Fiat Grande Punto. EDIT : Launch on 17th June!

deepakhon · 15th May 2009, 12:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by solly

Ya even I get the same error, looks like their website is a fad. Manish can you PM Rajeev Kapoor's mail id. Have to let him know in detail all the service issues..

It is not a fad. I guess you will have to mail in a particular fashion to send your mail. It has been a few months since I have mailed, and I do not remember now. But, all my mails barring one have been replied.

ceodesk@fiapl.com is Rajeev Kapoor's email id.

JVH · 15th May 2009, 12:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by solly

Ya the service center treats you like a indica cab driver.. they make you wait a minimum of 1 hour to take your car and another one hour to deliver. They also make sure they dont attend to some of the complaints!! I'm used to ford and Toyota service so this is a big surprise for me. Palio customers might tolerate this just imagine the plight of New Linea owners.. they are in for a big surprise once they buy the car!!

Doesn't it depend and vary from service center to center? I think it is harsh to generalize overall.

For instance, I have mixed experience with service centers with my GTX. I absolutely loved one and loathed the other

But agree that the service centers are nowhere near the likes of Toyota or Maruti.

finneyp · 15th May 2009, 12:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by solly

Ya the service center treats you like a indica cab driver.. they make you wait a minimum of 1 hour to take your car and another one hour to deliver. They also make sure they dont attend to some of the complaints!!

Such issues are there at all Service centers.
You need to demand & follow-up for better service if you are not happy with their service.

Quote:

I'm used to ford and Toyota service so this is a big surprise for me.

Where? In India?
Agree Toyota service is good, not sure about Ford!

Quote:

Palio customers might tolerate this just imagine the plight of New Linea owners.. they are in for a big surprise once they buy the car!!

There are quite lot of Linea owners on this forum, and most of them are happy with the Fiat-Tata Service.

manish7 · 15th May 2009, 12:47

Thanks Deepak. But now - I have never been able to use site correctly - there is some problem with the form, worse still designers do not even give proper error. :( The mail id is - ceodesk@fiapl.com

Please don't send me so many PMs asking for that email ID.

You may even want to send loads of mails to innovate@id8labs.com and let them know about functional error they have in Fiat's site.

reppy · 15th May 2009, 13:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by solly

Ya the service center treats you like a indica cab driver.. they make you wait a minimum of 1 hour to take your car and another one hour to deliver. They also make sure they dont attend to some of the complaints!! I'm used to ford and Toyota service so this is a big surprise for me. Palio customers might tolerate this just imagine the plight of New Linea owners.. they are in for a big surprise once they buy the car!!

Fortunately, my (joint) family owns among other cars, a Qualis & a Civic. MGF toyota in Gurgaon provides excellent and speedy service. Infact Apra Motors (Maruti) provides the BEST service I have seen till date. However, here's our experience about Ring Road Honda Gurgaon as experienced YESTERDAY:

Our Civic has been with them for 2 days. The AC coil is leaking and they don't have a replacement in stock yet. The building AC at the reception in this peak summer was not working - people everywhere were complaining and sweating. One lady was fighting with the manager because he had kept her waiting for 4 hours (in a non-AC room) even though they had told her that the car is ready.

That's Honda for you from a Civic owner - maybe its an isolated case from a day's event's, including good ones, but I'm sure Tata/Fiat can better that? plus Tata has 2 decent dealerships in Gurgaon - Dhingra and ABS Motors.

gods-envy · 15th May 2009, 13:13

going back about the hue and cry about the BHP - i think Fiat is going the european way; first launch the bread and butter variants, then based on the growth in the market, launch the better and powerful models later.

Edit - coming to the problem of service, I think Green Tracks at Bangalore does a great job (they are a little expensive though); not aware of the other service stations.

CarsPG · 15th May 2009, 13:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by solly

Ya the service center treats you like a indica cab driver.. they make you wait a minimum of 1 hour to take your car and another one hour to deliver. They also make sure they dont attend to some of the complaints!! I'm used to ford and Toyota service so this is a big surprise for me. Palio customers might tolerate this just imagine the plight of New Linea owners.. they are in for a big surprise once they buy the car!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by solly

Ya even I get the same error, looks like their website is a fad. Manish can you PM Rajeev Kapoor's mail id. Have to let him know in detail all the service issues..

I e-mailed him a couple of times but never heard back :(. Hopefully you will have better luck!

greatpower · 15th May 2009, 14:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by finneyp

There are quite lot of Linea owners on this forum, and most of them are happy with the Fiat-Tata Service.

I hope this is true. I don't think majority of the new Linea owners have gone for their first service yet - its too early to say if Fiat has improved its service yet.

solly · 15th May 2009, 14:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by finneyp

Such issues are there at all Service centers.
You need to demand & follow-up for better service if you are not happy with their service.

Ya but if I have to do this every time its a pain any way others are not like that..

Quote:

Originally Posted by finneyp

Where? In India?
Agree Toyota service is good, not sure about Ford!

Believe me ford service is real good... Only the service bills give you a hear attack!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by finneyp

There are quite lot of Linea owners on this forum, and most of them are happy with the Fiat-Tata Service.

Its not the case in Hyderabad, me and my frieds tried couple of dealers here both for palio and Linea, the service center attitude is the same..

codemarauder · 15th May 2009, 18:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by solly

Ya the service center treats you like a indica cab driver.. they make you wait a minimum of 1 hour to take your car and another one hour to deliver. They also make sure they dont attend to some of the complaints!! I'm used to ford and Toyota service so this is a big surprise for me. Palio customers might tolerate this just imagine the plight of New Linea owners.. they are in for a big surprise once they buy the car!!

LoL and a big LoL! This would have been true may be a year back or so. I have had my share of bad experience with the A.S.S but not upto this extent.

I own a 1.6 Stile since last 1.5 years which has run 37,500 kms in such a short span. The workshop of Dhingra Motors in Gurgaon, which is not considered in the league of good A.S.S. had never treated me this bad as you have mentioned. I have never faced shortage of spare parts for regular service, they even had clutch cylinders, combination switches in their stock.

I had to wait for the spares only twice, once when a bus had banged my car and door had to be replaced and second time when my windshield washer motor had conked off. I am not a tolerant customer after a certain limit and don't hesitate to escalate the matter. I did it twice - it was very well listened and my complaints were acted upon promptly.

I had even got a chance to call their road-side assitance and that was prompt too. The guy was able to fix the problem within 10 mins of his arrival at 9.30 pm in the night.

In my humble opinion, all this hooplah around Fiat's A.S.S. quality will subside very soon if people do not bad mouth just on the hear-say basis.

If I had the money and need to change a car, GP with 90BHP petrol would be my choice. Neat and balanced looks in the herd of alien looking offerings from other manufacturers and nice features are making me drool over it.

Although, I may miss 0-100 in 11 secs of my 1.6, but practically thinking how many times do I rev it to 5500 rpm in 2nd gear? And when on the highway with full load, its not at all safe to go beyond 90-100 kmph on Indian roads, even if its divided 4-6 lane one.

Bah, even a 800 cc car was able to overtake me at a lightening fast speed while I was cruising at 80 kmph on a state highway in U.P. 37 BHP against 100 BHP, any competition? Go figure.

deepakhon · 15th May 2009, 18:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by solly

Ya the service center treats you like a indica cab driver.. they make you wait a minimum of 1 hour to take your car and another one hour to deliver. They also make sure they dont attend to some of the complaints!! I'm used to ford and Toyota service so this is a big surprise for me. Palio customers might tolerate this just imagine the plight of New Linea owners.. they are in for a big surprise once they buy the car!!

In that case, I think you should escalate the matter to Tata/Fiat.

The service at Bangalore, at least at Concorde Motors, Mysore Road is the opposite of what you have mentioned. I was asked to avoid Saturdays for servicing as they apparently have an influx of indicabs.

I booked the pickup and drop service on a week day and the driver was fairly knowledgeable and the service was good too.

Tata Motors calls you after the service for your feedback. If you feel that you have had a bad service, please let them know. As far as I know, they are pretty good at beating the service advisors. From what I came to know, the ratings you give to the service advisor will affect his performance. So, he will make sure that all your complaints are attended to.

hotpursuit · 15th May 2009, 18:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by codemarauder

Bah, even a 800 cc car was able to overtake me at a lightening fast speed while I was cruising at 80 kmph on a state highway in U.P. 37 BHP against 100 BHP, any competition? Go figure.

Nicely put dude. 90BHp petrol and 75BHP diesel in India for the GP is more that sufficient in Indian condition.Its more important to see how a car puts the power down than just power on paper. If the car is a good handler, that is good enough for me as a driver.

luky_13 · 15th May 2009, 18:41

I thought i should share my fresh-out-of-the-oven FIAT service experience with fellow members.

About a month back there was a problem with my Linea, the central emergency light switch cluster broke while in use. I took it to Concorde motors, Mysore road to get it fixed. To cut the story short, they were not able to fix it, but in an effort to reach the switch cluster they screwed up the entire central console with screw driver marks and mis-aligned face plates. I inferred from their workmanship that they had not had any kind of training or experience on servicing or handling Linea. My first bad experience with FIAT A.S.S.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ml#post1284823

Besides grumbling i decided to raise the issue with Concorde motors dairy circle (i bought the car from them). The sales manager and the sales executive were at my office the next day to apologize and take the complaint in writing. They asked when they could take the car to fix it. I had to make a trip to Mumbai and back so i told them it could only be after that. During my trip to Mumbai a few more issues cropped up. The carpet below the glove box had come out, the plastic cover over the fuel lines under the belly had broken and a small chrome strip had fallen off. All these parts had no functional importance but i was fuming like a radiator, i could not comprehend how a luxury car could have parts falling off like this. On my return i gave Concorde and FIAT a piece of my mind both by email and over phone.

They picked up the car the following week from my office at around 9 in the morning . Each and every issue was carefully and meticulously sorted out, most parts were replaced with brand new ones (not repaired) and the vehicle was returned to me in pristine condition by 6 PM the same evening. The Service manager was more than polite and forthcoming. I have owned almost half a dozen cars, some of them gave me a good sense of belonging and some had good customer service, but this time i have experienced 'Customer Delight'. At the end of the day if FIAT or Concorde are able to sort out their mess and give you your car and some confidence back intact, well that then is top notch customer service !

jessie007 · 15th May 2009, 18:43

I feel, Fiat will definitely endow the GP with 1.3 VGT MJD, once they start local production of 1.6 MJD (output starting from 105 bhp) for the Linea. Already the Linea seems underpowered with the 1.3 VGT MJD (considering the P/W ratio) and Fiat would not want to alienate potential customers by offering the same engine in a hatch and a sedan with a considerable price difference.

If Fiat were to launch GP VGT MJD starting at say 6 lakhs and the Linea VGT MJD which is priced starting 7 lakhs, there is a straightaway 1 lakh difference and the premium is just for the boot and some extra features.

codemarauder · 15th May 2009, 19:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by luky_13

At the end of the day if FIAT or Concorde are able to sort out their mess and give you your car and some confidence back intact, well that then is top notch customer service !

And when we compare your experience with Skoda as mentioned on various threads on TBHP, this is indeed commendable on Fiat's and Concorde's part - at least they listen to you.

15th May 2009, 12:47	#769
manish7 BHPian Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Pune Posts: 508 Thanked: 0 Times	Thanks Deepak. But now - I have never been able to use site correctly - there is some problem with the form, worse still designers do not even give proper error. :( The mail id is - ceodesk@fiapl.com Please don't send me so many PMs asking for that email ID. You may even want to send loads of mails to innovate@id8labs.com and let them know about functional error they have in Fiat's site.
	() Thanks

15th May 2009, 13:13	#771
gods-envy BHPian Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Bangalore Posts: 474 Thanked: 38 Times View My Garage	going back about the hue and cry about the BHP - i think Fiat is going the european way; first launch the bread and butter variants, then based on the growth in the market, launch the better and powerful models later. Edit - coming to the problem of service, I think Green Tracks at Bangalore does a great job (they are a little expensive though); not aware of the other service stations. Last edited by gods-envy : 15th May 2009 at 13:15.
	() Thanks

15th May 2009, 18:41	#778
luky_13 BHPian Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Bangalore Posts: 580 Thanked: 156 Times View My Garage	A small story I thought i should share my fresh-out-of-the-oven FIAT service experience with fellow members. About a month back there was a problem with my Linea, the central emergency light switch cluster broke while in use. I took it to Concorde motors, Mysore road to get it fixed. To cut the story short, they were not able to fix it, but in an effort to reach the switch cluster they screwed up the entire central console with screw driver marks and mis-aligned face plates. I inferred from their workmanship that they had not had any kind of training or experience on servicing or handling Linea. My first bad experience with FIAT A.S.S. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ml#post1284823 Besides grumbling i decided to raise the issue with Concorde motors dairy circle (i bought the car from them). The sales manager and the sales executive were at my office the next day to apologize and take the complaint in writing. They asked when they could take the car to fix it. I had to make a trip to Mumbai and back so i told them it could only be after that. During my trip to Mumbai a few more issues cropped up. The carpet below the glove box had come out, the plastic cover over the fuel lines under the belly had broken and a small chrome strip had fallen off. All these parts had no functional importance but i was fuming like a radiator, i could not comprehend how a luxury car could have parts falling off like this. On my return i gave Concorde and FIAT a piece of my mind both by email and over phone. They picked up the car the following week from my office at around 9 in the morning . Each and every issue was carefully and meticulously sorted out, most parts were replaced with brand new ones (not repaired) and the vehicle was returned to me in pristine condition by 6 PM the same evening. The Service manager was more than polite and forthcoming. I have owned almost half a dozen cars, some of them gave me a good sense of belonging and some had good customer service, but this time i have experienced 'Customer Delight'. At the end of the day if FIAT or Concorde are able to sort out their mess and give you your car and some confidence back intact, well that then is top notch customer service !
	() Thanks

15th May 2009, 18:43	#779
jessie007 BHPian Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: New Delhi Posts: 797 Thanked: 1,581 Times View My Garage	I feel, Fiat will definitely endow the GP with 1.3 VGT MJD, once they start local production of 1.6 MJD (output starting from 105 bhp) for the Linea. Already the Linea seems underpowered with the 1.3 VGT MJD (considering the P/W ratio) and Fiat would not want to alienate potential customers by offering the same engine in a hatch and a sedan with a considerable price difference. If Fiat were to launch GP VGT MJD starting at say 6 lakhs and the Linea VGT MJD which is priced starting 7 lakhs, there is a straightaway 1 lakh difference and the premium is just for the boot and some extra features.
	() Thanks