[rajuhari11]

Hi

I have just completed 3000 KMs on my 1.6 sport. Its been 3 months since I bought the car from the B U Bhandari dealership in Pune. The purchasing experience was good with the Sales person (Deepak) providing the right information besides taking me on a really long test drive. Loved the car from that moment on - a real pleasure to drive.
Coming to my car, I will try and list down some of the positives and negatives that I have encountered to date...

The Positives (these are similar to ones I have seen in other reports) -
1. Great fun to drive and grips the road like no other car I have driven
before
2. Very Stable at high speeds (narrowly missed a dog on the expressway
while i was doing around 100 kmph, the indica behind me was not so
lucky or should I say the poor dog was not that lucky)
3. Looks and feels solid
4. The one I bought was just before the launch of the mulitijet so
managed to clear rear indicator lights (instead of the standard yellow
colour), leather wrapped steering wheel and gear knob.

Some Negatives
1. The indicator lever does not auto return at times when I turn left (I
read a similar issue in another report in the forum)
2. A few creaking sounds come up once in a while (rear windshield for one
- comes on and off, especially on rough roads)
3. There was a slight radiator coolant leakage from the hose that
connects to the engine inlet point (this too I happened to notice, as I
have the habit of opening the hood frequently to check if things are
fine). I went to the service center at Wakad and got it rectified under
warranty. The guys there said there have been a few cases in the 1.1.
But today checked and saw that there is a tiny leakage again :(. I have
taken another appointment...lets see what happens.
4. At times there seems to be a hiccup when idling and the idling rpm
seems to change a bit, not sure why this happens.
5. I somehow am not very confident on some of the components and feel
Fiat has somewhere compromised on quality to cut down on costs. Just
to give some examples - the circlips used to hold the hoses don't look
very good (example the leakage), the casing used to carry the
electrical wires seem to be of poor quality and also sticking tape
around them don't give too much confidence...anyways need to
see how they hold out.

I will not comment on the FE as enough has been said on that earlier and I don't think anyone buys the 1.6 sport for the FE. I also understand that acceleration and FE should improve post the second service.
Would appreciate views on when I can push the car to the limit in terms of rpm and speed (reasonable off course - 4000 and say around 140...), I have already done 3000+ km.

More updates later.

regards

Raju

[bottle]

Congrats on your new ride Raju. Glad to see that you are enjoying the car and hope the niggles get sorted out soon. I agree that there seem to be quite a few compromises lately but I guess thats why the price is much lesser than before right ?

[arajand]

Hi Raju Hari
Congrats on your ride.

Even I have faced the indicator stalk not coming back issue when turning to the left . No other niggles as of yet

Please post some pictures.

[neoonwheels]

Congrats Raju... Welcome to FIAT world !!! You can join "paliousersindia@yahoogroups.com", we have 1500+ members group. If you have any queries, you can post them on the group so that it can be addressed easily.

[finneyp]

Congrats Raju on your new Palio 1.6! Good to know you are enjoying the ride!

Reg the Indicator lever not doing auto return, actually, the auto return works when you fully turn the steering, so nothing to worry about, this is how it is in all the Palios.

Other small niggles can be sorted out at the ASC.

[ravikn]

Congrats Raju on your new 1.6 Sports Car!

Its truly a great car to drive on the highways in this segment

[karanraheja]

Raju , Congrats & Welcome to the Fiat Club. Actually I have same indicator stalk problem in my Petra D!

[eclectix 1st]

Good Review.

Dude please post some pictures of your beauty. Its always an eyeful to watch one of these.
cheers:

[gods-envy]

Originally Posted by rajuhari11

4. The one I bought was just before the launch of the mulitijet so
managed to clear rear indicator lights (instead of the standard yellow
colour), leather wrapped steering wheel and gear knob.

I thought the Stile always came with the yellow color rear indicators(just checked bottle's and eclestix's gallery and their rear indicators are yellow);
could you please post a snap of your palio's rear indicators

Originally Posted by rajuhari11

Some Negatives
1. The indicator lever does not auto return at times when I turn left (I
read a similar issue in another report in the forum)

Just asa finneyp qouted, you need to turn the steering a little more for the indicator to auto return. its not a problem, its how it works in Palios


Anyways enjoy ur car,drive safe

[rao_battula]

Originally Posted by rajuhari11

Hi
2. A few creaking sounds come up once in a while (rear windshield for one
- comes on and off, especially on rough roads)

These come from Rear Seat Support. We tend to think that this is from Rear Wind Shield. Fix the rear seat support correctly. you would not listen this creak sounds.

-BSR

[codemarauder]

Congrats for your new ride. I know that you are enjoying it to the hilt

I also own the same color Stile 1.6 bought in Oct 07 and I am going for 3rd service this Sunday.

[rajuhari11]

Hi Guys,

Reporting in after a long time. Thought is was high time i provided an update on how the vehicle is running.

Current Status: Completed 26,700 Kms in 26 months. 3 free services and 2 paid services. Changed to Mobil1 0w40 in the 4th service.

Vehicle condition: minor scratches, driver side ORVM was knocked off once by a two wheeler and one dent on the rear bumpur, thanks to me reversing into a rock on trip to Murud Janjira

Trips taken in this period: numerous trips to Mumbai and back, few to the konkan - Khashid, Velas Agar etc., Mahabaleshwar and one to Goa.

Mods/Accessories: Polish/Teflon coat the vehilce once in 3-4 months use Sumax glaze and dupont teflon coat. All done at home.

Top Speed: touched 164 km/hour on the expressway, but backed off as not too confident with stock good year tyres.

Avg Mileage: 12.XX when doing long trips (50% on highway and rest in city). Complete in city 10.XX kms/liter.

Issues/Queries:
1. Standard issue with AC on long trips, need to switch it off for a few minutes and then restart for effective cooling. Have read in the forum that this is due to the cooling coil icing up.
2. High speed braking - there is a slight amount of vibration that is passed through the steering when hard braking at high speeds. Is this normal?
3. If I hit a very high rpm/speed - above 5500 rpm or 130+ km/hr there is at times a slight burning odour that comes into the cabin. Not a regular phenomenon though.
4. Speedo needle has started fluctuating of late, keeps jumping +/- 20 km/hr of the speed at which i am travelling. Understand the sensor might have konked off and would need to be replaced.

To Do: Change tyres once I cross 30K. Desperately need good ones. The stock goodyears are sad to say the least. Maybe improve on the ICE and look for better seat covers as the ones I have currently are art leather and giving way, especially the driver's seat.

It has been a great driving experience and enjoyed every bit of it especially seeing the expression on the face of my friends when i would accelerate away.

I will take some snaps and post them by the weekend.

Mods: Can you please edit the title of the thread to : Now completed 26,700 Kms and 26 months. Also if this can be moved under the correct category of long term ownership review.

[gemithomas]

You are a lucky Guy. Not everyone gets to own a FIAT 1.6

You surely will find it tough to get a good successor.

[shantyrocks]

congratz buddy..
Nice review of your beast.
The culprit for the burning smell could be the tyres.Change them ASAP.

[recshenoy]

Congrats dude on completing 26 months with beauty!

which make is the Speedo? is it Magneti Marelli. We had Speedo not working problem with of of my cousin's car!
F.A.S.S advised that there is problem with speedo and need to replace which would cost 14K :eek
If they say so, please show it to some local speedo repair guy! He will be able to repair it for 2 or 3k

My cousin managed to open the speedo console and tightly screw the multilayer PCBs to get the speedo working


2 years of ownership and no snaps yet! Please post them soon