The new Palio Stile 1.1 - Test driven !!

[amit]

Originally Posted by devarshi84

Had gone to Tej Motors. The guy slipped the words that the Diesel should be out within 2 months max.

I doubt that. Since the last few months both Fiat and Tata have been saying that the MJD engines will be manufactured in Ranjangaon starting 2008. I would rather believe the companies then the dealers. If it's possible, IMO, Fiat should buy the engine from MUL till they get their new plant fully functional?

Seems like the car's better torque at lower rpm has made it "peppy". I hope more bhpians get to drive the car so we have more reports on it's driveablity. What I am interested in is the car's performance climbing up an incline with 5 people and lugggage on board with A/c. Of course, the most interesting factor is FE. If Fiat has delivered on that front the car will surely see more buyers in the coming months.

I am waiting for the next month's ACI. Logan, Palio Stile and Getz Prime, 3 very interesting car's have been launched. Would love to read test reports from ACI on these cars.

[finneyp]

Excellent Drive Report Sriky!

Good to know that drivebility of Stile 1.1 is much better than earlier 1.2, thanks to the enhanced Torque!

So when are you booking the Car?

[Saurabh M]

Sriky, nice write up. Seems that the car would be more driveable in city conditions.
Did you check the driveability with the AC on? How much does it make a difference with and without the AC?
Also, is there any change in the bootspace, compared to the OV/NV?

[swathyd]

Good drive report. But one thing i want to make sure is that have you been able to feel a real difference in performance on 3rd and 4th gears.Because the former palio 1.2 was really slugish in these two gears, particularly in 3rd gear. It always tempted us to downshift to overtake.

[Samurai]

Nice report, what is the OTR price for various variants?

[GeekSrik]

Originally Posted by finneyp

Excellent Drive Report Sriky!

Good to know that drivebility of Stile 1.1 is much better than earlier 1.2, thanks to the enhanced Torque!

So when are you booking the Car?

Not clear yet. I want to wait atleast this whole month. i want to observe the Sx4 pricing as well from maruti and take a test drive of swift diesel too.

Originally Posted by swathyd

Good drive report. But one thing i want to make sure is that have you been able to feel a real difference in performance on 3rd and 4th gears.Because the former palio 1.2 was really slugish in these two gears, particularly in 3rd gear. It always tempted us to downshift to overtake.

that downshifting may no more be necessary. i felt okay with the power surge even at higher gears particularly 4th and 5th. but with a/c on i havent tried in the new palio stile 1.1, must not be much different. the engine is different and even with only 57 bhp, the car still is eager to surge forward to perform, so .... must not be difficult to drive easily.

Originally Posted by Samurai

Nice report, what is the OTR price for various variants?

the OTR is still not in, since they have to compute taxes such as road tax, VAT and the likes. whatever it is, be rest assured that it will be the cheapest among the lot !!

[etchemkay]

Originally Posted by hydrashok

The pre-NV Palios did have the dead-pedal (My 2002 1.2 ELX) has one. And the power window switches were part of the door-lock unit itself (and not the the door-handle unit).

Actually, the dead pedals are available on "some" 1.2 NVs also. Like, the time I was purchasing my 1.2NV, there were two of the same kind in the showroom (ELX) and one of them had a dead pedal and the other didn't. The showroom folks told me that it's a matter of luck whether you get a dead pedal or not.

[wizardofid]

I'm not in a market for a small car, or any other car for that matter. But I'd be curious to know how the new Stile stacks up against it's other dumpy flatmate - The 1.2 Indica Xeta (Apologies to current Indica owners. I think Tata's should have left the original italian design as is or made minimal changes instead of adding those ugly wheel arches). I recall test driving a 1.2NV as well as a 1.4Xeta for a friend about a year ago. The Palio of course 'felt' much classier and refined, but there was a marked difference in response and pulling power, the Xeta being the better of the two.

Fiat's got to price it only just above the Xeta if they want large sales. Consumers would move from Xeta to Fiat within the showroom itself if they saw no more than a 10~12% premium on the Fiat.

[DCEite]

Originally Posted by etchemkay

Actually, the dead pedals are available on "some" 1.2 NVs also. Like, the time I was purchasing my 1.2NV, there were two of the same kind in the showroom (ELX) and one of them had a dead pedal and the other didn't. The showroom folks told me that it's a matter of luck whether you get a dead pedal or not.

Wow that is weird! Fiat India never ceases to amaze me.

[mahadev_kc]

Originally Posted by GeekSrik

going by the fact that all fiat only dealers arent even mentioned, i think its going to be directly on the punto. the logistics of these guys selling only 1.3 mjd through fiat only dealers wont work out for them and will be too complex. that aside, they seem to totally be aligning with tata in a proper way.

If you scroll through FIAT website, I guess, you wont find the FIAT only dealers. Now the distribution is through only TATA-FIAT dealers only.

[Ricky_63]

Well.......nice review. Would like to look at ALL the options & then take a call , the 1.1, 1.6 & the Diesel Avtaar....Any idea when all these may be available ??

Cheers

[yatin]

Without making this another review or comparision of B-segment cars, I just want to provide a different view of the 1.1 Palio Stile (while referring quite a bit to the competition), primarily disagreeing on the performance and comfort fronts.
I also quote on-road price in Bangalore for variants of this car as well as the 1.2 Aveo UV-A and the 1.1 Getz Prime (road taxes, as well as property taxes, were hiked recently in Bangalore, hence the price mention).

This is a long post (as also my first one), so if you have any comments on it, I am all ears...

I just experienced a test drive of the 1.1 Palio Stile (at Prerana Motors, Lal Bagh Road, Bangalore) and the 1.2 Aveo UV-A (at Garuda Autocraft, Lal Bagh Road, Bangalore).
My brother is buying, and he had test-drove the 1.1 Getz Prime (at Trident Hyundai) earlier in the week; today was to check out the competition. We are both close to 6ft in height, and there were always 2 other people in the car with us.

Product:
Going for a test drive late in the morning between 11:30 and 12:30 (Bangalore is quite hot nowadays), the one thing that struck us was the A/C on the Stile - it cooled the cabin till the rear seats in under a minute, and in 2 minutes, we switched it off to avoid freezing! It's that good. On the Aveo UV-A we later tried, the A/C was not this quick (but not bad either). Having the A/C on does not impact the 1.1 Stile engine too much. But that's not saying much.
I would differ with GeekSrik, and say that the engine is quite under-powered in city traffic. In the 2-odd kilometres of city traffic we covered, it struggled to pull the car ahead in 2nd and 3rd gears. My brother is impatient with cars that require shifting to 3rd at speeds of 35-kmph+ just to overtake a bus, and that is exactly what this car requires the driver to do (with the A/C on, but as mentioned earlier, it does not make too much difference). I would not want to compare it with an out-of-production model like the 1.2 NV, but compared to the Aveo UV-A (and, as per my brother, compared to the 1.1 Getz Prime), the Stile is too sluggish. Cabin noise is not too much, but noticeable compared to the deathly quiet UV-A (and the Getz, I am told); this was another put-off for my brother.
Fuel efficiency is one area where the Stile may end up scoring over the UV-A/Getz, but I would think it would be maybe only 6-8% better than UV-A/Getz. I suspect that, in the B segment, being slightly less fuel-efficient is acceptable, but being less powerful may not be acceptable.
The front seats are spacious enough, but Fiat has got the driver position all wrong (if it was the same way earlier, they have done nothing about it and that's baaaad). The vertical distance between the steering wheel and the seat is small enough that your thighs scrape the steering wheel; if you pull the seat back a bit to overcome this, the deep-set pedals are out of reach. I am surprised that people who make cars for 'car lovers' can go so wrong with the 'car lover's driving position. Driving position is definitely not an issue with the Aveo UV-A (or the Getz Prime, I am told).
Rear seat comfort is missing! The seats are a bit hard, and there are no rear-seat headrests in the base model (SL) atleast. Legroom is a bit more than sufficient. That's the good news. Headroom is an issue for people sitting near the doors; I could not sit in a relaxed position near the door, but was comfortable in the middle of the seat. I suspect with 3 well-endowed people, shoulder room will also be an issue. After the Stile, the UV-A was paradise; the rear seats were simple and comfortable, with plenty of headroom and legroom ( and I suspect shoulder room). I am told the Getz too is good in this department.
I am not too much into other facets of cars (looks, upholstery, dashboard gimmickry, sales people, etc.); so I would just comment that the feature list on the lower end models of the Stile is slightly smaller than the competition - power-steering is standard on all base models, but the 1.1 Stile has only A/C while the Aveo UV-A and the Getz Prime have HVAC or A/C + heater; the Getz even has tilt-steering.

Price:
Fiat has got this one right - if you (and your passengers) are not very tall, you don't mind adjusting a bit in the driver's seat, and your profile tends towards Buddha more than towards Raikkonen, the Palio Stile should fit well under the typical B-segment budget.
How about on-road prices (Bangalore) of 411047 for the Stile SL (base model) and 457189 for the fully-loaded Stile SLX (no ABS or airbags).
Now forget the sluggishness (and the fuel-efficiency) of the 1.1 - how about 507183 for the 100bhp 1.6 Sports?
Compare this with the more comfortable, more powerful but potentially less fuel-efficient competition.
The 1.1 Getz Prime GLE is 448566. GVS is 485389. The 1.3 Getz Prime GLS is 564131, while the GLX is 609866 (with ABS).
The Aveo UV-A is 462058, the LS is 508420, the LT is 554137, the LT with option pack is 594424 (with ABS).

Fiat probably are trying to offer a less-expensive alternative in the B-segment with the 1.1 Stile, and a similar but performance-oriented alternative in the 1.6 Sports. But given the cabin noise, seat and driving discomfort, and the not-so-good interiors, I doubt they will succeed in either of their attempts.
On my brother's part, he had decided to go with the Getz Prime GLE 1.1, as power windows are not on his list of essentials. The UV-A was marginally more expensive and marginally better in driveability and space, but the spectre of higher spare and service costs with GM pointed him towards Hyundai (the GM sales executive showed a comparision of spares for GM versus Maruti and Hyundai, and GM was on par with Hyundai on most spares, but twice as expensive on the AC coil and suspension parts).

[manu_neo]

Wow! The first words that escaped my mouth after seeing the Furnace Red 1.1 New Palio Stile, the Fiat engineers have done a wonderful job of packaging old wine in a new bottle as per the aesthetics and proportions are concerned.
I have always been a great fan of solid Fiat engineering although did not have had the opportunity to own one, but I think that’s going to change soon.
Went to the Goldrush Tata showroom at Sapru Marg in Lucknow for a test drive as I find them reliable and cooperative. Earlier I had test drove Fiat Adventures which I absolutely salivated over until the harsh realities of its pathetic FE dawned upon and I settled for a Swift Vxi .
Well for the test drive impressions of the Palio Stile 1.1 :-

1 .For starters it is definitely underpowered at 57 bhp and 92 nm torque ,not exactly a Road scorcher .
2. Initial pickup was good enough for city driving, but shift into 2nd gear /3rd gear and u realize that it is indeed a 1.1 engine, that too 2cyl/v SOHC, but it’s the FIRE engine not the older TORQUE one .
3. Now having dealt with the negatives, I come to the positives which are far too many.
4. You absolutely fall in love with ride quality, the suspensions are real good and suitable for Indian driving conditions .IT IS A FIAT, no doubt.
5. The seating position is also quite good, but the front and the rear legroom really take the cake.
6. the turning radius at 5.1m is a bit high for a B- segment car but the responsive power steering takes care of that .
7.Braking is more that adequate and the braking at high speeds do not cause any anxiety and provides u with the Fiat assurance.
8.It comes in 3 models – SL,SLE , SLX with 6 colors ,but I liked furnace red the most .
9.Claimed Mileage of 15.5 kmpl in city conditions cannot be tested but should be close for a 1.1 car
10.Boot space is not at all adequate due to the wheel arches and the suspension bolt
11. The AC is real powerful and there is not even a hint of power lag on switching on the AC .
.Now comes the crowning glory – the PRICE :

SL - Rs.358989
SLE - Rs.379234
SLX- Rs.399591
Ex Showroom Lucknow (it’s a steal for a car of this quality really .)

Donno about the Getz Prime as the model wasn’t available with dealer today ,but I doubt that it can give Fiat’s quality (also getz prime is about 20-30 k more expensive than the palio ).

[GeekSrik]

Originally Posted by yatin

I would differ with GeekSrik, and say that the engine is quite under-powered in city traffic. In the 2-odd kilometres of city traffic we covered, it struggled to pull the car ahead in 2nd and 3rd gears. My brother is impatient with cars that require shifting to 3rd at speeds of 35-kmph+ just to overtake a bus, and that is exactly what this car requires the driver to do (with the A/C on, but as mentioned earlier, it does not make too much difference). I would not want to compare it with an out-of-production model like the 1.2 NV, but compared to the Aveo UV-A (and, as per my brother, compared to the 1.1 Getz Prime), the Stile is too sluggish. Cabin noise is not too much, but noticeable compared to the deathly quiet UV-A (and the Getz, I am told); this was another put-off for my brother.

well, the second gear doesnt allow you to go much, but i could feel an improvement over the previous one, since i owned an NV earlier to this and found that real sluggish with a/c. please note that you need to press the pedals really hard for any effect. this is one issue i already mentioned that i did not like, the pedal hardness. but i am still not sure i would like to term it sluggish. third gear is a dream, but not second.

but Fiat has got the driver position all wrong (if it was the same way earlier, they have done nothing about it and that's baaaad). The vertical distance between the steering wheel and the seat is small enough that your thighs scrape the steering wheel; if you pull the seat back a bit to overcome this, the deep-set pedals are out of reach. I am surprised that people who make cars for 'car lovers' can go so wrong with the 'car lover's driving position. Driving position is definitely not an issue with the Aveo UV-A (or the Getz Prime, I am told).

this point is fully true. since there is no tilt steering either, the driver's knee does touch the steering column. this might be one point why I might reject the palio myself.

After the Stile, the UV-A was paradise; the rear seats were simple and comfortable, with plenty of headroom and legroom ( and I suspect shoulder room). I am told the Getz too is good in this department.

yes absolutely agree, its a paradise feeling!

[DriverR]

Just a thought..... based on engine cc, the Palio 1.1 is competing against the Zen, Wagon R, Santro, Getz 1.1 and U-VA, right??? But if one were to look at prices, the Getz and U-VA gets pushed to a different group level. (for the base model of Getz and U-VA, one can get the top end model of the other cars)