[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Milestone Update - 1,60,000 kms.

Crossed the 160k milestone yesterday.

Number of days: 2191 days (6 years & 13 days) since purchase.
Average Usage: 73 kms /day.

Time taken for the last 10k kms: 219 days @ 45.7 kms/day.

[patel8585]

Hello Crazy Driver,

As am so impressed with the detailed as well as the lonest ownership review of Punto 90HP i have ever read on net. As, wanted to know a bit more on the driveability of the 90HP version and is it still a car to buy as i am getting a good deal of 2013 Black Punto 90HP with just 29000 kms on it with quiet reasonable price. So, can you please do guide me on this.

Waiting for your fast reply. Drive Safe.

[swiftdiesel]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Onward journey - Ergonomics! Back Pain!

What I couldn't prepare for - was the effect of such a long drive on the aging body! For the first time since the car ownership, a long drive took its toll on the body and I ended up with acute lower back pain by the time we reached Trivandrum. Probably the seating position is to be blamed, since I never found the lower back support lacking in the Punto, though it has its share of ergonomic issues including extremely poor under-thigh support.

Are you a tall person like 6ft and above? My brother-in-law is 6ft 2 and he bought a brand new Grande Punto in 2015. He drives ~100 kms everyday and 3 months into his ownership he complained of extreme lower back pain. The doctor advised him to change his car and surprisingly the back pain left too! Well, the back pain lasted for almost 6 months by which time he handed the Punto to his friend as he couldn't drive and had a driver drive him around in his Fiesta. After 6 months he bought a Mobilio and he's been fine ever since.

My previous Lodgy's ergonomics were messed up too. When I take a long drive I have acute knee pain after the drive. It takes a couple of hours to subside. No such complaints in the i20. But my brother-in-law who also has a Lodgy never complains of any pain while doing long drives. I reckon the physical make up of a person determines the comfort level. What is comfy to me may not be comfy to you if you know what I mean.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by patel8585

As, wanted to know a bit more on the driveability of the 90HP version and is it still a car to buy as i am getting a good deal of 2013 Black Punto 90HP with just 29000 kms on it with quiet reasonable price.

Thank you. There is turbo lag and it is evident specially in the first and second gear. Not something you wont get used to - same goes for the ergonomics as well.

Is it worth a purchase? That depends on the price. Bargain hard as Punto doesnt have resale value and that makes it a steal for owners purchasing now. In Bangalore - its easy to get a used Punto for the price of a top end A segment hatch and for that price - it still is very much worth a purchase.

Originally Posted by swiftdiesel

The doctor advised him to change his car and surprisingly the back pain left too!

This problem got solved. Problem was with my core strength, and the ergonomics might only have increased it a bit. Working on improving the core strength proved to be a much cheaper and long term solution than changing the car.

[Ryuu]

While core strength is the important to keep back pain at bay, there are also other factors that determine whether or not one faces back pain. As correctly pointed out, Punto is generally not considered comfy for a tall guy. More so if you have more legs than torso. Messes the ergonomics. Knees go up, back rounds up in the bucket. I have that cut out. Im driving Punto Evo since 3 years and I have been on long drives > 1k at once. More often than not, it's umconformtable. There's a certain position and mind you only that particular position is comfortable for long drives for me. As it happens, somebody comes along the way and messes with that too. Can't help it.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by Ryuu

While core strength is the important to keep back pain at bay, there are also other factors that determine whether or not one faces back pain. As correctly pointed out, Punto is generally not considered comfy for a tall guy. More so if you have more legs than torso. Messes the ergonomics. Knees go up, back rounds up in the bucket. I have that cut out. Im driving Punto Evo since 3 years and I have been on long drives > 1k at once. More often than not, it's umconformtable. There's a certain position and mind you only that particular position is comfortable for long drives for me. As it happens, somebody comes along the way and messes with that too. Can't help it.

Cant deny that the ergonomics are far from perfect.

However, I've had more than two dozen 12 - 13 hour, 800 km drives and never had back pain issues till the recent drive. More than the car - my worry was about this affecting my long hours on the bike and hence a permanent fix through some dedicated workouts was the need of the hour.

The way I usually adjust my seating position is - 1. Depress the clutch fully. 2. Adjust the seat base so that the leg is comfortable with the clutch fully pressed and 3. Adjust the seat recline so that hands are comfortable on the wheel. I'm near 6 feet but this still results in a slightly more upright seating position (Those Italians must have extra long arms! ) but I do enjoy the firm lower back support.

Believe it was not documented properly due to my laziness - but we had another 1600 kms round trip since the above mentioned backpain episode and things were quite normal this time around.

Speaking of laziness - the 160k service is still pending and looks like I'll be able to do it only when it touches 162k kms on the odo sometime mid-May.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Issues faced + Service Experience #26 - Regular Service @ 1,63,000 kms.
Service Satisfaction - ***1/2
Service Centre - True Sai Motors, Salem.

An update from me after a gap of a few months. Usage has been less for the last couple of months and the car has mainly been confined to the office commute - sometimes not even that as I used the scooter to commute most of the days to office. Which eventually led to the battery getting drained one fine day without warning.

This is not the first time that the battery is getting drained ever since the audio system installation and I just haven't been able to find the root cause for it. So decided to take the car to True Sai this time for service, hoping the friendly faces there might be able to come up with a solution.

Thankfully - they did. Yet to find out whether there guess is correct - but they suspect that the issue is caused by the old Blue&Me module that I've still left connected in the car - when I changed to the after market headunit - and this does try to draw power even when the vehicle is switched off. With that disconnected now, hopefully the issue doesn't repeat.

Not that I'll get to find out soon though - as wife has taken over the rights to the scooter and I'm back to my regular usage of the Punto - hopefully with some good highway runs also coming up soon.

The bill. More on the good and the bad at the end of this post.


Service center is a much more cheerful place these days with all the Jeeps around. That one should fetch an average of 15k - 20k per service, even a regular one.


My Punto was attended immediately, as I was the first customer to arrive for the day. One good thing about True Sai, still is that the work is carried out well in comparison to most other FASS.


An Abarth for company. There was an Avventura Abarth that came in later as well.


Milkshake out of the previous Phillips 100*90 headlamps. Probably fake!


Thats my car on the extreme end. Starting to shine once again post the wash.

Overall -

+ Work levels are still good. They made an honest attempt to resolve the battery drain issue, whereas Vecto just blamed the new battery. They also fixed the wiring of the tail lamps, the same issue that was reported last time to Vecto as well - but they didn't attend to it as the issue was intermittent and was not present when they checked.
+ Wash has become even better after MOPAR. Was glad I stayed back for it. Extremely thorough with their underbody wash. Overall, much better than I've seen with any service centers.
+ Still gives a good effort to solve customer issues.

- Billing has become very commercial now - much like Hyundai. Service Advisor was more interested in pushing A/c Treatment, RSA etc. He also tried to push an early tyre change + brake pad replacement + Timing Chain replacement.
- Small items are still squeezed in, and at the end of the day - I was too tired for fight it out for it. Tissue box (WTH!), Anabond, Disposable covers. Too much of greed experienced these days as compared to the situation before Jeep when they were just happy to have customers drive in!


That said, driving the Punto on the highways after a long time was such a bliss! Been driving the Xcent for the last one week when I visited hometown, and boy - in comparison - the Punto is a widely different animal on the highways.

1.63L kms and still a smile on the face. Hopefully much more to come...

[theexperthand]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

- Billing has become very commercial now - much like Hyundai. Service Advisor was more interested in pushing A/c Treatment, RSA etc. He also tried to push an early tyre change + brake pad replacement + Timing Chain replacement.
- Small items are still squeezed in, and at the end of the day - I was too tired for fight it out for it. Tissue box (WTH!), Anabond, Disposable covers. Too much of greed experienced these days as compared to the situation before Jeep when they were just happy to have customers drive in!

Strange - KHT never charge for the disposable covers etc, and never pushed me for any non-essential tasks. In fact, they even gave me more than a half-full bottle of brake fluid for free when they identified a small leak in the plunger and couldn't fix it on that day.

In fact, they didn't even charge for the brake oil when I got the plunger replaced, which included the bleeding and refilling of brake fluid, and gave a discount on the labour charge.

But hey, I hope the tissue box is 4X4

OT: Another point I noted was that when I removed the charger of my dashcam so that it won't record during the service, they told me it is not required and they are ok even if I leave the dashcam to record what happens. That comment definitely earned few brownie points from me.

--Anoop

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by theexperthand

Strange - KHT never charge for the disposable covers etc, and never pushed me for any non-essential tasks.

I just realized I missed your update regarding KHT. The last post on your thread regarding KHT was very helpful indeed, and I missed it.

Will try them from next time, specially for regular services I'm not planning to travel much
(Salem little bit more than Whitefield for me. ).

The google map link is broken though.

[nkrishnap]

@CrAzY dRiVeR. What quantity of engine oil was filled during service? True Sai has developed a bad habit of filling 3.5 litres instead of 3.2 litres as prescribed in the owner's manual.

Below are the quantities that are supposed to be used

Oil change without oil filter change - 3 L

Oil change with oil filter change - 3.2 L

When engine is opened and reassembled - 3.5 L

Do check and drain out the excess 300 ml.

[theexperthand]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

The google map link is broken though.

Thank you - It is showing multiple options when I click on the link. Here is the updated one: https://goo.gl/maps/LYYzmQygQ592

If you are coming from KR Puram area, take the right after Decathlon, and the service centre will come towards the end of the road, on the right side.

--Anoop

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by nkrishnap

@CrAzY dRiVeR. What quantity of engine oil was filled during service? True Sai has developed a bad habit of filling 3.5 litres instead of 3.2 litres as prescribed in the owner's manual.

You're right. They've billed for 3.5L. Thank you KP.

Originally Posted by theexperthand

Thank you - It is showing multiple options when I click on the link. Here is the updated one: https://goo.gl/maps/LYYzmQygQ592

If you are coming from KR Puram area, take the right after Decathlon, and the service centre will come towards the end of the road, on the right side.

--Anoop

Sure will do for the next service.

Here's the Jeep True Sai sold me - Maruti and Hyundai give such boxes for free. Sad of Mopar to bill it to customers.

[mxh]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

- Billing has become very commercial now - much like Hyundai. Service Advisor was more interested in pushing A/c Treatment, RSA etc. He also tried to push an early tyre change + brake pad replacement + Timing Chain replacement.
- Small items are still squeezed in, and at the end of the day - I was too tired for fight it out for it. Tissue box (WTH!), Anabond, Disposable covers. Too much of greed experienced these days as compared to the situation before Jeep when they were just happy to have customers drive in!
.

Don't pay one paisa extra otherwise they will be encouraged to continue with these harassment practices. I generally send a printed sheet with instructions on what is to be done with my service. This is a written record of what I have requested for and no one can dispute it. Honda has a service wise exact cost available on their site, check if the same is available for Fiat.

[chiranjitp]

First of all thanks CrAzY dRiVeR for sharing this brilliant review & updating it thoroughly over the years. We too owned a Punto MJD in the same BNW color but in the Emotion trim (pre 2012 model). We owned her from Feb 2012 to September 2016. In one of your previous posts you wrote about changing the radiator fan during the 160k km service. Have you changed the fan yet?

Originally Posted by nkrishnap

Below are the quantities that are supposed to be used

Oil change without oil filter change - 3 L

Oil change with oil filter change - 3.2 L

When engine is opened and reassembled - 3.5 L

Do check and drain out the excess 300 ml.

This got me thinking, so I went through the old service bills of our Punto. What I found was shocking, for the 30k, 45k, 60k servicing they had billed us for 4 liters . For rest of the services they had billed us correctly (i.e 3.3 liters). It seems not only did the incompetent guys at FASS bill us for 4 liters, they also poured 4 liters in the engine. Because at around 101k km the crankshaft seal gave away prematurely, which I believe happens due to overfilling of engine oil.

Sharing the bill of 45k km service, check out the quantity of engine oil:

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by mxh

Don't pay one paisa extra otherwise they will be encouraged to continue with these harassment practices. I generally send a printed sheet with instructions on what is to be done with my service. This is a written record of what I have requested for and no one can dispute it. Honda has a service wise exact cost available on their site, check if the same is available for Fiat.

Yes, I do agree with you. However - unfortunately can't make it into a practice always. When its already a very long day (Office till 1:30am, waking up by 5 again, whole day at service center, another 3 hours drive ahead) - I dont feel just wasting any more energy fighting over the smaller stuff.

And the practise is very common at most service centers these days. Here's what happened with me at Hyundai two weeks back -

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

One thing with Hyundai that i absolutely hate when compared to my other brand car. They push accessories only and are very less bothered about the actual service to be carried out on the car.

Just today I took our Xcent for service (at Popular, but not Cochin) - and the executive pushed for Monsoon rust coating, underbody coating, silencer coating (if not full underbody), engine coating, battery terminal coating, a/c vent germ cleaning, painting (for minor scratches), polishing and what not!

Asked them if its from 3M and they happily nodded yes. Told them they offer even more packages, but I'm interested in none of it.

Perhaps I spoke too early about FIAT when writing the above post. Spotted a guy walking around the shop floor with WURTH branded dress and he was asking service advisors for which cars to work on, so that probably is a marketing tie up too.

Originally Posted by chiranjitp

In one of your previous posts you wrote about changing the radiator fan during the 160k km service. Have you changed the fan yet?

Thanks for the kind words. Haven't yet changed the radiator fan because the workaround fix provided by True Sai last time is working perfectly afterwards. Decided to skip it for now and get it replaced at the next service, purely for (present) financial reasons.

Four litres is just too much above the recommended level!