My medium grey hound

so continuing my earlier post...the test drive went well and when i drive with absolutely no traffic on road or even short stretches of empty road, the vehicle started veering to the left, but I wasn't too sure if it was the roads or its just me. So I made quite a few my friends test this and all that I could was mixed feedback and they weren't too sure either. One early morning (i'd lost my sleep, so got up early), decided to take her to the beach road in chennai and test it down. Everytime you take the hands off the steering, she would want to pull to the left.

Wait for the clock to strike 10 and I call Mr. Vickram, and just blasted out at him about the pathetic experience with my dealer. He immediately apologized, sent someone home to pick the car up and offered timely feedback on the status of the car. Finally this was the only consolation that TATA could offer. The car spent some 2 days at the service station and then i get back. I test the vehicle dragging to the left was gone.

The much bigger mistake from my end was to take delivery from the TASS on a sunday evening. The vehicle dragging to the left had stopped. But there was some rattling noise from the car. Wait for sunrise this time and send an email to Mr.Vickram. He again calls back and wanted the vehicle to be brought to the TASS.

Wait for the clock to strike 8 AM again and reach there by 8:15, Mr. Vickram calls up and says the if the problem takes anything more than an hour to fix, I'd be given a replacement car (A Linea MJD with a tankful of diesel).. Any ways Mr.Tenzing checks the car out and confirms that the problem has been fixed and I test it too, it had gone. The car was perfectly fine then when we tested. Even took a friend along to check if everything was fine.

By this time i'd completed around 5000Km and it was time for 1st free service.

Go give the car in the evening. Get the monsoon under chassis coat done for about 3.5k and they return the car by evening.

---------- Post added at 11:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:09 PM ----------

Then after there were frequent long round-trips, 1 to Pondicherry, 1 to chidambaram, 1 to trichy, 1 to Kodai and 1 to madurai. All from chennai. The car handles like a beauty after all the mental torture I went through. Now she's a tamed beast and she just responds the right way and returns a minimum of 22kpl on the highway with an avg speed of 96KPH.

---------- Post added at 11:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:15 PM ----------

More updates to follow with the issues identified with the wheel alignment and balancing and how it damaged my tyres and finally how i found a fix!!!!!

 

Perfect maniac..!! The road to heaven passes through the hell, right they say.
One can't experience the Nirvana until he has gone through chaos/hatred that's what we are all about.
Nice to know this fantastic customer service again.
I would say it again though, TATA/FIAT may not have the best expertise/beautiful receptionist hypnotising:mischievous at dealerships but their top executives are very serious & sincere for customers. Fantastic..!!
Now don't ever expect Honda/Hyundai to offer you a Petrol/diesel full of Civic/City/Verna in case your i20/Jazz is held up at delaership for rattle. They are such true businessmen/professionals that no one is customer for them till it translates into some financial benefits.

 

Dear Team Fiatians

The car is currently getting its second service at 15K Km at ARAS PVPV madurai(TASS). Also I'll be be spending the weekend here wither intermittent connectivity to the internet. I'll share the trip updates and service experience one I return.

---------- Post added at 01:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:39 AM ----------

ENKI, the Nirvana experience was short lived, when my grey hound's front left shoe starting wearing out much more that her other three feet. Then my wife's older brother, who too has a Punto in Madurai, suggested that I get the car checked by experienced technicians at ARAS PVPV (this too is TASS) and I avail an extra day off to make it a long weekend over republic day and make it to madurai.

I complain of the uneven wear and they say that they will do all that is required to check and try to get the car back to me in a few days. Also I ask them to fix the LHS wing mirror that was nipped by an MTC bus in SRP tools junction, OMR.

1 day passes by and they give a call saying that the knuckle on the tie rod is badly damaged and that the front LHS suspension too has to be changed. But were courteous enough to tell me that they will check all records too see how much of this damage can be covered in warranty, so that I don't have to shell out much for this. To my luck, most of it were covered under warranty and I had to shell out close to 3.5K. Of this 2.5k goes for the wing mirror itself and they also had to replace a weather strip on the passenger side rear door. My dealer (TAFE) caused this damage and was a free replacement that was pending from the very day I took delivery of the car. See attachment.

 

....Ha ha ha...are you referring to the german shops we have in country?

---------- Post added at 01:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:35 PM ----------

There was one small accident in NH-45, on my way to Madurai. The vehicle hit the median while trying a narrow overtake maneuver and bounced back on to the road. Lucky me, only both the Hub caps were scratched badly, not even a hairline scratch on the body of the car. I'll put my Money on Fiat, as I'm sure had it been any of our Korean or Japanese friends, it would've certainly not been the wheel caps alone. Mind you this happened at about 11OKPH. So wheel caps completely gone on driver side, but just them and body came out untouched.:wow
Car expected back from service by 3 PM. Let me see how good the car is as I've asked for some paint job as well on the body, to remove the minor scratches on the body.:dance

 

Give Thanks to God first, that you are safe and nothing happened and tell thank also to your Punto for taking care of you.
Dude You were overtaking a Turn at 100 kmph?????
Come on buddy you are not on the race track.
For sure no doubt if if was a Japanese you would have missed the balance and would have thrown off the road due to its light weight.

---------- Post added at 09:03 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:02 AM ----------

Give Thanks to God first, that you are safe and nothing happened and tell thank also to your Punto for taking care of you.
Dude You were overtaking a Turn at 100 kmph?????
Come on buddy you are not on the race track.
For sure no doubt if if was a Japanese you would have missed the balance and would have thrown off the road due to its light weight.:arrow:

 

Not a turn Tony, just overtaking on plain road...but was just lucky as the median widened all of a sudden and yes i took my chances too nothing yet happened.:A


Lucky me, the hub caps were refitted (the same ones) though, as i was anyways headed for the 2nd service.

 

Good, It ends well so hardly matter. Be a bit careful thought. AT high speeds,scan a way out in advance before indulging into something. If there is no alternative, let it go. Don't hurt your baby again. God bless!

 

Now its time for the 2nd service review at ARAS. This is coming a little late though..

1. Oil Change and standard regular checks done.
2. Car came out really smooth.
3. Scratches on the driver side rear door fixed and repainted.
4. All 4 corners of the bumpers touched up.
5. Lose boot handle (the inside plastics
Car was gleaming as good as new. I was pretty impressed with the overall Job quality.

What wasn't done...
1. The wind noise in the cabin, whenever I cross 80KPH. There is just some uneven gap on the driver side door. If this part is blocked with my thumb the noise completely stops.
2. The car cover i ordered never had a punto logo or a provision for the antenna. So I returned it.

Feedback:
Very impressed with the overall service response and quality. The car handles quite well on the highways and city driving is absolutely smooth.
Had to spend 4K extra for the denting/painting and touch up and am really happy about my car service

---------- Post added at 09:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:29 PM ----------

Total money spent on servicing till date(Since May 20th 2011): ~15K.
Under Chassis Painting at TASS-3.5k
Total= 18.5K
Current Odo: 16400KM

---------- Post added at 09:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:36 PM ----------

Thanks a lot ENKI. I sure will take extra care of the baby. May the good looks attracted too many evil eyes that were cast on the car. She has a dent each on the front and rear bumper again.

 

Moderators: Request to move this thread to ownership forum.

 

A few KM left to hit the 18K mark. Have a few scratches and have broken the reverse lamp/reverse fog lamp. Its now hanging loose on just one clamp. Some moron banged the car on the reverse while I parked it on the road right in front of my house.

Took it to Bosch service centre adyar on the 1st May. They wanted to have a car for an entire day as they have to repaint and push the bumper in position and repaint the boot door for removing the dent and scratches.

Was not to happy with treatement there and the place was looking sad too. Bosch Adyar=> Not recommended unless you know someone there.

Plan to take it Bosch Vadapalani, some time soon and get things fixed.