CAR India experiences the cross country FIAT Diesel Drives India with the firm’s four Multijet offerings – Linea, Grand Punto, Palio and 500
Story Sarmad Kadiri Photography Sanjay Raikar
FIAT organized a 10,000km drive around India to further prove the capabilities of its renowned 1.3 Multijet diesel engines. Some of the most reputed carmakers in India and abroad use this oil burning motor. Of course, they are tuned differently depending on the car model. The popular Maruti Swift and Dzire run on this award winning engine and so do the TATA Indica Vista as well as the all-new Manza among others and not to forget FIAT’s own offerings. I and my colleagues Bunny, Adhish along with CI lens man Sanjay took charge of the second leg which was en route Bangalore-Coimbatore-Cochin-Coimbatore -Chennai covering around 1500km. The caravan of cars powered by the much talked about Multijet engines included the cute Cinquecento a.k.a. the 500, the Linea, the Punto and the Palio.
The Twilight Zone
We reached the high tech Bangalore airport, all geared up to drive across the beautiful southern states. At the FIAT dealership, we were introduced as gladiators who dared to face the gruesome Indian roads. Ravi Bhatia, VP Commercial, FIAT India flagged-off the event. I got to drive the Punto while Adhish picked the 500, Bunny the Linea and Rachit (a fellow journalist from an online portal) chose the Palio as we headed towards Coimbatore. We exited this vibrant city through Hosur. Driving on the NH7, we stopped for a quick lunch and then took the narrower NH47. The Punto’s road grip was inspiring. I just wished it was a bit lighter and peppier. It doesn’t have a supercar’s engine, but it does have a design inspired by one. The gleaming red Punto looked ravishing on the move.
As the city landscape vanished behind, the horizon swallowed the sun making the sky bloom with unimaginable colours. Blast! My Punto’s wheel hit a small boulder resulting in a flat tyre. In the middle of nowhere, we quickly replaced it with the spare and stepped on the gas. Just five minutes later, Bunny’s Linea followed suit. We fixed the puncture in a jiffy but had to drive in the dark henceforth. The Tamil Nadu roads weren’t getting any better and to top it, sadist truck drivers with their high beam on whizzed past, blinding us on the single lane highway. Definitely the worst stretch of our trip.
We finally got rid of the ‘Twilight Zone’ and reached a busy market area. Refreshed and reenergized after innumerable cups of coffee, we started to drive towards Coimbatore. Since none of us knew the city well, we kept driving in circles making some cops on vigil suspicious. They cornered us and started interrogating rather aggressively. After flashing our press cards and cameras we managed to slip out of the situation. We reached the CAG Pride hotel intact and the Punto’s trip meter showed 350.8km. Not bad for day one.
Oh Kerela!
I was excited when we left the next morning for Cochin as I would finally get to see Kerela. Our fellow driver Rachit had to leave the next day so we offered him the Cinquecento. Bunny had the Punto, Adhish the Linea and I got behind the wheel of the Palio now. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much out of the Palio especially because of its advancing age, but it took me by surprise. Although its interiors are dated, it has the same 1.3-litre Multijet engine. The car is light and so it was surprisingly fast. How I wish it had a better music system instead of the obsolete cassette player that our car came with. We drove past scenic hills towards Munnar with lush tea plantations. It was way past lunch time when we stopped at the Misty Mountain resort at Pallivasal but wiped off whatever food was left at the restaurant. My Palio didn’t have ABS or any other new age equipment, however, it did what I wanted and when I wanted thus making the drive on the curvy roads the most fun part of the journey. Our halt at Cochin was at the Taj Malabar and we slept in a state of bliss overlooking the enchanting backwaters from our room window.
The Magnetic 500
After taking pictures for our respective Facebook albums, we stopped at the FIAT dealership in Cochin where we were greeted by the media who threw some clichéd questions while we tried hard to look attentive. I was driving the ‘magnetic’ Fiat 500, Bunny settled for the Palio, Adhish got into the Punto and Vivek (a local journalist from an English daily who replaced Rachit) took over the Linea. Rajeev Kapoor, CEO FIAT waved the flag as we sped towards Coimbatore. The reason I used the word ‘magnetic’ for the 500 was because it managed to attract a crowd wherever it went. With a price tag of over Rs 16 lakh, it definitely deserves all the attention. Unfortunately, this particular FIAT 500 had been brutally driven over unforgiving Indian roads for 42,000km… tch tch. I pitied its state and wished it would soon get some pampering at a service station. Driving in Kerela was superb as the traffic was more or less disciplined. Taking a diversion, we entered the busy lanes of Jew Market that had shops filled with brilliant Indian handicrafts. Thanks to the decent roads, we reached Coimbatore by nightfall and this time Bunny used his phone’s GPS and led us to the CAG Pride hotel.
At 160km/h!
This was a big day as we had to cover over 500km to reach our final destination, Chennai. I got the Linea which had a good music system and the Blue&Me technology. Bunny had the 500 which he kept swapping with the Punto in order to give Vivek a taste of the ‘magnetic’ car and Adhish settled for the Palio. After driving over smooth roads for a while, we stopped at a tiny restaurant and enjoyed a lip-smacking lunch served on fresh banana leaves. Once back on tarmac, we were thrilled to hit the amazing six lane highway where we pushed the cars to the limit. The Linea’s 90.5PS of power helped in clocking 160km/h quite easily! The car is powerful, stable and feels better than the Punto. However, if it had a more responsive steering, it would be a lot more fun to drive. We stopped for a while at the Rajiv Gandhi Memorial just before sunset and touched Chennai at 7 pm but got stuck in the worst possible traffic congestion of our lives. We managed to reach the Taj Connemara after two hours of some serious arm wrestling and rejoiced as we had completed the second leg of the drive without any misadventure.
