aareness, I decided to get it changed now so the dealer can do the running around with the rto. Later on if I wanted to do it, I'd have to do it myself. Its been a month already and I'm still following up. Will keep you posted around how long this takes.
My after sales experience thus far-
The weekend after I got the car, I drove down to Kamshet through some pretty bad village roads. Thats when I realised that the ground clearance could be better. I hit the engine protection panel on the underbody atleast 5 times on that trip. I still keep hitting some speed breakers now and then and it always makes me anxious everytime it happens. But I did check the underbody during first service and there was'nt a hit of any problem. So I guess I can live with the anxious moments and I'm less worried nowadays.
I've done a few highway trips then on, and the mileage has been around the 19, 20 kmpl everytime. On these trips I dont even realise that i've hit the 80 kmh speed limit until the beeper goes off and reach 120 km/h at 2500 rpm on the 5th gear. The engine sound is certainly high, but in my opinion it is divine. I'm sure many of you guys just like me would have driven an imaginary bus or a car when you were a child. Just got hold of something round for the steering and then imitate the sound the engine makes with the mouth - even making sure that every gear change has the right sounds... well, the Punto has just brought the child back in me. I just love the engine notes. In comparison I feel I was driving a dead car with the santro earlier.
suspension is great. I'd feel very confident taking my wife in even if she was pregnant again. I remember the santro days when I had to borrow my bro-in-laws innova to take my wife who had just conceived, over some rough roads in Marol. I told myself then that I'd get something thats more useful and Punto certainly gives me the confidence.
After sales service is the most talked about regarding Fiat and my first experience was when a ohc knocked the mirror out of my ORVM. The control panels behind the mirror was still intact. I called Mr. Vittal ( the supervisor in Fortune Powai) as soon as it happened and said I was coming in immediately. He said okay. I reach there and find him. He introduces me to Michael who is the "fiat specialist" in that centre. Michael comes has a look and goes gets a mirror out and fixes it - all in about 10 minutes. In about 20 minutes after I lost the mirror I had a new one. I was definitely surprised. Vittal then gave me the bill that I had to pay. It was 200 rs - I definitely was very very happy to say the least. So, that was my first service centre experience and I was beaming. now for the worrying bits -
On the downward slopes, in bumper to bumper situations, the brakes screech everytime I hit them.
theres a squeak on the left front sides from near the tires - cant figure out where its coming from.
I try not to half clutch as much as possible, but when I do, I can now hear a springy noise when I release the clutch from half.
and lastly - I am not even sure if this is an issue but I'm just comparing to the santro. When I spray just a little of bit of water on my windscreen, the wipers dont engage. Apparently I have to spray sufficient amount of water for it to engage. I find this slightly irritating and am wondering if everyone with a punto has the same problem. The mods-
- put art leather seat covers with the punto written on it from carax pune. Cost me 5k. Bought formula 1 car wax while I was there.
- got air checkers ( advertised on petes site) from performance unlimited in Mumbai. While there I asked about the Petes tuning box as well. He had it, and even though I will surely put it on one day, I think I'll wait till 10k kms are over. The aircheckers are okay, but it kind of protrudes from out of the tire and I have already managed to break one when i drove very close to a roundabout.
3k Service experience -
Took it to Fortune Powai around 10 in the morning. I was assigned Rajendran as the SA. Rajendran made note of all my problems, inspected the car for any scratches. There was none till that point except on the orvm where the ohc had scraped. I insisted on getting my engine oil changed. Inspected the viscocity and color while giving the car with him. It was brown and I did not find any particles though. But I still asked him to get it changed. He estimated 3200 rs for the change including air filter change. I also opted for the 3m interior polish and cleaning ( 1175 rs which in hindsight was probably unnecessary). Lifted the car and had a look at the underbody and was pleased to note that there are no blemishes on the underside. Okay so far so good. I'm told to come around 5 pm same day. So I come back around 5.30 and lo behold, the car is standing outside the workshop and it had definitely not been washed from outside. The interior guy had done his job though. I patiently waited while Rajendran took his own time to get the car washed. None of the problems had been rectified except a loose rear reverse light ( a shoddily done job at that). So after waiting around watching nanos being delivered in the overcrowded centre, michael comes and drives the car to be washed. They wash the car and it comes back and hordes of workers lay siege on it to wipe the car clean. As the wiping finishes, I notice a bad scratch that was not there earlier near the handle. Its nail deep so it can never be polished off. So I call Rajendran and he is immediately apologetic.. He knew this wasnt there in the morning. He tells me it must be one of the cleaners with a belt on or a ring that did it while cleaning. I was pretty annoyed by then. He calls Vittal and Vittal tries to get some polish applied but that doesnt help. He says If I wanted to re-paint it, it would take a whole day and they would need to send the car to vikrohli. Partly because of my fear that these guys would somehow damage it if I waited some more, I did'nt argue for too long. Vittal promised to repaint the car door along with any scratches that I would also make during the next service. So I just took the car and fled from there. Rajendran said that the bill would be couriered to me although i did not understand why he couldnt give it to me right there. So there goes my first service experience - certainly not great. In my opinion, I think those guys have too many cars ( Tata + fiat included) so its always crowded and messy. I am sure they havent done the required free alignment and balancing as well. The total bill I paid was 4038 and I remembered to check the engine oil color before I drove out and took back the 4 litre can of engine oil. It had only about 50 ml or so of oil left. That surprised me as well since I expected more that 500 ml.
I am attaching a few pics... |