Mar 06, 2008 01:48 PM
4701 Views
I planning for new hatchback. I had 6 options. WagonR, Spark, Santro, Estilo, Palio & Indica. All these vehicles have +points & drawbacks as well. My analysis ended up with choice between PALIO and Wagon R. I ignored Spark & Santro for costly spares. Estilo is yet to establish and fills too delicate. Indica did not appeal me, don’t know why.
I was left with two options - WAGONR or PALIO. Palio comes with more features than WagonR, with same cost.(4 to 5 lacs). Palio is spacious & sturdy vehicle. AC is powerful as mentioned by almost all. Going through reviews I was keen on PALIO.
During my test drive I felt that I left hand brakes on while driving! This car was not responding to accelerator. It is underpowered. This is design defect. Our car must have immediate pick up for overtaking to cater with trffic. To manage overtaking with Palio, one has to press hard the accelerator with higher RPM than required in normal case. High engine RPM(during running in period of 5000kms) will definitely harm the engine performance and mileage also. Engine is heart of a vehicle and there is no point in comparing it’s other strong areas like space, stability and aesthetics if engine is weak.
In my opinion FIAT management never had serious views towards INDIAN customer. I had observed many UNO owners yelling for service back up or spare parts. Initial PALIO owners(1.2 version) were cursing for fuel economy -7/8kms/ltr! A Palio with average of constant 9km/ltr was bonus! To overcome this criteria FIAT recently came out with PANDA 57bhp engine to handle 990kg monster called “Stile”! It is shear failure of FIAT’s R&D team.
I strongly felt that FIAT should have re-launched UNO instead, which too was robust, spacious, aesthetically good, well powered & same time fuel economical.(13kmpl). Also I took a note of “opinion77’s review dated 16th Aug07, who stated scarcity of spares and lack of after sales service- old cry for FIAT vehicles. I sincerely do not wish to hurt my 37 friends, Palio owners, who wrote their reviews. I wish to caution others who may think of buying this vehicle and may land in trouble within short period. I enquired with many TATA dealers(Mumbai) for there sales figure and ratio was 1/2 Palios against 60/70 Indicas per month. Also I watched Mumbai traffic and Mumbai Pune express for a month and did not notice any Palio Stile. I am left with singular choice- WagonR, an established & POCKET friendly CAR with solid after sales service network. As I mentioned earlier Wagon R too have setbacks, but even after considering those, it is VFM car. It has good resale value.
I would buy or recommend PALIO, when FIAT assures dedicated views towards INDIAN customer, guaranteed mileage(13kmpl-city), spares scarcity becomes a history and satisfactory service network is established.
