the end.

[rapideffect]

Originally Posted by amit

I suspect that the Stile is just a stop gap arrangement from Fiat till the GP and Linea roll out and I, personally, wouldn't be surprised if the Palio is withdrawn from the market once the GP and Linea roll in.

Even I assume the same, the current one is only to show their existence here as they just don't want to stop the production till GP and Linea roll out.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by goldie_malhotra

They do have one ad for the stile, which most people think is a mobile/ringtone ad until they manage to recognize a facade of the Palio in the end.

Actually I like that Ad a lot, for one simple reason. It sounds like a mobile phone ad for Z550i phone she is holding, the same phone I own.

[finneyp]

Originally Posted by goldie_malhotra

They do have one ad for the stile, which most people think is a mobile/ringtone ad until they manage to recognize a facade of the Palio in the end.

This is going too far!
Now, we are nitpicking Palio Ads too!

[mclaren1885]

Originally Posted by finneyp

This is going too far!
Now, we are nitpicking Palio Ads too!

I can sense the frustration. Finney slightly OT i was just checking and found that only 10% of your total posts dont have the word FIAT or Palio in them . Comeon, take things lightly and enjoy the argument with good spirits. Like us! Lol.

[DCEite]

But why should FinneyP be frustrated. He owns a 1.2, arent we talking about the Stile 1.1 here?

[hell_rider]

Originally Posted by spindoc

While the Stile (at least the 1.1) is an eminently laughable attempt, the "indian" Swift is not all that world-class too. Sure, it borrows heavily from its international counterpart, but to be world-class it needs some of these (copied from spec sheet of the Aussie Swift).

Safety equipment:
Dual front airbags, dual side airbags, front and rear curtain airbags, ABS with EBD five lap-sash seatbelts, front seatbelt pre-tensioners.

I am sure the fit and finish levels can improve a lot on the Swift too.

precisely my point.

but the Swift is still accepted as a world-class offering in-spite of its downgraded engine for india and other missing goodies.

The Swift has documented niggling build-level problems, even right here on this forum, but still its the Palio thats the offender.

The Palio has far more seating comfort and space than the Swift, yet the existence of Palio is a mystery to some and they seek to answer the WHY ?

Like I mentioned earlier too, all of the excise-cut club members, the Stile, Prime 1.1, UVA and the Xeta 1.2 have no performance figures to write home about.

Still its the Palio which gets singled out.

Does anyone here really believe that in real-world driving conditions the performance or FE figures for the 4 cars would show any significant variation ???

It looks like FIAT is gonna get clobbered no matter what they do or don't do.

If they hadn't put in the 1.1, we would have criticised them for not doing what TATA and Hyundai did and not having used an oppurtunity, as in,

"Why could FIAT not offer a downgraded engine to take advantage of the excise cuts ?? See what Hyundai and TATA did" ....and so on....

But now that they have gone and done it....here we are...

its hilarious actually. and starting to get predictable as well.

[DCEite]

Originally Posted by hell_rider

but the Swift is still accepted as a world-class offering in-spite of its downgraded engine for india and other missing goodies.

Downgraded yes. But it still packs a punch as far as performance is concerned. Fuel efficiency is better than the competetion too! Now if Palio 1.1, did the same, this thread wouldnt have been created

[extreme_torque]

Well I dunno why owners of "japanese" cars start a thread like this, why do we have to single out Palio for god sake... even the getz prime 1.1 is a rip off.
Coming to the question asked in this thread, I for one wont buy the Palio 1.1 because 57 bhp/tonne just doesnt do it for me, no matter what the fuel average, which in this case isnt too great either.
What I dont understand is people cursing the interiors, agreed they are old but heck they are still better than every other small car around available for a similer price tag. Hyundai have not upgraded santro's interiors for ages but I dont see anybody starting a thread and cursing santro, what about wagonr's interiors. The fact is all the manufacturers are the same, singling out one smacks of pure bias.
People say that FIAT should discontinue the A178 platform, but have hyundai done it with the santro, has maruti done it with the wagon r and the alto which are even older platforms... why do we have to criticize just for the sake of it.
The day the 1.3 MJD makes an entry into the Palio engine bay, i would see the same poeple praising the car like no other. Agreed the current 1.1 engine is not as good but that doesnt mean that we should rubbish all the other virtues of the car, even if they are better than the competition.
It still does a lot of things better than the competition, which is as old of not older and i dont see any reason why FIAT should phase out the Palio. A palio with a 1.3 MJD would still rock and rock every other small car around if priced keenly.... the question is when will FIAT finally do it?

[hell_rider]

Originally Posted by DCEite

Downgraded yes. But it still packs a punch as far as performance is concerned. Fuel efficiency is better than the competetion too! Now can you say the same about Palio 1.1 Stile?

thats not the point dceite.

it has to be debated in the same vein as before.

There was a post, (too lazy to go back, look up and quote) where reference was being made to nationalistic pride being offended due to the Stile, and that it is representative of the fact that we are not good enough to drive "white man specc-ed car".

Can't the same be said about the Swift. Does it not offend your nationalistic pride now that you drive a downgraded car for India, but nevertheless you are bombarded with Swift ads where they claim they have "won round the world" but conveniently fail to mention the fact that they won with a different spec-ed Swift.

So now when this point is made, the rejoinder is that the Swift is still powerful.

But then so is the Palio 1.6, which will just beat the living s**t out of the Swift. So why is that conveniently ignored.

If nothing, its actually better as FIAT has two separate offerings in the same package for customers with different priorities.

This is what I meant. FIAT just can't win. Damned if they do, damned if they don't.

[neoonwheels]

And here comes another thread cursing Palioooooo.... See how much famous this car has become....

Well, I have seen enough posts on this very thread cribbing about Palio 1.1's performance as compared with few other cars.. ALL DEPENDING ON THE ACI report..

Now first thing first.. ACI has compared cars like Santro, Palio and Spark and blah blah blah... The thread starter started all flaring job all yet again.... Now my question is, does this make sense to compare Spark, Santro and Palio?? then why did this very talented ACI not included Getz as well??

If we compare performance of Getz 1.1 and Palio 1.1, both these cars are equally bad in that... just because your pulling a ton tank with such a under powered engine... FIAT anf Hyundai both did it just for the sake of "Excise cut"... but then nobody cribbed about Getz 1.1 prime here... Is it that whtever Hyudai, Maruti does is always right?? What it should all about FIAT always?? Personally even I did not like Stile 1.1 performance but then if you look for similar efforts by Hyundai then you will feel it must be a need of the market...

Thread starter could you please drive both Getz prime and Palio stile once and then compare performace... then we are talking business...

[speedzak]

There is no proper answer yet for the question W H Y ?
I think it is better to spend energy on finding an answer to that rather than finding faults with all other cars and pulling in lame excuses.

And C3PO has a new name now!

[neoonwheels]

The answer to "WHY" is just to get the "Excise cut" nothing elseeeeeeeeeee