Team-BHP - Driving my FireBird -> Palio Stile 1.6 Formula Red

Hi Guyz,

i've been driving my BlueBird - nicknamed for my blue Pulsar 150cc since 5 years and enjoying every bit of it till date....ofcourse it was a time when i was bachelor and driving a bike was show shining and a neccessity! :)

Few years later, time came to think to upgrade to a 4 wheel box.... This would be my first car in the family. my friend had a Indica V2 diesel and felt good with the ride quality when I compared to Maruti's for their rattles and bumpy suspensions ( my personal opinion) even thou i was only at the passenger seat..since i didnt knew to drive Cars

another friend upgraded to Xeta 1.4 GLX, impressed with the quality and features over the earlier gen of V2, and comes cheap too. Decided to go for it....and just while checkin the specifications/reviews over google, I stumbled upon Team BHP.

Reading so many fabulous reviews, I thought I should also give a look to other cars.

My budget: strictly under 5Lacs.
My requirements from the car: Strong build quality, Comfortable seats, ride quality, good handling over rough roads, good suspension, should age well(would be keeping for long term), less niggling issues and lastly decent mileage.
Monthly Running: <1000kms
Daily commuting: <30 kms

Cars i sorted out: Indica Xeta, Santro, nothing else i could find out fitting my requriements..

A year back while watchin cricket match, a ad came up for the new Palio Stile...wow i got stuck with the look of the new front grill and the double barrel headlamps. Got back to Team BHP for Palio reviews...and thats it. Palio was choosen among the other. I always wanted to be different from others :) Every other car i see on the roa, Indica, Swift, Santro, Alto uhhhh tired of watchin the same stuff!! hehehe

Took some bashing from one of my friend when they heard i'm going for Palio "Are tu kya pagal hogaya hai Palio le raha hai??? uska average malum hai na" :) But i knew what i'm going for...finally this year July, listened to my heart and went to the Fortune Cars at Nerul to book it.

i was ok with the dated interiors. No car is perfect, so what i get in this, may not be in other cars and vice versa..

Decided to go for Palio Stile 1.6 - Formula Red (Ferrari red) as its hard to maintain a Black car and grey was not too appealing to me!

At first they gave me a wrong quotation. Met the Sales guy - Zahir. Dealer discounts of 42000Rs was going on. Bargained for some more because of initial wrong quotation. Got the Extended warranty free. So in all got a discount of 47000Rs! on condition no freebies would be provided not even a mud flap or door mats.

OTR for 1.6 came about: 4.71L after discount

Sales guy assured delivery would be in 12 days. Hence Paid 2Lac as down payment. Called up after a week, he said there is a problem with Formula Red color so would be delayed few more days. Agreed to wait. 4 days later called up again, said will take a week more. I then contacted Mr. Balaji, APM for sales of Tata-Fiat to know the status. Initially gave me a confirmed delivery date but failed to commit. I called him up again, says he doesnt have assured date when it will be delivered. Damn!!

All these while dealer never called me up to update the status if its going to be late. After a hundreds of frustrating calls to dealer and to Mr. Balaji, I had to call up Mr. Anand Totla, manager sales for Tata-Fiat. He admitted the delay and the miscommunication regarding delivery dates of the car but as usual gave another assurance.

I finally demanded to deliver me before Ganesh festival or cancel the booking. It was 1 month and no status of the car!! I was pissed off on the dealers lethargic approach and the false assurances by Mr. Balaji (TATA-Fiat). Literally short of abuses...

Got a call on 1st Sept eve, "sir, car has arrived. Will do the PDI and it will be ready in next morning". Told them to do a 3M Body treatment, Engine coating and underbody antirust coating. Costed me around 9k!

As for the delay in delivery, they did a favor on me and gave the door mats and mud flaps...cheap!!

Left the showroom at 8pm as they had to shut down their dukan!! Did a tank full and drove of to home..

Initial Ownership Continued....

Note from Support: Excessive smileys removed. Please don't use excessive dots, use proper punctuation. Thanks!

Continuing the ownership experience....

Issues with the dealer is still pending for compensating me for the delay and false commitments..I fairly asked for the interest amt that the dealer has enjoyed for more than a month without delivering the car.

Anyways In a week, got the RC card, shocked it showed my car model as "Palio 1.9D ELX". Still havent yet received the RC with correction.

Few days back, got the Loan paper, another shock, this time the car model says: Palio Stile 1.3 MJD SDE. Uhhh sick of these jerks! Spoke with the Finance Manager and same stupid assurances to correct it but nothing done yet.

The First Kiss:
Went for registration and had with a kiss with Trucks bumper while reversing. I touched my head to the steering wheel..with pictures in my head of the bumper dented!! Had a check and surprisingly, a 3 inch glass of the right rear tail lamp got kissed n broken, that too for the reverse light at the corner end. No dents to the car bumper :D

Got the 3M Sun film and Garware high protection (forgot the name) film on the front windshield. Added red black combi seat covers..

ICE will be doing after 1st Service.

Last month i learnt driving on M800 so it was a hell lot of difference driving a Palio 1.6, 100 PS car! Wohoooo the pickup was amazing...and the grunt at 90-100 speeds!

Clocked around 800 kms till date and tell you every drive is awe-inspiring!

I shift the gears on every 2000-2200RPM and also take the RPM little higher on long drives for letting the new engine have a intermittent RPM taste!

AC is too chilling. I prefer to set it at Mode 1 :)

Ride handling on flat or rough roads is superb, I could judge after driving a Xeta. Steering wheel is smoooooth.

I'm not a technical sound person when it comes on Cars..so i cant explain the difference driving this beauty but while driving now i realise why the Fiat fans call this as a Tank full of beast!!

First Mileage calculated: 9.14kms/L. I guess because of my inexperience in driving Cars.

Some observation:
1. While reversing, have a good humming noise
2. While turning the steering to the extreme end of the circle, a slight humming noise i can hear
3. Shifting to first gear too hard.
4. Driver Seating for a person of 5.10" like me seems too low or may be i'm just new to it since i learnt the car in a M800!

Awaiting to complete 1000-1500kms for the 1st Service which I would be doing mostly at Shaman. Never ever at Fortune and never would recommend too.

The guys there are least interested for Fiat cars..i think its in all Tata showrooms. You could see in the display where the Fiat car is sitting at the very last corner and in all the front display would be Vista. You wont find any Palio 1.3, 1.6 for Test Drive.

You wont believe, I've booked the 1.6 Formula Red without having seen the car and Test drive!! All thanks to Team-BHP for the blind confidence! hehehe

Anybody interested to buy Fiat cars, please check at Wasan or Shaman. Not sure about the newly opened Concorde in Prabhadevi!

Finally thanks to ROMS who helped me initially to get a good second hand Palio but couldnt find any and sharing the good/bad pts of the car which was the deciding factor. Thanks also to aaallllllllll Team BHPians who have contributed indirectly to choose my first car as i was about to cancel the booking and go for Vista Saffire v1.2!

Thanks and Cheers~
Drive safe...

Rudrah~

Quote:

Originally Posted by rudrah (Post 1006180)

Continuing the ownership experience....

Issues with the dealer is still pending for compensating me for the delay and false commitments..I fairly asked for the interest amt that the dealer has enjoyed for more than a month without delivering the car.

Anyways In a week, got the RC card, shocked it showed my car model as "Palio 1.9D ELX" :eek:. Still havent yet received the RC with correction.

Few days back, got the Loan paper, another shock, this time the car model says: Palio Stile 1.3 MJD SDE. Uhhh sick of these jerks! Spoke with the Finance Manager and same stupid assurances to correct it but nothing done yet.

Amazing!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by rudrah (Post 1006180)

The First Kiss:
Went for registration and had with a kiss with Trucks bumper while reversing. I touched my head to the steering wheel..with pictures in my head of the bumper dented!! Had a check and surprisingly, a 3 inch glass of the right rear tail lamp got kissed n broken, that too for the reverse light at the corner end. No dents to the car bumper :D

Lucky to not have dented the Bumper. The rear Tail lights cost 1.4k single and there aint any need to buy in pairs. So that fixes the issue.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rudrah (Post 1006180)

First Mileage calculated: 9.14kms/L. I guess because of my inexperience in driving Cars.

Thats what it gives. Mine gives me around 9.5 in city with 50% AC. Dont expect any more, since you stay in Mumbai (Honestly, Even 9.1 is impressive for Bombay traffic).

Quote:

Originally Posted by rudrah (Post 1006180)

Finally thanks to ROMS who helped me initially to get a good second hand Palio but couldnt find any and sharing the good/bad pts of the car which was the deciding factor.

You did find one though. Only that I reached before you and the car is now with me :).

Pictures are awaited.

Quote:

Originally Posted by abhinav.gupta88 (Post 1006195)

4.71 is a pretty tempting deal for a 1.6 Litre 100 bhp beast.
Enjoy the ride and waiting for some initial reviews and pics.
BTW , Congrats ! :)

Thanks Abhinav....yeah the deal for Palio 1.6 was too tempting which made me jump on to it! The discounts are still on...

Quote:

Originally Posted by iceman7 (Post 1006203)

Congratulations Rudrah. Absolute nice choice. The 1.6 Stile will guarantee you exclusivity.

Welcome to the Palio club, and have fun with the 100 horses.

Ah, yes. Where are the pictures??

Thanks Iceman...it just feels great to join the Palio Club who are passionate about their cars!

Sure....pics after Dassera..sir!

Quote:

Originally Posted by JVH (Post 1006206)

Congrats on your buy! You will really love driving the beast!

The FE quoted for 100 horses is reasonable. Most of the GTX/S10/1.6 Sport owners get a similar FE.

Picturesplease:

Thanks JVH....i'm loving every bit of it especially when i see no one before me on the roads!! hehehe

Calculated the FE again today, it came upto 9.45!!

Yea sure will post the pics after Dassera!

Quote:

Originally Posted by shantyrocks (Post 1006214)

nice review rudrah!
waiting for some pics now.
change at 1800 rpm for better average while driving in city conditions.
change at 2500 rpm on highways for some spirited driving without much change in f.e.
enjoy but drive safe

Thanks..Shanty! I've been used to change it at 2000-2200 rpms...will try as u suggested!

pics after Dassera..sir!

Quote:

Originally Posted by vinit.merchant (Post 1006259)

Amazing!!

Lucky to not have dented the Bumper. The rear Tail lights cost 1.4k single and there aint any need to buy in pairs. So that fixes the issue.

Thats what it gives. Mine gives me around 9.5 in city with 50% AC. Dont expect any more, since you stay in Mumbai (Honestly, Even 9.1 is impressive for Bombay traffic).

You did find one though. Only that I reached before you and the car is now with me :).

Pictures are awaited.

1.4k is for the new Stile tail lights? I havent confirmed tht yet..

yeah Vineet, i know how narrowly i missed your car...
The owner had call me up in afternoon to confirm when i'm coming, i said tomm and in the same eve he calls up, sayin "its sold sir" :)

it was destined not to be with me and to be with u only! :)

Today achieved 9.45 avg with almost 100% AC!
i'll post the pics after Dassera!

Guyz,

Any inputs for the minor observations I saw driving the Palio:
1. While reversing, it gives a good humming noise
2. While turning the steering to the extreme both ends of the steering circle, a slight humming noise i can hear
3. Shifting to first gear is too hard.
4. Front Seating position for a person of 5.10" like me seems too low or may be i'm just new to it since i learnt the car in a M800!
5. Braking is quite weak. i realised when i had to break suddenly to avoid a tempo in front of me!
6. Reg Centralised locking, anybody can open the door while the car is in motion..this is not the case in Indica where the driverside locks it from his side so others cant open it unless the driver unlocks it.
7. OVRMS vibrate in any small jerks also, is this normal. I didnt observed in Indica
8. Front doors dont close in a single normal thud, need to put bit of force!

Please share your views about it...

Thanks n Cheers~

Quote:

Originally Posted by rudrah (Post 1007868)

Guyz,

Any inputs for the minor observations I saw driving the Palio:
1. While reversing, it gives a good humming noise
2. While turning the steering to the extreme both ends of the steering circle, a slight humming noise i can hear
3. Shifting to first gear is too hard.
4. Front Seating position for a person of 5.10" like me seems too low or may be i'm just new to it since i learnt the car in a M800!
5. Braking is quite weak. i realised when i had to break suddenly to avoid a tempo in front of me!
6. Reg Centralised locking, anybody can open the door while the car is in motion..this is not the case in Indica where the driverside locks it from his side so others cant open it unless the driver unlocks it.
7. OVRMS vibrate in any small jerks also, is this normal. I didnt observed in Indica
8. Front doors dont close in a single normal thud, need to put bit of force!

Please share your views about it...

Thanks n Cheers~

Point 1 & 2, I am not sure, so get that checked.
3. Gears will be little stiff in the begining and should soften over time and use. Bring it to their notice nevertheless in the first service.
4. Even i encountered a slight pain in my right knee initially but got adjusted to the seating position over time. In M800, you can see the end of the Bonnet which wont happen in Palio, or rather in most modern cars. You will get used to it.
5. Yep. Brakes are not as powerful as they should have been for a 1.6 engine.
6. That is safer considering that in case of accident the central locking wont even open, as I have heard in news a couple of times, once during the mumbai floods.
7. Get the ORVM's tightened during the first service.
8. The doors are heavy and need a little push. Dont be too soft on your new babe lol:

Quote:

Originally Posted by rudrah (Post 1007868)

Point 2: that's the power steering unit humming that you hear - my 1.6 has the same issue. Nothing to worry about.

Point 6: You wouldn't have anybody against their will in your car now would youlol: and in case of kids - doors do have a child-lock setting.

Welcome to the 1.6 club - Happy motoring!