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-   -   Palio D vs. Indigo Test Drive (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/4549-palio-d-vs-indigo-test-drive.html)

hello all...

i finally managed to test drive the Palio D today (just back home after the test drive in fact).

I called up the Anuroop guy, Sunil Jomraj, whom I had met the other day when i had visited the dealership. He remembered me and the car I was interested in. He said he will immediately send over a person with the car in 45 minutes and the guy was at my place as promised on dot. full points there. It was a golden Palio D EL PS.

now comes the surprising part....

as I had mentioned in the beginning of this thread, I had just test driven the Tata Indigo the other day before visiting Anuroop. I had mentioned that I found the NVH inside the Indigo quite decent. In fact diesel clatter was almost absent. (Okay, accepted it was a brand new car. This Palio still had the plastic covers on the rear seats, but it showed 57 kms on the dial, but the dials were not working anyways...only the tachometer was working.)

But the Palio was *significantly* noisier !!! while the vibrations did not transfer to the gearshift like the Indigo, the noise definitely made its presence felt, almost as if the Palio was making it clear it was a diesel !!!! whats with that ??? I definitely expected better sound insulation in the Palio.

cream and lambhorghini...this is where I want inputs specifically from you guys, since you guys are driving Palio Ds. Did you test drive the Indigo as well ? and what is your comparison analysis with respect to the diesel clatter of Indigo vs. Palio ? Also Cream, you think this was an issue with the specific car I test drove ? Probably since you too bought your car from anuroop, it could be the same car you test drove as well.

Additionally :

1. FIAT have provided a foot rest right next to the clutch, but its too far recessed to the left. Problem being the clutch is at relatively higher elavation and there is something down there that comes in your way when you lift your foot off the footrest to use it on the clutch. So basically the foot rest is rendered useless. Now due the high elevation mentioned, this is quite stressful on the foot. you guys felt this ?

2. I may be wrong about this since I dis not test drive the Indigo and the Palio in similar conditions. I managed to get the Palio D out onto the highway to Borivali and back to Kandivali, but I managed to drive the Indigo only for a very short distance on S.V. road at Kandivali. Point is, I got the opportunity to race the Palio a bit and try some sharp overtaking maneovers. I found some body roll or whatever you call it, while the Indigo was quite stable, but I had not tried out the same stuff on the Indigo.


would really appreciate some inputs from you guys on above points...

Also any inputs from Indigo folks who can comment on noise insulation after the car has clocked significant mileage.

thanks,

hell_rider

Good report and the points are well discussed. But it'd help if the review was a bit more comprehensive. Anyway, about the high elevation of the pedals. I thought this was only an issue with the tall-boy cars. I, too, am surprised to read that Indigo has better NVH insulation than Palio.

PS:imo, this thread is more relevant in the reviews section.

From my exprerience, it is similar to yours, the Indigo has terrible gear lever vibration, but noise is well suppresed.

I have had a Palio for over an year. I have never had any problems with the foot rest or clutch elevation. Ergonomics are spot on and Palio gives me hours of fatigue free driving. I don't know why you felt this problem. no other palio owner has commented on this so far...

amit...

thats why i wanted a clarification on the issue from other Palio owners.

see, ideally there must be some free space to the left of the clutch. this is where the footrest is located. and there should be no impediment/obstruction between the clutch and footrest. But in the Palio I test drove, this was not the case. there was something down there due to which you could not just lift your leg off the clutch and place it on the footrest. Instead you had to squeeze/slide your leg into the gap and onto the footrest.

This is an issue because then when you need to move your leg back onto the clutch quickly, you need to go through the slide/squeeze routine again. So i ended up not using the footrest. So my foot positioning was a bit awkward.

maybe it was the floormat fouling with your foot? ... it has happened to me a couple of times. it happens if the mat is not positioned correctly.

Drifter

yeh, i second that. Just today, i suddenly found my clutch behaving strangely. I stalled the car twice in two take offs. Then i realised that the mat was prventing the clutch from travelling the whole distance! stupid:

Hey buddy,
I dont have a palio D but a 1.6 GTX.
I will be going for a drive of the petra D and have already sat in the indigoD recently so i will hopefully getback to you in a few days.

test drove a indigo marina, and have a palio d



conditions:
for city drivin, has to feel like a petrol, good pickups

My opinion:what are you talkin abt, how can you compare indigo with pALIO.

what car do you drive now hell rider??

Palio handles a lot better than skoda tdi(I own both)
and sound point put the blower on 2 speed or rev little high you wont feel it is a deisel unless you go to a gas station.

I am a totally satisfied customer of fiat palio d. gives me 17/in city on a/c beatiful pock up loads of torque no need to use first gear like indigo, zend. got 5000 kms in 40 days.

I own an Indigo for around 10 months now and the car has covered 11,000 kms. The noise levels, and I am not joking are the same as the brand new car. No Increase at all. I have had no problems with the car. No electric failures...nothing. The engine has become free and there is a improvement in its habbits. Now the car pulls much better.
Talking about fuel efficiency, it gives me 14 kmpl approx in city and around 18-19kmpl on the highways.

deeps & drifter

lol no...

it was not the floor mats. There was a white small rectangular box like component (smaller than a shoe-box, around the size of a cordless phone) out there. definitely not floor mats. i specifically checked that out after the test drive because it really bugged me.

vulken
this is my first car dude...have driven quite a bit, but only company provided cars :-) so this is a first time experience for me.

but i am not kidding.
i had a chance to sit in a long drive in the indigo last month. spent entirely in the back seat. i was genuinely surprised at the extremely low noise levels. i truly was. i actually asked the guy if it was a petrol or a diesel. it turned out to be a very well used and extensively run indigo in fact.

thats why i went to test drive the indigo. and i had the same experience. it was super quiet. and i found the Palio D distinctly louder, which also surprised me. my friend who accompanied me on both test drives also reached the same conclusion.

thats why the queries.

:confused:

My car doesn't have any such thing and I never have had to make the slide/squeeze routine. I am a little confused here. Maybe the NV series of cars have had some addition?
P.S. I feel all cars should have a foot rest. After using one for over a year, I wonder how i will adjust if my next car doesn't have one.

Your lucky. My in-laws Indigo started giving trouble around 35k in Odo. Just Indica like sound. Stops on over heating and it won't start for next 5 minutes.

Well, they like travelling in my machine. Guess what?

But I really really appreciate TATA for creating Indigo & Indica, this 2 will rock the world (hmmm atleast India) within 5 years.

Mine in Palio 1.2 he hehe

hell_rider

You're not mistaken - having driven both vehicles I can confirm that the Indigo Diesel suppreses noise much better than the Palios and Petras. It does seem more refined. The only weak spot is the gearbox, which transmits the vibrations through if you keep your hand on the gear lever.

I've driven from Cochin to Bangalore in an Indigo taxi that had done over 75k kms and it was in very good condition. No unwanted noises et al.

As for the discomfort for your feet, the Palio/Petra footwell is pretty cramped (it was, for me) and therefore takes a bit of getting used to. Gap between two of the pedals (not sure if brake and clutch or brake and accelerator) is also pretty small, something I thought was dangerous as well.

I have neither driven Petra-D or Indigo (D), so not a competent person to make any comment. But I have driven both Petra (P) and Indigo Petrol, both in city and on highway. At least in Petrol, Petra is way too superior product. Does not mean Indigo is bad either.
But Petra is superior in a) gear shifts b) less body roll c) stability at high speeds. Indigo has loads of space and quite manoeuvrable even in city, quite comfortable as well. Fit and finish of the car which I used was not exactly upto my liking.
About footrest, I found it more useful on highways than in city. I don't use it much in the city though.