Was contemplating the way to spend 1 hour between my meeting with some friends on Sat evening.
What's better than go and do a test drive a car?
Went straight to Pandit which is on the Sus road in Pune.
Asked abt Palio and Indigo CS.
The salesman blabbered for sometime regarding the features, prices etc.
I asked him the price difference if I were to regsiter the car in Pune, or in talegaon or on PCMC limits.
He was unable to answer it.
-100 points to Pandit.
Or -1000 points.
C'mone man! You should know your finances.
Next sat in CS. I found it to be astetically pleasing.
Good thigh support.
Good view.
Nice.
Then I sat in the front passanger seat and checked the glove comp.
What a pathetic fit and finish!
It was like meeting a lovely lady and when you actually shake hands you find that she hasn't waxed!
Then I checked the boot space.
Was 390 litres which is nice.
No pwer windows, bare dashboard and really lacking some of the features are some of the -ves of the CS.
Perhaps one more variant can be created to cater to the demanding customers.
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Next sat in Palio. Was anticipating a heavenly experience.
And what a let down!
The driver seat was quite uncomfortable.
Felt like my view was blocked from all directions - I am short in height at 5.6 and that was the feel I got.
Boring interiors and old designed dashboard etc.
Total disappointment.
Checked the glove comp. WT#?! Did those designers designing the car on new year with the hangover or something like that, is it?!
Rear seats were comfortable - but still not comfortable.
I cant explain. I felt them to be nice, but always had that "could have been better" feeling. Yeah! Its appraisal time in our company!
I asked abt the AC capacity.
The person told 900kgs. But said was not sure.
More WT*!!s
-2058 points for not knowing the tech specs.
Checked the exterior. Tapped the fingers and found that the noise is not same as the old palio.
Asked the person. He said that though its light, its strong.
I asked him whether I can bang my fist on the car (2 years of Martial Arts!). Haa Haa. Immediately he changed tunes and started saying that the old Palio was something else. This Palio is a compromise etc etc.
The Palio test drive vehile arrived.
Had problems while reversing due to my height. Frust! I felt as if nothing is seen.
Nways, on the road, the NHV was horrible - I mean much more than anticipated.
AC is nice with quite even cooling. No decrease in power delivery.
The person again blabbered something about "engine needs run for 5K" or something like that.
For me he was an idiot. So donno if its true or not.
Power delivery was bad. Felt acceleration only near 2K rpm.
Good thing that in the 3rd gear I drove from under 10KMPH (that's what the needle showed) to over 70.
So no frustations of gear change in traffic conditions.
Was searching for some bad roads.
But stupid PMC couldnt even keep a bad patch!
I felt the power steering to be lacking and the car to be quite a dull one.
I attribute my feelings to
1. Pathetic acceleration.
2. Large NVH.
3. Dull power steering.
4. I somehow felt not-free kinda in the car.
The salesman told me that diesels have hydro PS and petrols have electronis PS.
Was the PS talk a BS talk?
Nways, who listen to the salesguy?
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To spend some more time, I just hopped into the Indigo XL.
Man! That's the car I want.
Crisp interior.
And huge, huge space.
I need to do a TD on XL.
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So all in all, quite disappointed with Palio.
This is my 1st review and I hope its fine.
Dont go by my sig, its an old one when I hated palio due to their bad service.
~A.