The red endangered Avventura

@Whencut86 : That is flattering to hear. Thank you for the compliment. However, I would request that you see the car once in the flesh before deciding. Red is a difficult color to capture by most camera sensors. The white and bronzo tan look like the photos. But red looks different. And red needs a little more maintenance to keep that wow look going. Just letting you know. [/QUOTE] @Vidhyashankar Kannan I saw couple of Red Avventura's in Chennai roads 2 weeks back. Looked good. Have a Rally Red Brio currently. This Exotica Red is different slightly. More darker in shade.

 

Lovely writeup bro, and agree with all your comments on Avventura driving experience.



AFA as opening the spare wheel cap is concerned, I was also having same apprehension as the guys who delivered the car to me had hard time of half an hour while demonstrating it to me. And that's why I purchased a time and me tested Limi Electric Inflator.
But on a fine day, it was my turn to remove the spare wheel cap , there was a huge side wall cut on one of my tyres through which a whole finger would pass which needed tyre replacement.
Having gone through a well written official test review on T BHP, I remembered the author has mentioned a pic based correct method to remove & replace the spare wheel cap lucidly on very first page of the thread . I just opened the page and followed the procedure and voila!!! I could remove it within 3 to 5 minutes.

And after that I can say it is more cumbersome & messy for me to remove the spare wheel from the hub located in the boot which includes removal of luggage, then hold the mat lifted above and take out the wheel.
OTOH, it was so easy to remove and replace the spare wheel.


Well, those who are confused in between Red & B tan, I would say B tan requires more cleaning than Red.

 

@Tornado

The point you've made, from experience, is really telling: all those decrying the 'inconvenience' of this sort of external spare wheel mechanism seem more concerned about the extra, second step a security guard will have to follow at a mall entrance than the fact that this is surely a less burdensome/cumbersome way to (un)load the spare/change tyres in the event of a puncture.

Not to mention the much lighter (and therefore also less-tough-to-mend-rattle-prone) tailgate too, unlike say the Ecosport.

Tells you a lot about the idiocy of the car mag reviewers who behaved like it was an act of italian weird quirkiness (anything for style).

And about the foolishness, the naivete of Fiat India in not having pre-empted such stupid skepticisms at launch.

@Vidhyashankar Kannan , whatsay?

 

Recently, I had been to In orbit mall Goregaon Mumbai, security staff was unable to open the boot. I had to come out , but I scolded the security incharge for not training the staff properly and keep them updated about new things in market! LOL.

 

@prabhjot did you see the recent comparison between Avventura and i20 Active in Autocar show. Totally biased from the word go. She said i20 had more space than Avvy which was a blatant lie. Both have comparable space. i20 active's rear seat space is not like those of Honda's to actually say it has good space. She just mentioned ride and handling Avvy trumps i20A and she says i20A is better for city with light steering and soft suspension. Most pathetic lie was i20 Active beating Avventura in boot space. Both have ~280 litres of boot space. She talks as if Solid build, stability at high speeds, ride, handling, steering feedback and dynamics do not matter in a car. In reality these are the high points of a car and rest all gadgetry and gimmicks don't matter. I have test driven i20 Active. It's good but nowhere in the league of Avvy. Also for boot release, the way she gave a grunt and pushed the spare wheel tailgate to close gave an impression that you need to be some sort of a Hulk to actually close it. In reality, a simple push can close the spare wheel tailgate. Its not a tedious mechanism to close it. Like autocar, every reviewer will be biased in other channels also. Gives Avvy a bad impression. Its upto people who drive one and Fiat enthusiasts to actually point out to other people the positives in Fiat cars.

 

@Whencut86 I saw the i20 active today and my God it was ugly. The idea of a hatchback transformed to a mini SUV is a ridiculous idea and works only in India though Fiat has done the best job in terms of the change with the Avventura.

 

@Raj_pol Looks are subjective. A lot of us in this forum would agree that i20 and active indeed look good

 

For god's sake, don't compare Active with Avventura.
At the most, it can be compared with Punto.
And still punto wins on the grounds of handling, steering, GC, Suspension. And hyundais have not dared it call a mini SUV or. Urban SUV. They call it SSV(sports styled vehicle) just like a man in fifties looks younger & stylish after wearing denims. & tee. OTOH though FCA calls Avventura a CUV, all knows it is a mini SUV.

If someone is comparing Active with Avventura, should clarify on what grounds?

 

@Raj_pol

This hatchback to one-special-version-or-another is a European brand speciality, with Fiat esp having a long history of developing 4x4, and Cross versions (not just looks), both in Europe and in Brazil. They've done something similar to the Nuvo Uno in Brazil for 2015: really splendid. Of course, the great and utterly innovative Panda 4x4 and Cross, an suv to go up against the best, irrespective of price. So no, this is not an India-specific phenomenon at all. As we know, the Ecosport IS a Fiesta hatch version (only worse), and the Duster is a version of the Logan (only better). Remember the Palio Adventure? The Adventure Locker current version sells well in LatAm.

When they do a special-edition/version of whatever sort they go all the way, and not just Fiat, same is true of other EuroAmerican brands. Consider the numerous strongly aesthetically-different versions of the Cinquecento, let alone the Abarth-s etc.

The Jap and Koreans in India, as usual, befool an under-knowing car public, offering up supposed reliability/ass guarantees, and not even at a cut-price, EVEN on their normal cars (i20 elite, swift), let alone their special-versions (i20 Active).

That is because these firms know how to 'exploit' emerging market, newly-rich, 'aspirational' etc publics. It's in their DNA (e.g, Toyota etc in the sixties and seventies onwards) right up to Hyundai (the last 10-15 years). That's how these firms started out, that's how they first succeeded.

And so Toyota knows that a cross-ver version of a very very ordinary, flimsy and unsuccessful hatchback consists only of cladding (silver that too!)...and you're good for what are apparently sales of 500+ a month. I figure that the i20 Active will sell at least as much, if not 2x or 3x that.

 

You know, you're absolutely right. Even when I picked up the car, the showroom staff were struggling to open the rear wheel cover. I kept telling them that there is a specific order in which the 6 locks are to be removed. They didn't bother listening to me. I later tried removing them at home as per the image. It works perfectly. Very well engineered.

The tailgate mechanism is actually quite practical. Once opened, it doesn't fall back even on an incline. It has to be depressed before it can be closed. Quite thoughfully done but........not highlighted. And the swingarm is quite strong. Enough to perhaps stop a minor rear end collision. Again......not highlighted. I guess with Fiat, Indians will always see the glass as half empty.

Very aptly put. But like most of us Indians who like to dress younger than exercise, the i20 Active follows the same sheep in wolf's clothing. And guess what? It sells.

Fiat did something wrong in the UK too w.r.t. marketing. The Punto Abarth sold only around 891 units in all. Everyone loved it, had great reviews, beautiful to drive, yet sold so few. It is now in demand again as a very economical used car. Pity.

All said and done, there is one thing I have learnt. It is not enough to have a great product. One has to know how to sell. That's the entire trick. Crappy products sell because the marketing team is damn good at their jobs. And many great ones fade into oblivion because the customers were never really educated on the strengths. And cars are no exception.