That was the time when I was looking for a car with the following features:
Good safety
Compact for city usage, but spacious enough not to make me feel claustrophobic.
Good handling and ride characteristics.
Good build quality.
Good city performance and a decent highway performance.
Good highway stability.
Decent ground clearance.
Itried the Opel Corsa Sail 1.4 and Palio 1.2. I pondered around foralmost a month and despite everybody (except my wife ofcourse)callingme nuts to have even considered a Fiat, I fell for it and went for it, eventhough the Opel Sail is a lot more powerful than Palio. I did notbother to buy myself a Palio 1.6 because of two reasons:
- It was way over my budget to buy one and more importantly, sustain one.
2.Iwas a new driver at that time and I had an experience of a couple of100s of kms of driving. So, a car with 100 horses wasn’t for me as Iwas not confident I would be able to tame them.
So, out I comeout of Sundaram Motors with a spanking new Passion Purple Palio 1.2 ELXNV. It has been with me since then and I can now confidently speakabout it. Ofcourse, around 13k km in 2+ years is not a big deal, but I know the heart and soul of my machine.
Looks:
--------
Iknow this is subjective, but to me, I still rate it better than anyother hatchback available in India even today. In my opinion, Palio isnever cute. It is a little more masculine in its looks. It has Italianaura all over and the styling says it all. The fact that Indica andPalio are more or less the same design, but still Palio feels freshereven without a facelift, speaks volumes about the design.
Interiors:
-----------
Ina nutshell, it is a mixed bag. Space is not an issue. Palio isspacious, both for front passengers and the rear ones. The driver seathas good lumbar support and is spacious too. The rear seat is harder.
Thedashboard is pretty simplistic and is not unnecessarily cluttered.Thedash is oh-so-slightly tilted towards the driver and I love thisaspect.The controls are pretty ergonomic and most of the times, I donothave to move my eyes away from driving if I need to operate AC andother buttons. The indicator and wiper stalks are made of good plasticsand are so designed that you do not need to remove your hand from thesteering to operate them, unlike in Indica and Santro. The gear knob isalso of a good quality. However, the storage space for cup holders areinside the glove box, which is so thoughtless of Fiat. The upholstry isnothing to write about. Visibility is a bit of an issue with Palio fora 5’6" guy like me. The A pillars can hide some scooterists and the Cpillars have hid my wife too :-). Usable boot space is adequate. Iwould have preferred atleast 60:40 split rear seat for furtherflexibity.
Ride and Handling:
----------------------
It isamazing how agile a 1 tonner can be. Though 1.2’s suspension and tiresare a little ride centric, handling for most purposes is not an issue.The bodyroll is there, but is pretty much managable. I have done 3digits in my car and the long sweepers are not an issue at all. They donot require you to reduce the speed unduely. However, over sharpcurves, I prefer wider-lower-profiled boots. This certainly is on myagenda during the next tire change. The flip is that the ride isgood.Humps and potholes, what on the earth are they? It requires reallyhuge potholes to upset the composure of the vehicle. The normalpotholes transmit the sound, but the vibrations are very well damped.
Thehighlight of Palio’s driving experience is definitely the steering.Thesteering is pretty direct and very communicative. Palio’s steering wasthe one that actually tilted the balance in its favour as comparedtoOpel Sail at the time of my purchasing. Of all the small cars I havedriven till now, I have found Palio’s steering to be the best.
Driveability:
--------------
MyPalio is a 1 tonner and a car with a paltry 1.2 litre 72 bhp engine andit lets you know in no uncertain terms. It is certainly no scorcher, both in the cities and on the highways. Ofcourse, a zen will whip thePalio initially any day, but as the Palio garners speed, you can seethe role reversal. It takes eternity to reach from 0 to 100, but oncethere, it is still rock solid on any surface. I can not say that I getthe same confidence to throw the car around if I were to driveone of the tall boys. I have tried a max of 135 on my car and theinternal ABS mechanism (wife) applied breaks on my speed; rightly so.Anything more than 80 on Indian roads is asking for trouble. Thestability on those speeds is amazing. There is no about-to-take-offfeeling even at those speeds.
1.2, especially the NV, is andfeels sluggish. I think it has more to do with the gearing rather thanthe outright non-availability of horses. In some gears, horses aresleeping till late in the rev range and then suddenly wake up andpropel the car. Is it Palio turbo? Ha, ha. In a nutshell, there is astep in the performance. If you are hovering anywhere below 3k range inyour rev counter, the car is sluggish. Then the horses wake up, a fewat a time. There are a few horses available right near the redlinealso. This makes my car revhappy. The bad side of all these is that youwill really have to work through the gears on the highways. I have feltthat the 4th gear on the highways is pretty much useless. It has almostalways been 3-5 and 5-3 for me. I pick up enough revs on 3 and shift to5 and vice-versa. However, the gear 4 is pretty handy in the cities asthis is an overdrive. Saves a few moolahs.
Breaking is also pretty good. Brakes do not lock till very late. But the brake feel needs getting used to.
Howcan I miss the vroom that I get once past 3.5k revs? It is unmistakablya Palio roaring. I love this sound and it shows on my petrol bills too.
Mileage:
----------
Bangaloreis not too mileage-friendly a city and I consider myself lucky if I getaround 11. The worst I have got is around 9.5, but 10.5 is more thenorm. I have once squeezed around 13. On the highways, 16 is the norm.I have once squeezed around 17.5. I use AC only when it is necessary.
In the city:
------------
Ifmy Palio was a little more powerful (for example, 1.6), I would havecalled it an out and out highway car. In terms of stability andcruisability, Palio is certainly a highway car. If you compare it withcars like Santro and WagonR, Palio is a poor city car. The main culpritis the heavy clutch. Believe me, if I drive for around 40-50 km inBangalore city, I feel more stressful than when I drive around 400kmonthe highways. Apart from the heavy clutch, another bain of Palio is theHUUUUUUGE turning radius. Am I driving a Toyota LandCruiser Prado?Well, it suffices to say that U-turns should be planned inadvance.Otherwise, be prepared for them becoming 3-pointers. Because ofthe turning radius, Palio is not very easy to park either.
But, just shut those strong thunky doors, you are isolated from theworld.You need not worry about all those noise and pollution of thecities.
Services:
-----------
I havent tried the Tata-Fiat yet. Sundaram was decent. Avg servicing cost is Rs. 1.5k.
To summarize:
------------------
Palio1.2 is a good car with a lot of soul. It is not a boy racer, neitherdoes it produce astounding acceleration. It is a decent city car and avery good highway cruiser. Yes, you will have to live with its boringinteriors, its blinding A and C pillars and its mammoth turning radius.But underneath all this, it is a solid car, built for Indian conditions.
AmI happy with it? A resounding yes, but now that I have mastered thenuances of driving, I would like to get corrupted with more power...