**Model**: Fiat Palio, Stile SLX 1.1- Black Colour, Took delivery on **7/7/7** from Wasan Motors, Chembur, Mumbai
**Price: **I negotiated with Wasan and got on road at 4.10 lakh( no finance) with extended warranty+ mats and mud flaps. Which is 26K less than the non-negotiated price as per pricing sheet of Fortune Cars.
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My opinion: I got a good price.
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**The drive:** Till today I have driven following cars. Maruti 800- which is my first car and still using. Zen- I use occasionally when I go to my native place in Kerala. Indica Diesel- I used for one week in Kerala. Skoda Octavia Diesel: I drove once from Mumbai to Kerala 1200 KM in two days with my family. My opinion have limitation of my lack of experience with other cars.
I drove my Style recently for a 750km Mumbai-Auragabad-Mumbai trip . The Power of 1.1 Litre engine was sufficient for me for my city drive and my requirement of 80-90km/hr on Indian highways. I don’t generally overtake a vehicle already moving at 80km/hr. If at all I need, I use 3rd gear for overtaking. 5th gear of this car is useful only on plain roads. To maintain 80km/hr even on small slops, you have to shift down to 4th gear. AC is not adding much in to the power loss. With proper shifting of gear, you will get all the power you need for your travel( not for racing!) . I use Reliance Petrol and I got the mileage of 17.8 km/litre with 100% AC and three adult(including me who was driving car) during Aurangabad trip.
The AC is very powerful. You can keep it always in minimum for long trip. There is a lot of engine noise entering inside the passenger cabin. This much noise is not expected from a petrol car.
The driving position and leg room I found better than the Skoda. There is sufficient space between steering and thigh, knee and dash board for driver of 6 foot+ like me . I found I can get out of the car without a sticky back, even after 3 hours continuous drive. Further, the suspension is sufficient enough to swallow all the average digs appearing on highways and Mumbai city! These factors you will come to know during the long drive only.
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My Opinion: It is not fair to compare Sile 1.1 with other hatch backs like zen, wagon R, Indica etc. It has got all the convenience of a big vehicle. Good space, good suspension, Smooth and stable handling etc. Featurs like power windows, precise power stearing, fog lights, rear wiper, defogger will add to the convenience . But the turning radius is very high. Single go U turn is possible only on very wide roads.**
**The Car:** The Appearance: I like everything about the appearance of this car. That is why I purchased it.
The Interior: The Colour of interior is OK and light colour make you feel good while you travel long distance, but cleaning might become bit difficult. The qualify of the Plastic used inside is very poor. To get an idea, just hold the gear knob or look at the joints of dashboard. I never seen any other car with such a low quality gear knob. There is rattling sound from my dash board, and rubbing sound from wiper while using in rain. Even my new antenna broken when the electrician tightened the screw of it while fitting.
**My Opinion: Very less attention made for the fit and finish of interior. The quality of plastic is very pathetic. One can expect knobs breaking, colour fading, rattling and Wiper sound in future!
Dealer:** It is too much rush in dealer’s Chembur showroom. The delivery person asked me in hurry to sign some delivery slips and delivered the car without even checking the petrol level. Luckily the engine went off while the car was just entering to the main road. Other wise I would have been caught in the middle of Chembur traffic. The only paper made available to me while delivery was a Xerox copy of insurance cover note, user manual and service manual, after giving two week delivery time with full payment in advance . Later for every original documents I had to call the sales person at least three times . Now I think I have all the document except PUC sticker from the FIAT. I don’t know whether it is mandatory for new vehicle.
**My Opinion: You can expect only good price from my dealer . They are too busy to give you any thing else. If you are buying from there, go for a good bargain and forget every thing else.**
**Spare Availability:**I wanted to buy the roof top antenna. Wasan Sales person did not show any interest in providing FIAT accessories. Then I approached Fortune Cars and they arranged one for me with a waiting period of 2 weeks.
**My Opinion: There is still shortage of spares with dealers. Particularly the Stile specific spares. I have information that, dealers do not want to block money to stock FIAT spares, which is currently very slow moving compared to Indica. Hope it will improve! but when?**
**Service: **My dealer’s service centre is very difficult get over phone. Finally when I got connected, I got reply that, I need 8 day advance booking! . Approached Fortune Motors and they got appointment for next day . I saw a bunch of tired, angry looking and busy Service advisors there. they do not have time to listen all your complaints or confirm every thing done OK after the service! Only complaint which I had was the dashboard rattling. They could not fix it, but they gifted me a cute scratch on my bonnet. That was the minimum damage one can expect in such crowded place.
**My Opinion: **** Availing a proper free service from crowded Tata autherised service centres going to be a big problem. You are forced to do servicing from these autherised service centers as per the warranty clauses. I noticed that extended 18 Month warranty is not offered by Fiat. It is from an insurance company for a premium of Rs 4200/- which you are paying while buying the car. I cannot consider it as assurance from FIAT for quality but a new product from insurance company!**
**My Advice to Fiat:** Please Launch a new Stile 1.1 version with luxury interior and more silence inside the passenger cabin. Improve the fit and finish of all plastic parts including the wind screen frames and wiper blades. Make the odometers digital. Invest Fiat itself for spares and accessories at the autherised service centers. dont expect the dealers to do that, at least in the initial stage. For new version you can increase the price 15-20K. I can see this car will be huge success provided you can do the above.
**My verdict: I am loving it!**