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-   -   Fiat MJD 4000Kms, First time driver (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/46172-fiat-mjd-4000kms-first-time-driver.html)

Zaks, brilliant review!

My 2 cents to add

I am a newbie driver, though i drove in US i have no experience of a manual shift except on a Splendor.

I was told to buy a second hand car "haat saaf karne ke liye".

Choosing the Car!

But being butt brained as usual i went new car shopping. Had zeroed in on the I10 and Spark chose the I10, i thought both cars were great but I10 i felt was in a different band altogether.

I had tried to evaluate the Stile 1.1 07 version but felt patronized by the salesman and just dropped it did not even research.

Now researching the I10 i could not help feel it was just a glamourous with all great interiors and all but anything less than Magna(o) seemed like a death trap on the highway. This was just a gut feeling but i could not make it go away.

In my heart of heart i wanted a CRDi engine. Getz CRDi was wayyyy out of budget. But wife loved the space in the Getz and hated the I10 for being cramped.

We saw the Swift but again too cramped too dark found it generally claustrophobic, generally did not seem like a car i would drive my toddler around in so we dropped it.

Then the MJD was launched; it had the engine i wanted, solidity that i wanted, interiors were dated but what the heck it was the first time we saw it, both of us liked it. She liked the space too, not as much as the Getz but enough.

Took a test drive, first time my kid didnt cry her eyes out on sitting in a car. After the test drive she had eyes only for a red MJD.

Well that sold it. Service was Tata-Fiat, all the bashing i saw on this forum not withstanding (I kinda like tata)

So i got my engine, wife got her interiors and space and my kid likes the color the Furnance Red MJD it was

Accesories
Thing i missed in the car ABS, Airbags, Alloys.
But really not show stoppers, I am hoping the assited braking feature and solidity of the car will compensate for ABS and airbags.

I got the car ICEd at a third party place that totally ruined it. Kudos the Concorde to get it back to some sort of normal.

I strongly reccomend that if you want your Palio accessories only go to Palio shops or by prior reccomendations. Most people out there dont know how to treat Palios.

But then Concorde charged me Rs 5000 for Lumar AA-72 (or something like that) transparent sunfilm for the front wind shield and gave me a free antenna plus fixed the mess the Accesories guys had done with my cabin light.

I feel robbed but atleast the car was in good hands.

I again strongly reccomend transparent sunfilm for the front windshield, i didnt really need sunfilm for the side windows and the rear they are tinted already, plus i dont want to mess with visibility.

Services
I cant say anything more than what has already been said.

Experience
Man this is one solid car. I have stalled it abused it all the things that would make a experienced drivers toes curl but after 4K km i am better driver and the car is smooth as ever.

Suspension is to die for. The faster you go over broken roads the smoother it is (Ok the fastest i have done is about 30 KMPH).

In a tight situation in high speeds like i am doing 50 and suddenly about a 100 feet ahead a car suddenly backs into my path. In a Palio you can swing in and out no stress no feeling of being out of control or doing something dangerous, just smooth as makhan.

If you want to feel like a better driver than you are this is the car!!!

Fuel effieciency
i am still trying to figure this one out. But one thing i know
There is an idle speed for each gear. 2nd - 5kmph 3rd -20kmph 4- 30kmph and 5th -40 kmph, when the car rolls without any pressure on the gas pedal.

Few thing i have learnt
1. never try to accerate on 4th/5th when you are doing 30/40 Kmph FE will go down.
AND
never try to accelerate beyond 20Kmph on 2nd in traffic. the car goes wild :p, manual also does not recommend this.
2. never use clutch braking on 2nd in bumper to bumper, FE again
3. if you are at 50% clutch on 1st in bumper to bumper go off clutch use brake only, initally this will look very scary.
4. Always engage 4th/5th a minimum of 5 to 10 kmph above idle speed, smoothens out the car like anything and good for FE too
OR
change gear each time you get above 1500 rpm.
5. If rolling to a stop always be in gear (team BHP taught me this). The idle speed of the gears (all gears) helps here.
6. last but definately not the least, use the dead pedal in every traffic condition,except bumper to bumper it is there for a reason. FE will improve.

Note from mod: Post moved to new thread as it is a separate review

Nice review dude. As far as getting fuel eff goes if we take care to drive as smoothly as possible without over speeding and keeping the rpm needle at around 2000 then we can get the max for each of us.

nice review mate!
enjot your car

Nice review there. 4000 kms on odo and you still do not know about the FE part. Dude, this is the first thing to be done. Well, I assume it be around swift as it also has the same engine. AFAIK, this might be your first post about the car. Pls post some pics.

stupid:stupid: ok my two smiley quota done but i guess the point had to be made strongly.

The first thing i need to do is to learn to drive a manual shift now that done i am on the FE topic

There is no thread to maximize efficiency on a Common Rail Diesel with intercooler and turbo charger (fixed or variable geometry). I bet that the ECU requires a certain style of driving to deliver efficiency. And i have not found it that works for me. I take general suggestions made in the Advice section of team bhp and try and follow it. Some of it work some of it does not.

I know what does not work for me...

Actually what i posted is the latest set of rules i have to see what FE i get.

I guess i am documenting my mistakes so that other don't do it.

Mistake 1:Not using the dead pedal
, inadvertantly i put a slight pressure on the clutch nothing more than resting my foot on it - I get FE of about 10.5 using dead pedal it went upto 11.5 this done over about 60 litres approx.

Mistake 2: Not shifting to 1st when clutch braking a.k.a bumper to bumper traffic
i usually shifted to 2nd and only used 1st to start moving from dead stop. I found i had to use more of the gas pedal and a lot more of the clutch - in a petrol you may forgive you but a diesel with lots and lots of low end torque doing it is stupidity.

Mistake 3: Lower the RPM lower my fuel consumption
This is wrong wrong wrong!!!!
Smoother the acceleration lesser the fuel consumption keep RPM out of this. Say you depress the gas about 10 percent (depending on your load and the road condition % may increase) on 3rd gear and keep it there slowly your speed increases when you get to about 35-40 (rpm around 1500) again depending on your load shift to 4th and maintain same pressure on gas and needle continues to go up you are saving fuel. RPM then may go up to where ever on 5th depending on speed fuel consumption is still less (ok above 90 aerodynamic factors reduce FE but upto that it is ok)

Acutally on 4 and 5 gears if you stay at the 1000 or 900 rpm and then try to accelerate from there you will consume a whole lot of more fuel cause the engine will usually be lugging i.e., be under more load than it is supposed to be so it will consume more fuel

I believe the gear ratio goes below 1 you need to give some acceleration to get FE

so 1 2 and maybe 3rd it is ok to be at 1000 rpm. 1 and 2 ratio is so high you will consume more fuel if you exceed 1000 rpm for too long. 3rd is middle ground you can do 20 kmph@1000rpm and then go to 4th only after 35kmph@1500rpm

Mistake 4: 2000 rpm turbo kicks in leads to FE
So i spend most of my time driving on 3 rd in bangalore you cannot do 4th@ 2000 most of the time here and when i did 5 th@2000 i was well past 90 kmph.
Problems is you cannot stay at 2000 you are usually between 1500 and 2000 and in order to reduce turbo lag i think ECU increases fuel consumption in that range. So again FE is no good.
best bet is to stay on a comfortably higher gear and leave rpm all alone unless you are on the highway.

Mistake 5: Used premium fuel
I cannot say got any fuel effieciency and power because of this. Architect clued me on this one. The premium in premium fuel all went straight thru the MJDs tail pipe as black smoke and did not convert to more power.
Switched to normal fuel from a honest pump (this is the most important thing) fuel efficiency is the same but less of black smoke and less cost per litre.

Now the way i see it is, there is a Computer (ECU) between the gas pedal and the engine. If i press the gas pedal randomly the ECU gets confused it does not know when i will need the extra power and uses a lot of fuel.
If i keep steady acceleration the ECU knows how much power i am going to need hence can plan saving of fuel.

Great review pal,:thumbs up
Its really nice to know that you have learned from your mistakes and made use of the Advice given by our pals in team bhp.
I think you need to live with this fact that you are doing too good as a First time driver that to on the MJD.Dont think too much about FE as the Car is up to the mark ,& is walking head to head with other cars,its just that you do not have the correct driving conditions(time & place ) so I would say pal,forget about the FE,look at the bigger picture: IT DOES MAKES YOU A HAPPY MAN WHEN YOU DRIVE IN IT.

Can you explain what a 'Dead Pedal' means?stupid: in Car technology!

Good technical ownership review...thou:)

Cheers!~

Dead pedal refers to a "extra" pedal to the left of clutch pedal kept to rest your feet on when not using the clutch. Otherwise the tendency is to keep the foot on the clutch pedal inadverently depressing the clutch pedal slightly leading to worn out clutch plates and lower fuel efficiency.

Thanks Farhan, but it is fun to see your FE climb as your driving ablity goes up. You have reported 17.5 kmpl and i would be glad with 15kmpl.

But does it make me happy, hell yeah!!!

@mods, can you please add the word " Palio" to the thread name. i some how missed it. Thank you so much!

[quote=AadiAtPlay;987742] You have reported 17.5 kmpl and i would be glad with 15kmpl.quote]

Hey pal dont want to disappoint you but the car FE has climbed upto 20.5 kmpl ,clap:
17 & 18 kmpl are now history .check out my thread

20 in Bangalore? Are you serious?

Have a look pal,this comes as a surprise to me as well.:thumbs up
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...-3-mjd-17.html

Nice review and congrats on your palio mjd. Have fun and drive safe!!

@AadiAtPlay

A nice and detailed review and post on FE. I learnt a lot reading through it. Will follow your observations on my MJD. I am yet to change my Petrol Feet.

I don' think the ECU is all that sophisticated it just times the fuel injection according to a program taking the sensor input from the air intake and exhaust I think. So in other words it doesn't come into picture for getting the best F.E. So it is the user who determines what F.E he/she gets.

It is really simple @AadiAtPlay, see to it that the engine is neither straining nor dragging at each gear and you will automatically have good F.E, Of course the quality of fuel also matters.