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@ Auto India, excellent Analogy! 100% Agree.

NKG77: You have been extremely lucky, especially with the Stile! Great!

@ Amit: I beg to differ on this. If Fiat service/spares was really as good, more number of Palios would be flocking ASS than the newer cars. Sadly, most Palio owners stopped visiting slowly. Its no guess why. I am also in line for the same. I stuck with ASS only to ensure the warranty on my SDX wouldnt get void. Competency of service centers is very very poor. I have visited Prerana, KHT and Concorde. Competency at Prerana was very bad. The other 2 also couldnt anyway resolve any issues of my car. Now with such quality of service, I may never return to them again except for begging them for spare parts now and then lol:

And, you just said it. If Punto/Linea was under MUL, the sales would be not 202 but 20200. Forget MUL, if it had the Tata badge also it would have done the same sales.

If Palio was a MUL product, it would have meant PEACE of Mind in terms of Service and Spares. In simple, thats the level of service we expect from Fiat. Oops, for all Fiat cars!


Also, some one mentioned Goodwill gesture. Yes, my Palio was also awarded some stuff as Good Will gesture. While working on the steering vibration issue, they replaced the mounts once and called it Fiat Good Will Gesture. My car was in warranty!!!!!! They still wanted to call it Goodwill. Best part is it did not fix the issue and continues to be there till date. My office has over 12 Palios. Out of 12, only 2 have been visiting ASS, mine and a friend's Palio that was bought on same day. The other 10 have stopped visiting ASS over a period of time. Most service them with Venkatesh and some with Hariprasad. Do I need to detail why? They too are shell shocked to find that Fiat is not too keen to support Palios even when they setup own dealership/service. A couple of the Palios are not too happy even with the service offered outside and were checking with me for my suggestions last week. I blankly answered "I dont know". On a positive note, all my several friends who bought Palios along with me and my friend, including Lloyd on teambhp, ByDesign on teambhp are still servicing the Palios with ASS because they are still under extended warranty atleast till this year. Only time will tell until when they would continue. I being first to discontinue visiting ASS, my friend at office too will follow suit after the next service.

Late in the year 2008 I opted to buy a Palio Stile Multijet, not because I was a Fiat fan, but because the car seemed to give the highest value for the price tag it had carried. Another big reason, back then, had been the tremendous goodwill towards Tata that had instilled confidence for any future requirement of after sales service.

Over the last four years the car served me well but as has been the case with the majority of Fiat owners with the Tata-Fiat A** I have had to endure a rather unsatisfactory service experience. Last year when my clutch broke down I decided to break away from the A** and went about procuring the required parts from the market with the help of a friendly neighbourhood mechanic.

My observations:

1. The consumables, clutch parts etc. are not too difficult to source, and it is a myth that only a Fiat trained mechanic can fix a Fiat (Palio).

2. The accident repair parts (like headlamps) are very difficult to source.

3. The friendly neighbourhood mechanic has no access to the ECU programme of the car.

4. One can have a trouble free ownership of an older Fiat (like Palio) even without an authorised service centre until the engine fails or bad luck makes one meet with an accident.

That was what i meant. I already said had it been it was maruti tie up with fiat they would have been way better.

Their cars are really good. And the only people who complain about Fiat cars are the ones who never owned a Fiat.

The most easy ECU access is the FIAT cars. My friendly neighborhood garage has a Ecu scanner OBD-costs just 1k and Fiat Factory software- given by me.
I carry all the diagnostic equipment with me too.

Sorry Amit, I got it very wrong. If Fiat had tied up with MUL and operations were like how they are, it would still be the same. I say this because, some Fiat officials sounded very interested but blamed Tata network for lack of spares some time ago(I cannot get you any proof for that), but now its clear that Fiat themselves were not interested and just blaming. Partnership with MUL would be same results right? Vision of Fiat is what they need to fix, not their JV Partner!

The meaning I took was, "if Palio/Punto/Linea were products of Maruti".

Whats wrong with people complaining about poor service who dont own a Fiat? Either they are making it up or actually have had experiences with handling their family/friends Fiat, or simply have heard bad reviews about ASS from friends and family. This very thread has references to owners with unhappy experiences, specifically Palios, isnt it?

Yes there are many people who got bad service, especially the Palio owners. They are really the cream customers of Fiat and they should be treated as good as punto or linea customers too.

Fiat has already heard it and heard it loudly. They have also assured for localisation of parts and rationalisation of prices. Currenty the spare prices have TATA markup on them. These are the distribution overheads of TATA.

But the other side of the story is that FIAT service is getting better and better. Fiat officials are very serious and keep contacting customers, arrange events, never disapprove warranty, CEO himself is a very genuine and customer oriented person, the Parent company in Italy calls its indian customers etc etc.

I have not heard of any parent company in Europe or US bothererd about indian operation and calling them.

Now as we see Fiat exclusive service centres cropping up, we would be surely getting good service from Fiat. This is their last golden chance. If they mess up this time they will get a free entry pass to death valley.

I also think we should give continuous feedback from Palio owners to Fiat too in a constructive way. I am sure Fiat will come up with a good scheme/ service for them too.

Also its not Fiat alone, My friends with Hyundai Getz are facing problems too, window winders not available, broken AC vents not available- costing bomb, autodoor closer not available- costing 4.5k for single door.

Similarly Baleno user got so bugged up that once he threw his car in the showroom and vanished. After a lot of efforts we managed parts from a accident vehicle for his car. Finally he sold the car.

I am not safeguarding Fiat , but Indian laws should be very strict and every manufacturer should provide spares for atleast 10 years.

clap:Thats very interesting and confidence inspiring for all the Fiat fans, especially for the existing Fiat car owners.

BTW how can you claim about all that so confidently? Is this based on some news hearing or you have some inside link in Fiat?


IMHO it sounds safeguarding Fiat actually. When we are talking about Fiat in this thread than we should be subjective to only Fiat, why bad mouth other manufacturers to defend Fiat here.

If other manufacturers have horror stories than they have much more happy stories too compared to the horror stories since they have much more market share. Fiat is not in the situation that they can afford such luxury which other manufacturers have because of Fiat's market share is very minimal compared to others.


Anyways it feels good when I visit this thread and see all the positive enthusiasm going on about Fiat :)

My Stile was rear ended by a Jetta couple of months back, I had no other option but to take the car to a TASS. On inspection it was found that the rear bumper and the muffler has to replaced, the rest of the damage can be rectified by TASS. The spares needed were not available off the shelf, but that's acceptable for a car that has gone out of production. TASS ordered the parts and the same came in 2 weeks time. Now the car is back how she was before she got hit. If you ask me, I am happy with the service I get in Kerala.

The Fiat showroom has indeed been inagurated yesterday.
Got the news from the newspaper in the morning.



The dealership has a 4800sq.ft. showroom and 9200sq.ft. service area with state of the art facility.
Replying to a query, Fiat MD said that the Fiat-Tata JV would end on 31/03/2013, but inplaces where Fiat has not opened an exclusive showroom the existing TASS would continue to provide service to Fiat customers till September 2013.

Having owned a Santro and a Getz for altogether 7 years and seeing my father-in-law's 3 years experience with Palio Stile, I think I am qualified to talk about Fiat and Hyundai service. Its a crime to compare Fiat and Hyundai service, and I mean it. If Fiat can give even half of Hyundai's service satisfaction, they will win lot of customers, including me. To give you an example, 3 years back my Getz was badly damaged by a new driver and it needed repainiting and quite a few parts replacement with a total service cost of 27K. The whole process was done in 3 days including insurance claim. It was an amazing speed.

I was not happy that lately hyundai service cost had really gone up. The critical parts of Getz are well in stock. Frankly, hyundai service is not at all cheap, but they have the speed.

I love Fiat vehicles much more than Hyundai vehicles and want to own a Punto someday, please see my signature. So, I would encourage constructive criticism so that Fiat can give a better service atleast in major cities. I am very happy to know from you about the Bavdhan service centre.

I am happy that you too agree that Palios should get equal treatment. Lets not really get to cost of spares of other manufacturers. Yesterday, I learnt that the AC vents on my Stile needs replacement. The center 2 vents cost 500, the sides cost 380 each. I promptly let it pass and live with it. Cost of most cosmetic parts of Stile is very expensive.

Warranty/Ext. Warranty claims are not really a concern for Palio/any Fiat owner. I too agree that they are very very fair in honoring them. Its just the spares of Palios. I am assuming Punto/Linea spares are very well stocked and they dont get stranded/embarassed to wait for 2+ days for them to get it from Pune.

Its not that Palio owners never expressed their concerns/issues/pain points to Fiat.

A couple of years ago, this happened: http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/.../message/78213

We were very elated by their response. But now, all the elation and expectations are gone. Its very possible that such things repeat in future.

Once when most Palio owners complained about defective clutch, they took it up and replaced with enhanced clutch for many users. But, thats more or less what they have done. What we expect is proper support for Palios, which has never been in place.

If I were you, I would expect cosmetic parts and any regular consumables to be stocked and available as and when you need. I had to wait 1 month for cabin light and speedometer. By the way, not too many spares were needed for my Stile till date. Now, Lloyd is waiting for Wiper motor since atleast a couple of weeks. If it was rainy season now, would such a thing be acceptable? Would anyone dare to drive? This also is a matter of safety. Another friend on Facebook needs wiper motor repair/replacement, he is not even bothering to go to ASS and looking for outside options to get it rectified.

Would TASS continue to provide service in places where there is no FASS coming up? I don't see a FASS coming up in my place and the TASS people say they aren't sure if they would continue providing service/support to Fiats in the long term. I hate to imagine a day when I would have to drive 300 kms+ to the nearest FASS just to fix minor niggles.

While talking with the Media (during the inaguration of the Fiat dealership at Raipur, CG) Mr. Atanasio said that You can talk to the customer care for confirmation on the subject.

I think we are stereotyping many things here. How many Fiat owners are on TeamBhp. Out them how many are active members. Out of active members, how many of them sharing their good and bad experiences.

The sample space we have here is very less, I think in this thread there are hardly 5 persons actively talking.

My point is, if someone wants to buy a Fiat will do a google search and may get directed to this thread.This thread has only handful of input which is good enough to stereotype the things and make him hush away. Period.

My experience has been average with Fiat after sales and what I have learnt from my friends having other cars,that the service is not drastically different from MUL or Hyundai. When it comes to spares, talk about Linea and ask if anyone had faced any issue with availability.... I have not heard in my knowledge neither I have faced any till date.

But come on guys, I cannot fathom the fact and all the other brands are providing seamless service. There will be a ratio of people who must have faced issue with MUL or Hyundai. Their problem goes unnoticed bcoz the volume of good comments dominates.

I agree with you,i have been a silent spectator all this while,reading all the fiat after sales bashing,i own a linea,contrary to all the posts,my experience with Fiat after sales has been excellent,and never ever i had to wait for parts,even a part like AC blower grill,and dash trim was readily available,and this was when it was being managed with Tata,i expect it to be better now with Fiat parting ways.

Agree with Speed Pujari and Akshay. Same support and spares availability for Palios if extended does wonders existing customers and prospective buyers.