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-   -   Fiat Palio Stile Multijet: 196,000 km, 9 years & 8 months up! EDIT: Sold to a Palio lover! (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-term-ownership-reviews/56553-fiat-palio-stile-multijet-196-000-km-9-years-8-months-up-edit-sold-palio-lover-20.html)

Godown is Battery Dealer's godown. The rarity of a DIN 50 battery makes me look for it in godowns. Even then, you end up with a "Right" instead of a "Left"! Ah, the pleasures of owning a Fiat. :Frustrati

Last checked, some 10 days ago, the specific gravity of the battery (oem exide) of my Palio was found to be 1.25. I came to know after some googling that the value, though less than ideal, indicates more than 75% charge in the battery. Till now the most important function, cranking up the engine, has never failed but there is a perceivable drop in the speed of the starter motor. Any predictions about the days left with this battery?

Can't say how long you have left, best is to take the advice of a good battery shop owner. Mine was "turning" slower for the last 6 months or so. It refused to crank only twice, but those two times, it made me push.....

Ever since expiry of extended warranty, I have reduced the service interval to 5,000 km from 7,500 km.

The last 5,000 km, since service at 65,000 km and replacement of battery, were free of issues. A blown tail lamp and the 69,500 km on the odometer had me planning for a service sometime this week but was not getting time off from a busy schedule.

At around 10 AM today, ByDesign called up to say that he was standing at Samyak / Elegant Cars and they were not accepting any more cars and shutting down for good. Few phone calls here and there it was confirmed. Elegant Cars was being closed down for good. The space was being taken over by Zedex Nissan, a new Nissan dealer in Delhi. There was no connection between the two entities except the space.

To say that this piece of news would send many Fiat owners of Delhi NCR into a worried state would be a sheer understatement. The workshop manager, O P Sharma, was one person who ran the workshop with total commitment and customer-centric focus. Despite the shortcomings of owning a Fiat, one had peace of mind if the car was serviced by Elegant Cars regularly.

I called O P Sharma and on personal request, managed an appointment for the afternoon. Service was carried out well and minor issues attended to. I have gone for Selenia synthetic oil as I intend to manage for at least 10,000 km without the need for service. It takes me 5 months to cover that distance. By that time, I hope things will be settled and Mr O P Sharma and the team from Elegant will be employed in another Tata-Fiat ASC and will be able to give us the same level of service we have got so far.

After the whirlwind of the morning and afternoon, I must say I was a little tired (no lunch in order to reach the workshop by 2 PM) and a trifle sad by evening. The Service Center is not a favourite place for owners, but having gone to the same place for more than three years, I was familiar and comfortable in the place. True, the same people may recreate the same atmosphere elsewhere, but it might not be so easy or so simple anymore.

This is terrible. Elegant was one of the few places with technical know how. I really do hope they're shifting base and setup a workstation quickly. Did you ask Sharma ji if they were relocating?
I guess the only good place left now is Oberoi Cars.

They're not relocating. They have shut down for good. It was sad to our beloved Sharmaji asking the Zedex Nissan guy (renovation work has already started there) if he could accomodate some of his boys. They were the best Fiat Team in Delhi.

I will not move to anywhere for now (unless forced by another part failure or an accident or something like that). I have purposely filled in synthetic oil as I intend to wait and watch where Mr Sharma and gang end up eventually (assuming the key guys will end up together).

Plan B is Dynamic Motors, as of now. Works Manager Upadhyaya is a good guy.

Oops. Thats another good A.S.S. going down the drain for FIAT!! Whats happening?

I can understand, a bit, the plight of FIAT owners in NCR after this development. Hope you find your alternative pretty soon. In Bangalore, at least we have a couple of choices, especially for Palios. In fact, I would say this would be a good opportunity to explore good non-OEM guys, some of whom are quite capable of supporting and give you very good service. I use a BOSCH service center which delivers at least as much as i expect.



IIRC, switching from mineral/semi-synth to synthetic needs a engine oil flush. And do you plan on switching back to mineral subsequently. There is a lot of views on the right way to switch back and forth. Hope you have a plan.

Myself, in the SDX, have been using Castrol Edge Sport. Shifted from mineral at 60K. Next change was at 70K kms. Now at 74000 kms. In my opinion, 10000 kms change interval seems just about ok. Although i am still not completely sure. But the difference in NVH is perceptible, although just a bit. Shell Helix Ultra also seems to be good. Never tried Selenia synthetic( partly because havent been to TATA-FIAT ASC for a long time. )

Happy Motoring,

Cheers!
Jagan.

That's Sad.
Two more have closed in west delhi and surrounding areas. I heard rama & a-one. Don't know what will happen when Tata & Fiat part ways.

Him motors is good. At least they have the parts 70% of the time. They said that parts are an issue nowadays due to some fire at fiat factory. I have been much dependent on them due to some issues with clutch+master/slave cylinder, AC, water pump replacements etc. I have spent around 40K on the car recently due to these replacements. This is apart from the regular service and tyre change.

I was calculating the maintenance cost including service costs, tyres etc ( without the insurance renewal cost) and i found it to be Rs 1.71 per Km.

I have booked a swift ZDI but i haven't yet made up my mind as to whether to take delivery this year or next due to high interest rates. My wife is insisting that i sell my palio if i want a new car :)

Him Motors is good but they do not service Fiats in their Patparganj outlet which means I have to go to Peeragarhi which is 30 km away from my place. I have some indicators from the people at Samyak but I am not putting in them on a public forum as to where they are headed. But its all speculation as they are themselves not sure. No ASC can hire so many people (and some pretty senior ones) so quickly. Let's see.

Even my water pump has been replaced due to a bearing issue.

Spent two hours at a lathe workshop. The engine has a plastic cover (which also holds the air filter). This cover is simply inserted over two plastic lugs with rubber sleeves. The lug is fixed to the engine block with a bolt. Due to vibration (I guess) one of the bolts had broken. Even the engine cover had a crack.

From the picture, one can see the lug on the left is fine but the one on the right had broken and left the remainder inside.

A simple spot weld, and the broken part was extracted. Due to absence of an identical rubber lug, the sleeve of the existing lug was removed and fixed to a bolt borrowed from the head of an Indica engine. Next time when I go to TASS, will ask for the original lug (and hope it won't break again!). Better still would be to just leave it with the new bolt.

Got wheels aligned, rotated and balanced at Star Wheels, Gurgaon.

The somewhat shoddy quality of some plastics (and metal bolts now!) in the critical components like the engine is not great. Tata quality has actually trickled down well and truly to Fiat. I think this will be the last (and only) Fiat I would be buy at this rate. Sadly, no one makes budget cars with such ride and handling and steering. One of the three is always missing. The one that might be close to this one (Polo) is yet to prove itself on long-term quality issues. The Fiesta Classic is the only comparable vehicle now. That has a a slower diesel and an unaffordable to run petrol engine (for somebody who does 20,000 km a year)

Neat Ride!

I think I spotted it today @ 6.10 AM on the ring road,it was being driven by a gentleman, had stopped at a red light.
I was in a hurry, was it yours?

It is indeed sad to see Elegant close down,they helped us out in arranging a replacement for the complete lock set, though it took time(not surprising considering its FIAT)

We have to give our Linea for Service this month end, and frankly I'm skeptical if any other workshop would provide with the same level of service, any other options in mind?


GT

These are exactly my thoughts too. About the a** lesser said the better. In my case AC water drain failure recurred last week, barely a month from spending Rs. 2000+ in Abhishek Motors TASS.

There are quite a few retro Palios in Guwahati. The old team from the workshop of Gargya Motors, the earlier Fiat dealer (they now sell Toyota), have now assembled in an independent workshop within the city. I visited the workshop last Sunday and saw them working on a seized engine of a Palio Stile MJD. From the small chat with the fellows I felt that they knew Palios much better than the morons at Abhishek Motors.

Any more info on the seized MJD engine - causes, symptoms, costs..?

Cheers,
Jagan.

Okay, it was you yesterday (monday morning) in Silver Swift LDi. The 'gentleman' driving was me (do I look that old? :)). I had to drop my parents to the Shatabdi at New Delhi station. I saw the TBHP sticker at the back but you moved off too fast.


The entire team @ Elegant Cars has moved to another TASC. Until I get it officially from the horses' mouth, I will not post it here. Expect to get confirmed news in a day or two. Watch this space.

Most opened up multijet engines are due to injector and other issues caused by bad fuel, missing service intervals, and revving cold engines unnecessarily. This is the reason I hate these new cars without temperature gauges. Also, a lot of blown turbos (revving cold engines again, not idling turbo before shut down and so on). This is the feedback I have had from the mechanics. But they've also assured that all properly maintained multijet engines are running as good as new even after 80,000 km.

Oh BTW, my AC drainage and rainwater drainage issues have been resolved by me myself. The drainage pipe for AC condensate got blocked. (the pipe, not the drain on the floor). I solved it by blowing air (from my tyre inflator pump) back into the pipe from below. The mess cleared and internal flooding stopped. The rainwater drainage point is on the firewall below the the ECU on the engine side. It's a downward sloped plastic bend. Just clean it manually. The third point is the hole on the AC floor itself. For that, you need to clean it with anything long and thin.