May 14, 2007 12:01 AM
15846 Views
I had a test drive of the new Palio Stile 1.1 today. I had earlier gone through all the reviews in various different magazines(Autocar, B&S Motoring & Top Gear) so I knew a few things about the car and was prepared for what to look for in the car.
My impressions about the car is given below:
The Good Ones:
-It looks quite beautiful with the new headlamps, new rear end and the overall design
-It looks taut, compact and very sturdy and has a very well designed exterior. It may be an older design but even now I feel it looks better than Santro, Indica, Getz, Swift.
-the driver seat is very comfortable, the driving position is also very good, the steering falls naturally to your hand, the pedal positions are also very comfortable
-the gear shift was not as smooth as I expected but still quite good.
-as I started driving the car I began to love it as the steering feel is very good & the ride comfort is simply superb. I deliberately drove over huge potholes just to confirm the ride quality(which I had read about in all the magazines). It was just beautiful, you can hardly feel the bumps and the car doesnt jump or jerk about over the potholes. It simply digests the potholes as if they were non-existent.
-the boot space is quite decent, should be sufficient for a family of 4 on long drives.
-the A/c is also excellent with very good cooling. I had driven the car in Chennai at 2 in the afternoon with absolutely scorching heat(on 13May07), but inside the car it was very cool even when the A/c was in medium setting. I actually told the sales guy sitting next to me to reduce the A/c a bit!
-the sales guy told me that the mileage would be 15kms with A/c in the city. I dont really buy it, but I feel it may give upto 12kms with A/c in a congested city like Chennai which would be similar to what other cars like Santro, Indica, Swift give.
However there are certain not so good aspects of the Stile 1.1:
-the engine is quite underpowered
-pickup is not very good
-engine sound is not very sporty, slight whining can be heard if you accelerate hard
-driving in a city like Chennai is not a problem, but I feel on the highway you may feel it is quite underpowered.
The Palio is a car which you can fall in love with, the overall driving experience is that good, inspite of the perception about its aftersales support, maintenance costs etc.
However I will not be buying the Palio Stile 1.1 as it does not quite meet my needs of a powerful yet fuel efficient car. But I have almost decided that I will buy a Palio(not the Stile 1.1) but the yet to be launched 1.3 diesel multijet. This is the same diesel engine which is there in the Swift and which has got very good reviews. If this diesel engine is put in the new Palio, it would be a perfect car for Indian conditions, tough, sturdy & yet economical to run. If the Palio with 1.3 diesel multijet is priced around 5 lacs(top end version) this car has the potential to be the best car in India(you can forget about the Swift, Getz and other such over-hyped cars especially the Swift which I feel is ridiculously over-hyped especially after driving the car last week. Maybe I should not include the Getz here, which is quite a good car in its own right!).
So in summary if you can wait for the Palio 1.3 multijet diesel car which is supposed to be launched in the next 6 months, you can potentially own the best small car in India.
