[raj_5004]

I bought my Punto 90hp on Feb 2011. Till now I have had a very comfortable journey with my FIAT. Touch wood the car has given me no major issues.

But, after it's second free service, I noticed a humming sound at speeds. I took it to the nearest A.S.S. (Fortune motors) on 9th of February. They informed me that the wheel bearing has gone kaput & since its a low moving part, they will have to order it for me. The SA told me that the part would arrive in a week.

I confirmed & re-confirmed with the SA before taking delivery that the part would be available in a week. A week passed by & I drove my car with that irritating humming noise, with no call back from FIAT. I called the A.S.S. on 20th (after 10 days) to know the status & they (store manager) informed me that the part has still not arrived. When I asked them that when is it expected, they had no answer to it.

I called some friends from a FIAT forum & they advised me to mail Mr. Mangesh Kodalkar. I mailed him about the same & he assured me that he will look into it. After that, I did not hear from him.

I called up the A.S.S. again today & the store manager is aware of my complaint to Mr. Mangesh & he informs me that the parts would reach Mr. Mangesh on 27th or 28th. So I am assuming that the parts would reach me on 1st or 2nd March, if everything goes right.

Why does a simple wheel bearing take so much time to arrive? If the order was placed on 9th Feb, why is it arriving on 2nd March? Does it take 3 weeks to procure a wheel bearing?

I know that my case is nothing in front of the other serious issues which some members have faced like car being stuck in the A.S.S. for months. Atleast in my case, I can drive around my car, provided I adjust with the noise. But still what is so seriously wrong with FIAT?

Secondly, if this is the case in Mumbai, what about some customer who lives in a non-metro?

It can be possibly a one off case as another member from the same FIAT forum had the same issue with his 90hp Punto & in his case, the part was readily available & the car was delivered on the same day with the replaced part.

WHY FIAT, WHY? Why such inconvenience for a small wheel bearing?

[samyakmodi]

just when i was thinking of writing my sad story with my 90hp punto i see this thread.

tired of the dealership here.

even my 90hp punto was bought in february 2011 and within 2 months of usage i.e. april there is a plastic panel on the c pillar (the one which holds the parcel tray) that came off from both the sides. it took them almost 9 months just to procure that part. it was installed in the end of january 2012.

[Ripper]

I have a pre-owned 2003 Fiat Palio for a year now, Have the same issue with spares not available at the ***. So my next best option is my regular spare shop, I order the parts and i get it the same evening or next morning. With the *** it a different story altogether. Since you're from Mumbai why not try Shetty motors for the bearing? And have it replaces at the ASS? Will save you time and Money IMO. With Fiat its always been this way, even TATA couldn't do much, and that's one reason most prospective buyer's shy away from Fiat.

[raj_5004]

Originally Posted by samyakmodi

just when i was thinking of writing my sad story with my 90hp punto i see this thread.

tired of the dealership here.

even my 90hp punto was bought in february 2011 and within 2 months of usage i.e. april there is a plastic panel on the c pillar (the one which holds the parcel tray) that came off from both the sides. it took them almost 9 months just to procure that part. it was installed in the end of january 2012.

The same plastic panel on the C pillar came loose in my car also. Luckily it was replaced in the first service.

Originally Posted by Ripper

I have a pre-owned 2003 Fiat Palio for a year now, Have the same issue with spares not available at the ***. So my next best option is my regular spare shop, I order the parts and i get it the same evening or next morning. With the *** it a different story altogether. Since you're from Mumbai why not try Shetty motors for the bearing? And have it replaces at the ASS? Will save you time and Money IMO. With Fiat its always been this way, even TATA couldn't do much, and that's one reason most prospective buyer's shy away from Fiat.

If I procure the parts from outside, I will have to pay for it. My car is under warranty & everything is free for me if it's done by the A.S.S.

[samyakmodi]

Originally Posted by raj_5004

The same plastic panel on the C pillar came loose in my car also. Luckily it was replaced in the first service.



If I procure the parts from outside, I will have to pay for it. My car is under warranty & everything is free for me if it's done by the A.S.S.

is it because of the driveon tray?

i had to replace the parcel tray as it won't hold my JBL speakers. switched to drive-on and was thinking that the tray might be the reason. but then in my other punto the same tray with the same speakers - it has no issues whatsoever. it's one of the first few puntos and surprising as it may seem the over all plastic quality in the older punto feels lot better compared to the 90hp one.

[raj_5004]

Originally Posted by samyakmodi

is it because of the driveon tray?

i had to replace the parcel tray as it won't hold my JBL speakers. switched to drive-on and was thinking that the tray might be the reason. but then in my other punto the same tray with the same speakers - it has no issues whatsoever. it's one of the first few puntos and surprising as it may seem the over all plastic quality in the older punto feels lot better compared to the 90hp one.

It cannot be because of the tray. Even I have an aftermarket MDF tray to hold speakers but in many Puntos which are stock, the panel has come loose.

Thats a generic flaw in the Punto.

[rameshnanda]

Sales and distribution, Service and spares are taken care by Tata Motors as per the JV. That said, it should be the dealers responsibility to have the spares sourced for all the cars they service. But, unfortunately this doesn't happen with most of the Tata dealers. I had issue with the driver side power window in my Linea and the dealer informed me that the running channel needs to be replaced. It took almost 2 weeks for them to source and fix the issue in my car after couple to escalations at the dealer level itself. I didn't reach out to any Fiat official.

When the service center guys told you that they placed the order, did they confirm the same with the order number? Because, I really don't believe these TASC's.

[pganapathy]

And that is the simple reason why Fiat is not selling in large numbers and consquently why Fiat is now opening their Fiat Caffe's. Otherwise they will only be a bit player in India and might as well wind up their operations here, leave it as a JV with Tata and then sell CBU's, sourced from their other RHD markets like South Africa or other parts of Asia.

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by raj_5004

WHY FIAT, WHY? Why such inconvenience for a small wheel bearing?

I am attending the formal launch of the 2012 Grande Punto and Linea tomorrow. They are doing it at the Lalit Ashok in Bangalore. If I find some Fiat folks (I am sure I will), I will talk to them and tell them about your problems and all the problems. Lets see how they react.

It sure sounds like a case of importing your wheel bearing. It cannot take 3 weeks for a bearing.

After reading a ICE thread, those horrible speakers are also imported and are Made in Italy.

[HammerHead]

Raj, Did service center placed the order at the first place??
I'm asking you cause I have seen such issues here. Ask them to show you proof. I agree that there is delay in getting spares from Fiat.

By the way I have PM'd you. Check it out and let us know if that was of any help

Originally Posted by pganapathy

And that is the simple reason why Fiat is not selling in large numbers and consequently why Fiat is now opening their Fiat Caffe's.

That will not help as most of the time the delay is from Fiat itself. Unless they keep good stock at their service center.

Otherwise they will only be a bit player in India and might as well wind up their operations here, leave it as a JV with Tata and then sell CBU's, sourced from their other RHD markets like South Africa or other parts of Asia.

They are in a process of assembling some upcoming vehicles here and export them to countries like Australia.

[pganapathy]

Originally Posted by HammerHead

Raj, Did service center placed the order at the first place??
I'm asking you cause I have seen such issues here. Ask them to show you proof. I agree that there is delay in getting spares from Fiat.

By the way I have PM'd you. Check it out and let us know if that was of any help


That will not help as most of the time the delay is from Fiat itself. Unless they keep good stock at their service center.



They are in a process of assembling some upcoming vehicles here and export them to countries like Australia.

I assume the purpose of setting up Fiat Caffe's is for Fiat to interact directly with the client, and therefore they would need to have stock or access to stock quickly (JIT).

If they intend to assemble vehicles in India in large numbers, then it makes sense for them to seriously consider independent A.S.S's, instead of doing this JV with Tata, which does nobody any favours.

I only wish Fiat had been more pro-active from the very beginning. They have given India some of the best cars in their time and yet destroyed their image completely by their choice of JV partners, be it PAL or Tata. That said, they still have a chance to redeem themselves. Their products are good and the auto market is still growing.

Now all that remains to be seen is what Fiat do.

Going OT here but Mitsubishi are in a similar position and like all car enthusiasts on this site, I only hope both Mitsubishi and Fiat are able to get their respective messes sorted out and sell their range of vehicles independently.

Even further OT, there are only three foreign manufacturers today that have JV's with Indian manufacturers. Mitsubishi, which sells like a 100 vehicles at month, tied up with HM which are about to go bankrupt. Fiat at least have some sales, but I guess Tata are not too concerned about them and treat them as a step child. Don't want to lose their own sales and worse are not concerned what happens to Fiat by the looks of it. Finally we have Suzuki, which has tied up with Maruti (if you can call them a car manufacturer in their own right without Suzuki is debatable as all their products since the day it was set up is Suzuki, but still) and are market leaders in India.

[Sridhar K]

This is one of the reason why I ruled out Punto apart from the resale value even though as a car, it warmed my heart. When the alternator failed on my Manza recently, TASC mentioned that the alternator is shared with FIAT, has to come from Pune and hence will take time. It took 10 days for the warranty replacement to arrive.

My friend had a better experience when the rear wheel bearing on his Linea's failed. Concorde was able to trace a spare from their Bangalore HQ, and had them shipped overnight via a parcel service. The spare came next day and they found it was for the Punto and not Linea. The next day, the correct spare came and the issue was fixed.

I went through TVS while my friend through Concorde and perhaps Concorde stocks good amount of spares than other dealers.

[bejoy]

Originally Posted by raj_5004

WHY FIAT, WHY? Why such inconvenience for a small wheel bearing?

As they said it is a slow moving part, since the Fiat parts fail less frequently And for the TASS it does not make economic sense to stock the parts that move less. The lower volumes of Fiat cars they service daily may not justify stocking up inventory.

Well, it is frustrating to wait for the spare parts to arrive. And for lead time, it could be anywhere between 2-3 weeks, if the TASS order the part promptly. For critical parts, which grounds the car, there is another channel for ordering parts. It is called VOR (Vehicle off road) and the part is sent by air at the earliest. It happened for me once where TASS at Kochi did not have an injector in stock and the part arrived the second day of raising the request. It all depends on how the TASS handles the situation and prioritizes.

Originally Posted by rameshnanda

When the service center guys told you that they placed the order, did they confirm the same with the order number? Because, I really don't believe these TASC's.

+1. This is very important; to make sure that they place the order. Most of the time the TASS never places the order immediately, for the reasons best known to them. I think they try to combine the orders and raise a request in bulk. Or it could be that many times customer never returns and the get the part from outside, so if they place the order it would be a dead inventory. Everytime I enquire the FIAT spare division in Pune, they say that they have enough spares - even for the 10 year old Sienna. They insist on the order from the TASS for mobilizing the spare part.

So definitely there is a logistics issue with spare parts and the Fiat-Tata arrangement complicates the matter. Also the issue is highly dealer specific. for e.g. Concorde Motors in Bangalore are very prompt in ordering and procuring the parts. While all the dealers in Kochi least bothered about supporting of Fiat parts.

[autocrat]

Team,

My friends 2010 Fiat Punto MJD Emotion has started to make grinding noise upon braking, with lot of brake dust visible on the rims / caps. The SA at Concorde Motors recommended change of brake pads.

The car has done about 16k kms, and even though I feel its early for pad replacement, given the stop and go Bangalore traffic, its possible that the pads have worn.

He decided to get the pads changed, but the SA quoted INR3000+ for a set of brake pads!!! We checked if its the disc+pads but the SA confirms its just the pads.

I got a set of brake pads for my Indica from Bosch (which is amazing by the way) at a cost of INR438.60 + 61.40 (VAT) and set of discs (INR1755 incl VAT).

Can someone here confirm that the rate quoted by Concorde service advisor is correct? If its correct, Fiat has priced it extremely high!

Also, will there be any difference in the brake pad of ABS and non ABS cars? I think there should be no difference, please correct me if I am wrong.

[raj_5004]

Originally Posted by rameshnanda

When the service center guys told you that they placed the order, did they confirm the same with the order number? Because, I really don't believe these TASC's.

Well, I dint do that...

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

It sure sounds like a case of importing your wheel bearing. It cannot take 3 weeks for a bearing.

Would they need to import wheel bearings? The cars are made in India right?

I do remember that the workshop manager had asked me whether my car is ABS or non-ABS... does cars equipped with ABS have different wheel bearings?

Originally Posted by HammerHead

Raj, Did service center placed the order at the first place??
I'm asking you cause I have seen such issues here. Ask them to show you proof. I agree that there is delay in getting spares from Fiat.

What proof can I ask mate?

By the way I have PM'd you. Check it out and let us know if that was of any help

Thanks a lot for the contact buddy.

Originally Posted by Sridhar K

I went through TVS while my friend through Concorde and perhaps Concorde stocks good amount of spares than other dealers.

I guess Concorde is the company dealer right? We have a Concorde here, though quite far from my place.

Should I call them and ask if they have this part in their stock? I guess Fortune would have already done that.

Originally Posted by bejoy

As they said it is a slow moving part, since the Fiat parts fail less frequently
And for the TASS it does not make economic sense to stock the parts that move less. The lower volumes of Fiat cars they service daily may not justify stocking up inventory.

Maybe true but in the end, the customer suffers. How is that justified?


I guess I will have to wait till 3rd of March to see the outcome. If i dont see any good signs, I will have to escalate this matter further up.