[Ricci]

Oh, you have the petrol Beat. Would you make the same fuel choice today, with another hike round the corner ? So your criteria was primary city-driving I guess ?

Yeah, the Punto is simply gorgeous , but I wouldn't buy it if the rest of the package wasn't up to it ! I don't fancy cute looking vehicles, so some which others love - the Spark/Matiz , the Beetle , Micra , and the Beat to some extent (the sharp edges blunt the cuteness quotient partly, but it still tries to look cute ! ) , I never learnt to love their looks!

EDIT: The Grande Punto didn't make it as COTY in 2009 , did it ? Strange, I thought it would ! For 2010, I expected the Polo, turned out the winner was the Figo !

[akshay380]

Originally Posted by Ricci

I just picked up my silver Figo TDCI Titanium today ,

Congrats from a fellow Silver Figo owner. Wishing your dad lots of happy miles. The car is great and sort of grows up on you. Best place for Figo though, is in the ghats.

[infotech58]

congratulations for the Figo. that was some quick car buying decision.
my suggestion: if you are planning to change the tyres, go for that now so that you could get the best buyback offer for your stock tyres.

[pushkark]

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[superutp]

Originally Posted by Ricci

Oh, you have the petrol Beat. Would you make the same fuel choice today, with another hike round the corner ? So your criteria was primary city-driving I guess ?

Yeah, the Punto is simply gorgeous , but I wouldn't buy it if the rest of the package wasn't up to it ! I don't fancy cute looking vehicles, so some which others love - the Spark/Matiz , the Beetle , Micra , and the Beat to some extent (the sharp edges blunt the cuteness quotient partly, but it still tries to look cute ! ) , I never learnt to love their looks!

EDIT: The Grande Punto didn't make it as COTY in 2009 , did it ? Strange, I thought it would ! For 2010, I expected the Polo, turned out the winner was the Figo !

When I bought my Beat the petrol prices were the same as they are today but my purpose and use of the car doesn't allow Petrol prices to hurt me too much. However, with more hikes it will and I am sure I will be wishing I had bought a Diesel instead.

I dont like cute looking cars either however, the Beat has the correct amount of cuteness overpowered by the correct amount of aggressiveness (as per my eyes).

I bet COTY's are not awarded on looks alone and the '09 Punto had more issues than the current '12 model.
And yes you are right, The Figo was COTY 2010 and the reason for that was that it is a very well balanced car and I am sure you and your Dad will have a good ownership experience with it.

[Ricci]

Originally Posted by infotech58

congratulations for the Figo. that was some quick car buying decision.
my suggestion: if you are planning to change the tyres, go for that now so that you could get the best buyback offer for your stock tyres.

Thanks ! yes, I was thinking about it since December, but the high prices made me rethink, but with the increasing expectation of price increase post-budget, I decided this was the time.

Regarding tyres, I did read a little about them, but got the impression of mixed reviews, some good, some bad. Are the Goodyear GT3s worse than Apollo Aceleres and MRFs ( don't know which model of MRFs Figos come with ). Any particular situation they are worse in, such as wet ? I did read Apollos are puncture prone being softer compound.

Originally Posted by superutp

I bet COTY's are not awarded on looks alone and the '09 Punto had more issues than the current '12 model.
And yes you are right, The Figo was COTY 2010 and the reason for that was that it is a very well balanced car and I am sure you and your Dad will have a good ownership experience with it.

Yes, very well aware of that ! I didn't mean to imply COTY being a car beauty contest at all.


UPDATE : showroom rep still hasn't confirmed the registration number and documents will be ready tomorrow , do dealers get this done in lots ? Someone living nearby bought a Vento 1 day before , and already got his registration.

Question : Do we really need the underbody treatment ? I thought all cars since over a decade are pre-treated for corrosion resistance , how much does this additional measure help ?

Also planning to get Llumar filming for the windows , any suggestions on specific grade/product , and are there any tangible benefits (UV/IR rejection) in filming the windscreen too , with the untinted film ?

[Ricci]

Got sunfilm and seat covers for the Figo today, also replaced the stock headlamp bulbs with Osram Nighbreakers. The seats are grey velvet like fabric, chose fabric over the other synthetic leather covers, most of them beige or some variation of light brown, or black. I haven't had too good a result with synthetic leather, and it likely absorbs more heat too, so got fabric covers , helps being washable too.

Dad had taken the car out tonight, came back happier with these than the stock bulbs, but even with the internal adjust at max, the high beam throw is a little short , so may be we need to do a manual focus adjust. Got to dig deeper for manual adjust.

The effect of sunfilm was immediately felt in the afternoon, I no longer felt the hot sun stinging exposed skin as before, some heat is still felt but much more comfortable now. Have not really checked for difference in AC cooling, since the drive back was short, but I suppose that's easy to guess the AC will have an easier time.

Here are some pictures. The sunfilm is Llumar Platinum series, quite reflective as you can see. The windscreen film is a little darker than without, but it should also reduce glare for night driving. Big boot but little internal storage otherwise, door pockets are small compared some other cars, rear doors have none. Note the radiator position, very close to the bumper up front, will be an easy casualty in a front end shunt.

[Ricci]

Woah, exactly a month since last update !
Our Figo has crossed 800km , still miles to go to complete running in. We did a short trip to Alibaug , 5 of us + luggage , with dad driving most of the way. The trip average came out to 21kmpl , mostly driven at 80-90 but hitting 120+ on the e-way once. I drove for a 20odd km stretch , missed some good stretches where my dad was driving

I did feel the need for more power, when overtaking I notice the pace wasn't as quick as I hoped/expected - though there were 5 on board, and the rev range is short so there's not much room to play. I did have to shift gears during the overtake itself sometimes.

Plans for this month or next are to get the underbody treatment and maybe paint protection treatment done as well. I gather from some friends that Dinitrol is excellent for this, and the 3M paint protection treatment does have some abrasive action , so I think I'd like to try something other than 3M for the paint.

Any recommendations for where I can get Dinitrol or Waxoyl treatment in Pune ?

[Ricci]

A minor update on our Figo - 1st service was done last month, crossing 2200km at the time. Reading now is around 26xx , not faced any faults though the car has picked up a couple of scars - one scratch from a shopping cart and a crack in the grille/mesh , caused by a two wheeler colliding with the parked car ( makes me want to get a flamethrower ! grr ! )

I haven't been driving much though, because my dad's been taking it just about all the time and forgotten his old scoot

[Ricci]

6 month update :
Odometer now reads 7xxx km, running ~800km a month on average as I expected.
City fuel consumption reads around 15kmpl , highway around 20. A bit lower than other diesels in the class.

We did a Goa trip recently, and the underside scraped several times. Since the tyres are not due for replacement anytime soon, I intend to investigate other means of raising the clearance - first identifying where exactly it grounds out.

The AC has weakened a lot, need to check what's the problem. I guess there's a leak in the plumbing, unlike when new, or as seen on the demo car, the cabin fails to cool withing minutes.

[Maxwell Arthur]

Hi Ricci,

When you say that the belly of the car scraped, was it in the bottom or in the front? I own a Figo Diesel and since the mudflaps in the front are not placed close to the wheels, it scrapes most speed breakers. But I have managed to avoid under belly scraping. I have clocked 8900 Kms today almost three monts from delivery.

[Ricci]

Originally Posted by Maxwell Arthur

Hi Ricci,

When you say that the belly of the car scraped, was it in the bottom or in the front? I own a Figo Diesel and since the mudflaps in the front are not placed close to the wheels, it scrapes most speed breakers. But I have managed to avoid under belly scraping. I have clocked 8900 Kms today almost three monts from delivery.

No, it was someplace under the passenger cabin. As far as I remember, each time the "hit" occurs after the front wheels have cross the offending obstacle, usually high speed breakers or deep broken road sections.

[Ricci]

Update after 1 year up.

As of now, the Figo has clocked up 11700km and the 10000km service was done, bill amount was approx INR 7000 including some minor repair/touch up to the bumper.

Issues :
1. Ground clearance with 4-5 passengers is low, have to be careful over speedbumps and the bottom hits ridges on bad broken surfaces.

2. AC had become weak, filter cleaning and gas refill later, AC is back to normal

Fuel consumption has been around 15.5-16 in the city, 20-21 on highway runs.

Mods : bulbs changed from Osram Nightbreaker to Philips Xtreme Vision , then back to Osram Nightbreaker plus , which my dad deems brighter than the Philips . All at stock wattage 60/55W.