The 1.6. How I bought a Fiat car

[architect]

Hi Doc,

Weren't you the person I met on 3rd May afternoon / evening at Vivek Auto, Mathura Road? I was getting my radio antenna fixed on the Mag Grey Multijet and you had just test driven the black 1.6.

So you finally picked one up! Good! Looks like the legendary Fiat A.S.S. has started B.S.S. (Before Sales) already with a punctured tyre! Anyway, enjoy the car, as it is one fantastic cruiser for a hatchback!

[arajand]

Guys, thanks for all the kind words. Its all a bit overwhelming, you see I've lurking around these forums for the past two months. I must have read practically every Palio thread.

Pictures first. I think I take decent pictures usually, but I guess this time my mind was not working! But hey, the car looks good from any angle.

Attachment 18041
First sight. Actually I caught a glimpse before that but she was hiding behind a few other cars

Attachment 18042
Tata guys giving her a good wash

Attachment 18040
Dad with the to-be delivered car

There are more pictures trapped in my work computer. I'll post them soon.

My review of the 1.6.
I've driven the Esteem, the old Zen, the WagonR and the Maruti 800 previously - all for brief periods or short drives. But I am still new to driving.

Looks: No complaints in this department. The alloys are simply amazing-retro-style telephone dials. And the beautiful Formula Red can just holds your gaze for any length of time. My car draws attention in a silver and beige sea of Maruti. I am in two minds about the black strips at the sides of the doors. Do they look good or not? But they are there for a purpose so I am not going to do anything to them.

Interiors: First the good points. For me, the color scheme works - Beige-red-light brown-black. But on closer inspection, you'll see a lot of small imperfections. There are thin plastic lips at places, the kind you see in the centre of new plastic boxes. Some of the plastic - especially the ones lining the bottom 1/3rd of the doors look so cheap, you wont feel like touching them. But overcome that and tug at the plastic, it feels and works alright! I can only imagine the pains Fiat-India must have gone through to source such material. To summarize however, let me give a comparision. When we went to look at the Swift, the sales person at Rana motors showed us a brand new car which was being ICE'd. That one look was enough to drive us away - not just the black, gloomy color but the cramped backseat. The Palio on the other hand feels roomy, is roomy and bright.

Functionality: There are a lot of little touches that come as a pleasant surprise (just like the manual says). For example, my friend and I were struggling to get the cabin lights to switch off when all doors were closed. Turns out, the lights stay on for a few moments and then slowly fade away. What a thoughtful feature. When you lock up the car for the day, the light stays on to let you see whether you are leaving anything behind in the car.

The 1.6 comes with fog lamps. Should prove useful in the winters.

The blower/AC have slider controls, so what? In two years, slider controls will be back in fashion believe me

Ride and comfort: When I went for the first test-drive, Mr. Tarun the salesman ripped the car over the Apollo flyover. The growl the engine makes will sell the car. God bless his soul. Later on the way back home in a rattling and bouncing auto, my wife and I were totally surprised at the roads we drove through in the car. Absolutely pothole riddled, and I couldn't even make out a single one. This is mainly because, you do feel the bumps but you dont hear any of them. The N(VH) levels are good too.

These are my first impressions. The car had done only 100 odd kilometers, I'll be back with more a little later.

@ srijit
I dont know exactly why SBI rejected my application. I have the following things going against me: no permanent address in Delhi, no permanent job in Delhi (Senior Residency is on contract basis). Nationalized banks are getting strict with car loans, I feel. Even my State Bank of Mysore attempt was probably successful only because my dad pulled some strings for me.

@ kanwal
Kanwal sir, I agree with you. Vivek is good. Although they said "no replacement needed" initially, they went back on their word and replaced my tire.The way I see it, it is a big thing. They could have stuck to their initial stand and put all their corporate muscle behind it (as has happened with many car owners) but they did not.

@architect
Yes, that was me on 3rd May. The first time around itself, I wanted to ask you about Team BHP. Then I thought against it saying there must be a large number of car users who would just walk in and pick up the MJD. Looks like it is not that way!

[eclectix 1st]

Originally Posted by arajand

Pictures first. I think I take decent pictures usually, but I guess this time my mind was not working! But hey, the car looks good from any angle.

Attachment 18041
First sight. Actually I caught a glimpse before that but she was hiding behind a few other cars

Attachment 18042
Tata guys giving her a good wash

Attachment 18040
Dad with the to-be delivered car

Doc there seems to be an issue with the attachments.
Please go through this thread & post the pictures again. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/announ...-team-bhp.html
BTW good initial report.

[bmw_m5_titus]

Congrats on your hot hatch doc! I cant see the pics though! Please do upload again!
And well the fiat owners-a.s.s and self flagellation analogy was quite good!

[arajand]

First sight. Actually I caught a glimpse before that but she was hiding behind a few other cars


Tata guys giving her a good wash


Dad with the to-be delivered car

[vittalnrv]

I think the new model comes with red Fiat logo on Grill, Wheels and back. Also a spoiler?

[Rahulkool]

Originally Posted by vittalnrv

I think the new model comes with red Fiat logo on Grill, Wheels and back. Also a spoiler?

nope only diesel comes with new logo .... so far have seen the spoiler only on magzine pictures, maybe fiat send them cars with spoilers hehe

[arajand]

The Fiat original spoiler costs Rs. 8000/-.

[GTO - Touring]

Great looking hatch! A red Palio looks super-hot, more so when its a 1.6 How about getting a better alloy design, though I guess it is not that easy to source wheels for the Palio (weird PCD size).

[aaggoswami]

Apart from writeup, the color of your car is impressive.
And that 1.6 in the palio chassis is a perfect combination for performance and effortless driving.

I hope that your car has ABS.

[abhinav.s]

Congrats on the new car mate! Looks too good and cant stop drooling over it..Nice intro and initial review!

[GTO - Touring]

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

I hope that your car has ABS.

He wouldn't. Fiat doesn't offer ABS on its cars anymore. Come to think of it, they were ahead of their time when they gave the ABS option. Now that they don't, they are behind the times. Only Fiat could manage to do be in both of these unique situations

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by GTO - Touring

He wouldn't. Fiat doesn't offer ABS on its cars anymore. Come to think of it, they were ahead of their time when they gave the ABS option. Now that they don't, they are behind the times. Only Fiat could manage to do be in both of these unique situations

I hope they have airbags, to say the least. FIAT not offering ABS in cars is definatley not good as mentioned by you.


OT:1.6 100 eager horses and no ABS might not be good. I have posted images in our Baleno crash thread. This happened because of non-ABS car.

[arajand]

side view


In the parking lot

[Rahulkool]

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

I hope they have airbags, to say the least. FIAT not offering ABS in cars is definatley not good as mentioned by you.


OT:1.6 100 eager horses and no ABS might not be good. I have posted images in our Baleno crash thread. This happened because of non-ABS car.

car doesn't have ABS or Airbags

with stock tyres braking sucks bigtime but after upgrading to yokos ES100 195 section tyres it improves drastically for me, no matter how hard i brake never managed to lock the front wheel and they have awesome grip in corner , tested it in the track day .... altho there is body roll in the car