Fiat Palio Multijet : An ownership log

tortoiseNhare · 2nd March 2010, 12:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by tortoiseNhare

I don't blame Fiat India for the poor experience.

Fiat India seems to have started calling a spade a spade as far as arrangements with Tata regarding servicing of their vehicles is concerned. I had narrated my last experience at the CEO's corner in Fiat website and within 24 hours there was a phone call from the Tata Motors Kolkata Office requesting to bring the vehicle to my nearest TASS for getting the checkup of my car done according to book. The Tata official (Mr. Pradhan) was categorical in saying that they will never allow any TASS/Dealer to get away with improper servicing irrespective of brand Tata or brand Fiat.

tortoiseNhare · 7th March 2010, 14:36

As I had posted earlier, my car was rear ended by a Ford Fiesta, leading to a damaged rear bumper. I had repaired it as a temporary measure and hardly a couple of days later a Tata Spacio did this to her:

Fiat Palio Multijet : An ownership log-second-time.jpg

After my loud protests, following the incompetent manner in which the Fiat-First 44 point checkup was handled in case of my car, a Tata Motors official contacted me giving a patient hearing to all my complaints including that of non-availability of the bumper (on 01 March, Monday). The subsequent call from the dealer was quicker than I could ever imagine (Wednesday). They had the bumper ready and on Thursday I left my vehicle with them as some insurance formalities were not complete.

On Friday afternoon I went there to get my car. She looked beautiful with the new bumper and I just opened the hatch door to see if anything was amiss. My brother-in-law was with me, and horror of horrors, he spotted a crack in the newly fitted bumper! The officials of the dealer were red faced but handled the situation well. They promised me to procure a new bumper asap and requested me to use this (new but cracked) bumper for the time being.

Good news is that they managed to get another new bumper as early as on Saturday (yesterday) and rang me up in the afternoon to get the replacement done. I couldn't spare time yesterday and went there today in the morning. The job was done without much fuss and by 10.30 I was out of the TASS. One must give the devil his due. In this case, the TASS, in spite of the faux pas, deserves a ten out of ten.

Here is the hind part of my beautiful Palio.

Fiat Palio Multijet : An ownership log-new-bumper.jpg

amarprusty · 13th March 2010, 23:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by tortoiseNhare

As I had posted earlier, my car was rear ended by a Ford Fiesta, leading to a damaged rear bumper. I had repaired it as a temporary measure and hardly a couple of days later a Tata Spacio did this to her:

Attachment 302034

After my loud protests, following the incompetent manner in which the Fiat-First 44 point checkup was handled in case of my car, a Tata Motors official contacted me giving a patient hearing to all my complaints including that of non-availability of the bumper (on 01 March, Monday). The subsequent call from the dealer was quicker than I could ever imagine (Wednesday). They had the bumper ready and on Thursday I left my vehicle with them as some insurance formalities were not complete.

On Friday afternoon I went there to get my car. She looked beautiful with the new bumper and I just opened the hatch door to see if anything was amiss. My brother-in-law was with me, and horror of horrors, he spotted a crack in the newly fitted bumper! The officials of the dealer were red faced but handled the situation well. They promised me to procure a new bumper asap and requested me to use this (new but cracked) bumper for the time being.

Good news is that they managed to get another new bumper as early as on Saturday (yesterday) and rang me up in the afternoon to get the replacement done. I couldn't spare time yesterday and went there today in the morning. The job was done without much fuss and by 10.30 I was out of the TASS. One must give the devil his due. In this case, the TASS, in spite of the faux pas, deserves a ten out of ten.

Here is the hind part of my beautiful Palio.

Attachment 302035

I have the same palio mjd sd and love the design even after looking at figo,beat,polo,etc palio has a very bold look with a front grille and double barrel headlights

architect · 14th March 2010, 13:03

Some nice shots of the Palio MJD coming up on my 2 yr 40k km review. Here's a teaser!

tortoiseNhare · 2nd April 2010, 20:00

Subsequent to all the drama involving my rear bumper replacement I noticed some clicking sound emanating from the base of the gear lever whenever gear was being changed. I was not much worried about it but my gut feeling had been bothering me about the 24 hours that my car had to spend in the TASS prior to the bumper job. So I tried checking the most likely vulnerability: the reverse gear. Lo behold! my Palio had become an Indica! Someone had broken the reverse gear lock! My first paid service was booked for this morning and the first thing I did was to bring this thing into the notice of the service advisor. The reply I received was somewhat like this, "Sir, some new guy in our workshop might have mistakenly done it but the reverse gear lock is a worthless feature anyway."

The 22,500 km paid service happens to be rather routine but the kind of bill that I was handed down was funny. The total bill I had to pay was Rs. 1660. The bill:

HP 15W40 Engine Oil 3.3 lt. (loose): Rs. 841.50
Oil Filter: Rs. 439
Engine oil and Filter change: Rs. 135
Air filter cleaning: Rs. 54
HEADLAMP (EACH) REMOVE REFIT (INCL BUMPER R/R ADJUST): Rs. 162
Service Tax: Rs. 35

What was funny/unacceptable was that the headlamps were never removed, neither was any bumper adjustment done. Let me explain the issue.

I had specifically asked the service advisor to check and adjust the right headlamp main beam. In fact right after the first free service that bulb had got fused and a spare bulb provided by Fiat with the vehicle was fitted as replacement. Since then the beam was never satisfactory and in each of the previous free services the TASS failed to rectify it. Today I was pleasantly surprised when one senior mechanic just opened the bonnet, disconnected that bulb and connected it again to produce a drastic improvement in the beam. This act in the final bill was shown as "HEADLAMP (EACH) REMOVE REFIT (INCL BUMPER R/R ADJUST)" and the labour charge for the same was shown as Rs. 162. When I was making the payments I was in a hurry to reach a meeting on time. Though I could sense the daylight robbery there itself I had to leave in a hurry without any strong protest.

I am now totally P***ed off with this unholy Tata-Fiat alliance.

vikasb · 4th April 2010, 10:19

I think you have already suffered a lot.

Why don't you try out any Bosch centre.
Is it due to warranty concerns or non-availability of any good alternative?

tortoiseNhare · 4th April 2010, 18:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by vikasb

I think you have already suffered a lot.

Why don't you try out any Bosch centre.
Is it due to warranty concerns or non-availability of any good alternative?

Reputed third party service centres have not opened shop in Guwahati. I am now on the lookout for a good independent mechanic. I heard that there are two or three really good ones in the city having experience of servicing the original Palio.

tortoiseNhare · 13th April 2010, 19:43

From tomorrow we have the Bihu holidays till Sunday. My driving plans for the next few days are rather ambitious. Early tomorrow morning I with the usual companions i.e. wifey, her sister, brother-in-law and their kid will begin our long drive to Agartala and some other places of Tripura. The catch - I am totally dependent upon whatever little information I have got from the Internet. I have not met anyone who had undertaken such a trip by car. Wish me luck!

CliffHanger · 13th April 2010, 20:04

Hey Tortoise, I really appreciate your patience in dealing with TASS. I just don't have it and lose all my temper in the service station. One thing is for sure - If Fiat has to survive in India, it needs to open up its own service shop. The TASS have some serious problems which are deeply rooted and only a miracle can make them come out of it. Btw, I wish your car to treat you well. Have a Safe & Pleasant journey!

architect · 13th April 2010, 23:56

TnH, enjoy your trip, this car is a fantastic mile-muncher and just loves the highways. It has not let me down on almost 13,000 km of highway driving, almost 80% of it alone. Just take the necessary regular precautions and checks.

tortoiseNhare · 18th April 2010, 13:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by architect

TnH, enjoy your trip, this car is a fantastic mile-muncher and just loves the highways. It has not let me down on almost 13,000 km of highway driving, almost 80% of it alone. Just take the necessary regular precautions and checks.

Thanks architect. I am back from the arduous trip. The car, as usual, didn't let me down. But this time there were some anxious moments. After about 350 kms (about 80 of them in horrible no road of a highway stretch) the speedo/odo stopped working. Scarier part was the intermittent appearance of low brake fluid/hand brake on indicator on the console. Scarier still, midway through the longest ghat section in Tripura, the fuel injector indicator came on all of a sudden and refused to go off.

Kept driving till Agartala because I had no other choice. The TASC out there had no provision to service Fiat cars. But I noticed that at the time of restart the indicator behaved as usual. The car had no problem whatsoever in torque/power delivery. In the later part of the trip I noticed that indicator to reappear if driven at 2500 rpm or more.

I am going to take a couple of days more before taking her to the TASS here at Guwahati as I want to be able to reproduce the problem in front of them. I hope that the erratic appearance of those indicators are somehow related to the failure of the speedometer/odometer and nothing is wrong with the engine/pump/ecu. The tachometer is working fine.

We had a total of roughly 1400 km covered in this trip. The exact trip log could not be maintained because of the odometer going kaput. I'll try to post a travelogue soon.

tortoiseNhare · 21st April 2010, 20:52

I took her to the TASS today. The engine was scanned by the examiner and nothing was found wrong. The culprit was a loose coupling. Everything is fine with her now, speedo/odo included. I have to always remember to add about another 1K to the odo reading from now on.

Quote:

But this time there were some anxious moments. After about 350 kms (about 80 of them in horrible no road of a highway stretch) the speedo/odo stopped working. Scarier part was the intermittent appearance of low brake fluid/hand brake on indicator on the console. Scarier still, midway through the longest ghat section in Tripura, the fuel injector indicator came on all of a sudden and refused to go off.

sdp1975 · 21st April 2010, 22:21

tnh, please post a travelogue if you can.

Not many of us get the opportunity to visit the NE part of the country.

tortoiseNhare · 22nd April 2010, 10:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by sdp1975

tnh, please post a travelogue if you can.

I intend to do it soon. Feeling lazy to organize/resize the photographs.

amarprusty · 23rd April 2010, 20:37

Insurance renewed 3.4 lac IDV for 6K premium,Reliance lowest quote in market.

Planning to claim insurance and get some dents and scratches sorted out as 4th year insurance premium will be very less anyways even without no claim bonus

7th March 2010, 14:36	#62
tortoiseNhare BHPian Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Guwahati Posts: 536 Thanked: 90 Times	The long story of the rear bumper As I had posted earlier, my car was rear ended by a Ford Fiesta, leading to a damaged rear bumper. I had repaired it as a temporary measure and hardly a couple of days later a Tata Spacio did this to her: After my loud protests, following the incompetent manner in which the Fiat-First 44 point checkup was handled in case of my car, a Tata Motors official contacted me giving a patient hearing to all my complaints including that of non-availability of the bumper (on 01 March, Monday). The subsequent call from the dealer was quicker than I could ever imagine (Wednesday). They had the bumper ready and on Thursday I left my vehicle with them as some insurance formalities were not complete. On Friday afternoon I went there to get my car. She looked beautiful with the new bumper and I just opened the hatch door to see if anything was amiss. My brother-in-law was with me, and horror of horrors, he spotted a crack in the newly fitted bumper! The officials of the dealer were red faced but handled the situation well. They promised me to procure a new bumper asap and requested me to use this (new but cracked) bumper for the time being. Good news is that they managed to get another new bumper as early as on Saturday (yesterday) and rang me up in the afternoon to get the replacement done. I couldn't spare time yesterday and went there today in the morning. The job was done without much fuss and by 10.30 I was out of the TASS. One must give the devil his due. In this case, the TASS, in spite of the faux pas, deserves a ten out of ten. Here is the hind part of my beautiful Palio. Last edited by tortoiseNhare : 7th March 2010 at 14:38.
	() Thanks

14th March 2010, 13:03	#64
architect Senior - BHPian Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Ghaziabad, U. P Posts: 1,359 Thanked: 764 Times	Some nice shots of the Palio MJD coming up on my 2 yr 40k km review. Here's a teaser! Attached Thumbnails
	() Thanks

2nd April 2010, 20:00	#65
tortoiseNhare BHPian Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Guwahati Posts: 536 Thanked: 90 Times	Subsequent to all the drama involving my rear bumper replacement I noticed some clicking sound emanating from the base of the gear lever whenever gear was being changed. I was not much worried about it but my gut feeling had been bothering me about the 24 hours that my car had to spend in the TASS prior to the bumper job. So I tried checking the most likely vulnerability: the reverse gear. Lo behold! my Palio had become an Indica! Someone had broken the reverse gear lock! My first paid service was booked for this morning and the first thing I did was to bring this thing into the notice of the service advisor. The reply I received was somewhat like this, "Sir, some new guy in our workshop might have mistakenly done it but the reverse gear lock is a worthless feature anyway." The 22,500 km paid service happens to be rather routine but the kind of bill that I was handed down was funny. The total bill I had to pay was Rs. 1660. The bill: HP 15W40 Engine Oil 3.3 lt. (loose): Rs. 841.50 Oil Filter: Rs. 439 Engine oil and Filter change: Rs. 135 Air filter cleaning: Rs. 54 HEADLAMP (EACH) REMOVE REFIT (INCL BUMPER R/R ADJUST): Rs. 162 Service Tax: Rs. 35 What was funny/unacceptable was that the headlamps were never removed, neither was any bumper adjustment done. Let me explain the issue. I had specifically asked the service advisor to check and adjust the right headlamp main beam. In fact right after the first free service that bulb had got fused and a spare bulb provided by Fiat with the vehicle was fitted as replacement. Since then the beam was never satisfactory and in each of the previous free services the TASS failed to rectify it. Today I was pleasantly surprised when one senior mechanic just opened the bonnet, disconnected that bulb and connected it again to produce a drastic improvement in the beam. This act in the final bill was shown as "HEADLAMP (EACH) REMOVE REFIT (INCL BUMPER R/R ADJUST)" and the labour charge for the same was shown as Rs. 162. When I was making the payments I was in a hurry to reach a meeting on time. Though I could sense the daylight robbery there itself I had to leave in a hurry without any strong protest. I am now totally P***ed off with this unholy Tata-Fiat alliance.
	() Thanks

4th April 2010, 10:19	#66
vikasb BHPian Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Delhi Posts: 64 Thanked: 17 Times	I think you have already suffered a lot. Why don't you try out any Bosch centre. Is it due to warranty concerns or non-availability of any good alternative?
	() Thanks

13th April 2010, 19:43	#68
tortoiseNhare BHPian Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Guwahati Posts: 536 Thanked: 90 Times	Trip to unknown territory From tomorrow we have the Bihu holidays till Sunday. My driving plans for the next few days are rather ambitious. Early tomorrow morning I with the usual companions i.e. wifey, her sister, brother-in-law and their kid will begin our long drive to Agartala and some other places of Tripura. The catch - I am totally dependent upon whatever little information I have got from the Internet. I have not met anyone who had undertaken such a trip by car. Wish me luck!
	() Thanks

13th April 2010, 20:04	#69
CliffHanger BHPian Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Chennai Posts: 756 Thanked: 1,597 Times	Hey Tortoise, I really appreciate your patience in dealing with TASS. I just don't have it and lose all my temper in the service station. One thing is for sure - If Fiat has to survive in India, it needs to open up its own service shop. The TASS have some serious problems which are deeply rooted and only a miracle can make them come out of it. Btw, I wish your car to treat you well. Have a Safe & Pleasant journey!
	() Thanks

13th April 2010, 23:56	#70
architect Senior - BHPian Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Ghaziabad, U. P Posts: 1,359 Thanked: 764 Times	TnH, enjoy your trip, this car is a fantastic mile-muncher and just loves the highways. It has not let me down on almost 13,000 km of highway driving, almost 80% of it alone. Just take the necessary regular precautions and checks.
	() Thanks

21st April 2010, 22:21	#73
sdp1975 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 1,700 Thanked: 1,273 Times View My Garage	tnh, please post a travelogue if you can. Not many of us get the opportunity to visit the NE part of the country.
	() Thanks

23rd April 2010, 20:37	#75
amarprusty BHPian Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Bangalore Posts: 201 Thanked: 46 Times	Insurance renewed 3.4 lac IDV for 6K premium Insurance renewed 3.4 lac IDV for 6K premium,Reliance lowest quote in market. Planning to claim insurance and get some dents and scratches sorted out as 4th year insurance premium will be very less anyways even without no claim bonus
	() Thanks