Palio Stile 1.6 Sport - 700km review

[Thingummy]

Its been a week now that i've been driving my formula red palio stile 1.6 sport. Liked everything about the buying experience, except the 1 week delay in shipping from FIAT, and the missing leather gear knobs, leather steering grip and the engine immobilizer - kind of disappointing after having looked forward to it based on the brochures.

The dealer, Manipal Motors at KR Road Bangalore was super helpful, and very prompt in follow up.

Have done around 700+ kms in the past 7 days - around 300km of it on highways around Bangalore. The first two mileage measures have given me 9.6 and 9.8 kmpl, with the 9.8 figure on the highway drive. I think the highway figure wasn't very different from the city figure because most of the highway was under repair and washed away in places. Driving has been fairly aggressive after the first 300kms, and i haven't been too hesitant about taking the revs above 2K. Top speed done so far was 130kmph on the new infrastructure corridor outside Bangalore.

The car is absolutely wonderful to drive, and although i thought i would miss my old zen a lot, i haven't really thought much about my zen after starting driving around in the Palio. I've driven on around 40km of horribly out of shape road (there wasn't any asphalt on the road - just stones and rocks) and was worried about the possible noises creeping in (having read other members on the forum comment about the build quality of the stiles) Must admit that there isn't a single squeak from any part so far.

Quick summary -
Palio Stile 1.6 Sport - June 2007 mfg
Dealer - Manipal Motors, KR Road, Bangalore
OTR - Rs. 4.97L
Dealer freebies - Free Extended warranty, Rs 4k discount, mats, remote locking, sunfilm, mats, car perfume.
ICE - Pio7950 HU, JBL 5.25" components up front, JBL 6x9" coaxials on the parcel shelf, JBL 60.4 amp driving the compos and the mid-end JBL SW
After-market - Leather seats, door pads, gear boot, hand brake grip, steering grip, driver's seat armrest from Ceralli - Went for art leather rear seats, with only the central part done in genuine leather - This brought the overall cost to a reasonable Rs 20K.

Here are a few pics -









Being a newbie, i'm not sure if i've covered all the basic elements of the initial ownership experience. let me know if i've missed anything.

Also, thanks to a bunch of people on this forum for helping me make the decision between the Swift ZXI and the Palio 1.6 - It was a really tough decision, and going through all the posts here was super helpful.

cheers!
raghu

[DCEite]

Awesome car! That colour goes so well with the Palio.

Nice review. Enjoy your red beauty!

[GeekSrik]

thingummy, you are definitely gonna enjoy your palio for the price points and VFM. and cool pics!!

[esteem_lover]

Terrific colour. Bring it to next weekend's meet.

[markiv]

sexy ride there!! take real good care of your baby.
Ensure that you never have to take it to service station other than for regular servicing. Pathetic is the word for Fiat A.S.S.

[spycar84]

Hey Raghu,
COngrats for the new car man....this car simply looks amazing....and all your review is also quite impressing....Happy Riding Dude !!!!

[mclaren1885]

Raghu a very nice car you have there. So how about getting it to the drive this Saturday?

[bottle]

nice hot car you have , hope to see it at next weeks meet

what door pads are those btw ?

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Nice car!

Enjoy the new ride.

[uttamc]

Originally Posted by Thingummy

After-market - Leather seats, door pads, gear boot, hand brake grip, steering grip, driver's seat armrest from Ceralli - Went for art leather rear seats, with only the central part done in genuine leather - This brought the overall cost to a reasonable Rs 20K.

cheers!
raghu

Hi Raghu,

Where did you get the driver's seat armrest from?? Could you please post a picture, ive been trying to get one of them, but finding it really hard. Could you please post pics of the front seats.

Also how did you manage 9.6 in city driving? Which fuel do you use?

[BUSA]

Very nice review and very very nice pics to follow it, your car looks very very good

the mid-end JBL SW

Is it the GT 4-12?

[speedzak]

Very nice writeup and pics. Good to see that You're enjoying it.

I think your Fuel Figures will improve after some time. We've seen some nice figures here on the forum itself.

[Thingummy]

Originally Posted by bottle

nice hot car you have , hope to see it at next weeks meet

what door pads are those btw ?

the door pads are in leather. Will have to see about the next week's meet - have kinda planned on a personal family outing to Sakleshpur with wife and some family friends..

[Thingummy]

Originally Posted by uttamc

Hi Raghu,

Where did you get the driver's seat armrest from?? Could you please post a picture, ive been trying to get one of them, but finding it really hard. Could you please post pics of the front seats.

Also how did you manage 9.6 in city driving? Which fuel do you use?

Uttam, Here's the pic of the armrest -


I've been using only Shell regular - The third top-up figure is outright splendid - I drove the past 120 km for FE. No high revs, minimal gear change, try and keep the rpm between 1500 and 2K, and gear change below 2100 - Was able to fill 10.21 litres before the petrol spilled out, and the trip meter reading was 121 kms - I'd never expected to get 12.14kmpl in city traffic within the first 1000kms on this car and would have settled for anything around 10 - Can't stop grinning ever since the 3rd filling :-)

[Thingummy]

Originally Posted by uttamc

Where did you get the driver's seat armrest from??

Got it from the same guy who did the leather stuff - Ceralli. Not sure if they have a presence in Mumbai. Actually was looking for a complete central floor console, with storage, armrest etc, and this came closest - There is no storage, but the armrest is a huge help - There is a mild inconvenience while changing to 2nd (there is sufficient gap between the gear level and the armrest, despite which the gear change action has to change from the normal action), but i don't use it within the City - On the highways, its an excellent setup providing perfect support - there is no obstruction either as the gears mostly end up in 3rd 4th or 5th ...

Also, noticed that the thigh support on the stile seating was a little bit lacking, compared to the retro 1.6 - So asked the leather guy to provide a nice slope to the driver's seat, so that the thigh was sufficiently padded. He's done a good job with that too, and there is adequate thigh support for those long journeys..