| |||||||
 |
| Search this Thread |  68,432 views |
24th July 2009, 16:31
| #1 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Mangalore
Posts: 773
Thanked: 581 Times
| Chica Italiano dressed in White! the Saga Begins!!! (White Linea) Update: Now Sold ! Hi All!! The search for a new car began when i noticed a few dents on the skinny metal of my SX4, Jan 2008 Model in March 2009. Even when someone happened to lean against the car or when a stray seed of a Tree fell onto the car the Bonnet / doors seemed to end up with minute dents which was a big turn off for me.  Being a Keen follower of Tbhp i saw a few Linea Ownership experiences along with all the niggles and the talk about the deplorable A** at TATA i decided to plunge head on into buying this beauty!Fast Forward to April 10th 2009 i Placed an ad on NDTV-Carwale by paying Rs. 750/- for sale of my Sx4 and got a response on 14th! . saved the Commission that i would have Otherwise paid the Second Hand Dealer and thenThe Buyer gave a token advance of 50K and i proceeded to Automatrix the TATA -Fiat Dealer ! Now Begins the real Pain of Buying the Car. the Visit on 15th to the Dealership was fruitless as no one attended to me for 45 minutes that i was there! walked to the reception and told them that i am looking for a Linea and all i got were weird stares and a lady executive shoved a brochure and Price List into my Hands with the words "waiting period 3-4 weeks" when asked for the test Drive, i was told that the test drive vehicle had retired for the day and it was only 5.45 pm and was also told that if i came at 5 pm the next day i would be given a test drive. i had seen a Vocal White colour on the website and enquired about the same for which came the rude reply "fiat Doesnt have any whites" i whipped out my blackberry and went to the website and showed them the pic! the expression on their faces was worth capturing!!! the Next day i religiously reached the showroom at 5 pm only to be told that the test Drive mule had been taken to udupi for display and that they would call me the next day when the mule was free. now the furstration began! the Third day i.e 17th of April i waited till 6 p.m. for the Showroom Executive to call me and invite me for the test drive.. however things were not meant to be and there was no call. immediately i shot off a mail to Mr. Rajiv Kapoor, thru the link on the CEO corner on the website and waited for action to Begin! 18th of April and still No response! this was getting frustrating!! 4 p.m. 18th April i called up the showroom and blasted the Showroom executives for not getting back to me only to be informed that they are waiting for me to Come for the TD. what a royal treatment did i recieve! right from the GM of Sales till each and every executive was on his toes and trying to get my attention...and i was trying to understand the reason for this change of attitude towards me Psst.. Secret: the grapevine in the showroom told me on my way out that "someone from Fiat called up and gave a good Firing to the GM Sales and the GM sales Never expected this to Happen" !! so here i was announcing my presence to Automatrix with Style! the GM demanded a booking amount of 200K which i flatly refused saying i wouldnt want them to earn interest on my Money and gave an advance of Just 50K. I also told them that i want the car at any cost by 30th of April, even if it meant that they had to Drive down to Ranjangaon and get the car. after the sound bashing by the Honchos at Fiat things had improved quite a lot and the GM promised delivery latest by Saturday the 2nd of May 2009!  a few Phone calls here and there and the GM had blocked a Vocal White linea for me at Concorde Bangalore!! 30th April was Election day in Mangalore and 1st Mayday and the dealership was closed. the GM volunteered to send his drivers to bangalore on 28th Night and they would leave Bangalore on 29th Night with the Vocal White Linea!! i was really excited, hardly slept a wink and at 6 am the next day recieved a call from Ramu the Dealers Driver that he ahd reached and that i could have a look at the car! and so at 8 i went to the Yard and saw the car parked there! examined the car for scratches / Dents and finding no Belmishes on her, thanked Ramu for being careful with the lady!FF to May 2nd, all Delivery formalities completed i.e handing over of Balance Payment, photographs, ID / Address proof given, i handed over my Sx4 with a heavy heart to the new owner at 4.30 pm and headed over to Automatrix for the delivery scheduled at 6! Registration had been done, 2nd PDI completed (the first one was at Concorde) polishing done, Sun Control 3M RE35 was being fixed. at 7.30 p.m everything was done! the Customary Photgraph, handing over of Keys, pack of chocolates and here i was with the Only Vocal White Chica in Mangalore. Still Continue to hold this distinction till date!! |
|
| |
|
24th July 2009, 18:06
| #2 |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: May 2007 Location: Vadodara
Posts: 4,982
Thanked: 2,931 Times
| |
|
|
|
24th July 2009, 20:09
| #3 | |
| BHPian Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Mangalore
Posts: 773
Thanked: 581 Times
| Quote:
 freebies - Carpet mats with Linea insignia. Later on after pursuing the availability of Mudflaps with Mr. Ashish Bhardwaj @ fiat and forwarding the List of accessories available for Linea that i recieved from Fiat to the dealership got a set of Mudflaps free. OT was 9.76!! Pics follow! Upgrades : 1. Bought a K&N replacement filter part No 33-2392 and installed it. The Engine has become super smooth and added a few Bhp to itself. The Distributor Methods Bangalore didnt have an idea about the availibility of the filter so purchased it from Mumbai 2. Junked the junk Goodyear GT3 that were noisy and purchased Michellin Primacy LC 195/60/15 and filled in Nitrogen. End result better Road grip, better Cushioned Drive and absolutely No Road Noise 3. Did Waxoyl Paint protection, cavity waxing, Engine protection and Underbody Waxing - underbody waxing also acts as a sound deadener. Paint protection Makes the water Droplets bead off 4. May 11th had the first Niggle when the LHS quarterglass Chrome strip went Missing. was replaced Free of cOst by Automatrix. Thanks to them. they also used the glass sealant gum to fix it back and its now as solid as ever. The reasoning is that fevibond and the Like tend to lose their Binding qualities when exposed to Vagaries of weather as in Mangalore 5. May 14th had the second Niggle of the seat Going down automatically. the GM Service @ Automatrix mr. Manoj gave me a demo as to the probable reason why the seat comes down and have been observing it since then. the reason " the lever is at a height because of which it fouls with the thigh during ingress and Egress" 6. May 19th contacted various Leather seat manufacturers for covering my beauty with leather skins. namely Karlsson bangalore, Stanley bangalore, saddles bangalore, pensee bangalore, Splendid bangalore and Stallion bangalore. Only two replied. karlsson and pensee. pensee gave a quote that was hard to understand - genuine leather seats @ 23500/- and after discount @ 19500/-, Automotive leather @ 11500/- After discount @ 9500/ - PU leather at 8500/- and after Discount @ 6500/- when i hadnt asked for discounts!  he wasnt sure if he had someone to do the fitting in Mangalore but managed to cobble up some guys to do the fitting. Karlsson was More profesisonal in his approach and gave me a good quotation. More to follow | |
|
|
|
24th July 2009, 20:12
| #4 |
| BHPian Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Mangalore
Posts: 773
Thanked: 581 Times
| |
|
|
|
24th July 2009, 20:19
| #5 |
| BHPian Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Mangalore
Posts: 773
Thanked: 581 Times
| |
|
|
|
24th July 2009, 20:23
| #6 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: B E N G A L U R U
Posts: 473
Thanked: 0 Times
| |
|
|
|
24th July 2009, 20:37
| #7 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
Posts: 1,891
Thanked: 42 Times
| |
|
|
|
24th July 2009, 20:43
| #8 |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Melbourne
Posts: 4,376
Thanked: 5,105 Times
| |
|
|
|
24th July 2009, 20:45
| #9 |
| Senior - BHPian  | |
|
|
|
24th July 2009, 20:55
| #10 | |
| BHPian Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Mangalore
Posts: 773
Thanked: 581 Times
| Quote:
=> No discounts on the Epack as yet continuing the saga... sorry for going into Sermons. i am trying to condense the 3 Month experience within 3 Posts. May 11th to June 21st - No Niggles.. No problems. I am enjoying being Admired at atleast for my car! June 21st 6 Pm.. dad reverses the scorpio in the pic and brushes against my Rear Right door. i had exchanged parking places with him that morning to avoid the attack of falling fruits of the "dhoopa" tree. Result Small dent on RR door. next morning visit automatrix for repairs. denting job done within an Hour. Now begins the Nightmare...Automatrix doesnt have the Vocal white Formulation. To make matters worse they try their experiments trying to Match the pearl white colour of the safari to the Linea. End result on june 22nd - Disaster. the door looks as though it has been removed from some other vehcile and transplanted here!! June 23rd I again Visit Automatrix and the painters again try their luck at Colour matching. the dupont Supplier also pitches in with his suggestions. in a tri- coat system paint has been sprayed 4 times thats about 12 coats! Colour still doesnt match and am frustrated. Blast the GM sales and ask him to contact Fiat and ask for help. The arrogant person that he is doesnt contact Fiat but some people in Bangalore and some TATA-Fiat dealers who forward a Paint formulation of nerolac. Incidentally nerolac has jettisoned the refinish Industry six years ago! desperate to please me he calls up dupont bangalore who promise to send their paint expert the next Morning. June 24th The paint expert arrives. tries his hand at Mixing colours and in the evening applies his formulation to find that it is light and bright! adds a little bit of Aluminium Tint to the formulation and applies it again and the colour still doesnt match. By now the door has been repainted 7 times i.e 21 coats of paint! I seriously begin to wonder as to why these A** do not get the OE Paints and use the dupont alternatives. That evening i decide to mail fiat: text of mail is as follows: Dear sir, reg: No: KA 19 MA 3050 Selling dealer: Concorde Bangalore Servicing Dealer : Automatrix Mangalore Engine no:0016669 Chassis no:MCA11071709004338C0Z my car has been kept for a minor touch up of the R/R door. the colour of the car is 'Vocal White'. the dealers do not have the paint formula for the vocal white colour. the service head of the dealership M/s automatrix mangalore contacted FIAT yesterday for the paint formulation. he got a reply stating that the same colour formulation as TATA safari Pearl white may be used. however after application of the paint, it is observed that the safari pearl white combination is lighter than the vocal white colour on the linea. the vocal white linea has a light tint of red / brown / chocolate colour which the repainted part seems to be misisng as a result of which the painted part appears brighter and lighter than the rest of the car. kindly request you to forward the paint formulation urgently so that the touch up may be completed today. the initial pictures of the vocal white car are attached. regards sunil I get a reply Immediately the next day in the form of Mr. Vinayak raskar of BASF Coatings who are the OE suppliers of paint to Fiat worldwide stating that he would like to have a look at the vehicle. he sees the vehicle and asks me to drop by the next day at the dealership where he would be getting his head trainer to do the job. The next Morning at 9 the head trainer arrives from Hyderabad and gets down to work. asks the dealership to scrape off all the 21 layers of paint they had applied upto the bare metal and apply the undercoat. later at 3 pm he does the spraying and the door now looks as tho its never been touched up. he keeps the door in the booth and instructs the workshop to bake the paint at 60 Degrees for 30 Minutes.. and goes off for a smoke and i join him! we return in 10 minutes to find to our shock that the technicians at the workshop have switched off the booth saying that they follow this system where as soon as the temperature is reached they switch off the Burners . The refinish expert as well as the head trainer pray and wish that the paint doesnt Blister and go away and i go home thanking them! An excerpt of a Mail recieved from the product head of BASF Dear Sir, Our Refinish Expert Mr. Vinayak Raskar has attended your complaint of Shade Mismatch, observed during the spot repair of your car painted in Vocal White. Hope the issue was resolved to your satisfaction. Please feel free to contact us for any further need. Thanking you & assuring best of our services. Best Regards Umesh D. Deshpande BASF Coatings (India) Pvt. Ltd. i return home and after 8 days observe that the paint has blistered. all due to the non adherence to standard operating procedures by the workshop! i call up Mr. Vinayak again and we decide that this time the painting would be done at the BASF R &D Lab situated near Mangalore and on July 14th i reach the Lab along with the door, which is again sanded. to our shock and disdain we notice that the previous time the workshop painters hadnt stripped off the paint till the base coat and there were atleast 5-6 coats of paint! we strip off the entire paint, apply Polyester primer and the painting is done and the paint baked at 70 degrees for 30 Minutes. we return back with the door to the workshop at 6 pm and the door is fitted back. So far So good! Last edited by Technocrat : 27th July 2009 at 17:43. Reason: Removed size & Font tags, please do not copy paste from exterbnal editors like Word, also use only 2 smilies per post, Thanks | |
|
|
|
24th July 2009, 21:01
| #11 | |
| BHPian Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Mangalore
Posts: 773
Thanked: 581 Times
| Quote:
Star.. U got eyes of a hawk  no the parking sensors didnt come OE with the car. Called up a friend at red soul at their HO and asked him to send me a pearl white sensor which he did, ofcourse without the bill !yes it is a diesel e-pack. E.T - Thanks a lot! The Bull - Vocal white doesnt seem to appear in the shade cards of Fiat since last evening. instead a Bossanova white and medium Grey appear. so i presume Vocal white now belongs to the category of special editions, even though the dealer tells me that the name has been changed to Bossanova white from Vocal white! | |
|
|
| |
|
24th July 2009, 21:46
| #12 |
| BHPian Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Mangalore
Posts: 773
Thanked: 581 Times
| The lady gets wet..and then gets a new set of Clothes Flashback to July 8th.. while vacumming the car i noticed that the carpet was wet. something fishy..the smell was awful and with the AC switched on it felt as though there was a dead rat in the AC System! the right driver side footwell as well as the rear right footwells were soggy. its gottu be either a leak from the floors or the door beadings.. headed off to automatrix. removed the seats, removed the cowl cover beneath the glass and sprayed water. no sign of water entering.in the meantime a technician hoisted the car up on a lift and inserted his screw driver into the AC Condensor Drain Pipe.! god Oh God.. out flowed quite a lot of water! Linea owners beware in case you find the compressor going off automatically while braking or climbing inclines most liekly the condensor drain is blocked and the Condensor compartment is flooded. have a check! Also Noticed that there were 2 holes near the drain outlet which were not covered, measuring about 10 MM in diameter through which a 10 MM bolt could easily pass thru. it so appears that during production these holes were missed by the robot who stuck the Anti leak sticker away from the holes. so even those holes were closed with sealant and water sprayed from beneath to check for leaks. the workshop didnt have a dehumidifier or a heater and so i had to carry my heavy duty hair dryer to dry the felt beneath the carpets! After all the hard work the lady was dry again. no more bad smells... in the meantime i got back in touch with Mr. sajith @ karlsson leather to do up the leather interiors. mr. Unni Deputed one mr. Althaf the master craftsman to do the fitting. Linea doesnt use copper clips to fix the seats to the seat frame. it uses Locking beadings which were removed from the OE fabric seats and stiched onto the Scandinavian leather seats made by mr. Unni & his team. The end result...? let the Pics do the talking! |
|
|
|
24th July 2009, 21:49
| #13 |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Chennai
Posts: 1,513
Thanked: 145 Times
| |
|
|
|
24th July 2009, 21:54
| #14 |
| BANNED Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Bangalore
Posts: 11,368
Thanked: 23,147 Times
Infractions: 0/2 (8) | |
|
|
|
24th July 2009, 21:55
| #15 | |
| BHPian Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Mangalore
Posts: 773
Thanked: 581 Times
| Quote:
Its a Diesel, the sunlight has blurred off the Multijet Logo in the Pic..hope to post a clearer pic of the logo Soon!! | |
|
|
|
Most Viewed