[rajeev k]

Originally Posted by arun687

Congrats on the car and it is looking stunning in the white, great location for the pics too. Glad to see more 1.2s coming to T-BHP, it's a great VFM proposition.



My thoughts in bold. It's sad that FIAT is not advertising all the cool little features of the Punto. In fact, their marketing is really poor compared to other manufacturers. It seems like more than FIAT India, it is us who are genuinely hoping for FIAT to sell more cars here.

Punto is an example of a good product not selling due to bad advertising. Yuvraj could not help Fiat and Fiat could not help Yuvy either.

Earlier the same thing happened with the Palio too.

I am not sidestepping the bad image of Fiat in India.

Good ads by Maruti and Hyundai are worth emulating for Fiat.Hyundai has Sha Rukh but Maruti does it alone. See the recent swift ad. Is class apart.

Figo is selling without much ads and Filmstars.

[eagle_bush]

I think the advertising for FIAT is done by TATA motors themselves. The features like Speed sensitive volume controls or speed sensitive intermittent wipers add a lot of value to the car.

Thinking aloud here: Is Tata motors not advertising these features to have an upper hand in the sales of their own cars w.r.t. FIAT cars? The possibility definitely does exist as each of the cars in the same segment have the same engines. Linea Vs Manza, Punto Vs Vista. Price being a major factor.

FIAT's are crafted for fans, and I feel a real FIAT fan would never buy anything else other than a FIAT. And I see, number of FIAT's are increasing on the roads. Something to be happy about . More Fiat's on the road would mean more resale value for the cars

[better4worse]

I just couldn't resist joining in on the discussion, so my heartfelt two cents on the subject.

So they say, FIAT, crafted for the True Fan ! Well which fans is the company talking about here ? The ones they ditched the last time around or the new ones they seek, the ones willl worship their brilliantly designed cars. If its the latter, then by merely repeating the tag line a million times won't help sell for long in India leave alone drive the volumes. A brand like FIAT, especially like FIAT given its background and poor market equity, needs to work on the connect from the grass root level. They need to assure people of what their most afraid of, read as the A.S.S, the company needs to show case how it has improved. FIAT needs to understand that after their first debacle, they need to change mindsets first, they need to educate people to realize what joy it is to be a FIAT owner and then and only then hope to sell volumes. To do that they need to take the bull by the horns and advertise effectively.

FIAT ads while creative and smart do little to develop a connect with the target audience. In a country like India with its dog eat dog competition, to sell you need to show your wares and develop an emotional connect with the audience. Case in point, look at the Figo or most Maruti advertisements, they always play on the family & friends card tagged to the joy of ownership. Why do they do that, simply because the 3-6 lacs car audience is still the 'aspirational middle class' in India which takes pride in its value system, culture and everything it possesses. So if you can showcase a product that fits seamlessly in their lives and visibly adds joy to their daily existence... bingo you've just sold them a car! No rocket science here, its simple really, the obvious bit from from advertising 101 guide...showcase the car with a happy family(Figo, /Maruti), or a car that helps the marriage gets done on time (a la Pugeot, & Toyota) or showcase the car in the backdrop of key celebrations/events like diwali etc (Toyota... again!).

The other aspect is that of showcasing the best features of the car in an advertisement, FIAT so miserably fails at this. They only show case the flawless Italian design, they just don't talk about the ride, the weighted steering, the Blue and Me, speed sensitive controls etc in a way that it stands out to the competition. Even with the 90 HP, I don't see any blatant show off in TV commercials which is desired for the common man to help drive up the sales. Here TATA Indica does better job at creating curiosity with its new line of adverts.

As for Yuvraj Singh and SRK's of the world, while they help to a great degree, it is the car that needs to be the real star supported by A.S.S in the first place else even they can't save or sell the brand. Frankly, in a country like India, you don't need a superstar to sell cars, you just need a damn good value proposition and the right connect with the target audience.

[Amartya]

Folks, it's fine to add some spice and go slightly offtrack in a discussion, but let's keep the central discussion around Hemanth's driving and ownership experience.

Thanks.

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by PaddleShifter

@arun687- Are you guys sure that Punto auto locks after sometime if key has been removed but the owner forgets to lock it with his remote locking and walks away?

I think Punto auto locks when the owner had unlocked it but did not open the door. It locks itself again after 30secs.

I spent some time with my GP trying out all sorts of possible combinations.
The results of my experiment was:
GP auto locks only the owner has unlocked it but not opened the door.

After 2 weeks with my Italian beauty, I also discovered that for the AC when you turn on the fan, it switches on the AC. In all my previous cars, there was a seperate button to switch on the AC. I used to switch off the AC intermittently with just the blower on. in that way i sed to extract a good mileage without compromising on comfort.

A little update on the FE. My fuel tank is coming to an end and after looking at the amount of fuel filled,the range remaining(as shown by the car) and the kilometers run...My car's FE is 10kmpl. Hoping that this improves after the 1st service

[arun687]

^
Ok, thanks for that update regarding auto lock.

For AC, just press the fan knob inwards, to switch off the AC and press it again inwards to switch on the AC. The fan knob itself is the AC switch.

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by sumobom4

Well, it sure makes for a nice ownership of our Italian beauties. Always nice to know something new about the easter eggs hidden in there!

I sure am discovering this day by day. The AC fan cum switching button is one such example.

[hemanth.anand]

got my car's tank full for the second time now. I reset the tripmeter B at teh fuel station and now the car has run 120kms after that. Below are the readings that i noted down from the display.

Average consumption trip B 11.5 kmpl
Average consumption total 9.1kmpl (trip A is not reset so its the total)
Average speed trip B 23kmph
Average speed total 16kmph

Yesterday i also had some new experiences.
First it was a minor accident. I was taking a U-turn. An Innova was in front of me doing the same. suddenly an auto appeared out of the blue and the Innova applied brakes. I also applied brakes. and just behind me was a 1980model kinetic honda with some painter driving it. and bang...he came and hit my rear bumper. since everyone was in the speed range of 10-20kmph, nothing happened and even through microscope any scratches can be found.

next...i had been to a function and my friends wanted a TD of my vehicle and after 2 TDs, the third person couldn't start.. the "carlock" logo started flashing. then I just opened the manual and looked for any causes.
It stated that the light should disappear after sometime. so I left the key in the on position for 2 mins. In the manual its mentioned that the car will be performing some tests like voltage drop etc...luckily for me it disappeared and the vehicle started.
this incident again arised my previous doubts-Is my car "self Healing"

third one...My cousin's 6year old daughter was playin inside my car and she had pressed some buttons when I was busy talking to somebody. when I turned to see my car, the left head lamp alone (the small bulb,not the main bulb) was glowing, the right one wasn't. the vehicle was switched off and the key was in my hand. then I went there and switched on and tried all possible combinations in the lights. I tried with the vehicle off as well. But everytime either both the lamps or none would glow. My colleague told me its some kind of feature but he didn't know how it is enabled? Anybody knows what might have happened?

While driving the car is pulling slightly towards left...should get this done this weekend...this being my first complaint if I may say so.

[ms001]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

third one...My cousin's 6year old daughter was playin inside my car and she had pressed some buttons when I was busy talking to somebody. when I turned to see my car, the left head lamp alone (the small bulb,not the main bulb) was glowing, the right one wasn't. the vehicle was switched off and the key was in my hand. then I went there and switched on and tried all possible combinations in the lights. I tried with the vehicle off as well. But everytime either both the lamps or none would glow. My colleague told me its some kind of feature but he didn't know how it is enabled? Anybody knows what might have happened?

While driving the car is pulling slightly towards left...should get this done this weekend...this being my first complaint if I may say so.

yes it is indeed a feature , not sure but it works something like this

take key out , move headlight to on position push the stalk down/up for left or right sides all bulbs glowing

[motor spirit]

hemanth i jus enjoy reading your thread . i get to know lot of features
infact I booked a 1.2 E last week and expecting delivery in the frst week on Nov

[arpanjha]

@hemanth:
buddy, seems like you are having lots of fun with the Italian beauty. On the other hand, I am down and busy with work and had lots of festivities till yesterday, so I have hardly got much time with my beauty. In the mean time, unfortunately I had a small accident, which made me replace the entire headlight assembly of my Punto on the left hand side. You can find more details about that on my thread.

Anyways, as far as FE goes, I am constantly getting above 10km/l with AC in city traffic and above 11 km/l in clear traffic(expressways, not highway). On the highway the MID showed around 13km/l with AC and 14 to 15 km/l without the AC.
My car has been run very less till now, only 350 kms on the ODO. So, cant trust these figures, I shall post updates as soon as I have something new to post. Continue the fun.... All the best.

[PaddleShifter]

@Hemanth- If you have turned on the parking lamps while the key is removed, and then turn the indicator stalk towards left or right indicator position, the parking light of that side will remain on while the other side's parking lights will switch off. This feature has been given to save battery I guess.

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by motor spirit

hemanth i jus enjoy reading your thread . i get to know lot of features
infact I booked a 1.2 E last week and expecting delivery in the frst week on Nov

thank you. Congrats on your booking. keep posting your discoveries also.

Originally Posted by arpanjha

@hemanth:
buddy, seems like you are having lots of fun with the Italian beauty. On the other hand, I am down and busy with work and had lots of festivities till yesterday, so I have hardly got much time with my beauty. In the mean time, unfortunately I had a small accident, which made me replace the entire headlight assembly of my Punto on the left hand side. You can find more details about that on my thread.

Anyways, as far as FE goes, I am constantly getting above 10km/l with AC in city traffic and above 11 km/l in clear traffic(expressways, not highway). On the highway the MID showed around 13km/l with AC and 14 to 15 km/l without the AC.
My car has been run very less till now, only 350 kms on the ODO. So, cant trust these figures, I shall post updates as soon as I have something new to post. Continue the fun.... All the best.

I read about your unfortunate accident. but luckily for you for under 5k you have got it back. forget the past and just have fun. have planned a long trip in the first week of november. planning is underway for around 2-3k kilometers trip.

Originally Posted by PaddleShifter

@Hemanth- If you have turned on the parking lamps while the key is removed, and then turn the indicator stalk towards left or right indicator position, the parking light of that side will remain on while the other side's parking lights will switch off. This feature has been given to save battery I guess.

Even i think its a battery saving feature. Some european funda will sure be there for this feature

[hemanth.anand]

My first anniversary was of course memorable since I brought home my Italian babe. The first week of november was more memorable....It was my first honeymoon with her and the second with my wife.

I was on leave for the whole festive week and this was just what I needed...a trip without being too concerned about the time.

We headed out from Bangalore at 8:00AM towards Mysore road planning to spend our time in Ooty. October 31st At 10:15 we reached the Maddur tiffanies hotel for our first break. The break took around 45minutes and by 11:30 we reached Mysore.

I wanted to take my new car to gopalaswamy betta on its first long drive.
When i reached the foot hills..it was like the whole of Bangalore had shifted to Gopalaswamy betta and We were not allowed inside because of a huge car pileup.

I didn't want to waste time waiting and hence decided to head straight to Ooty. My next stop was at the tamilnadu checkpost where I was stopped by the TN police for their small dosage of 50Rs.

My Italian babe just loved the roads that followed. She matched the hairpin curves with hers and just climbed up the 1800feet with such ease that I don't have many words in my vocabulary to describe that.

I reached ooty at around 2:30PM and then after lunch,we went for a small boat ride in the ooty lake. then the botanical garden to finish our sightseeing for the day.Luckily for us the rain didn't interrupt us anywhere.

The next day we set out to coonor after breakfast.the ooty-coonor road had been blocked due to some road repair work and we had to take a deviation through selas and karumpalam and reach coonor. this route added 15kms extra.
This was the first of november and the first time I didn't like the mist. The drive was very good but the mist covered everything in all the viewpoints.
Returned back to ooty and after lunch we visited Doddabetta and a small wax museum.this was when road side eveteaser (A bangalore indica cabbie) scapped my italian babe and left a small mark at the right rear corner while negotiating a small mountain road. luckily its nothing visible.

This was the maximum the rains could hold for us and that night it rained cats and dogs. We had anways planned to leave next day and we left ooty at 7:30am in the morning. the descend down was just awesome as the ascend was. My punto just enjoyed negotiating the ghat sections.

We wanted to do a safari in Bandipur but reached there at 9:30 but luck ran out and the last morning safari was only till 9:00am. So I headed to the place where i couldn't go while going to ooty-Gopalaswamy betta. Snce it was a weekday this time, the traffic was at its minimum. Enjoyed the Scenic beauty and descended down at around 12:00. Tried some offroading with my car and drove around a lake which I had never seen in all my visits to this place. it was just awesome.

FE was 13.5 in the ghat sections and when my car had hardly touched 5th gear.

It was time to return to mysore but I made a plan change. we decide to head towards sakleshpur. But before we returned to mysore we had to do another offroading because of a truck that had fell horizontally near the mysore airport

We had our lunch in mysore and went to sakleshpur on this beautiful flat road and i 3.5hrs We reached our estate 20 kms inside sakleshpur.
The toughest of all conditions came when i had to take my car inside the estate road which was just the perfect size of my car and the rains on the previous day made it just that hard with the first of the hits to the bottom came here. but my punto didn't complain one bit and drove beautifully.

The next day we had a short visit to Beluru, Halebidu and pushpagiri(a small mutt on a small hill). The next day we left backto bangalore and drove on the evergreen NH48. we left our estate at 11:00 and reached chanraypatna at 2:00pm. A 1 hour visit to my wife's friend for lunch and we left at 3:15pm. I reached nelamangala at 5:30pm.

This time i wanted to see if the yeshwantpur elevated section was open and thats why I didn't go on the Magadi road by purpose. As fate wuld have it, it was still not open and bythe time i reached bangalore it was 7:30pm

The flat road journey gave me a FE of 15.3kms.

The whole journey was 1300kms with a nice mixture of ghat roads, flat roads, and no roads
The comparitivelyless power of punto is easily visible on ghat sections but its not that she won't climb but just that we need to stay at one gear less as compared to the other cars. Even after this, I'm satisfied with the FE before the first service.

My odo now stands at 2400kms and waiting for the first service in around 3 weeks. Below are some pictures

[arpanjha]

Very beautiful pics Hemanth...I loved your pics. I am definitely sure that you have thoroughly enjoyed your entire week. Although I could'nt get the essence of the places, because I dont know them, still I could get the flavour of your journey. By the way, I am planning for my 1st honeymoon in and around Ooty, I am sure you can guide me well whenever required. Although thats a long time away from now (maybe April 2011). Although I wont get to enjoy the drive on my Punto there, but at least I can enjoy the natural beauty. I shal surely consult you.