And I got a used Fiat Palio Sport 1.6 Hey folks,
I owned a Tata Indica V2 diesel for the last 4.5 years. I was thinking of changing my car and shift to a bigger/better car. Not that Indica is a bad car. I have driven it for around 50K Kms. in the past 4 years.
It was the right time to change my car since a diesel would fetch a better value with just 4.5 years and 50K Kms on the ODO. So I set about looking for new/old cars around 3 months back.
The dream was to buy the Safari DICOR EX 4X4. But budget and other priorities removed it from the top of the list to....out of the list.
I started hunting for used cars.
Next in line was a used Adventure. Came across a Peacock blue Adventure but before I could make the decision, I had to go out of town for a couple of weeks. The car was gone.
Next in line, a used Palio GTX/1.6 Sport or some new car in 6 lacs.
Test drove the 1.6 Petrol Logan. Nice car, good low end for city drives and good mileage(so says the service representative) as well.
Considered the Tata Indigo TDI LX for some days as well. The EMI was killing me.
So 1 fine day, I logged on to carwale and searched for used Palio 1.6 in Pune city. BOOOM....there it was...a May 2007 Palio 1.6 Sport, black colour and a mere 5K on the ODO. Off I went to the agent who had it listed. Saw the car, took a test drive. No scratches, service records well maintained and Blaupunkt + 4 JBL speakers. So enquired about the agent and his reputation in the market is to good to be true. Asking price for the car was 3.6 lacs. Talked to the agent about price. He said, nothing below 3.5 lacs. So waited for a few days to check whether he was ready to negotiate some more but to no avail.
Finally decided to take the plunge. The car I liked so much just by reading about it was finally to be mine. Asked him whether I could buy-back the Indica. He said "of-course". He was ready to pay 2 lacs for the Indica. I though it was less. But the Indica did have some problems. The suspension needed some work due to it being abused by driving in potholed roads in Pune for 4 years. Some "touch-up" job needed to be done for the paint, the front bumper needed replacement because of a stupid biker who didn't brake in time and crashed into the bumber. Considering all this, 2 lacs is acceptable. Enquired at other agents' and they said nothing above 1.85. So went back to the agent and gave him the Indica.
So 27th August was the day when I took delivery of the Black Palio Sport 1.6. Did all the formalities. The agent gave me a garland and a coconut. This was sweet. Finally, I got the car by paying 1.5 lacs extra. Good deal? Hell YES!!! The car looks very sexy.
So welcome to an all new world of driving experience after driving the diesel Indica (I miss her so much. Was my first car) for more than 4 years.
The rush of the Palio is something different. Its really different and I am enjoying every moment of it.
The only concern (if you may call it) is the mileage. Initial guess is somewhere around 8/9 ish. But its OK. EMI ka paisa petrol mein daalunga.
Now people - It would be great if you could give me some pointers to:
1. What is the list of things that I should check in the car considering its run just 5K Kms?
2. I am visiting TASS to do a check up of the car. Should I get it serviced properly? What are the things I should get checked? I expect that a free service might be pending because only 2 free servicings have been done before.
3. Any surprises I should expect?
4. Is the run-in period over?
Of course, I will be reading through the entire manual but any additional help is appreciated.
Best Regards,
Kaustubh |