I had a choice between Hyundai Accent CRDi and Fiat Petra when I bought my car 5 years back. I was very impressed when I test drove Fiat. But everyone advised me against buying it for the well known reason of poor service quality for which Fiat was notorious at that time (is it any better now?).
But the car looked really really good - very heavy and sturdy and safe, it was a diesel car which I was looking for (thought that I would drove it a lot), the engine was surprisingly silent for a diesel car and had an awesome range of features (everything electrical including mirrors, alloy wheels, wooden interiors etc.). Plus it was very powerful (1900 CC engine) and yet gave decent milage and was attractively priced. So leaving all concerns about poor service aside, I ended up buying it.
And boy, it did not disappoint me at all. It was and is a powerful and safe machine. But then trouble started around one and half years back when suddenly I started getting a flashing coil symbol on my car’s dash board. After looking into the manual to see what it stands for, I realized that a glow plug has fused. Called up Manipal Motors in Bangalore and they assured me it is not a life threatening (I mean car’s life) problem and I can drive the car.
But I could not see a blemish in my beautiful car and I rushed to Manipal Motors and got it fixed. By the way I did not tell you that when one glow plug was gone, I saw that the car was taking a long time to start. Even after fixing it, the situation did not improve. It started taking me longer and longer to start the car and one day it simply refused to start. Again called up Manipal Motors and they advised me to replace the battery. I obliged and life was cool for next 6 months.
One fine day again I started seeing flashing coil on the dashboard. Rushed to Manipal. Got one glow plug replaced. And then seeing a glow plug fused bacame a regular affair. I have changed glow plugs almost six times, three of them recently, couple of months back from Prerana Motors. And guess what, the car still have starting trouble. I have to give ignition 4-5 times before I can start my car and all this even after spending 10000 Rs in last couple of years.
I have raised this issue with Fiat and let’s see what actions do they take.
I will keep posting...