The Hindu Business Line : Fiat Palio Stile: Stylish looks, sluggish drive

Fiat has attempted to make the Palio Stile more acceptable as a small car, one that is affordable and fuel-efficient. But it seems to have lost its way a bit in this pursuit.

Just as there is no person who is perfect in every respect, there is really no perfect car either. What we could call a perfect car is one that offers features that exceed the buyer's expectations, in a mix that also includes ones that are just plain acceptable and those that may even be minor negatives.

Customer expectations in each car segment differ and unfortunately in the small cars it is so skewed in favour of fuel-efficiency that they are willing to compromise on many other parameters. So cars that are designed and engineered better, have more modern features or offer a better ride quality find fewer takers than ones that are more fuel-efficient.

Of course, the situation is now fast changing. When Fiat launched the Palio in India, the excessive focus on fuel efficiency was one of the factors that worked against it. Fiat India also had to tackle issues relating to its marketing and servicing network at the time when the Palio was coming around to facing up to the competition.

But unfortunately the good start for the Palio could not be sustained and sales started to nosedive just months after the car was launched. Clearly, its relatively poor fuel-efficiency vis-à-vis its peers in the small-car segment was a big reason for its lacklustre performance.

Fiat attempted to redeem the situation by reworking the engine management system of its 1.2-litre FIRE engine. Fiat fine-tuned the mapping of the engine to ensure more optimised fuel injection and also reworked the air-conditioner to reduce the load on the engine.

The Palio, after these changes were made, was christened Palio NV (short for New Version). Of course, we all know the rest of the story — the Palio NV and the new marketing tie-up with Tata Motors have still not been enough to make customers throng the showrooms.

For small-car manufacturers, the pursuit of perfection basically involves improving fuel efficiency. The Government's special lower excise duty benefit for small cars lead manufacturers to look at ways to meet the norms for small cars, as defined in last year's Budget.

The Fiat Palio satisfied the overall length norm for a small car, but its 1,242cc engine was just outside the 1,200cc limit for petrol-driven small cars. Fiat, along with Hyundai and Tata Motors, were among the first to try and rework their products to meet the small-car norms so as to gain a price advantage through lower excise duty.

Fiat had been talking about the new Palio (introduced in other markets almost four years ago) making it to India. The promise of better fuel-efficiency from a smaller, 1.1-litre engine only made it twice as convincing for Fiat to consider.

And so, finally, the new Palio Stile has made it to the showrooms, with redesigned exteriors and a whole new engine buzzing inside its bonnet. We had presented the photos and provided a sneak preview months before the car made it here.

A face-lift

On the outside, the car still retains the smart, well-proportioned familiar looks of the original Palio, and is still clearly the best looking in the segment. The headlamps have been replaced with new dual-barrelled, clear lens headlamps that house halogen bulbs. The headlamp unit now cuts deeper into the front bumper. Honeycomb bonnet grille with the blue Fiat logo in between lends more character to the Palio Stile. The front bumper has been restyled with larger airdam and fog lamps. Minor modifications to the bonnet panel and side turn indicators have been made. The previous model's outside rear-view mirrors have been replaced with a bigger unit that improves visibility. The door handles are now grab-type.

There are quite a few changes in the rear too, with the most important being the new trapezoid tail-lamps that closely resemble the earlier version's tear-drop-shaped cluster. The arrangement of the tail-lamp combination has also been changed to better suit the vertical orientation of the new shape. Minor modifications have also been incorporated to the rear bumper and the hatch door.

The new Palio, which is by now not so new in markets such as Brazil, also comes with a new interior package. But, here, Fiat has chosen to carry forward the overall design and layout of the older model, except for some changes to the colour theme. Obviously, the one factor that must have worked against a complete overhaul of the interior would have been the cost.

The Palio's interior was never gloomy, claustrophobic, or uncomfortable. Except for the relatively poor quality of the plastic on the dashboard, Palio owners liked the layout and feel of the features. Added to this was the superb ride quality, ample shoulder and leg room, and excellent steering feel making it the best passenger cabin among all the small cars currently in the market. Thankfully, all of these positive attributes of the earlier Palio have been carried forward to the new Stile.

The new colour theme, with beige and brown combination, and the brushed aluminium dashboard inserts (in the top-end model) make the Stile's interiors look a bit out of sorts. Other interior features have all been carried forward from the original. Cabin lamp now gets courtesy time delay.

Fiat has lost an opportunity to spruce up the interiors a bit more to try and offer Palio buyers that bit extra compared to the competition that has left this very capable car way behind in the premium hatch segment. Nonetheless, the new exterior features do give it a freshened, unique look.

New engine

Fiat has fallen for the mass-market trap in its choice of the engine for the new Stile. The absolutely lovable, but unaffordable, 1.6-litre engine with a delectable 100PS of peak power, that was offered in the original Palio was an aspirational hatch for small-car buyers. This engine has been now carried forward and continues to be offered in the Stile.

However, the 1.2-litre FIRE engine that was the more affordable option and the one whose performance was more suited to fit a premium small car has been yanked out of the Palio and, instead, a new 1.1-litre engine has been shoehorned into the Stile's bonnet. The earlier 1.2-litre engine, that put out a peak power of 72bhp felt barely right for the Palio's build and weight. With no serious attempt having been made to lighten the Palio's solid build, the new 1,108cc engine's 57bhp of peak power is decidedly underpowered to handle the load.

The new engine's low performance parameters show easily on the road and the Stile's power delivery and on-road acceleration are nothing to write home about. The engine's maximum torque of 92 Nm is also generated only at a high 2,750rpm. This means that the amount of low-end torque available is pretty poor.

Floor the accelerator and you could have heard the engine first before being able to discern any decent level of acceleration even in the earlier 1.2-litre engine. The new 1.1-litre is even worse. Spacing between gears and a bit of a confused attempt at optimising engine mapping for achieving better fuel efficiency has meant that the performance of the new Palio is heavily compromised.

Fiat has attempted to make the Palio more acceptable as a small car, one that is affordable and fuel-efficient. But somewhere in its pursuit to rework the magic of the Palio, Fiat seems to have lost the way and has come up with what looks like a half-hearted attempt.

However, the Palio Stile still offers a decent package for customers who are less concerned about engine refinement and performance. But to be able to confidently take on the existing pack of small cars, Fiat has to do better than this.

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