[ravikn]

Brilliant review Architect,

Hope I too should have listened to my brain and bought used palio a 1.9D ELX instead of the palio GTX SP (2001 dec) I bought almost 4 years back. Everytime I think of going for long trip, my pocket reminds me the amount that will be left after the trip :(

Wish you many more happy miles ahead.

Am now thinking to buy a used palio 1.3 MJD if its available in Bangalore.

Regards
Ravi

[anupam00]

Originally Posted by architect

Thanks. One of the first Palio Multijets on the forum, so people watch this thread a little more closely, encouraging me to document things well.




Come to think of it, besides the fact that some parts have waiting periods, I am actually quite happy with Elegant Cars, which is the ASC I go to. The workshop manager O P Sharma has been with Fiat since the PAL days (Prem Nath Motors) and the people out there know what they are doing.

Selenia is semi-synthetic, I think. It is also cheaper than Mobil 1 (at the service centre. If I buy from the market, Mobil 1 might be at par, but I am not sure). Selenia sells at Rs 900/- per litre or so. My only purpose of moving to synthetic is that I can change oil at 10,000 km and do a general service at 5,000 km from now on. In any case, 7,500 km is too long an interval for mineral oil.

Gear box oil was changed at 60,000. Power Steering fluid has not been changed as it seems fine. It has been topped up once. Clutch / brake fluid have been changed at 32,000 km. Coolant has been changed every year and during the change of radiator water pump.

Bridgestone Turanza are supposed to be great tyres and harder than Michelin XM1+. Don't worry about overkill, just go for 185/70/R13. You will be surprised by the difference.



FE (sorry to sound repititive) is something like this:

Urban
with AC: 14.5-17.0 kpl (worst ever is 11.xx but that was a one-off)
without AC: 18.0-20.5 kpl (best ever is 21.06 kpl, again a rare case)

Highway
worst: 13.xx kpl (horrible western UP traffic, redline every gear except 5th)
best: 23 kpl (light traffic and only double digit speeds despite 500 km of hills and climbing to 2200 m above sea level)

On the highway, the traffic makes a lot of difference, since overtaking needs lot of high revs. If you decide to remain below 90 kph, you will be rewarded with great FE.


Let's put it this way, Elegant Cars and me are managing with each other. Good Service backup is a lot of relationship building, from both sides. On more than one occasion, I have driven away from Elegant without paying my bill and have settled it later because they weren't clear about the bill. Any other ASC would have asked me to wait till the bill was cleared.

It's not that I get preferential treatment there. Bubby, ByDesign, VikasB, Bruiser and quite a few other TBHP-ians and FIAT owners are happy with the place. Of course, it is still plagued by poor support from FIAT itself.

Great Review Sir ji,

In fact I am also a proud owner of Diesel Palio's as I should call,

My MJD crossed 76k mark 14 days to complete 3 years.

Car is in great condition with original clutch as some palio user had issue with the clutch which was taken care by Fiat,

Do keep your post updated as Palio is Still under Production with Palio Lover,It Still gives a Run for Money to other cars,Its Build like a Tank all know it well,

Thanks & Regards
Anupam

[vikasb]

@architect
A very good and balanced review

I am also more or less happy with the car. Have completed 66.5K till now.
Sad part is that extended warranty is over.

Recently i had a AC gap leakage issue for which they replaced a part and that was not covered under extended warranty which cost me around 4K with labor but the bad part was that they took 5 days to fix the issue. First 3 days for identifying 2 issues and fixing one and ordering the part from Pune for the second issue and then again 2 days once the part came.

Him motors overall turned out to be Ok and the service advisor (Sachin) is also helpful.

What i like about the car
a) Fuel efficient. I get 19Kmpl in Winters and 16Kmpl in Summers
b) Overall it's solid
c) Effective AC

What i don't like about the car
a) Hard clutch and i also have had numerous issues with the gear engagements may be due to clutch/gearbox.
b) Not so good ride quality at low speeds. I drove a punto that day. It's suspension was WOW.
c) Dated interiors and bad finish of plastics
d) Brakes don't inspire confidence


I also have only 1 vehicle.
I think i will keep the car for another 2-3 years and meet my commitment to myself of 100K Km before buying a new car.
But i think it's my first & last Fiat.
Would shift to a Toyota, Honda or Ford next time.

[architect]

Originally Posted by vikasb

@architect
A very good and balanced review

Thanks, Vikas and Anupam

Originally Posted by vikasb

c) Effective AC

I spent the weekend driving through Bihar in a Swift DDIS and an Indigo. For the first time I realised how much better the Palio AC is. My car absolutely CHILLS you to the bone even with blower kept at 2 (which is actually 3, because '0' also works) with ambient temperature being around 33 deg outside whereas the DDIS and Indigo were doing the same at 3/4.

Originally Posted by vikasb

What i don't like about the car
a) Hard clutch and i also have had numerous issues with the gear engagements may be due to clutch/gearbox.

With a new clutch, it will become much better. I have never found the clutch to be hard ever since it was replaced.

Originally Posted by vikasb

b) Not so good ride quality at low speeds. I drove a punto that day. It's suspension was WOW.

Try keeping tyre pressure at 28-29 PSI at the rear, especially if you drive alone.

Originally Posted by vikasb

c) Dated interiors and bad finish of plastics

. Non issue for me because I like the 'dated' design. Quality of plastics are okay and quite durable. Joints / finishing could have been better. If you compare it to the cars which were sold at that price point in 2008, only the i10 was better. The Swift is equally bad, except the black colour hides some imprefections.

Originally Posted by vikasb

d) Brakes don't inspire confidence

. Well, stopping distance is not bad, especially with 185 Michelins / Yokos. Pedal modulation could have been better and yes, it could have been more linear. It has stopped whenever there has been an emergency so far, even on the highways.

[architect]

Rear-ended a 'Vikram' on NH24 and cracked the beautiful multijet grille upfront. It's not really visible, but the crack is there. Wondering whether to bother to replace it or not. :(

[ByDesign]

Originally Posted by architect

Rear-ended a 'Vikram' on NH24 and cracked the beautiful multijet grille upfront. It's not really visible, but the crack is there. Wondering whether to bother to replace it or not. :(

Hard luck man! I always keep telling myself to take it easy since we get no ABS or Air Bags. But yeah, whats the cost on one of those? Maybe you could get one made of fiber glass, theres loads of modding guys who'll do it, if the stock one's too expensive.

[ch.nathan]

^^^ The grille's cost was Rs.1000/- 2 years back. Not sure if it's been reduced now.

[architect]

Well, whatever it costs, if and when it is replaced, it will be the original grille. I was only bothered about paint matching.

[vikasb]

Originally Posted by architect

Rear-ended a 'Vikram' on NH24 and cracked the beautiful multijet grille upfront. It's not really visible, but the crack is there. Wondering whether to bother to replace it or not. :(

If it's not really visible, i suggest to leave it like that.
But do keep a check for the AC performance.
I had done the same to a scooter and after a few days realized that my AC is not cooling. The Gas had leaked.

[architect]

Originally Posted by vikasb

I had done the same to a scooter and after a few days realized that my AC is not cooling. The Gas had leaked.

. Seemed to work OK for about 70 km after the collision but will keep track!

[architect]

Oh no, Exide strikes me too!

About three weeks ago, I had a bit of a scare, when the car refused to start-up after refuelling, on a warm engine. It had to be push-started (I know you shouldn't push start fuel injected cars, but you have no choice, especially when you are 600 km away from home).

Last night, it had to be push started again. Interestingly, besides these two incidents, starting and even cold starting has not been a problem.

As per my newly adopted service interval of 5000 km, a service was due anyway. I dropped the car at Samyak in the morning and they diagnosed the problem to be that of the battery. It was the OEM Exide DIN 50 MF battery, Jan 2008 make.

Another Palio thing: the DIN 50 size is a very rare size and only Exide makes it, not Amaron. I wasn't comfortable takin a DIN 45 or a DIN 55 /60 (the 1.9D uses the DIN 55). Took it to the battery dealer. He located a DIN 50 Exide sealed battery. It was already 7.00 PM when we realised that we had the "Right" battery instead of the left. The lead from the fuse box is so short, you cannot use a flipped arrangement. Back to the godown to look for a DIN 50 "Left" or standard battery. Job was completed at 8.00 PM.

As expected cranking time is lesser, but more important, the starter motor is "turning" faster than before. Damage: Rs 7,250 incl tax and a refund of Rs 1,000 for old battery. This a sealed maintenance free battery with an indicator (no distilled water, only paste) with 2.5 yr replacement warranty and another 2.5 yr of warranty with depreciation.

Fingers crossed on another Exide under the hood! Lesson learnt: always check on the specific gravity of your non-sealed battery with a hygrometer. Merely checking voltage may not be enough, especially when you read it off the ECU scanner like I have done the last couple of times.

[download2live]

^^ EXIDE batteries are not so reliable. Punto also comes with it. As soon as the warranty was over, the battery lost all its charge in a week of standing. Had to get it jump started. Now since the car is running daily there is no problem. But I remember that I have not so reliable battery under hood. Also it takes a little longer to start the car now as compared to initial times.

[Rahulkool]

^^ my exide was also gone bust exactly after 3 years, But getting replacement was very easy. called the exide batmobile and they reached the spot in 30mins with a replacement battery. It took 30 mins to change because some odd bolts on car. The battery is working perfectly fine, one odd thing i have noticed is that the stereo now doesnt switches off while starting the car,earlier it used to happen, dunno if its good or bad thing. I have little overcharged by exide, got it for 7.8k. Its stock din size battery with 5 year warraty(its not exactly 5 year if you read the terms and conditions on warranty booklet )

Great review architect, your review gives me more confidence in my car haha ....

[ch.nathan]

Originally Posted by architect

Back to the godown to look for a DIN 50 "Left" or standard battery.

What do you mean by 'godown' here? TASS?

[pankaj_sachdeva]

Originally Posted by architect

Took it to the battery dealer

Originally Posted by ch.nathan

What do you mean by 'godown' here? TASS?

I think architect meant Battery dealer's warehouse, where they usually keep all the stock and only few pieces are kept at the shop for display.