I was owning a ZEN LXI model and I was very happy with it. The very soft and decent car which even my wife also loves to drive. Then I herd about the new swift Diesel with great pick-up and mileage but I didn’t even bother to test drive that car as I don’t like the shape of that car(personal opinion). Then I heard abt the palio diesel and I went to BU Bhandari for the test drive at pashan showroom with one of my friend(Both of us are interested for that car), both of us are surprised to feel the pickup and ext shape(Interiors are the same older). The I decided to buy it. I sold off my ZEN for a good cost(as it is Maruti) and booked a M.Grey palio MJT.
It was almost 1yr and 3 month I got the delivery and I am the very happy owner of that car(except, I will discuss it later) in just first 3 days I drove it for 1000 KM . In those 3 days I drove it to Kolhapur and then to Mahabaleshwar and back to Pune. I covered the Mahabaleshwar-Pune distance(almost 120KM) in 1hr 45 Min. I feel this vehicle is very sturdy powerful and still remains very well in control of the driver.
Till now I have drove it for 19000 KM and my longest stretch was 750 KM in an day from Nagpur to Pune. I started at 12:30 in the afternoon and reached Pune at 1:30 in the night. Night driving was the very exiting experience as you don’t have bikes / Jeeps of the local villagers and you can get the long stretch to test the real power/ pickup.
One of my friend and me has taken a test once. We drove it at 140KMPH and then applied the sudden brakes and to our surprise(as it doesn’t have ABS) it remains(stopped) straight. We have also tested the curves on high speed. This test also adds some more units to the confidence.
From all the above incidences I am very confident abt the build Quality and controls of the car and all in all it is very powerful and a very well controlled car.
Now let me explain the TITLE of my review.
I have seen all the cars driven by men as well as women including Palio Petrol however I haven’t seen any women driven the Palio MJT. I have even seen the Fortuner driven by a lady.
Even my wife prefers to drive Maruti 800(1996 Model) than this new car. If somebody has seen then let me know I will change the TITLE.
Some issues I am facing are listed below:
Very bulky at slow speed(mainly in city driving)
Clutch is very hard(This is the exception I was talking abt)
I have broken my Lee Cooper floater due to it.
I also got the clutch padle bracket broken due to the hard clutch.
FIAT Guys doesn’t have any answer for this.
I have tested the clutch for Punto and Linea They are very much softer.
Very Noisy from outside(not in cabin).
Vibration level is pretty high on slow speeds(city traffic)
To conclude I can say that this car is excellent on highways and not that great in city traffic.
If you drive mostly on highways(open roads) and not in city or in traffic jams It suits you.