[CarsPG]

Originally Posted by AnonymousCoward

Doesn't it sound like only marketing? Would be happy to be corrected though.

When folks took extended warranty earlier for 48 months, what was the mileage covered under that? Thanks.

The mileage covered remains the same 150,000 kms. 2 additional months is good though.

Originally Posted by pradster

Could you shed some more light this point GTO? Given my limited understanding I would assume engine oil would last for the same mileage despite conditions of traffic, heat, potholes , dust etc.

In India if a car is driven in the city you have to constantly brake and accelerate. This impacts the engine oil. If the same kms were being driven on a highway the impact would be much milder!

[myavu]

Originally Posted by Ramsagar

Thats a great step taken by FIAT.

Now people want 1.6 MJD in Linea with not more than a premium of 50-70K.
That would make Linea a complete car with all the gadgetry & mean machine to roll on.

What say Guys?

+1 - Why not a Punto with 1.6 MJD too?

Just waiting for that beast

Cheers!

[fast lane]

AGREE...I am owning a Siena (1999) too. One observation, BU Bhandari at Pune(wakad) has a few spares and they are CHEAPER THAN outside market. I have bought the Air Filter Box, Timing Chain cover and Tining chain Pulley from them and they are way cheaper than than the market. FIAT needs to make available parts of older models if they want to be in India. Soumo. Pune.

[pawan_pullarwar]

Copied it from PUG and FCI

================================================== ===============================
From: FiatClubIndia@ yahoogroups. com [mailto:FiatClubInd ia@yahoogroups. com] On Behalf Of XXXX
Sent: 10 November 2009 12:25
To: Hormuzd; Fci mail id; paliousergroup@ yahoogroups. com
Subject: Re: [FiatClubIndia] Fiat Roadside Assistance


I had a break down of accelerator cable last fri night at 830@pm in the middle of a highway on way to tirupati with family in my adventure.
Called roadside assistance. In 1 hour there was a mechanic and with constant oncall support from tata motors..mechanic actually managed to go back to nearest town middle of night, used his ingenuity, replaced cable with a bajaj scooter cable, repair completed by 1130 pm and I was in tirupati at 1215 midnight.
Replacement original fiat cable receive by concorde and got a call from them today.
I am a delighted customer ! So not a one off...
Cheers
XXXX
Sent on my BlackBerry® from Vodafone
================================================== =====================================
From: XXXX
Subject: [FiatClubIndia] Fiat Roadside Assistance
To: FiatClubIndia@ yahoogroups. com
Received: Monday, 9 November, 2009, 10:20 PM

Hi Everybody,
Writing to share my experience with Fiat Roadside Assistance. My battery had gone too weak to start the car so I called 1800-209-3428.
The phone was answered by a smart sounding guy with an "eager to help" tone. He asked me what model I had and when I said Petra 1.6 he asked me if that was a Fiat vehicle. I told him that it was a sedan version of the Palio 1.6 and he said "oh a Palio conversion" - I thought it was no use trying to explain further - so I said yes.
In any case he assured me that he would organise help and within 20 minutes a Tata Motors van was at my office carpark and a well mannered and helpful mechanic was out jump starting my car. Even before we had finished, the Fiat guy was calling the mechanic and following up to see if the job had been done.
Now - that was a wow experience - completely unexpected from Fiat or Tata.
This roadside assistance is meant for all fiat vehicles within 50 months of sale and mine is in its 48th month.
That was my experience - I hope it was not a one off.
Another lesson I learnt today was that my car is so exclusive that even Fiat customer service is not aware of the existence of the model.
Best wishes to all of you over there - hope everybody starts seeing a welcome but unexpected change in customer service experience.
XXXXX
Petra 1.6 ELX 2005 63500 Km

[vivprasad]

Wonder what it would be like in cities other than Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, New Delhi etc. Haven't heard a lot about experiences, but then, number of Fiat Grand Punto and Linea customers is very limited. I am avoiding buying a Linea due to the indifferent service of Fiat, and the biggest worry is whether they would be maintaining an inventory of spare parts for ready replacement. I have heard so many stories of repair being delayed due to non-availability of spares.

[pawan_pullarwar]

My friend have Palio GTX and he is facing clutch related issue. Below is his mail.

In last month, clutch prob had started in my car. Half clutch was as usual but after that it used to very hard and I cud hear tak tak noise under hood. Then after 3/4 days, in traffic jam I pressed full clutch and put 1st gear and released clutch still car did not move. I tried pressing clutch and brake paddle many times and after 5 min it started moving as usual. This happened twice so I went to BUB (now no one expert thr to understand the issue). I talked to Amol and said that this issue happens sometimes and not regularly. No one could diagnose the issue and then Amol said that he would replace master and slave clutch cylinder and then chk if prob comes again. It cost me 5000 and still I am not sure if that prob has gone. Still clutch feels harder towards end. I discussed this issue with him again he said if prob comes again then we will have to change entire clutch assembly (another 7500) so earlier change of master / slave cylinder wud b useless. So its all trail and err basis. Also now you will never get your car in a day after servicing. Will have to wait for 2 days at least for normal servicing. New mgr Vitthal (in place of Sameer) does not allow us to stand near our car at workshop and ask us to b in front cabin L

On the contrary Hyundai had arranged free check up camp inside Kunal Icon and had taken appointment for servicing with the issues reported by customer. It was kind of door to door survey and gave goodies to its customer. When FIAT will improve their A.S.S in india?? NO FATE!!!

Fiat can not improve the service by sending the CEO visit to all the Tata-Fiat showroom. Or introducing Fiat First program. It has to be done by the implementing the process in place. In case of Maruti, you write a single mail to Maruti and next day service adviser will run behind you asking what is the problem. This is all the process which does the job without runnning behind the one problem.

[greenhorn]

another bhpian is testing out this service as I post this message.(he was forced to volunteer for this thanks to the stellar service on his car yesterday by my favourite tata-fiat service center ) Waiting to hear his review !

[bottle]

As far as I know this is only for Puntos and Lineas right ?

[greenhorn]

nope, free for new palios, paid (per visit) for older ones. check the specifics

btw, fiat owners better take a printout of this form and fill the details. You will need it
http://www.fiat-india.com/E_Brochure...nce-Manual.pdf

[ms001]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

btw, fiat owners better take a printout of this form and fill the details. You will need it
[/url]

care to explain why

[Satya79]

I have an experience with the RSA. I have a Palio 12.ELX 2002. The engine cooling fan conked off a couple of months ago and I was stranded in peak traffic around 7pm at Andheri East. I called the Help line; the gentleman on the line asked me to identify my car to confirm whether it was registered with their Service centers. When I informed him that it was a 2002 model, and not registered, he mentioned that I would need to pay an annual subscription of Rs. 500 for the RSA. He would send a mechanic to check the car within 30 mins (since they had a dealer close to where I was located). If the car was not repairable on the spot, they would take it to the nearest service center.

He took my number, called the mechanic, put me on conference with the mechanic and instructed him to reach me asap.

I did not use it at the end, since I found a tow van close by and preferred to tow the car to my residence, rather than go to a service center...why? Well....Tata Motors at Worli (where i got my car serviced till April 2009) had very politely refused to service my car in July 2009. This was a routine service, which I normally do every 5000 kms.
Reason given: " It is difficult to stock parts for the pre 2007 Palios, so Tata Motors has sent a circular to all dealers not to accept these cars for any kind of service".

So, whats the point of an efficient RSA if the older cars cannot get taken care of at the Service centre?
This is a great initiative by FIAT, the response is good, very quick; however, parts availability at the authorized service centers is still definitely an issue.

If the service centers refuse to accept older versions for routine service / repair, it really puts a question mark on the long term viability of owning a FIAT, doesn't it?

[greenhorn]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

nope, free for new palios, paid (per visit) for older ones. check the specifics

btw, fiat owners better take a printout of this form and fill the details. You will need it
http://www.fiat-india.com/E_Brochure...nce-Manual.pdf

Originally Posted by ms001

care to explain why

I believe the answer to that question can be found here
RTFM - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[clevermax]

Fiat-First worked, and that too for my Retro Palio 1.2! Here's how:

The whole thing happened on this lousy rainy Sunday.
Excerpt: My car refuses to start in the morning, and I get it repaired at my home itself - Fiat-First RSA.
____________________________________


Yesterday I drove 100 Kms from Trivandrum to my native place after collecting the car from Kulathunkal motors Trivandrum, routine service at 45000 Kms was being done, with front suspension and Clutch MC change.
Today morning the trouble started.

10:30 AM:
I start my car third time during the day and move forward, engine coughs and dies.

10:45 AM:
No sign of life in engine, repeated cranks, but no luck.

10:50 AM:
I call up fellow t-bhpian jkdas and he redirects me to greenhorn. From Greenhorn I get the Fiat First customer care number and road side helpline of Kulathunkal motors number. Thanks a lot greenhorn!

I call up Kulathunkal motors help line first, but thet politely refuse to come 100 Kms to service.

Then I call up Fiat-First, to my surprise, the call gets answered and the person at the other end greets me!

Then he asked all car details - VIN, year & month of purchase, reg. number etc. Then he called me back in five minutes and put the service manager of Kulathunkal motors on conference call! Then I explained the problem. He promised to send Kulathunkal Kollam helpline guys to my house.

Then after 10 minutes Kulathunkal kollam helpline called and they told they will come in the evening because they are with some other car.

2:45 PM:
Still waiting, gave them a call again, they told they will start after 4:00PM from there.

So far things are moving, but slow.

4:30 PM:
Called the helpline guys again, he says he will start soon, as he is waiting for his colleague.

5:30 PM:
I get a call from Trivandrum Kulathunkal and I am told that they are also on their way with necessary parts and tools. They think that the problem is with the crank sensor.

6:15 PM:
Servcce guys from Kollam Kulathunkal came with the tow-Sumo. They inspect the car and say that crank sensor might have gone, they want to tow the car to Kollam service center with their Sumo. But the service guys from Kulathunkal

Trivandrum is already on their way with spare parts and tools! Asked them to wait.

8:00 PM:
The service guy from Trivandrum shows up in a Palio 1.9D. He replaces the crank sensor with the spare part amd starts up the car - Whoaa! The problem is resolved!

8:45 PM:
I call up the service engineer who has been follwing it up, to say thanks while the service guys leave. This service was offered absolutely free of cost.
I got around 5 to 6 calls during the day from Fiat-First person sitting at Mumbai - they were actually following it up actively.

10:15 PM:
I get the last call of the episode from Fiat First, I updated them about the service and expressed my gratitude and appreciation.

Who says Fiat A.S.S is bad? At least I am happy that they are now very responsive.

[kanwal]

Originally Posted by pawan_pullarwar

My friend have Palio GTX and he is facing clutch related issue. Below is his mail.

In last month, clutch prob had started in my car. Half clutch was as usual but after that it used to very hard and I cud hear tak tak noise under hood. Then after 3/4 days, in traffic jam I pressed full clutch and put 1st gear and released clutch still car did not move. I tried pressing clutch and brake paddle many times and after 5 min it started moving as usual. This happened twice so I went to BUB (now no one expert thr to understand the issue). I talked to Amol and said that this issue happens sometimes and not regularly. No one could diagnose the issue and then Amol said that he would replace master and slave clutch cylinder and then chk if prob comes again. It cost me 5000 and still I am not sure if that prob has gone. Still clutch feels harder towards end. I discussed this issue with him again he said if prob comes again then we will have to change entire clutch assembly (another 7500) so earlier change of master / slave cylinder wud b useless. So its all trail and err basis. Also now you will never get your car in a day after servicing. Will have to wait for 2 days at least for normal servicing. New mgr Vitthal (in place of Sameer) does not allow us to stand near our car at workshop and ask us to b in front cabin L

On the contrary Hyundai had arranged free check up camp inside Kunal Icon and had taken appointment for servicing with the issues reported by customer. It was kind of door to door survey and gave goodies to its customer. When FIAT will improve their A.S.S in india?? NO FATE!!!

Fiat can not improve the service by sending the CEO visit to all the Tata-Fiat showroom. Or introducing Fiat First program. It has to be done by the implementing the process in place. In case of Maruti, you write a single mail to Maruti and next day service adviser will run behind you asking what is the problem. This is all the process which does the job without runnning behind the one problem.

2 instances from my experience :

1. I was not allowed inside service area at RKS (Sabo) Motors, Hyderabbad when I gave my Alto for servicing. I was asked to wait in cabin

2. I gave my Alto for general servicing at GEM Motos, Hyderabad. Used their free pick and drop service. 2 days later at 8:00 PM when i got my car back, would you believe, its EPS has gone and service center guys knew about it and they still sent it to me. I was so mad, I called up their service center head, abused him like anything and sent the car back. I complained to Maruti - no response (till date). After 2 days of wait, took half day leave and set at the head of service center GM/Manager and ensured that they rectify the problem at their cost. Fed up with so called Maruti Customer Service/ Authorized service centers and gave my Alto at First Choice, HYD. They did much better job. Huh! Maruti Customer Service?

[the_maven]

Here is my experience with fiat road side assistance.

I left my punto at my home town (Kurnool, AP) for more than two weeks. And the battery got completely drained. I tried to start to car on last sat'day, but didnt start. Later, I called the sales person Ravi (Malik Cars, Hyderabad) about the problem. He gave me the fiat road side assistance toll free number.

I called them, they asked me the chassis number, model, etc details and my current location and directions to reach that place. They called me again and said their vendor will reach my home within half-hour. Within 30mins a person with spare battery came to my home and did the jump-start of the car.

Before buying punto, one of my concerns was service. This incident shows, fiat is trying a lot to improve the after sales experience of the customers. And, its a good sign for the fiat owners.