goods mornings ladies and gentalmans… in the series of the serious posts this week, one of the most important historical events was missed out on the blog…

No no, I am not talking about the biggest event in IBM India’s history… I am talking about a drive on the DND which was completed in 2 minutes FLAT…

THE 1242 CC Fiat Palio Sports was moving at speeds of over 125 kmph roaring at 3500 rpm to better the previous record of 3 minutes by about a minute!!! yippieeeeeeeeeee and these 2 minutes include the stopping time at the toll plaza…

am I doing this again… yes I am sometime later… post the fitting of a K&N Filter in my car…

I am sure almost all of you know about how obsessed I am with my car… to make myself happy and to let you ppl know in detail here is what happened in September’04 which turned out to be one of the best and the fastest decision that I have made in the 27 years of my life on this planet!!!

I had joined IBM in august 2004, and suddenly I had to switch over to a self driven mode from being chauffeured around in office cabs for over 3 yrs!!!

The 800 though doing great was not the most reliable mode of transport as it was already 15 years old… and the need of buying a car arose from there…

Did some research… I did not want to buy a Hyundai and Papa did not like the looks of a Wagon R… even I was not too keen on the two Hatchbacks which were available…

my next stop was the Opel Showroom… and a discussion on the Opel Corsa and the Corsa Sail followed… Both of these are wonderful cars but for some reason I was not convinced to buy them…

So that Saturday evening, I thought I would go ahead and discover a Tata Indica… the car seemed to make a lot of sense in terms of fuel efficiency… I had thought of a few cosmetic changes that I wanted to do in the car which would have made the looks better too… changes like the spoilers, Upgraded Tubeless Tyres and Alloy Wheels and a few more… Me and mom were driving to the Nawab Motors when I took this wrong turn.. and instead of turning right towards the TATA Showroom, I took a left to see the Fiat Dealership in NOIDA, Dynamic Automobiles… I thought what the heck.. lets check this out now that we are here… So I enter the showroom… see a white Palio NV ELX which looked ordinary… and then turned LEFT !!! this turned everything 🙂

She was standing there.. all shining and smiling.. waiting for me to introduce myself to her 🙂 which I did… took the keys.. sat inside the car.. checked out the interiors, the exteriors.. and fell in LOVE !!! it took me about 2 minutes to decide that a FIAT PALIO SPORTS FERRARI RED is what I wanted to buy !!! rushed out of the showroom.. and went back home… what helped freeze the decision was the autocar edition of that month that had rated about 100 cars on Indian roads on various parameters… Fiat Palio was rated the highest in personal satisfaction and build quality and various other parameters, however lacked big time in A.S.S. ( After Sales Service).. Went through the magazine a number of times, to ensure that I was taking the right decision… and then the next day went with Papa to see the car… and he had a similar reaction.. he loved the car.. he later told me that he always wanted to buy the Palio as well !!! Pa and I were in complete agreement with everything after a very long time 🙂 and that ensured that the car was bought earlier then thought of…

I was thinking that I would do some more research to get the best price, but Pa decided that if I was keen on buying the car, I should not wait any longer and get the things taken care of the same day.. We sat down with the finance guy there.. worked out the EMIs and all.. and to our satisfaction he lowered the ROI as well a li’il bit to facilitate the purchase…

a down payment of 65000 was needed, and I did not have that kinda money 🙁 I checked out both my bank accounts and could manage only 40K after taking out every single rupee from them… the rest 15K took from dad and made the payment the same day… We had initially thought of taking the car after the Shrads but the guy at Dynamic said that he could arrange for the delivery before they even begin.. and I was more then happy !!!

21st September is when I got the car; and 28th September is when the registration was done: It was a Tuesday and the car market in NOIDA was closed, I remember searching for a number plate guy, managing to find one finally, and getting the number plate made… 29th is when I took the car to Delhi for the first time !!!

I also did not tell anyone about the car, because she was something that ppl had to see and not hear about.. and I still smile when I think about the reactions I got from my friends 🙂

some of the things which were invariably asked and said about it were:

~ Yaar, gaddi to mast hai par fuel efficiency nai hai.. 7-8 ki deti hai sirf..

My reaction: I did not buy this car for efficiency; If you are comparing it with a Santro or a Wagon R then you are not doing the right thing.. they are about 250 Kg lighters… and it obviously takes less fuel to move a lighter vehicle… and I expect to get 11+ in city driving…

My comments today: I have been getting an average of over 12 kmpl with about 30% AC in the City… the last 4 tank fulls I got more then 13.5 kmpl with minimal AC usage…

~ Kya mast gaadi hai yaar.. par parts ki fight hai… milte nai aaraam se… ASS bhi kharab hai… aur parts are really costly too..

My reaction : I know… hope things improve with the FIAT management changing in India…

My comments today: I have not faced any trouble with the car except a windshield wiper motor trouble since I bought the car.. The parts availability yes was a problem but things have changed in the past few months… with the FIAT-TATA MOU getting signed.. the workshops where you can get your Petrol FIATs serviced have increased and improved, though I have not faced any issues with my workshop in NOIDA…

Some of the other observations that I have…

I ride with the biggest and the widest tyres that are there in any hatchbacks today.. I run on a 165/85/R14 Alloys which come factory fitted with the Sports Version… The only car that comes close to Palio wrt tyres is the Swift…

The large weight of the car ensures a better grip on the road and safety… when you close the doors you hear a thud and not a cluck unlike most of the cars even bigger in size…

I am still in love with the car after almost 24000 kms… to the extent that other then me only approx 10-20 kms must have been driven by anyone else…

My Car ROCKS !!!