[Speed Pujari]

Originally Posted by hothatchaway

Hi Karthikk - how did the first paid service go? are the first 3 services free? What is the typical average cost of an annual paid service for the Tjet?

Was thinking of picking up a Tjet/MJD (the heart says the Jet but considering that I do a lot of driving wondering if I should let the head rule )

Do you know if a used Tjet (2-3 yrs/20 - 30k kms run) is more expensive to maintain? What I mean by that is if the service costs per km of a used Tjet is more than that of a new one? Note that am excluding any denting/cosmetic jobs and referring to any parts which are prone to failure as the car ages.

BTW your log just adds fuel to the fire of owning a Jet

You can make a decision based on inputs by existing owners.
My T-Jet will complete 4 years in November and has gone for regular service except a few niggling issues mostly rattling. The issues were fixed at once when I changed the dealer, so blame my frequency of visit to the dealership.

My bill during last november i.e. 4th paid service (annual) was Rs. 7k which includes normal stuff such filter, oil, etc.
This month I had to replace the front brake pads which was Rs. 5.5k plus labor and the rear suspension bush which was worn out. Total bill was 10k. The good thing is during my 5th paid service, its not going to cross 7k since there is no issue to be fixed in the car.

Add up new battery, new set of tyres into the maintenance which is attributed to normal wear and tear. Now it depends when u want to replace the tyres since I have seen people using same set of tyres for 6-8 years with 80k on the odo. My frequency is 4 years no matter what condition the tread is in. I replaced my S-drives a couple of months because one of them got bubbles.

You may need to note one more thing, the normal wear and tear of average Fiat parts is very less than an average Japanese. E.g. suspension, clutch etc. My old Palio was 93k on the odo still the suspension was good to go for another 40-50k as told by two different dealership and an independent mechanic.

And to my surprise maintaining my Linea is much cheaper than my Palio (now sold)
My very good friend owns a same aged Wagon-R as my Linea and his car goes twice a year for service with bill ranging from 6-8k in each service. That makes 14-16k a year. With that I think my Linea is more VFM.

[hothatchaway]

Originally Posted by Speed Pujari

You can make a decision based on inputs by existing owners.
My T-Jet will complete 4 years in November and has gone for regular service except a few niggling issues mostly rattling. The issues were fixed at once when I changed the dealer, so blame my frequency of visit to the dealership.

Thanks, may I ask how much the car has done in terms of kms in these 4 years?

[Speed Pujari]

Originally Posted by hothatchaway

Thanks, may I ask how much the car has done in terms of kms in these 4 years?

My car has done 42k till date.

[KarthikK]

16900 km, 3 years and 4th service update:

Okay, my long overdue update and I am back with a bang. As I type this servicing report out after a typical Sunday long drive, I look back at the three pleasurable years of ownership the T-Jet has given me. It is hard to believe how time has flown. It still feels like yesterday that I was typing out the ownership report on team-bhp for this car, and here I am, typing this out in 2014! I seem to sound like a stuck record on this thread with heaps of praises on the car, but that is how the car has been for me throughout. The past one year of usage has seen roughly 8000 km of some memorable road-tripping and long drives in this car, with many more odometer landmarks (and travelogues) to come in the days to follow.




That said, the reason for this post itself is the 3rd year landmark - the customary visit to the service station for the 45000 km / 36 months service. This service actually dates back to July 7th, but I wasn't able to post the report early on due to numerous reasons. Better late than never!

I didn't have any issues as such, and my past year of usage has again been only on highways, for long drives, for pleasure or weekend timepass or exploring new eateries / car photoshoot locations far away from the city . Oh yes, of course, those weekend trips too!

I chose to visit the new branch of Vecto motors at Mysore road, instead of the crowded Hosur road branch. More importantly, my trusted service advisor Surendra is now at the helm of affairs at the Mysore road service centre and I found that more convenient; crowdwise too (not many customers know about this branch yet). I expected a hefty bill, but turned it was just northwards of 6k bucks, pretty good VFM I must say.

Okay, lets get down to the nitty-gritties of the 4th service:
What the 4th service schedule looked like:



Only Fiat can make such goof-ups! (speedometer reading, really??!!)



Arriving at the Mysore road outlet of Vecto motors. Nice green patch adjacent, instead of the regular concrete jungle structures



Not many vehicles vying for attention, given it was a weekday





And that meant my car went straight on the ramp quickly for work







Some bits of refinement creeping up into Fiat's service practices after the Tata sarkari split - all contact areas are now covered/wrapped neatly before any technician begins work on the car





A Fiat technician at work, checking for diagnostic errors / faults on the OBD scanner device



Spark plugs inspected and put back after finding they were good to go till the next service



Self-explanatory excel spreadsheet of 4th service schedule and stuff carried out, as always (please pardon my poor MS excel formatting skills):



A look back at the previous service experiences:

First service experience (Dec 2011)
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ml#post2627293

Second service experience (June 2012)
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ml#post2824813

Third service experience (July 2013)
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-t...ml#post3168644


Ownership experience so far in summary :

No. of major niggles faced: 0

Reliability score: 10/10

Customer satisfaction score (T-Jet as a product): 10/10

Customer satisfaction score (Fiat service): 9/10

No. of scratches or dents: 0. Extremely lucky! ( touchwood!)

Total cummulative service costs in 3 years of ownership : 2427 (service 1) + 4350 (service 2) + 6232 (service 3) + 6246 (service 4) = INR 19,255 /-

Average service cost per year : INR 6418.33 /-
Average cost per service (first year has 2 service visits) : 4813.75 /-

Thanks for reading! My next update will be after an overdue visit to the detailing store for the annual beautification.

[KarthikK]

Created second post since I didn't want to mix quote replies with the service report. Please do not merge the 2 posts.

Originally Posted by hothatchaway

Hi Karthikk - how did the first paid service go? are the first 3 services free? What is the typical average cost of an annual paid service for the Tjet?

Service report added just now with all details in tow.

Was thinking of picking up a Tjet/MJD (the heart says the Jet but considering that I do a lot of driving wondering if I should let the head rule )

Do you know if a used Tjet (2-3 yrs/20 - 30k kms run) is more expensive to maintain? What I mean by that is if the service costs per km of a used Tjet is more than that of a new one? Note that am excluding any denting/cosmetic jobs and referring to any parts which are prone to failure as the car ages.

Well, as a car ages, the number of parts needing replacement due to wear and tear / ageing will be more in the older car as compared to the newer one. That said, the first 4-5 years of most modern cars will be relatively trouble-free on the wallet as far as replacement bills are concerned. If you are looking at a 2-3 year old T-Jet, you shouldn't need to worry about servicing costs at all! Just make sure the owner has extended warranty for the car, that should provide upto 4 years of cover for major replacements. The general routine servicing hardly costs anything with Fiats nowadays; I spend around 6k per annum on the T-Jet's routine servicing, pretty reasonable I must say.

A used T-Jet makes more sense. I don't think it is so much of a head v/s heart debate anymore, considering the petrol prices today are almost the same as diesel, okay maybe 10 bucks lesser. But unless your daily running rate is prohibitively high, a petrol can allow you to have your cake and eat it too! You could get one in the market for southwards of 6L nowadays, if you find anyone selling that is.

BTW your log just adds fuel to the fire of owning a Jet

Thank you for the kind words, glad you found it useful in some way. All the best in your decision.

[Vdrive]

@Karthik - I took test drive of Punto evo 93ps and also T-Jet emotion. Since the time interval between the test drives were more than two days, I couldn't actually compare the two rides. I think T-Jet is marginally better in driving dynamics. What's your opinion having owned both ? Mileage, I don't care. Is T-Jet worth spending those extra bucks in the long run ?

[mchanna]

Karthik, Congratulations on completing the 3Years.
Very nice ownership. But the odo is still at 16+. Is it kind of your weekend or long drive vehicle?

I also would like to know if any parts are replaced under warranty so far?

[shineshine]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

....
Total cummulative service costs in 3 years of ownership : 2427 (service 1) + 4350 (service 2) + 6232 (service 3) + 6246 (service 4) = INR 19,255 /-

Average service cost per year : INR 6418.33 /-
Average cost per service (first year has 2 service visits) : [b]4813.75 /-
.

Whoo hooo.. your service costs invite envy from the Poor Hyundai owners. A good number of Santro owners are shelling more than what you paid every year.

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by Vdrive

@Karthik - I took test drive of Punto evo 93ps and also T-Jet emotion. Since the time interval between the test drives were more than two days, I couldn't actually compare the two rides. I think T-Jet is marginally better in driving dynamics. What's your opinion having owned both ? Mileage, I don't care. Is T-Jet worth spending those extra bucks in the long run ?

Driving Dynamics? The T-Jet should be better planted even on the current setup, considering it is a long sedan with similar GC, yet slightly lower centre of gravity than a Punto.

My generation of the T-Jet came with a lower and slightly stiffer suspension setup and feels noticeably more planted around corners than the 185mm Punto 90hp.

Is it worth the extra money in the long run? Well to be honest, it isn't a fair comparison to pitch an 8L B+ diesel hatch against a 11L C segment petrol sedan . If your running rate in kilometres doesn't warrant a diesel, you can as well go for a petrol and enjoy every mile. Having owned this particular combination of turbo diesel and turbo petrol, I can safely say a T-Jet will be the more satisfying drive of the two, every single time, regardless of what remaps or mods you get done for the multijet.

Originally Posted by mchanna

Karthik, Congratulations on completing the 3Years.
Very nice ownership. But the odo is still at 16+. Is it kind of your weekend or long drive vehicle?

Thanks a lot mchanna!
Yes, this vehicle is only for leisure drives during the weekends. I never use it in the city as there is the Punto 90hp for that workhorse duty. My monthly running on the Linea is only around 500 km (approx 100-120 km of long drives every weekend on average). This explains the low odometer running over 3.5 years almost.

I also would like to know if any parts are replaced under warranty so far?

None so far! Touchwood! Only those tyres which gave way at around 6k kms but that issue was handled by Goodyear and not by Fiat.

Originally Posted by shineshine

Whoo hooo.. your service costs invite envy from the Poor Hyundai owners. A good number of Santro owners are shelling more than what you paid every year.

I hope it stays that way for me, hehe. I'm sure there will be a marginal increase in service costs as the car ages from here on though. Touchwood!

[TheTeacher]

Saw a good looking black T-Jet parked at my apartment gates (guest parking) this morning at 8:30. I thought it may be yours, and had to check this thread for your car #! Sadly, it's not your car :(

[Umesh Kumar61]

This might be OT but still posting as I'm unable to PM you.

Hi Karthik,

I was checking spoilers for my linea. Since your Tjet's spoiler is an eye catcher it stayed in my mind from the day I saw it on this thread. Today, while googling about fiat linea spoilers I saw numerous ads on ebay which are using your Tjet's pics. The images are cropped and the teambhp watermark is not seen. See it for yourself, search fiat linea spoilers. Try adding bigger watermarks. Luckily they haven't shown your reg.no.

Regards,
Umesh

PS: I know its flattering but still it is like copyright infringement.

[redCherry]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

My generation of the T-Jet came with a lower and slightly stiffer suspension setup and feels noticeably more planted around corners than the 185mm Punto 90hp.

Was that your Jet at Pakashala, Yediyur I spotted yesterday? It still looks beautiful even after so many years.

BTW I'm still looking for that original spoiler for my Jet