Why did I buy Fiat?. Review on Fiat Palio Multijet

I am writing this review exactly after 2 years from the month I bought my First favourite car Palio Diesel Multijet but with a totally different feeling (with a heavy heart filled with frustration). Since its was my first car you could possibly imagine the kind of emotion that goes with it.

Fiat - TATA partnership was still very new, so ignoring advises from everybody and trusting that this partnership will deliver I went for Fiat Palio MJD.

The Car is awesome.. best car in <6lacs (space, comfort, safety, performance) even today I don't have a single complaint about the car's performance - its a beautiful car.

First year I did not have problems servicing except TATA guys always treated me like they were doing a favour by servicing FIAT cars and 95% of the guys in most of the TATA service stations don't know anything about FIAT, so you go back to them with the same problem that was not rectified and after doing this repeatedly you will forget it and get used to living with it.. but you feel so helpless when you know nothing can be done.

Second Year, Manipal motors on Old Airport road stopped taking Fiat cars for servicing. So I go to Prerna motors on Old madras road and they did an average job - always leaving one problem for me to take back home.

Guess what, two months back they too stopped taking FIAT cars for servicing. Now they do only the oil change and if there is anything else you have to get it done in their head branch which is outside bangalore.

Who would have thought, the experience would be soo bad. Now I am looking to sell my extremely well maintained (you know guys who are passionate about cars) car which just completed 2 yrs on Oct 9th and go for a MARUTI (yes, you read it right.. maruti! which is such a compromise).

I wrote a lot of letters to FIAT's CEO corner but as expected the dumb I guess FIAT does not want to do anything about the huge problem they are so well aware of.. I really pity those guys who buy Punto and Linea (they are such beautiful cars and we cannot enjoy it.. such a shame).

Well thank you guys.. I was a guy who told others that people passionate about FIAT are not bothered much about service but see what I have become.

Thanks

bsnaidu

Hello Palio admirers, I had promised a senior sales manager in Concorde to write a review on Mouthshut about Palio multijet and Concorde. so here it is.

Model : Palio stile Multijet

I have one word to describe this car " awesome", the word itself does not do full justice to the car. Trust me guys I had been following the reviews on Mouthshut only for Multijet for a long time before I could actually buy one on 8-oct-2008. But to get a feel of it you will have to drive the Italian Stallion your self.

I had decided to go for a Diesel car so my other options were Hyundai Getz CRDI, Maruti Swift VDI.

Getz extremely over priced for a small car and extremely over powered for a small body somehow the balance just does not make any sense and the interiors looks like *&%$^%^ for a 7 lac car.

Swift : decent car but very very very cramped, no boot space, one of the showroom's marketing team admitted that there is a rattling problem and Maruti has decided not to correct it as they will have to change the assembly and it will cost them a fortune to do that so that customers will have to bear with the sound. Waiting period is crazy.

After I checked out these two models I directly went to Concorde to check out Palio, wanted to save the best for the last. The minute I stepped in I saw a Multijet displayed in the showroom, it immediately put a big smile on my face and my friend and wife who till then were very reluctant to even come with me to TATA showroom were immediately smiling looking at the beauty.

I took a test drive and I almost immediately knew that this is the car. All my doubts vanished. I was ready to take the car no matter how the service will turn out to be.

Power : the turbo kicks in at 2000 and the car goes crazy, the rpm at which turbo kicks in is just perfect it makes the city ride very comfortable at slow speeds.

Leg room and comfort : The best in its section. I am 6 and I like to really relax in my drivers seat and tafter me taking so much space in the front , a person around 5.10 can easily sit without his legs touching the back of my seat.

Millage : I have clocked around 500 in 4 days, not really bothered to check for milage, but I will come back with the numbers once I fill up the tank fully.

Interiors : Pretty decent not too hifi but , small additions could have made a lot of difference like a small box over the hand break and plastic covering on Seat-belt ect... but with such a great car all these can be ignored. And people say that the plastic looks cheap. I seriously didn't feel it was that bad.

Engine : As most of you might know its the best and the latest (2005 engine of the year award : Europe), Tata vista and Swift buys their diesel engines from Fiat and this very engine to be precise.

I have heard a lot about the indicator not getting automatically turned off and other small things. but seriously how much of an effort is it to turn of the indicator manually.

According to me Fiat wins hands down against any competition in its class.

Concorde was very professional and good and delivered the car on time on the day I wanted it and the color I wanted in. The entire team clicked a snap with me and the car.

My experience with them has been good so far and I guess its going to be better.

Will get back to you guys after 1st service.

My Advise : If you are deciding to buy a car and Palio Multijet happens to be on your check list. You are comparing other cars against the highest standards. I guess you got the message.