I know this is review of fiat linea but I feel as a owner of fiat car(palio) I must share my experience especially after the tata-fiat alliance. It may sound frustrating and yes it is. In my last four year of ownership of my car, I had some of the worst nightmare a car owner can have, and all this has happened especially because of the tata fiat alliance. Even in a city like mumbai, I can easily gurantee that tata service is the worst in the whole world and the service staff are much worser.
Because of bad service in mumbai(long list) my 2 year old car broke down in goa, my holidays plan with my family was completely shattered and I had to face some of the worst embarrasement of a car owner. There are 2 tata service center in panaji(where my car broke down) and one fiat dealer. Even after pleading with them they did not agree to attend my car. I called fiat service, they told to call margoa service center which is 100 km away. When I called margoa service center they told me they cannot provide any help or towing facility. I have to tow it on my own. Also they informed me that they cannot gurantee to fix my car as they do not have any fiat trained staff. The private towing cars were asking 10k to 15k to take it to margoa. There was no gurantee that even after taking it to margoa, they will fix my car. Now I started visiting the local mechanics in panaji, but every one refused as they said that the fiat cars are complicated to repair.
Now here comes the advice from horses mouth, I must have meet more then 10 private car mechanics and every one said the same thing in india you should only buy maruti. I could not understand why they all were so keen on maruti cars, its then when I saw it. There was this huge maruti(sai service) complex just at the junction of panaji bridge. Thats when I cursed myself for not buying maruti. Now I understood why everybody praises maruti service, its always there when you need it the most. Finally after 3 days of running here and there in goa, a local mechanic guided me to a ex fiat(palio) mechanic. This guy came as a angel to my rescue, he himself owns a palio. He fixed my car in a day. I don’t know what would I have done if I had not meet this guy. I had to extend my hotel stay by almost four days. The whole journey shouldn’t have costed me more then 15k but only because of no service of fiat in goa my expense went up almost till 50k.
The tata service center in mumbai had destroyed the silencer assembly while replacing the alternator. Thats the reason the whole silencer assembly came down in goa. Few months back the alternator failed again and the car broke down right in the middle of busy mumbai highway, why? because the tata service had replace my new alternator with a junk alternator. Finally I had to replace it with a new alternator on my expense(18k). And because if this one mistake, my speedomter assembly, my clutch assembly, starter, battery, front brake assembly, radiator and many more got destroyed. I had to pay everything from my pocket. In four years, I had to spend more then one lakh on repairs from my pocket, only because the tata service did not know how to replace a part.
My experience is that fiats car are wonderful and built to last a lifetime, but if you are someone unlucky like me and some part breaks down in your fiat car, that is the time your nightmare will start with the tata-fiat service. So you can gamble buying a fiat car and pray that it never breaks down. I know many who own fiat car and their car has never troubled them for almost a decade.
Honda are the elite service provider, but whats the point their service and parts put a big hole in your pocket. I have learnt a big lesson, for small budget car atleast for few years more in india you should buy only maruti and nothing else. I not a fan of maruti cars and I don’t like the looks of any of their car. But I guess in india its best to be logical then dil-logical.