[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

Congratulations...welcome to the 5digit club

Your shell diesel feedback is opposite to what many others have told about it. Only other tbhpian to share your views is Crazydriver is guess

Happy motoring KarthikK!

P.S: Your ground clearance feedback is prompting me to get the increase done with my upcoming service.

Yea. Even I felt the engine was a bit rough with shell diesel. The smoothest for me is the Indian oil diesel. Am using shell diesel since last two tank fulls . May be its the 1.3mjd which likes shell diesel more!

[motomaverick]

Going great guns Karthik, let me know when you are planning for Madhu's because even I have to get the alignment and balancing done.

[Arch-Angel]

Grats Karthik, nice one on hitting the 10k mark and i hope this experience continues for you. So is shell diesel as good as you it is? Maybe i can go try with a tankful. 4x40=Rs 160 more for a tankful, so i think i will splurge the cash for now. But with my minimal use, my mileage is at an all time low lol, i got 14 kmpl on my ride recently. All said and done, i cant help but oogle at this beauty from bangalore and one of my friends said that bangalore has a lot of good looking femme so i guess even cars qualify! Hope the enjoyment and fun continues and may you have lesser interference from the uniformed and the non-uniformed kind.

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

This is what I have liked about Fiat recently. If there is an issue you point out, they don't hesitate to replace parts under warranty. No questions asked, just brute force approach when there is a fault pointed out.

This is good to know. However; I consider you as a highly influential person from the days of Prerana and now Vecto. You have a good relationship with them and its clear that they don't mess around with you as you are very particular about how things are to be done. I want to know how the average Joe will be treated had he come with a similar problem. Would they have done the same? I am also curious about how they tackled the problem of that T Jet customer filling diesel by accident. I doubt if they would have honoured warranty. Not that they should as it was the customers fault. Going out of the way to take care of just one customer is not what I am really interested in. They know you report on this forum and it could have quite an impact to their business. What about the one's that don't? What about a car without the Team Bhp sticker. Would that customer be treated as well.

[carrerastrax]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

This is good to know. However; I consider you as a highly influential person from the days of Prerana and now Vecto. You have a good relationship with them and its clear that they don't mess around with you as you are very particular about how things are to be done. I want to know how the average Joe will be treated had he come with a similar problem. Would they have done the same? I am also curious about how they tackled the problem of that T Jet customer filling diesel by accident. I doubt if they would have honoured warranty. Not that they should as it was the customers fault. Going out of the way to take care of just one customer is not what I am really interested in. They know you report on this forum and it could have quite an impact to their business. What about the one's that don't? What about a car without the Team Bhp sticker. Would that customer be treated as well.

I had the same problem problem in my linea, from when it was new. I reported this to Concorde motors during my first service and they logged it as steering 'noise'.. They apparently said that it was rectified, but it wasn't so.

Later, when I took it to Prerana for checkup, they quickly identified the problem to faulty rotors. But the warranty is provided on brakes till 10k kms (mine crossed 10k then). I tried to reason out with Prerana, saying that I had this problem from day1 - but I had to pay. They checked the system found the 'steering noise' problem logged from the first service. But they refused the warranty cover saying steering 'noise' is different from steering 'vibrations'. And then I also had to put new brake pads with the new rotors. Was quite an expense and definitely Fiat should've paid for this. So these days, I make sure they enter the problem as I've mentioned, in the system.

Karthik's punto was a few kms short of 10k and the case is legit and I've noticed that Prerana/Vecto is prompt with legit replacements. I've experienced this with the other replacements that have gone into my car.

I feel Karthik has earned his stripes. Ideally, we should all be treated the same. But, in the real world, there will always be a difference between the service I (negligible to low social media presence) receive and what Karthik receives,considering his social presence. Or between cars with and without t-bhp stickers. This is life.. isn't it? :-)

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

Congratulations...welcome to the 5digit club

Your shell diesel feedback is opposite to what many others have told about it. Only other tbhpian to share your views is Crazydriver is guess

Happy motoring KarthikK!

Well in fact, even when I tried a couple of tankfuls a few months back, I found Shell diesel to be improving engine NVH levels and overall refinement through the rev range. It almost feels like a petrol engine now.

P.S: Your ground clearance feedback is prompting me to get the increase done with my upcoming service.

It is seriously good. Until now, I have not managed to scrape the underbelly even once in 6 months! A counter-suggestion - since your Punto is a pre-facelift version, you may feel slightly more body roll in the 185mm GC version of the suspension. Before you go ahead with the swap, you could test drive my car when we meet for the steering decal, and see how you feel with the 185mm GC version.

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

Yea. Even I felt the engine was a bit rough with shell diesel. The smoothest for me is the Indian oil diesel. Am using shell diesel since last two tank fulls . May be its the 1.3mjd which likes shell diesel more!

Theoretically, Shell should be smoother for all the cars since Shell is purer and is assured to be free of any adulteration and quality issues. The only reason it can get harsher with shell is if the engine was tuned to run on only impure fuel! I don't know if it is something to do with MJDs, because one of my friends said his Swift (75HP MJD) became rough with Shell. Maybe the smoothness with Shell is only with VGT versions, for some strange reason. Crazydriver's Punto and mine are both VGT 90HP versions, and only we both seem to be impressed by Shell diesel.

Originally Posted by motomaverick

Going great guns Karthik, let me know when you are planning for Madhu's because even I have to get the alignment and balancing done.

How about this Saturday? 9.30AM sounds good. We could get our job done and get out of there before the crowd starts in Madhus and before traffic jams start around that area.

Originally Posted by Arch-Angel

Grats Karthik, nice one on hitting the 10k mark and i hope this experience continues for you. So is shell diesel as good as you it is? Maybe i can go try with a tankful. 4x40=Rs 160 more for a tankful, so i think i will splurge the cash for now. But with my minimal use, my mileage is at an all time low lol, i got 14 kmpl on my ride recently. All said and done, i cant help but oogle at this beauty from bangalore and one of my friends said that bangalore has a lot of good looking femme so i guess even cars qualify! Hope the enjoyment and fun continues and may you have lesser interference from the uniformed and the non-uniformed kind.

Go ahead and try it. You could be the first Figo owner to join the Shell diesel admiration society here on Team-BHP *winks*

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

This is good to know. However; I consider you as a highly influential person from the days of Prerana and now Vecto. You have a good relationship with them and its clear that they don't mess around with you as you are very particular about how things are to be done.

Hehe, although many people here think so, I have no such influence or relationship with Prerana or Vecto. I just happen to share a good rapport with their service staff since I have been going to them from my T-Jet days of 2011. Their Fiat team was pretty small earlier when they were with Tata in that shared facility, so most of them are familiar with me. What do I do special there? Nothing at all. I am just patient when I go for servicing or for some work, and I don't start shouting around when something gets delayed or improperly done. I prefer remaining calm and getting things done properly even if it means some extra delay for me. Maybe that's just me.

I call up and book with them in advance whenever I go there, just like any other customer. This saturday when I went, I hadn't booked in advance. They flatly told me they had other pre-booked cars to service and I had to wait till they were done with that day's workload before they could do the brake swap job on my car, since it required one service bay to lift up the car. I have spent nearly the entire day waiting for the work to be done, but I spent the time in other ways (looking at the new t-Jet, visited 3M for a wash meanwhile, etc). They finally did the job in the evening. I didn't grumble about the delay or make a scene there demanding VIP attention.

I know at least 4-5 other average joes who have Fiats and aren't on any online forum. All of them were satisfied customers of Prerana motors without using any "influence". Lets see how Vecto manages to retain that level of servicing going ahead.

This particular issue was simple - brake pads were faulty. Odometer was at 9xxx kms. Fiat's warranty policy for brake components states that the claims will be entertained if the vehicle's odometer reading is lesser than 10,000 km. I was within their warranty policy stipulations, so the claim was accepted and approved. They haven't gone out of the way to help me out, they were just following their rules. Had I gone next month, the claim would have been rejected.

I want to know how the average Joe will be treated had he come with a similar problem. Would they have done the same? I am also curious about how they tackled the problem of that T Jet customer filling diesel by accident. I doubt if they would have honoured warranty. Not that they should as it was the customers fault.

Not sure why a company should honor warranty on something that happened due to the customer's negligence when filling fuel. Replacing expensive engine internals and fuel pumps, spark plugs, etc on warranty because the customer negligently filled diesel into a T-Jet is one issue. Experiencing shuddering during braking on a 9000 km run car is another thing. Warranty is meant for faulty parts showing up within a certain mileage, not for negligent brains who destroy engines by not paying attention at the bunk .

A warranty claim has to be justified by the dealer to Fiat if it is given, because spare parts cost a lot of money. In fact, when there is a warranty claim on a defective part, the old part has to be sent back to Fiat for investigation (customer cannot take it home like they do for normal replacements). If the dealer starts doling out free replacements to "influential" customers, Fiat will find the replacement unnecessary later and pull up the dealer. Of late, we've been seeing so many reports of Fiat's parts being replaced under warranty on goodwill. Mine is just one such case. Would the claim have been entertained if the odometer was 11k instead of 9k?? NO!

Going out of the way to take care of just one customer is not what I am really interested in.

They know you report on this forum and it could have quite an impact to their business. What about the one's that don't? What about a car without the Team Bhp sticker. Would that customer be treated as well.

Not really sandeep. There are hundreds of BHPians who visit the facility and they also post stuff about Vecto/Prerana on online forums, including you. My single experience will not change a collective opinion about the facility, so they don't necessarily need to "bribe" me or any other particular customer with good service - it won't make a difference. Their good reputation is built up based on reports by a lot of customers who've been visiting the place. I am just another one in that ocean of customers. In fact, the reason I started going there for my T-Jet 2 years ago was because I had read good things about them here, and they didn't disappoint me with both my cars.

I know 4 other Fiats with friends and relatives which go to the same facility (none of them are on any forums or sport stickers). Some have been going before I bought a Fiat, and some after. All of them are satisfied with the customer service Prerana used to provide, and with the general quality of servicing/issue resolution by Surendra and team.

Originally Posted by carrerastrax

Karthik's punto was a few kms short of 10k and the case is legit and I've noticed that Prerana/Vecto is prompt with legit replacements. I've experienced this with the other replacements that have gone into my car.

Yes sir. bang on target with the observations. The claim was entertained because brakes are covered until 10k kms. They cannot bend warranty rules for particular customers, because spare parts cost a lot of money and warranty replacements have to be justified to Fiat with the defective parts returned.

I feel Karthik has earned his stripes. Ideally, we should all be treated the same. But, in the real world, there will always be a difference between the service I (negligible to low social media presence) receive and what Karthik receives,considering his social presence. Or between cars with and without t-bhp stickers. This is life.. isn't it? :-)

Sorry, but I disagree with those statements. I am not treated differently because I am Karthik, nor have I observed any case of partiality as far as warranty claims are concerned. They have their rules for warranty claims on different parts, and they will go according to that no matter whose the car is. You have as much posting access here on team-bhp as me, as does anyone else here (team-bhp) in Bangalore who visits Prerana/Vecto or has a Fiat car. Like I was explaining to Sandeep in this same post, I don't demand any special attention or show any celebrity status there. There are times when I have had to wait extra for something to be done, or when something was not done properly (like my friend's Palio 1.6 service last month which I had posted about on the other thread). I choose to be patient and cheerful with the guys and allow them to do their job even if it means a few extra hours for me. I don't expect everyone to be that way, completely understandable, which is why I don't contradict someone else's experiences. Some customers may shout at people, make scenes and behave like divas on a film set, no comments about them. I don't do anything differently at any of the service centres I have visited so far in life (Maruti, Hyundai included), I have enjoyed good rapport and service at all the places so far.

If people are envying me for getting good service in Vecto, all I would say is - try to be a Roman in Rome, and be patient, cheerful and humble with the staff. They will automatically give you respect and do the job well in return. If you shout at people and show what a "big man" you are, you will get the same treatment in return. Applies to any service or industry, not just cars.

I suggest any further Vecto motors' imaginary 'partiality-towards-Karthik' discussions can be taken to the Fiat service network thread, since it is OT here *lol*

[sagarpadaki]

Theoretically, if the engine was tuned to run smoother on not-so-pure fuel, should it not run much smoother on pure fuel? I will continue filling up at shell for another 5 tankfulls and see if the engine starts liking the clean diet being fed to it and decides to become smoother. Anyway , even if the engine is bit rough, i think its better to fill it up at shell because atleast the engine will run cleaner.

OTOH, i have not noticed any mileage gains on shell diesel.

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

It is seriously good. Until now, I have not managed to scrape the underbelly even once in 6 months! A counter-suggestion - since your Punto is a pre-facelift version, you may feel slightly more body roll in the 185mm GC version of the suspension. Before you go ahead with the swap, you could test drive my car when we meet for the steering decal, and see how you feel with the 185mm GC version.

I have driven my friends' 2012 and 2013 puntos and frankly speaking I have not been able find out any body roll.

Nevertheless I wouldn't turn down your offer to drive your abarth

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

Theoretically, if the engine was tuned to run smoother on not-so-pure fuel, should it not run much smoother on pure fuel?

not sure that applies always. As an example of a petrol engine, what if I fill Speed 97 on a honda Activa?? Compression ratio and other parameters will be decided based on Octane number / purity of the fuel, so it might have an impact in the reverse direction also. Diesel engines too will have some such analogy. That's an extreme example I gave - activa with speed 97, just kidding anyway .

I will continue filling up at shell for another 5 tankfulls and see if the engine starts liking the clean diet being fed to it and decides to become smoother. Anyway, even if the engine is bit rough, i think its better to fill it up at shell because atleast the engine will run cleaner.

Completely agree with you Sagar. At least the fuel is pure in case of Shell, which is the main reason for shifting. At just 4 Rs. more per litre now (works out to 150 bucks per tankful), I feel its a no brainer.

OTOH, i have not noticed any mileage gains on shell diesel.

On my last tankful of HP fuel, I got 13.1 kmpl (100% AC and dense city traffic). The same traffic pattern with a tankful of Shell got me 14.2 kmpl.

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

I have driven my friends' 2012 and 2013 puntos and frankly speaking I have not been able find out any body roll.

Nevertheless I wouldn't turn down your offer to drive your abarth

You can try out some notorious speedbreakers that you usually scrape on, I bet the 185mm suspension will take it head on and come out unscathed.

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Not sure why a company should honor warranty on something that happened due to the customer's negligence when filling fuel.

Like I said; I am not finding fault with Vecto nor am I asking them or Fiat to honour warranty. Just curious on how they assisted the T Jet customer in this situation. We don't know. Is that car still there or is it fixed? Cause a couple of months ago when I was speaking to Bluu (handle), who was in conversation with a customer who totalled (Yupp, that's right) his T Jet, even brakes pads for the car were not available which is worrying.

If you say you are just another customer going to Vecto, I believe you. Its just that, at the rate you have been going there off late (badge job), I was very surprised they accommodated you for something like this.

On the subject of your brakes pads going bad, even if it had spilled over in to next month where warranty no longer exist, I feel warranty should still be honoured. We've read enough about things failing immediately after warranty.

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

Like I said; I am not finding fault with Vecto nor am I asking them or Fiat to honour warranty. Just curious on how they assisted the T Jet customer in this situation. We don't know. Is that car still there or is it fixed? Cause a couple of months ago when I was speaking to Bluu (handle), who was in conversation with a customer who totalled (Yupp, that's right) his T Jet, even brakes pads for the car were not available which is worrying.

The spare part glitches were occurring during the Tata-Fiat dealership split period in April-May. Those have mostly been fixed and Fiat has started the spare part supply properly now from what I heard there. Surendra was telling me they have ready stocks of most common parts now and vehicles should not be facing spares' availability issues in the days going ahead.

If you say you are just another customer going to Vecto, I believe you. Its just that, at the rate you have been going there off late (badge job), I was very surprised they accommodated you for something like this.

Actually I don't visit the place at all - both vehicles have been trouble free so far, Touchwood! I have no reason to go there otherwise. I had to wait the entire day for the brake disc/pad replacement, which is actually just a 10 minutes job. Ditto with the badge replacement which was actually a smaller job, just need the help of a body shop worker to dismantle the bumper grill and bootlid inner panel to access the badges. They did nothing else.

On the subject of your brakes pads going bad, even if it had spilled over in to next month where warranty no longer exist, I feel warranty should still be honoured. We've read enough about things failing immediately after warranty.

I agree with your point, but I believe (from Fiat's perspective) that there has to be some line drawn in case of warranty claims on specific parts. How would they decide how much can be considered allowable?? One customer may travel 1000 kms a month, one may travel 2000 a month, another may not use the car at all. The only way is to place a threshold based on kilometres logged. Extending the warranty period from 10,000 km to X km on a case-to-case basis is a bit difficult from the manufacturer's perspective I think. Some customer with 12k would want them to comply, another customer would say 14k is also acceptable. Not sure how they will decide then. Just a thought.

[motomaverick]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

How about this Saturday? 9.30AM sounds good. We could get our job done and get out of there before the crowd starts in Madhus and before traffic jams start around that area.

Well in that case I guess you can go ahead because I will not be free before lunch, I was planning post lunch.

[Raneeth]

Hi Karthik, Let me recheck one thing. The black upper and lower grill cost you 800+400=1200 bucks? Is that right.

Why I ask is coz today I had gone to VECTO MOTORS to get my damaged right side view mirror replaced and I just enquired about the grill prices. The guy at the counter told me that the upper grill is 2500 and lower one 1000!!

Which is correct??

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[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by Raneeth

Hi Karthik, Let me recheck one thing. The black upper and lower grill cost you 800+400=1200 bucks? Is that right.

Why I ask is coz today I had gone to VECTO MOTORS to get my damaged right side view mirror replaced and I just enquired about the grill prices. The guy at the counter told me that the upper grill is 2500 and lower one 1000!!

Which is correct??

The guy at the counter is mistaken. I'm shocked to know they can even think of quoting 3000 bucks for what are essentially 2 plastic pieces . Either way, they cannot be billed without specifying the part number, so I doubt the parts incharge guy's blunder will have gone unnoticed during the invoicing time.

Here's the post where I mentioned about the grill procurement:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ml#post3048531

As you can clearly see from the closeup shot of the label on the grill box, the price of one grill was 411. Another one was 807 going by that post. I still have that bill in a file, so I'll try to find out the part numbers for you tomorrow and post them here for your convenience. Hope that helps. Rather than speaking with the parts guy, I'd suggest you get in touch with one of the SAs there (Surendra or Karthik) who will be able to help you with fetching/invoicing the 2 grills. I actually got one grill from KHT motors since Vecto didn't have stock of that back then.

[KarthikK]

11000 km update: Routine Wheel alignment and Hunter road force balancing for tyres

The odometer crossed 10k long back, roughly in mid-June and now reads 12.5k, sorry this update was a bit overdue but here we go anyway. Regardless of whether I face any tyre problems, I usually get the wheel alignment and balancing done at Madhus once every 5k kms, as is the prescribed interval. I have not faced any new niggles till date (12500km) and the ownership experience continues to be as pleasant as ever, touchwood!


The 11th milestone



The odometer read roughly 10,500 km when I finally got the time to go to Madhus for this. There was a slight pulling to the left but there were no wobbling issues whatsoever. The staff at Madhus, as usual made sure my alignment and balancing was done to perfection. Nikhil himself was there that day luckily for me, and he supervised the hunter road force balancing done for the Punto's stupid Apollo tyres.


One of the Apollos waits for its turn of balancing



The hunter road force balancer in action



I used to feel that one of the tyres looked a bit flatter than the others, so I had them check that particular one for punctures. My suspicion was true, there were a couple of nails on one front tyre. The punctures were fixed, and tyres rotated as per the suggestions given by the road force balancer. Here's a copy of my alignment and road force balancer report.

Wheel Alignment report



Road force balancer report



I still couldn't go for that elusive 'REAL' photoshoot for the fake Abarth (waiting to seek the help of the best BHPian with a lens - you all know who that is ). I still could manage some pictures on one of my recent visits to 3M car care. These were taken post a detailing session, so the scary 'keep-away-from-me' gloss is in full blossom here.


Making its way out after a detailing session



Doesn't that white car look vaguely familiar? The red one is trying to recollect its true identity



Killer gloss! The reason why bikers choose to stay away



Some more random snaps from different angles - GlossMania













The identity-bender backside



EsseEsse emblem, clatterbox reality *LOL*



I recently headed out to Kanva dam (where my first lot of review pictures were shot) to try my hand at some photoshoot experiments. Here are some pictures from that attempt:






Non-auto related, but here's a shot of the dried lake bed. Southern Rann of kutch, eh?






Before: here's how the Punto looked as soon as I purchased it



After 7 months, here's how we've managed to ruin it for the better now *LOL*



Departing set of shots : some experiments of photo-shooting and photo-shopping on a cloudy morning at Kanva









There aren't any modification updates recently, since I'm going a little slow on the mods right now. The next set of mods will start rolling out in the next couple of weeks, but I'll have the photoshoot done and dusted shortly (waiting for that certain expert to become free and help me out). I'll be back here soon. Very soon *winks*. Thanks for reading.