Jun 22, 2006 05:19 PM
13932 Views
Hi Car Lovers,
I bought this beauty during September 2005. I waited 9 months to writethis review so that I can write what I experienced having the adventureof my life....
Rewind back to July 2005 when we were going through what everbody goesthrough... which car to buy? Endless test drives, sifting through amountain of brochures, preparing excel sheets (features vs pricing andother vital statistics). By the end of August, I could recite the vitalstatistics of all the car models backwards :-)
After all the heated discussion with my wife and friends, we narroweddown to two cars Hyundai Acccent and Ford Fusion. We havent evenchecked out the adventure yet as the delaer didnt have one in hisshowroom. The Fiat Petra was too congested to fit my burly 6'1" frame.So Fiat was out of our list.
One nice rainy day, we get a call from the dealer that an Adventure isavailable for test drive. We went there reluctantly, as we did not wantto have the feeling of having missed out on a model. And Lo!! agleaming "canary yellow" adventure was there in the showroom. We lovedthe looks at first sight. She was beckoning us to ride her :-)
By now, we were experts at looking for faults and we started outrigorously on the adventure. The first feeling I got when I sat in wasthat of full comfort. Every part of my back (which is wide) wascomfortably tucked in the wide seats. The horizontal seat space (whichis dismal in most models) was wonderful. Most of my thighs were incontact with the seat at a comfortable height. You guessed it ... nobucket seats here like the Accent where I usually need a crane to liftmyself out of the car. The steering and gear shift are leatherstitched and have a lovely feel on your palms.
I had a nice feeling creeping inside me already...
The dashboad is nothing to scream about but better than the tacky oneof Ford fusion. The instrument dials are good looking and the A/c workssuuficiently good (although I found the best A/c in Baleno). More onthe A/c later.... The seating in the back is comfortable (not as muchas in front anyway, so I really dont care as I never intend to sit inthe back of my car) and can seat 3 medium size persons comfortably.
The best part about this car are the instant good looks and anyone whosees this car on the road are bound to crane their neck to look at itagain... The bull bars and the roof rails give it the sporty look andthe car looks stylish and rugged at the same time. There are additionallights on the bull bars and that combined with the regular excellentlights and the fog lamps provided can light up the entire road.
This is a hatchback and the space in the rear is ample and the entireback seating can fold in to give you luggage space from the driver'sseat all the way to the back. It is so spacious that even I can sleepcomfortably in the back. Great space!!
To add to all of these are the alloy wheels and the wide 14"" tubeless tyres which just make this car look so SEXY....
The test ride was awesome.... the handling is excellent even though thegear stick may feel tight initially.. power steering is perfect and thebrakes are excellent. The sporty pedals are great....
pickup is good, I touched a top speed of 140kmph on the highway beforethe dealer persuaded me to cool down... great drive!! That sealedthe decision in the favor of the adventure....
Within a week, I was the proud owner of a gleaming ferrari red colour adventure with the works...
Let us talk about the cons... fuel efficienncy... this baby weighs alot and in the city where you shuffle between the 2nd and 3rd gears alot, you get a disappointing 9-10 kmpl ... but then hey! I never boughtthis for the mileage.... you can actually see the fuel guage needlegoing down south as you drive... can give you the jitters initially....
During the last nine months, it has been like a dream driving thisbeauty... the after sales service has been good... a few niggles withthe car (manufacturing defects) were promptly taken care of by thedealer. I have been to Shirdi, Mahabaleshwar, Mumbai and locallyin and around Pune and enjoyed every single trip immensely...
Some tips to make your car look even prettier... get a teflon coating, imported sun filming.
I also got a reverse sensor installed which is very useful for such bigcars. I have a Blaupunkt system installed in my car. Since this is ahatchbakc you cannot get those big speakers in the back. So I got aspeaker box build and installed in the back (EXplod speakers).
If you are looking for a great looking car, with spacious interiors andexcellent handling but do not fret too much about mileage, check outthe Fiat Adventure...
Thx for going through the adventure along with me and hope you have one too....
Cheers
Siva
