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-   -   Palio Diesel rated the 2nd Best Diesel Car in India in a ET Survey! (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/17935-palio-diesel-rated-2nd-best-diesel-car-india-et-survey.html)

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...id-2105759.cms
"A close and surprise second among our best diesel cars list was a small car called Palio, from the embattled Italian car-maker Fiat, now being pushed in the Indian car market by Tata Motors.
Surprising because few people know Palio had a diesel variant. Launched about six years ago, design-rich Palio diesel gives a very smooth ride and returns a good overall average of 15-16 kmpl with a rather powerful 1.9 litre engine." - Economic Times

cool! Hopefully more news items like this will dispell the negative publicity that the Palio has recieved over teh years. the car is bloody briliiant for its price, and now, the company too seems to be getting its act together.

Most cars on the list are those which do not sell in high numbers.
For example no.3 is hyundai terracal!!

Though i am proud that my car took the second place, i don't get it why Accent is put way down in the list, Elantra and none of the Tata cars are not in the list.

This is a nice surprise. I still find it hard to believe that the Palio D has a 1.9 litre engine and so does the Octavia!

I had test driven Palio D a year back. It features a natually aspired indirect injection diesel that sits between CRDI and convetional diesel in terms of quality and performance. It's really high on torque (at low rev, I mind you) and great vehicle to drive perticularly in crowded streets of Bangalore. It features fly-by-wire technology that corrects your accelerator input automatically and relieves you from unnecessary gear shifts. Very high on features, perticularly the minute ones. But sadely it's not worth it for it's irretional price, poor brand perception and as a result poor resale value. Though I don't blame the poor car or Fiat for this pricing as it has high import content and given it's low sale volumes, Fiat can't achieve economics of scale by manufacturing it locally. If Fiat can break this chicken and egg situation and come up with correct price package, it can storm torque concious auto enthusiast kind of customers. But as we hear elsewhere, Fiat is actually fixing it as it's coming up with new Multijet engine on Palio and new car offering powered by Multijet engine. Hope it's sales volume pick up and that in turn make Fiat's operations in India financially viable and well-priced Fiat cars for the concious customers.

Not surprised at all. The Palio diesel is a fantastic vehicle. Powerful engine, absolutely brilliant ride quality.

emm, a rating by Economic Times?

See what they haev to say abt Skoda "Its entry-level D-segment offering - and also its most popular in India thus far - Octavia is powered with 105BHP"

and 3rd one is Terracan????

The whole thing is a joke.

The Palio D is / was a great car, and is probably the first or second best diesel hatch if you bring the value of the Indica into the picture. But it is certainly not the 2nd best diesel car (including all segments) in India. The InnovaD, Verna Crdi etc. are far ahead. Even in terms of BHP per CC, it ranks way below.

The Palio D is certainly overpriced at 5.5 lacs on the road in Mumbai (Last I checked). Heck, the new and "improved" Indigo is about the same price.

Before you share your assumptions, just check some of the Ownership Reports of Palio and Palio D in the Long Term Ownership report section on this forum.

I wish they had continued the 1.7 Td in the palio , am not a big fan of 1.9 D , or the drive by wire stuff.....lol: aside from that , Palio is a great car...

1. Safe .
2. handles well .
3. looks great .
4. Spacious (though a tad below Indica).

No way Palio is the second best diesel. I've driven my bro-in-law's extensively, and while it's a good car, it has several major shortcomings.

Power is achieved by using a 1.9 litre engine. This makes the small hatch extremely front heavy, which affects the handling and leads to excessive wear on the front tyres and suspension. And it's not all that powerful either.

Innova, Elantra, Accent, Tucson and now Verna (not yet driven one though) are far ahead of Palio in the diesel stakes.

Toyota yes , Others you mean Diesel Engine stakes.....not diesel stakes....

No wonder... lot of cribing about Palio....... lol:. If Gm claims Opel Corsa to be 2nd in handling and ride comfort well over, Accord, City, CRV, Corolla then no body says nething about it... When Palio ranks exceptionally good everybody (No matter even if you have not driven it) starts cribing...


In few motnhs, 80% diesel hatchs around will have FIAT multijet engine... Lets see then...

Wellll... just because many of the diesel cars will sport a FIAT heart in the coming days, and dare I say some of them will even do well, it does not prove any point as such. In today's competitive markets a product's success is not just because of technical superiority or any other isolated factor. It has to be a right blend of many things... Consider the 5Ps of marketing to start with.

Where FIAT has goofed up till date is in being unable to provide a total ownership experience. You may have the most brilliant product in the market but it is of no use if the potential buyers feel marooned after buying the product or feel that the product is priced into the stratosphere.

I guess you get the drift. The same Palio could have been a possible major success had it been launched by some other manufacturer, probably. Similarly the same engine may feature in multiple cars and hence they will all potentially be on the same even keel. And yet some will succeed, others will just lag behind while some others will probably fail. And FIAT engine won't have anything to do with all that my friend.