Fiat Palio Adventure 1.6 - ready to rock !

[zaphod]

In Sptember 2002 we realised that we needed a second car - a bit bigger than our esteem but not too expensive - so after looking around and much pestering by my sis and me , we looked at 3 cars - Honda City Gold, Honda City VTEC and Fiat Palio Adventure 1.6 (my folks wanted a diesel in that car - thank god there was none available)

Eventually, we fell in love with the Adventure's looks - tough, aggressive with lots of cladding , a bull bar, 4 hella foglamps , 2x5 spoke alloys and those tyres - which might have been ideal for an Army 4x4 , sadly AWD was not available - if only it had been - the adventure might have become THE enthusiasts choice in India.

The interiors were iffy - cheap plastic , though livened up by fake aluminium inserts but let down by the horrible to look at fascia - though ergonomic. And to my horror- no usable cupholders - just the ones in the glovebox.

The space ? unbelieveable - once we had 5 big suitcases, 10 pairs of shoes, small bags, boxes all stuffed to the celing in the back , amazing .

The performance and handling dept. : Performance was nice, nice power at lower revs (not as much as the baleno though) but being a heavier car, it was a bit slow - though beating accents off the line was easy , even inexperienced drivers in esteems and citys could be passed easily - even with a full load , on a bad patch on NH8 , while the lancer and city which had overtaken me at 150 had to slow down to 80, while I comfortably blasted past at 120 or so - the car feels rock solid, safe and well composed on rough roads.

Another time, on the Tonk - Jaipur Highway - there was a small hold up - villagers had blocked t he highway - so a few truck, the qualis with us and an 800 and an iindica took off - through the dirt and stones on a kuccha path through wasteland , i could keep the car under control with no fear of getting bogged down - the 800 and indica did - it was then i realised that perhaps this vehicle is among the perfect for our mixture of smooth tarmac and horrible roads - bar the Forester. Even with a load, and bad roads the car feels good and powerful, the ac is effective and doesnt drag the car down.
The handling is good on dirt but on tarmac, fast turns give a lot of body roll , not helped by those flat seats.

Problems ? - the service and sales were horrible s- i'd actually call vivek auto a bunch of cheats - we were planning to take them to consumer court - never gave us the extended warranty saying that theri salesman had made an error and we had to pay them extra - a week after getting the car - the salesman was rude at times , and it wa sonly becaue we fell in love with the car did we tolerate it . I guess i'll never buy any car belonging to the fiat group again.
Service at dynamic auto is quite bad - they have barely any iillumination inside theri workshop, car has been returned to us without ever getting th etyres rotated etc even on asking specifically for it to be done , once the car came back with no power steering fluid , once the revs refused to go above 3000., ecu had to be changed once

finally fixed except for a nasty habit of consuming copius amounts of Castrok TQ - steering fluid on long drives,the car has been troublefree for about 6 months now.

Overall, it's a fast car , not very reliable but has been okay for some time now , has lots of space, is comfy - the backseat though is too upright - not made for sleeping on long journeys, has legroom, looks , ability to go wherever a 2wd suv can go .....

Verdict : I'm glad we bought this and not the VTEC , this has some character and individuality and is fast enough with the bad road ability and load carrying capacity a definite plus.

So if you can find one secondhand , go buy it.

[lamborghini]

Hey buddy,
good write up.
BTW what is a city gold?

[zaphod]

The city gold edition was introduced around 2001-2002 - i think it only came in black, had improved imteriors and the badging at th eback was gold colourded - I'm not sure if it cam e with alloys though.

[deepakhon]

I was waiting for this review. A good one. I wish Fiat releases Adventure version with a 1.9 ltr jtd dsl engine (or atleast with the present 1.9 one with turbo) and with 4x4 option. I'd love to trade my Palio with Adventure then. Adventure has a lot of character and I really love those looks. It looks a little bulky though, but the car would definitely be great. Just wanted to know about the high speed handling of the car. I understand that the high centre of gravity takes its toll, but is the body roll managable in sharp turns? I also understand that I can't dash the car with an air of nonchallance along the curves as I now do with my Palio right now. But if the bodyroll is managable, it might as well work out well with me.

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by zaphod

The interiors were iffy - cheap plastic , though livened up by fake aluminium inserts but let down by the horrible to look at fascia - though ergonomic. And to my horror- no usable cupholders - just the ones in the glovebox.

.

That plus the arrogance of Sundram forced me to go for a Vtec

[zaphod]

deepakhon, yes the car does roll a lot on sharp turns, much more than our baleno or esteem - the springing and shocks have a longer travel as compared to the shocks on the palio hatch - but on bad roads, the car is simply unbeatable , plus the space you get.

[Harrie]

he he its a bit amusing to read ajmat's post. why??? because in coimbatore sundaram deals both honda and fiat. In fact its just a wooden partition between the fiat, honda and peugot workshops. But the quality of service is worlds apart. that is the level of commitment honda gives.

[Montoya]

Originally Posted by zaphod

The city gold edition was introduced around 2001-2002 - i think it only came in black, had improved imteriors and the badging at th eback was gold colourded - I'm not sure if it cam e with alloys though.

Came only in 1.5Exi black colour. This was without Alloys. The same one which TurboIndia used to turbo his City

[adya33]

I have always loved that car lookwise
silver color with black colored bumpers looks killer though rating it ahead of old honda city nah..... can't do that

[zaphod]

[/quote]though rating it ahead of old honda city nah..... can't do that[quote]

well, the honda city is no doubt a damn fine car but look at this ?


Winner
Performance City (not by far though, 100horses still pack a wallop)
Handling On Tarmac - City, On bad roads (which are more common)
Adventure by far
Space Adventure - more legroom , more headroom and it's an estate -
no contest
Safety Adventure - ever noticed the thick A-pillars ?
A/C Adventure
Reliability City
Resale City
Character Adventure
Soul Adventure
Looks Adventure
Features Tie
City Usage City (parking's a pain in the adventure)
Build Adventure
High Speed Stability Adventure
Torqueyness Adventure

To end it , compare the uniqueness of an adventure with the blandness of a city, the ability to carry 5 with luggage packed to the ceiling and over our kutcha highways and also on tarmac, more ground clearance than a sumo, yet rock solid and composed on high speeds....

Both are good cars, the adventure's your beer guzzling rocker and the city's the hip hip urban kid.

[adya33]

though rating it ahead of old honda city nah..... can't do that

well, the honda city is no doubt a damn fine car but look at this ?


Winner
Performance City (not by far though, 100horses still pack a wallop)
Handling On Tarmac - City, On bad roads (which are more common)
Adventure by far
Space Adventure - more legroom , more headroom and it's an estate -
no contest
Safety Adventure - ever noticed the thick A-pillars ?
A/C Adventure
Reliability City
Resale City
Character Adventure
Soul Adventure
Looks Adventure
Features Tie
City Usage City (parking's a pain in the adventure)
Build Adventure
High Speed Stability Adventure
Torqueyness Adventure

To end it , compare the uniqueness of an adventure with the blandness of a city, the ability to carry 5 with luggage packed to the ceiling and over our kutcha highways and also on tarmac, more ground clearance than a sumo, yet rock solid and composed on high speeds....

Both are good cars, the adventure's your beer guzzling rocker and the city's the hip hip urban kid.

As the name suggests
Honda City is a city car (That is why I always say old City was a joke as it was better suited to highway)
Adventure is for explorers, offroading sort of thing.

But for me its gotta be Honda city.
Nothing beats Honda reliability & service
as for thick A pillars - excess steel doesn't mean more safety, infact most people complain that those thick pillars obstruct view whilst turning.

[rahulmd]

Hey Zaphod,

What are the tyre sizes on the adventure? If im not mistaken it runs on 175/80 R 14 Could you confirm? And does your manual specify the gear ratios for each of the gears?

Why do I ask? I have a Petra running 195/60 R 14's. I cant upgrade to 15" tyres and risk breaking my rims on some very puny profile tyres. On the adventure im sure you would be able to run on 195/60 R 15. But then the gear ratios would be different from the Petra.

Thanks,
Rahul

[RX135]

Originally Posted by adya33

as for thick A pillars - excess steel doesn't mean more safety, infact most people complain that those thick pillars obstruct view whilst turning.

Does it obstruct view? yes. Excess steel doesn't mean more safety? Why not? That is what we are taught in our Mech. design classes all the years. As long as you don't leave weak links, excess steel indeed means stronger body. (Not entirely true, since crumple zones have weaker sections, but they are intentional). It is a damn over-engineered car. Stable and strong!

[adya33]

Excess steel doesn't mean more safety? Why not?

it more depends upon structure
just adding excess steel all around won't necessarily increase safety

[RX135]

Originally Posted by adya33

it more depends upon structure
just adding excess steel all around won't necessarily increase safety

Any why do you think it is added all around unnecessarily? Especially when it obviously hinders visibility of driver? All Fiats come with reinforced chasis. My friends worked on original Indica development and they know best how material was added, whenever engine suspension frame used to break down in prototype runs. Such afterthoughts do not greatly enhance safety, but when done in conscious manner, it definitely does add to safety. Even in case of Indica, it did add to safety, but not in optimized way.