[meerkat]

I've only seen people rave about the Petra/Palio (not about Fiat, though)! Well,
here is a real problem that, to my amazement, is never discussed. The best kept
secret about the Petra/Palio is that they are not built for people taller than 5'10"
or so,- none of the magazines warn you about it, but try sitting inside, and you'd
want to remove the roof/hand-grips !

I'm in the market for a new car (5 - 6 lakhs), so I took a serious look at the
Petra/Palio. I found the head room to be barely acceptable only in the driver's
seat of either car (I'm just below 6'). In the rear sit of the new Petra, my head
touches the roof if I sit upright -- I've no other choice if the front seats are
pushed back (very little knee room). Thus the rear seats in a Petra must be set
aside for the ladies in my family! On the Palio front passenger seat or the rear
side seats I'm always acutely aware of the presence of the hand-grips too close
to my head for comfort. Even apart from that the head room is not great. I'd
never buy a car that makes me feel uncomfortable in this manner however
good it may be otherwise. And to think that even the Maruti 800 manages to
provide sufficient head room! What were the Fiat designers thinking ? In any
case they're not getting customers due to their image. And here I was willing
to overlook the after sales service aspect because of a great deal on an
otherwise superb product !!!

I've paged through reviews in all the auto magazines, and what did I see ? Not
a hint about a very real problem (well, apart from something in an old OD
indicating discomfort of taller people at the proximity of the B-pillars in a Palio)!
And they choose to go on and on about the looks of various models (how
"purposeful" they look (whatever that means), and so on and so forth)! Doesn't
one buy these expecting to be informed about the things that really matter ?

Well, here it is to all the team-bhp members for a discussion on whether people
really perceive this as a problem.

[deepakhon]

a friend of mine is about 6 (probably > 6) and he has purchased palio nv 1.2 elx. he did experience certain discomfort while sitting in the rear seat, but according to him, the driver's seat is fine. i recently had a chat with him about the car and he did not tell me anything specific about this problem. he is having the vehicle since a year and he says it is comfortable.

ofcourse i also own the same vehicle, but since i am just about 5'6", i am not experiencing any such problem.

i also heard from sundaram while buying nv that the front seats were raised a bit. i however did not check the old model to verify this.

[amit]

I have a Palio 1.6 for over a year now. I have never really sat in the back seat much so i can't comment on that but people who have sat in the back have had no discomfort.
I am 5' 10" and feel very comfortable in the front seat of the car. No problems with head room at all. Neither have people sitting next to me in the front with similar height to mine ever had any problems with head room.

[lamborghini]

well
my dad was sitting in the car.
hes 6.1
hes got no problem in the back seat
he loves the car as a matter of fact
in the octavia however he and his friends heads were touching the roof in the back seat but that one ride just got him to love the octy especially considering it did 160 on roads from coorg to banglore with 6 people in the car

[godbole]

What about shorties not getting a proper view of front from driver's seat?
Non of the midsizers provide hight adjustable driver seats.
All because of cust cutting..

godbole

[GTO]

Interesting Meerkat. Honestly I cant comment until my next time in a Palio/Petra when I will check for this discomfort. But I am 5'11'' and have had no complaints at all in the drivers seat.

GTO

[khaadu75]

No bloody way ...I'm 6'1 and have been driving this beauty for more than 6 months and on all kinds of surfaces , but never had my head banging against anything !!! Yeah, sometimes when i push my shades over my head my shades do tuch the body when i try getting out but never my head or else by now I surely wud have had a swollen head ....

cheers

[satish_appasani]

I am 6'1" and I own a Palio D. I absolutely have no problems with the head room in the front.

Couple of times I was in the rear seat. My head was touching the roof but at that time we were 3 in the rear seat and I was pushed almost to the end of the seat. I don't remember having thins problem when it was only 2 sitting t=in the rear.

[meerkat]

khaadu75, if you read my posts carefully, I did say that
the driver's seat had acceptable headroom. The problem was
with Palio rear side seats (Mr. satish_appasani seems to agree)
and the front passenger seat (hand grips were too close to
my head). Of course, if you have only two seating in the back,
you can adjust. As for Petra, on rear seats, the roof *touches*
my head ! This was the one reason (and not the present or
future status of Fiat) why I rejected Petra while looking for
a car in that price range. For that kind of money, I don't
expect such basic flaws to inconvenience anybody in my car (and
I'm not even talking about the rather limited rear legroom).

Interestingly, Autocar comments about lack of headroom in the
Baleno (without mentioning anything about the person's height,
of course), while they *never* indicated any problem with
Petra/Siena headroom ! I found more than 2 inches of headroom
in the Baleno! Did enhance my respect for Autocar, I must say !

[.anshuman]

I M 6.3" , And My Head Bangs Every Time Sit Opn The Rear Seat Of The Palio.

[GTO]

At 6'3", you ought to be glad just fitting in. I cant think of even C segment cars where there would not be a headroom problem

GTO