[Sommos]

Was there any problem faced by you that you decided for the WB/WA or was it a routine process.

My Linea was hit on the left side rear bumper by an Alto a few months back.
While the Alto did not suffer any damage except some scratches, my Linea's bumper went inside and cracked.

Lucky that nothing serious happened to you and the Punto.

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by Sommos

Was there any problem faced by you that you decided for the WB/WA or was it a routine process.
Lucky that nothing serious happened to you and the Punto.

WA/WB was a routine process since the car had already completed 6 months and > 5K kms hence the need to do it.

Punto did take a hit but in other form. A quick visit to Balaji Fiat to check the rear bumper alignment revealed a different pciture. Another damage seen to the rear left fender liner which has cracked. The fender liner is a plastic material which will have to be replaced. Unfortunately Balaji Fiat didnt not have the spare readily available and procuring it will take a min a of 2 days. The SA even suggested me to get the bumper replaced by claiming Insurance. I denied it since there was no major damage to the bumper. I asked the rear bumper to be re-aligned for which I was asked to get the car today since y'day most of the technicians were already preparing to go home.

I was told by the SA that the fender liner would cost around Rs 450/- + taxes + labour charges and can be replaced without removing the rear bumper. However the rear left tyre will have to be removed to provide access for installation.

Attaching the pics of the rear bumper which took the impact as well as the cracked fender liner. The third pic is that of rear right bumper to be seen as reference.

[vibbs]

Sad to another Fiat fan unhappy with the quality. :(

I am also a bit concerned about the plastic quality. Not just inside, but outside too. The black plastics under the windshield wipers have already started fading. That when I don't park my car under the sun ever.

[nareshov]

Originally Posted by vibbs

Sad to another Fiat fan unhappy with the quality. :(

I am also a bit concerned about the plastic quality. Not just inside, but outside too. The black plastics under the windshield wipers have already started fading. That when I don't park my car under the sun ever.

Try one of those vinyl/rubber trim protectant sprays. A couple of sprays and a wipedown with microfibre puts back some visible life into it.

[ghodlur]

The Punto got its regular dose of cleaning. Had taken the car to Mangesh Kalzunkar of Maxshine in Thane. Posting the pics of before and after the detailing. Thanks a lot of BHPians Maverick5490 aka Sushil for starting the thread on Maxshine. Mangesh is an avid fan of Team BHP, he sports a few stickers on his car and in his office too. He too owns a Punto and has immaculately kept his car which kind of is an inspiration to me. He and his team did a fabulous job on the detailing. It had been a long time since I had seen the alloys on the Punto look so clean.

[ghodlur]

An Update:

Visited Balaji Fiat las weekened to get the cracked rear left fender liner replaced. Costed around Rs 590/-. Surprised to see Fiat charging around Rs 150/- for the brackets, nut and bolts. I thought the spare part would come with its own set of the nuts/bolts.

The horn was acting strange for a past few weeks. It would sound feeble in the mornings whereas perfect in the evening. The electrician had a look and confirmed that one of the horns has gone bad. Since it is a sealed Hella horn, the only option was replacement. Got the horn replaced under warranty. Till date two door locks and a horn replaced in 6 month ownership.

[ghodlur]

A bump into this otherwise dormant thread.

Got FIAT stickers stuck on the front doors of my Punto. It was a laborious effort to get the stickers on the doors. Had help from Bro-in-law. The first pasting was getting damaged, had to do it extra carefully. Lots of bubbles appearing, had to take them out which was time consuming. I wished I had taken professional help.

[SDP]

Was going to ask you just that!
Saw you today morning and the large red FIAT caught my attention.

Looks good!

[Sommos]

The large red Fiat stickers on the white car looks great.
But where did you get these stickers now. These were distributed during the factory visit in 2012, did you get them prepared locally. If so, then how?

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by Sommos

But where did you get these stickers now. These were distributed during the factory visit in 2012, did you get them prepared locally. If so, then how?

Thanks.

One of my friends had it with him since the factory visit as he grabbed a couple of sets. One set he used on his car and other he gave it to me free.

I will use this post to highlight that second time the USB pen drive failed after I updated the drive with some latest songs. The B&M does not read the audio files at all. I checked the USB and found indeed that no files could be found. Have to format the drive and reload all the songs.

[Sommos]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

I will use this post to highlight that second time the USB pen drive failed after I updated the drive with some latest songs. The B&M does not read the audio files at all. I checked the USB and found indeed that no files could be found. Have to format the drive and reload all the songs.

In this case there seems to be some problem with the USB.
I hope Blue & Me would work fine if you try with any other USB.

In my case the whole B&M assembly was replaced FOC since it would not read any USB drive.

[ghodlur]

Two major surprises found over the Gudi Padwa weekend.

First the Right vent(next to the steering wheel) was found damaged. Dont know when it broke off. Attached pic for reference. Does this mean the entire vent setup needs to be changed? As per 99 rpm, it will cost 400 bucks.

Secondly the rear wiper blade part was found lying next to the car come off from the rear wiper arm. Tried fixing it back but the rubber blade doesnt fir perfectly, it seems the steel base used to straighten the rubben balde seems to have been misplaced and upon searching couldnt find it. Cant fix the rubber blade on the wiper arm, surely will come off with one operation. Where will I find that steel support or will I be forced to buy the complete wiper blade itself?

[ghodlur]

Revisting my thread after such a long time. Good feeling.

The Grande car had been resting for some while now given my medical condition. Meanwhile the usual issues of broken air vent grille, rear wiper blade arm and the rear fog lamps were replaced and not a penny charged for the labour and spares as a good will gesture. Thanks Fiat for the same.

Its been 11K+ kms on the odo (thanks to too often resting) and it was time for the annual event i.e the Insurance policy renewal. Following are the details:

After a lot of deliberation finally bought the Insurance for the stallion for the year 2014-15 from Royal Sundaram. The details of renewal as below:

IDV: 610880
OD premium: 11735
NCB discount: 2933
Zero dep add on: 3971
Windshield add on: 367
Total OD: 13410
Third party Liabaility: 1732
Total premium: 14872
Taxes: 1839
Net Premium: 16710

Actual IDV works to 608125 as per IRDA rules of current showroom cost i.e 715442 (Thane) times the depreciation rates 15%. RS in their initial quote had mentioned 541380.

The RS customer support guys patiently answered all my queries and in the excitement did call me more than a couple of times. They later stopped calling me after I told them gently of the consequence if they tried to pester me.

Other insurance cos considered: Future generali, Oriental Insurance, Tata AIG - online and through Fiat dealer. But as they say self help is the best help, hence the decision tilted towards RS.

Only sore point is I couldnt print the policy immediately after the payment but recd the policy in the registered e-mail address. Also there is no details of the nomination on the policy. As per RS the Nomination details will be abailable in the stamped hard copy which will be sent within 15 days of Insurance buying.

Along with the Insurance, RS would be give myTVS RSA, details of which arent still available with me. Once recd, I will post the same.

[ghodlur]

My Punto's first year scheduled service is due and have booked the time slot for tomorrow. The odo reads 11.4k kms+ (thanks to almost 2 months equivalent of not driving). Some issues which I will be highlighting are:

1) Engine guard plate painting - Guard is seen to be rusted at places and will be the most vunerable part during the forthcoming monsoons
2) Rear suspension rubber pads which had developed cracks
3) Rattling from the left rear corner.
4) Fixing of the Fog lamps which was pending.
5) Touch up of Anti rust underbody coating - Will have to check if the Fiat workshop is equipped to do the same and will they do anything to the factory applied anti rust coating..
6) Check if the Blue & Me can be upgraded to the next version.
7) Foul smell from the AC
8) Chipped left front quarter glass plastic beading.

Any other critical checks I should be getting done apart from the scheduled checks. I will be getting the Wheel alignment & balancing and tyre rotation done from outside.

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

My Punto's first year scheduled service is due and have booked the time slot for tomorrow. The odo reads 11.4k kms+ (thanks to almost 2 months equivalent of not driving). Some issues which I will be highlighting are:
...
5) Touch up of Anti rust underbody coating - Will have to check if the Fiat workshop is equipped to do the same and will they do anything to the factory applied anti rust coating..

I doubt Fiat dealers will do anything about this underbody coating. In fact most of the dealers don't have any infrastructure to carry this out. The underbody coating which comes on the car is from the factory.

My suggestion would be to go visit a 3M car care outlet at Mumbai and get their underbody coating done up on your Punto, more so since you live in a coastal area. Extra protection is always welcome . I did the same for my Punto too, and 3M is always ready to touch up and rectify the underbody coating if we request (I believe it comes with 5 year warranty too).

6) Check if the Blue & Me can be upgraded to the next version.

I guess this should be possible . Do cross-check the working of the features before collecting the car though. Some owners reported having faced issues with certain aspects of B&M after the upgrade, such as USB not getting detected, phonebook not syncing, etc.