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S. Muralidhar

I am planning to buy a B segment car. On average, I drive 10 km daily. My choices are the new Palio NV, the Santro Xing and the Wagon R.

I am for the Palio, but for the mileage part of it. Please explain the technical changes that have been done on the NV series of the Palio and the mileage in city riding conditions and the highways.

-- Mahesh

On an apple-to-apple comparison (trim-level wise), the three cars of your choice are all nearly within the same price range. The accompanying article about the Palio NV should clarify quite a few of your questions.

From your tendency to lean towards the Palio NV as the preferred choice, I am inclined to think that it has got to do with its design and refinement. The Santro Xing with its new, more "boxy" design has inched closer to the Maruti Wagon R's van-like appearance. However, in terms of finish quality and refinement of design, it is closer to the Fiat Palio.

Yet, despite the large, clear glass headlamp and tail-lamp clusters and the smashing new colours, the Santro's design is still offbeat (to put it mildly) and will take a bit of getting used to.

The Palio, on the other hand, is a classily designed car with simple straight lines and oozes European refinement.

The Fiat Palio is also the more powerful among the three cars on your list. The maximum power of the 1,252 cc petrol engine in the Palio is an impressive 72PS at 6,000 rpm.

That is clearly higher than the 63PS power output of the Hyundai Epsilon engine, and the 64bhp of the 1,061cc Maruti Wagon R engine. However, since the Santro and the Wagon R are much lighter cars, eventually the power-to-weight ratio for all three is neck-to-neck.

Fiat's obsession with safety also means that the Palio's weight is much more than the Wagon R's and the Santro's. The larger engine and the higher kerb weight of the Palio had pulled down the car in the pecking order of the most fuel-efficient cars.

With the changes that have been incorporated into the engine management systems in the Palio NV, the car's fuel-efficiency has, according to the company, improved by 10 per cent.

However, the results will vary from driver to driver and city to city. Expect mileage in the range of 11-14 km per litre in city and 15-17 km per litre on highways.

Unfortunately, Fiat India's operations have been under the looming shadow of the financial problems that are dogging its Italian parent. This has affected sales of the Palio.

But, despite its problems, the risk of Fiat closing shop in India is not even a distant possibility.

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