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Old 28th March 2010, 18:32   #16
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If FIAT had been doing a little better....just a little better, that would have been my car. Why Fiat? Why?
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Old 28th March 2010, 18:58   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gemithomas View Post
If FIAT had been doing a little better....just a little better, that would have been my car. Why Fiat? Why?
gemithomas, i guess you are a bit emotional now.. I think you followed your mind and went for the FIGO. Figo is a lovely car too! Most of them who have bought a Fiat have chosen what their heart said!

All I have to say to prospective Fiat buyers is that just give Fiat a chance and buy it!
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Old 28th March 2010, 19:44   #18
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Congratulations! Fiat GP is a nice car, especially the red punto looks special. Wish you safe drive.
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Old 28th March 2010, 19:51   #19
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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...
Attached Thumbnails
My Ferrari red Punto MJD Emotion pack-car1.jpg  

My Ferrari red Punto MJD Emotion pack-car2.jpg  

My Ferrari red Punto MJD Emotion pack-car3.jpg  

My Ferrari red Punto MJD Emotion pack-car4.jpg  

My Ferrari red Punto MJD Emotion pack-car5.jpg  

My Ferrari red Punto MJD Emotion pack-car6.jpg  

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Old 28th March 2010, 20:45   #20
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Congrats on you RED beauty.
Also i can see in one of the snap , that it already had a diesel sticker pasted on the fuel lid, does the car comes by default with that sticker ?
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Old 28th March 2010, 20:55   #21
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Schoudhury, thanks. Yes, the car came with the sticker on the fuel lid and its proved very useful.
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Old 28th March 2010, 21:07   #22
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Quote:
did not want a Hyundai again because I felt there was nothing that a Hyundai car is really great about. Its good all around, but I thought I wanted a car that was amazing on certain aspects even if it had certain not so great aspects.
- I did not want any Maruti because my personal opinion is that its a brand people "settle" for when they don't want to spend the extra. Also like Hyundai, there is nothing that Maruti is great about. I know people go gaga about the Mass, but I don't intend to go to the service centre as much and if I did I'd have a crappy car anyway.
Once you have taken into account about these very fact, you must give chance to other car manufacturer and see what they produce may be better than Mass appeal ?
Any way heartiest congratulation on your Ferrari Red Punto and it always give beautiful feeling and lot of smile. Keep enjoying.
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Old 29th March 2010, 12:48   #23
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nice update and pics milestogo!

200 rupee for Punto mirror is very cheap! enjoy safe drives ahead.

Quote:
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.
could you please post pic of these air checkers? what is the cost?
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Old 29th March 2010, 14:02   #24
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Congrats pal, Great choice of car & color!

Enjoy the Bold Italian drive!
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Old 29th March 2010, 14:18   #25
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congratz buddy..!
Punto in red looks smashing.!
On the contrary people prefer to go for maruti as cars made by them are generally more reliable and dont have the niggling issues associated with the european brands.
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Old 29th March 2010, 19:32   #26
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few more pictures

1. the aircheckers - they are calibrated for 32 psi. It mechanically changes color to Amber and red when the pressure falls below 28 and 24 respectively. It cost me 600 rs for 4 of them. No ones stolen them yet as well - so thats good.
2. the picture of the scratch that the fortune powai service centre guys made while they cleaned the car when it had gone for first service.
3. the california car duster that I use to clean my car daily. It does an awesome job so I have to wash only once a week. Also thats my car boot.
Attached Thumbnails
My Ferrari red Punto MJD Emotion pack-aircheckers.jpg  

My Ferrari red Punto MJD Emotion pack-scratchbyfortunepowaiduringservice.jpg  

My Ferrari red Punto MJD Emotion pack-californiacarduster.jpg  

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Old 29th March 2010, 21:13   #27
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Congrats milestogo. I love it in red. You now own an expensive hatch.
Drive safe.
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Old 29th March 2010, 21:42   #28
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With this air checkers, can you check the exact pressure in the tyre? or it give an idea of the pressure in the tyre. I think a proper pressure gauge would be better.

CLJ
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Old 29th March 2010, 22:38   #29
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cLJ - The air checkers are not meant to check exact pressures. You can only make out the range. So if its green I know its between 28 and 32 psi. If you want exact pressures for some reasons you should use a proper gauge. I just use it because I only want to be able to detect sudden abnormal large decrease in pressure for whatever reasons when it does happen. I could live with a 2-4 psi loss and fill air almost twice a month anyways.
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Old 29th March 2010, 23:01   #30
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Jayabusa - thanks. Yes an expensive hatch. If it hadnt been for my wife, I would have been driving the Linea diesel. My wife just refuses to want to drive a car with a boot even though I hardly let her drive my car. When I can afford 2 cars, I'll buy the Linea for certain.
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