Fiat!
After many sleepless nights pouring over reviews in team-bhp, analyzing what I have in my bank balance and what I can borrow, and searching the classifieds in sulekha, gaadi.com , and car wale, I ended up buying a 2010 Grande Punto 1.2 Active last Thursday. All the searching and reading for 1 year got over in 30 mins. I saw the car, gave the advance and informed folks at home, finished the settlement in 3 days.
Thanks to Ferrari for initially suggesting this model! Thanks to team BHP for providing all the info one needs about cars in India! They are truly a one stop pit stop.
The car is running good till date.
Reasons for getting this one,
- Fiats apparently are famous for their build quality and ride quality. So far it has been a great experience. Unlike other cars which are built like plastic spoons, this one seems to be a true solid.
- very low Kms done and well maintained.
- the seller was a nice person, and had the entire service history and purchase history documented so I can see there has been no dagalti done.
- I do not see doing more than 1000kms per month in this car, so the price differential between petrol and diesel is not sufficient to pull me towards diesel
- the price was something I can manage with my own/personal borrowings and do not need a car loan.
- I did not have to spend on audio systems etc (he already had Alpine which my friend Vikram, who runs a portal called motorheader.com says is a decent brand)
- I am driving after 13 years and my wife has got her driver’s licence last month, so a pre-owned car made more sense than a brand new one. We have a long way to go!
There are a few concerns with TATA- FIATs A.S.S. but I guess I can manage that risk. Let us see!
February 15th, 2012 at 10:48 pm
pudhu baby! pudhu veedu! pudhu caru! kalakkare chandru!!
February 16th, 2012 at 7:02 am
Monu,
Thank you!
House 2010 project, baby 2011 release, car 2012
February 17th, 2012 at 7:54 am
Karthi
You are right, sometimes we do research for months and months together only to find the right car in a matter of hours and finish the deal right there.
I have had the same experience with our cars. We were searching for a smaller car that we can use around the suburb, drop my son off at day care, grocery shopping etc. We were going back and forth between new and old cars for months and finally saw a car at a dealership who gave us a good deal as well, couldn’t say no.
February 17th, 2012 at 9:50 pm
The fiat is a very drivable car, nice gearbox plus resale value sucks (so used car market is good option)
Only one point, sell the car just about when you hear rumours of Fiat pulling the punto out of the Indian market. Once they stop selling the car spares become a headache.
The Fiat Palio 1.6 GTX is an awesome car, but biggest headache now is getting spares.
February 17th, 2012 at 9:59 pm
Vatsan,
Nandri. Yes, I am aware of those things.
For palio 1.6 GTX, are you owning one? I heard there’s one Kaava automobile in mumbai which sells lot of fiat spares - they take order via phone and do the shipping. payment Can be via bank transfer.
Do you know of any good local garage in chennai?, you can take the Palio there.
February 17th, 2012 at 10:00 pm
Deepak,
Thanks da!
February 24th, 2012 at 2:59 am
Second Monu. Ahaa…sensible milestones ever….congratulations PK!!!!
February 24th, 2012 at 9:33 am
Thanks Ramya.
It’s hardly 15 days and I surprised myself by driving the car 600+Kms.
My daughter has started to crawl. I will say this is the biggest milestone for me - running behind my daughter as a poruppaana appa!