I had been out of India for 2 years now and I wanted to get a car as soon as possible. My earlier ride was an Alto LXI, so I wanted to upgrade a bit too.
Due to the high cost of petrol, possibility of increased travel and longer holding time, I decided to look at diesel options available.
I was following up on the Swift VDI and was planning to get one.
One of those days, I saw an article about the Palio multijet being released by FIAT. Though there were severe issues pointed out against Fiat’s After sales service, I was determined to take a look at it too.
My initial contact with FIAT’s dealers - Tata concorde was very good. It was via emails and most of my questions were answered to my satisfaction.
When I was back in India, I went and had a look / test drive. I felt the car to be much bigger and heavier. The ride was very smooth. I was asking for the top end SDX model, for which the waiting time told was 1 month. By chance, the representative checked up and found that 2 SDE’s were in transit without booking, one of them being Furnace Red, my colour choice.
I told I will be back, and went to take a look at the Swift in ABT maruti, Guindy. I had a very good purchase / after sales experience with ABT for my earlier Alto. But this time, there didnt seem to be any interest shown by the representatives available. A much worse fact was that a waiting time of 3 months was quoted as minimum for the Swift VDI. Also the OTR price came to around 5.7 Lakhs which was costlier than the equivalent Palio Multijet.
Went back to Tata-Concorde and booked the SDE Furnace red. As promised, the car was delivered to me after registration in 6 days. The Car delivery process was good and smooth. The Fiat sales person in concorde was very professional.
I added some accessories like Art Leather seat covers, mud flaps and mats, Parking sensor warning system, Autocap locking system, etc.
Was given a coupon for 10 lts diesel and off we went.
I have been driving the car for 20 days now and it is very good. Mileage so far has been 16+ with A/c on 70% of the time. It is entirely city riding.
The only issue I found with this superb car was the turning radius. After driving an Alto, it was a shock to me to find some tight U turns very difficult to take. I had some issues in Velachery main road due to this in rush hour traffic. On further driving, Iam now able to plan my U turns better.
The clutch seems heavy which seems to be the case with most diesel cars, and needs to be fully depressed to engage/change gears.
The steering also feels heavy compared to Altos very light steering. But the steering gives very good feedback for the driver.
The space both in the front and the back is very good and very comfortable for 5 grown up people.
Boot space is adequate.
The interiors could have been better, but they are functional. The exteriors of this car look really good, especially the headlights.
Furnace Red looks very cool on this car after Black. Black was not opted for only due to the dusty nature of chennai roads.
I will update this review after the first service which would be coming soon.
Any comments on this review would be welcome.