I bought this car in early 2003 and was wondering then why not many more people had bought this car. After a few days of driving around in it, I had my answer. Its a car that you buy with your heart not with your mind. A brilliant driving experience! Absolutely engaging! It has lots practical benefits too. A very safe family car that has loads of boot space and a great suspension!
Of course resale value sucks.but u will keep this car for so long and use it so much that you really wont mind letting go if it for a cheap deal when the time comes.
This is a car meant for the self driven. Do not allow a driver anywhere close to it.
Fuel efficiency: I consistently got 10+ in the city(Bangalore traffic mind you). More than the regular Palio 1.2 that I used to drive earlier. On highways the litre stretches to 13+. For a car this heavy and built so well I do believe these are very very good numbers.
The one problem I had early on was the accelerator cable which had to be replaced I think within the first 15000 kms. Apart from that, reliability was a breeze.
One other thing though.the audio system is not great. A simple upgrade option is to add a sub-woofer as the existing speakers are good enough to handle higher frequencies.