[sandeepmohan]

T Jet+ is now Rs. 1103297. T Jet+ Premium color is Rs. 1109275. The company I work for, Technicolor, is not among the list for a corporate discount. They had asked for this as they said I can get further discounts but then Technicolor was not listed in their data base. What was the amount for the corporate discount?

I don't know whether to call it freebies or not. Many things that they say are free is made up some way or the other. I could be wrong. What they have now in store for the T Jet/T Jet+ is Rs. 50000/Rs. 75000 gift cheque during delivery of the car. This is from Fiat. Insurance@Rs. 23317and Road Side Assistance@Rs. 3500 is free. If you deduct all this, the car will cost Rs. 1007458. I cannot use the gift cheque to drop the on road price of the car. I can use it to add towards the down payment. The gentleman at KHT said he will get me mud flaps and try to get original Fiat carpets free of cost. That's it.

Can you talk about ex change bonus? How does this work as I do plan on trading my Ford Ikon with KHT Motors if I do not find a buyer. What ever offered for my car will go towards down payment. It is up for sale on classifieds. I would also like to know how the transaction takes place for the sale of your car when you give it to KHT (In your case Prerana). They pay you? Who does the vehicle transfer and how much time does this take? I am going off topic but I need to know.

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

T Jet+ is now Rs. 1103297. T Jet+ Premium color is Rs. 1109275. The company I work for, Technicolor, is not among the list for a corporate discount. They had asked for this as they said I can get further discounts but then Technicolor was not listed in their data base. What was the amount for the corporate discount?

I don't know whether to call it freebies or not. Many things that they say are free is made up some way or the other. I could be wrong. What they have now in store for the T Jet/T Jet+ is Rs. 50000/Rs. 75000 gift cheque during delivery of the car. This is from Fiat. Insurance@Rs. 23317and Road Side Assistance@Rs. 3500 is free. If you deduct all this, the car will cost Rs. 1007458. I cannot use the gift cheque to drop the on road price of the car. I can use it to add towards the down payment. The gentleman at KHT said he will get me mud flaps and try to get original Fiat carpets free of cost. That's it.

Can you talk about ex change bonus? How does this work as I do plan on trading my Ford Ikon with KHT Motors if I do not find a buyer. What ever offered for my car will go towards down payment. It is up for sale on classifieds. I would also like to know how the transaction takes place for the sale of your car when you give it to KHT (In your case Prerana). They pay you? Who does the vehicle transfer and how much time does this take? I am going off topic but I need to know.

Corporate discount offered to me was 8k (I work at Nokia r&d). Basically they have 3 grades or tiers which your company is slotted into, depending on how many employees from that company buy Fiat/tata cars. Tier 1 gets 4k (eg. google, adobe, etc where employee strength is low), tier 2 - 8k (like nokia, cisco, yahoo, etc) and tier 3 gets 12k (eg. Infosys, TCS, etc). If your company is not listed, you would be eligible for minimum of tier 1 = 4k.

This 75,000 gift cheque sounds fantastic, so do the other freebies. I lost 1Lac, should have postponed my car purchase by 2 months Why me? why me?!

Well, as far as exchange bonus goes, it goes this way - an official from Prerana came home to inspect the car and gave a value. My 2003 Accent 1.6 was quoted at 1.9 lacs. I bargained and got a final price of 2.1 lacs from them. With exchange bonus added, that would be 2.2 lacs final value. They will take signatures on all the transfer forms and also give you acknowledgements with dealer's seal and sign, that your vehicle is in their possession and transfer is underway. You use this document in case some golmaal happens with your vehicle after you give it there, such as accident, etc. Once a buyer is found for your vehicle, they will carry out the transfer and send you a copy of the new RC book with new owner's details added. You use this in case someone approaches you in future for any mishaps.

For safety sake, do this during the exchange scheme. This was suggested by someone at Team-BHP itself - when you give your documents and the car there, along with the acknowledgement take a second version of transfer form with you as seller and KHT (or other dealer) as buyer, with signatures of both parties. Tell KHT that you will give him a month's time to transfer the car to the new buyer's name, or else you will submit this other version to the RTO (where KHT becomes the new owner). Watch how things fall into place when you do this - they will do everything to avoid getting into trouble

Now regarding your other doubt - how do they adjust the value of old car? In my case, OTR price was 10.9L. After I gave them the old car and the documents, my net payable amount became 10.9L - 2.2L = 8.7L. No more adjustments. Once the loan amount was given to them by the bank (opted for HDFC), I only had to pay the remaining money and take delivery.

[sandeepmohan]

Thank you very much Karthik. It is all very clear to me now.

This is a long way off. If time permits and if you are free, it will be awesome if you can come along for the PDI for my car. Though it is all very clear to me from Team BHP's PDI check list, nothing like someone else in the know and who has already done the same thing for the exact same car.

The spoiler on Fiat's website does not seem to be the same one you have installed. If I have some cash to spare, I too would like to add a spoiler. Sorry for being a copy cat. It does add some character and improves the profile of the car. What did you pay for this new design spoiler?

I need to figure out the best way to carry out the exchange. The Ikon is my only car. I will have to schedule the purchase in such a way that there is a very small gap of having no car at all.

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

Thank you very much Karthik. It is all very clear to me now.

This is a long way off. If time permits and if you are free, it will be awesome if you can come along for the PDI for my car. Though it is all very clear to me from Team BHP's PDI check list, nothing like someone else in the know and who has already done the same thing for the exact same car.

The spoiler on Fiat's website does not seem to be the same one you have installed. If I have some cash to spare, I too would like to add a spoiler. Sorry for being a copy cat. It does add some character and improves the profile of the car. What did you pay for this new design spoiler?

I need to figure out the best way to carry out the exchange. The Ikon is my only car. I will have to schedule the purchase in such a way that there is a very small gap of having no car at all.

Sure I would be delighted to help out when you get your PDI done. A few issues escaped my eye during PDI because I went alone. Nothing major, but those could have been caught if I had taken another person along I think

You are welcome to fit the same spoiler, I would be flattered if someone opted for the spoiler after seeing my ownership review It is a Fiat original spoiler itself. The one on the website is outdated, that was the previous generation of spoilers without the stoplamp LEDs (brakelight strip). I confirmed this with Fiat themselves. The old one on the website looks like a fat lip. I think you are referring to this spoiler -

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attach...ar-quarter.jpg

I heard that some lineas were fitted with the older one even last month, maybe they were old stock of the previous gen spoilers. Anyway, you can ask the dealer to show you the one he has in stock, before he fits it onto your car. Since it is merely a cosmetic addition and has no useful functionality (at least not at our indian traffic speeds), it doesn't matter much really, old model or new - pick the one which you feel looks good on your car. I saw one sunbeam beige tjet+ with the old spoiler and that spoiler suited the beige color perfectly, more than the one on mine. The same shape spoiler on my black tjet+ would look horrible in my opinion. I somehow like the one on my car better, it looks bigger and sportier. Again, that is purely subjective and likes/dislikes differ

It costed me the same price listed on the Fiat website - 3899, but they charged 1000 Rs. for painting it to the body colour, so totally came to 5k.

P.S - when booking, ask for the latest manufactured t-jet+. They will usually tell you things like "we have march, april and june models but we have a rule of giving march model only first" and such things. Do not agree, threaten them that you either get the latest model or else you will go to another dealer. Childish as this might seem, works perfectly though and you will have the latest t-jet+ . During the PDI you can cross check the VIN ID and confirm it was indeed the same month of manufacture that the dealer specified.

[sandeepmohan]

I can't Thank you enough Karthik. Really appreciate your help.

Are you allowed to crank the car during PDI? Some things work only with the car cranked up. Are things like lights, air con and stereo checked during PDI?

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

I can't Thank you enough Karthik. Really appreciate your help.

Are you allowed to crank the car during PDI? Some things work only with the car cranked up. Are things like lights, air con and stereo checked during PDI?

Anytime, my pleasure sandeep

And yes, regarding your doubt, you can crank the car and check everything you like. You can even take a short drive within the stockyard premises. Most dealers have huge stockyards so you can easily work up through the gears, test how the car drives, any untoward rattles, wobbling, pulling to one side, etc. The only thing you are not permitted to do is take it out on the road, which is perfectly understandable since it is not legal to run the car on public roads without registration

The dealer might say he won't allow you to drive the car within the premises also. This happened to me initially. Again use the method of comparison - tell him other dealers are allowing full fledged PDIs and it is your hard earned money. You have a right to ensure you are not taking a brand new car with flaws. Without PDI, later if you are stuck with a lemon, you will be the one to suffer with constant visits to the service station. Make this clear to them and I am sure they will oblige. If they fear the customer will steal and fly away with the car, let the sales rep accompany you if he wants.

check every working electrical/non-electrical item in the car - lights, horn, fog lamps, parking lights, power windows, door lock/unlock knobs, ORVM adjust switches, interior roof lamps, instrument cluster, all indicators coming on/off like door open, boot open, etc. Even the stereo- check radio, USB (Carry a pen drive for PDI) playback. Even check these - seat pushback levers, seat height adjust lever, neck restraint adjustment, spare tyre in boot, tool kit, etc.

There is a more comprehensive PDI checklist in teamBHP. Take a print out of those sheets and keep ticking every feature on PDI D-Day. Hang on, I think I'd saved a copy of those relevant items on my desktop - I'll copy paste and send you in a PM if you like

[sandeepmohan]

Oh boy. That is a long list in itself. I wish we had some laws that work in this country. It is a shame that you have to do all this on a 11lac car. This whole PDI is annoying. It is sad that you cannot trust any manufacturer on this. As in; don't they carry out all these checks so you don't have to. I guess it is not as detailed as we would like it to be.

[KarthikK]

Dealers do their own PDI too. when you walk in to the stockyard and spot your car, you will see a sticker "PDI OK" on the front windshield. You're right, this list of their PDI just tests the basic functionality. It won't be as comprehensive as the team-bhp checklist.

I agree, its a shame to do this for something that you are expecting the manufacturer to be perfect at making. It is good to do a PDI anyhow, regardless of whether its a Fiat or a honda or any other brand. If there is something wrong with a car, minor issues can be sorted out prior to delivery. If it is a major issue (let us hope not) then you can simply ask for a replacement car before it is registered in the RTO (after which you can't do anything). Plus, you get a glimpse of your new car before D-Day!

[madhukar_n]

Hey Karthik,
Congrats and Welcome to the exclusive club of T-Jet owners. ;-)
Saw this post 4 months late and hence the delay.
Ur report is very good and must be used by the Fiat marketing company to put on their showrooms.

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by madhukar_n

Hey Karthik,
Congrats and Welcome to the exclusive club of T-Jet owners. ;-)
Saw this post 4 months late and hence the delay.
Ur report is very good and must be used by the Fiat marketing company to put on their showrooms.

Thanks madhukar Not too sure if Fiat will want to use it for marketing, I have put a lot of negative comments as well

Your sunbeam t-jet looks classy, hope to see it in the flesh. Btw, Earthed was suggesting we should all take our t-jets for a photoshoot on some weekend. It has still not happened.

[madhukar_n]

We had almost gone once for the photoshoot, but for the cloudy weather and rains around july i guess, it was cancelled at the last hour.
maybe we can renew that with all the folks.

[KarthikK]

It has been a while since I updated this thread, so here is my 1000km update. I was a bit busy and haven't done much running in the past 1 month. The odo reads 1200km. Some updates on the ownership part :-

- I had mentioned in the first post that I had unfortunately been given a defective set of T-Jet door sils (LED accessory). The driver side LED light used to come on intermittently. Fiat didn't have stock of the accessory for replacing it due to some fire in their spares godown in maharashtra, so they said they would get back to me after a few days. Since it was working 70-=80% of the time and it was just a cosmetic accessory, I didn't bother too much. However, I received a surprise call in August, almost 2 months after delivery date. The Fiat staff told me that they could come home and replace the T-jet door sils at my doorstep. At the mentioned time, they promptly came home, replaced the door sils with new ones and handed me a refund cheque for Rs. 2499 (original cost) for causing the inconvenience (although it was not a major functional part)!! Beat that! For all those critics of FIAT's customer service, here is some REAL customer service and courtesy for you! Let us see other brands give this kind of service


- Only 1 small issue I observed when I was cleaning the car windshield once; this negligible glitch has mostly been there from delivery date and I have missed it during PDI. One of the water jets (out of the 2) below the front windshield was not sitting in its groove correctly. That grove is on the underside of the bonnet (see pics below). There was no problem with this anyway and both jets were working fine, no vibrations, nothing. In fact, visually, no one could tell that one of the jets was not sitting in its slot. Solution was trivial - it just needed to be seated in that groove correctly, a 1 minute job but I got it done at the service place when I was passing that side. Future buyers, please check this during PDI, although it hardly matters.

Circled in red is the water sprinkler jet



The green arrow points to the slot where the sprinkler is supposed to be seated. Since the water cable is anyway heavy and there was no tension in the cable, there were hardly any vibrations visually noticeable



- Absolutely zero rattles and squeaks from any part of the car. It is 100% noiseless. Looks like the corrections Fiat took for damping, etc for the 2011 manufactured vehicles are really working.

- Took the jet out for some long drives in and around Bangalore, even for a team-BHP meet at Nandi hills, and boy! this car simply blows my mind away every time I drive it. I loved the cornering and handling tests I threw at it at the Nandi hillclimb and ghat section driving is such a pleasure. For this very reason, I am planning to drive down to Munnar during Diwali holidays to give it a good 1500km round trip running. Some pics taken during the team-BHP meet in August














- The 3M Paint Sealant treatment has really paid off. The car gleams like a mirror now, especially with the black color (as you might have observed from the above pictures). I have never received so much attention on the road. Practically everyone gives my car a stare. I would recommend this 3M car detailing session to anyone who asks me about it. It is like a permanent wax layer, even prevents water drop stains after rainwater dries up. The water drops instead form globules on the surface like dew drops on a plant's leaf. This looks amazing when it rains

- Zero niggles faced on exteriors, interiors and electricals. Absolutely no problems till date. All functions work well, except that in my experience, the Blue&Me voice recognition doesn't seem to recognize all the contacts very well. It can detect a "john" or "ajay" well. But if you throw a "subramaniam" at it, it will read out an error message . This is to be expected anyway, since it is European and not tuned for Indian names. I prefer the buttons on the steering wheel instead of the voice feature for calling people with complex indian names, problem solved.

- Brakes seem to have developed more bite in the 1000kms. Stopping feels so much more confident in the jet. The tyre noise seems to have dropped a bit, and the grip levels have improved.

- The only area where I will complain is in the cleaning department. Even the black color is not so much of a problem. It is these alloy wheels. They look drop dead gorgeous on the T-jet, but trust me, cleaning 16 spokes X 4 wheels itself takes me 1 whole hour!


16 spokes X 4 tyres = Recipe for backache!



Being a Maruti/Hyundai owner, I was initially skeptical about Fiat cars but I have been proved totally wrong. This car is built like a tank, inside out. In fact with my 2006 Maruti Swift I had more initial niggles in the first month, things like the power window switches falling into their cavities, ORVM joysticks losing controlling connection with the mirror, plastic panels rattling, etc.

All in all, a fantastic enthusiast car for a crazy enthusiast. I'm glad I followed my heart and bought this car. Everytime I return from a drive, this car manages to put a smile on my face! I doubt there are many cars in this segment that can match this amount of driving pleasure. Thank you Fiat! and Thanks again to Team-BHP, for making me choose this turbo rocket! My next update will be after the first service later this month.

[sandeepmohan]

The car looks beautiful. Guess that 3M Paint Sealant treatment is working wonders for the paint.

If all goes according to plan, I should be booking my Jet in 3 weeks. I will try and visit all dealers and book with the one that offers the best bang for my Ikon. I am not having much luck trying to sell it here on team bhp. I may have over priced it, then again, it was something I should not have cared much about and should have sold the car a long time ago. I like everything fit and running on a car and hence ended up changing a ton of parts. Should have avoided some of it.

Do I have to instruct the dealer that I wish to do my own PDI and not to register until done? Or is it something that they anyways call you for?

You seem to have had a good experience with Prerana Motors. Is this the one on the same road where Nimhans is?

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

The car looks beautiful. Guess that 3M Paint Sealant treatment is working wonders for the paint.

If all goes according to plan, I should be booking my Jet in 3 weeks. I will try and visit all dealers and book with the one that offers the best bang for my Ikon. I am not having much luck trying to sell it here on team bhp. I may have over priced it, then again, it was something I should not have cared much about and should have sold the car a long time ago. I like everything fit and running on a car and hence ended up changing a ton of parts. Should have avoided some of it.

Do I have to instruct the dealer that I wish to do my own PDI and not to register until done? Or is it something that they anyways call you for?

You seem to have had a good experience with Prerana Motors. Is this the one on the same road where Nimhans is?

Great to know you are going to come into the jet family too in the next few weeks, good luck Try to get the booking done by the festive season. Not sure how much longer the festive discounts are going to be there.

Yeah you can try negotiating for the best price at the showroom itself. That is the best bet to get a good bargain.

Yes you have to instruct them to call you for PDI when they receive the car in the stockyard. Unless mentioned otherwise, they will go ahead with the registration I guess.

Prerana has been very good so far. The one you are referring to in Dairy circle is Concorde motors i think. Prerana motors is at Lalbagh road and another one on Sarajapur ORR near HSR lAgara flyover.

[KarthikK]

An update on the car after a 1000 km drive to Munnar last month. The car was an absolute hoot to drive on the hills, and on the expressway. You really have to look at the speedometer to know what speed you are doing in the T-Jet. Stopping power is brilliant, steering feedback is top notch and handling is a dream. The full travelogue is here

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...mountains.html

My update here will be on the car's side of things. I visited Prerana looking for the first free service before the trip (5000km or 6 months from delivery date). My odo was at 1000km odd (and 3 months old) so with a checkup of all fluid levels, and some reassurance from the service advisor, I embarked on the trip with just a tyre pressure check and a fuel topup. The first service will instead be done tomorrow at Prerana motors, Kudlu gate, on Hosur road.

During the trip, the car was largely unaffected by potholes throughout the trip, and I was extra careful weaving in and out of them. There was only 1 occasion when the underbelly scraped the ground. A TN bus suddenly rushed at me from the opposite side at a blind turn, on a narrow road inside the Chinnar forests. I had to weave left and get down from the tarmac into the gravel to avoid any mishap. When I did so, the height difference between the tarmac layer and the mud was a bit high (almost a few inches) so the left front part of the underbelly scraped the tar. I was initially scared that the left wheel's suspension might have scraped the tar. I got down immediately and had a look, nothing visible, everything looked normal. There were no symptoms of anything untoward observed either, car has been behaving perfectly normal so I conclude it is the underbelly engine guard plate itself which took the beating. Anyway, I will have a check done tomorrow during the first service. Underbelly experts like J.Ravi sir who had endured 50+ beatings on the engine guard plate (during his Ladakh trip) can confirm the sturdiness of this thing

Apart from that, the trip was issueless and I have only positives of the car in memory. It was a dream drive and the Linea T-Jet will definitely be my permanent steed for all drives which have good roads along the route.

- The forest roads were a bit bad and bumpy, so there are a few rattles which had crept in. However, they are not perceptible on the city's roads ever since I came back from Munnar. I had narrowed it down to 2 panels - one is the plastic dashboard compartment lid itself. Another area is near the centre just below the co-driver side of the music system controls. Both rattles will be checked and rectified during tomorrow's service.

- The driver seat creaks sometimes when I sit or get up in some particular angles. This also needs to be checked and rectified.

Additional work required during tomorrow's service -

- slightly uneven panel gap between bonnet lid and headlamp on co-driver side (existing since day 1) needs adjustment to remove the slight cosmetic glitch. The bonnet hinge position and bushes near the bonnet lock need to be adjusted for proper position and play. Service advisor Surendra at Fiat service in Prerana has assured me this is a 5 minute job and will be rectified in front of me in a jiffy.

- Wheel alignment to be checked although there are no perceptible issues. Good to get them done after long trips on bad roads.

- Interior is a bit dirty, especially the floor area. A full vacuum clean will do the job, unfortunately the one I have at home is not working Leather seats are perfectly fine, but they will be taken care of, with a 3M spray-and-wipe leather maintenance solution.

Apart from the servicing, the 3M paint sealant protection layer has been good so far. It is supposed to last for 1 year, but the effect has been showing signs of wearing already. I might just make another trip to the 3M detailer shop this month to get it detailed again, ahead of schedule