Thread Starter
#1
Avventura is now 8k km run.
Flashback
Year 2001:
Our family's first car : Fiat Uno Trends diesel. I use to sit on the passenger seat as I didn't knew four wheeler driving.
Year 2003:
One day I got engaged with my then fiancee now better half. Next day, she called up me to see her as she wanted to talk.
By then, I had 2km experience of driving a four wheeler independently. I took out the car and drove down in the heart of Pune (a total of 30 km drive) with heart & everything in my mouth..
Then next month, I brought my wife to my home in the same car after the marriage.
My only grouse against UNO was low GC and poor and costly ASS. Once oil sump broke due to GC leading to expenses equal to my monthly salary.
So I decided to sell it with 1L km on odo, pathetic resale value. And I decided not to buy a fiat car unless they come up with improved GC.
Then we bought. WagonR BS 2 ,Indigo LS diesel, WagonR BS 3 with a difference of 2 years between them.
Then came the time to replace the Indigo LS . I liked Linea, as I got to see few plying on the road. On internet, I came to know that GC was still poor and underbody getting scraped on bumps. Hence settled down with Tata Manza on the pretext of the engine being same.
Nov 14 ;
Manza completed 85 kkm, And since 70kkm it started incurring additional ASS expenses @Rs 6 k /month on things such as timing chain, pretentioner, clutch, suspension over routine maintenance.
Also tyres and battery replacement was due.
So I thought, it is better to replace the car with new one, spending on EMI rather than the ASS of Manza. Also, it was not possible for me to spend time on comparatively more visits to ASS.
Requirements :
My father's WagonR is also due for replacement next year. So I had opportunity to try combinations and permutations of new duo of the cars(one 5+ seater and other one 4 seater) . So in other words I wanted to purchase one apple and one orange and only question remained to be answered was what first?
But, first car had to be diesel as my monthly running is 2k km.
Also, running involves all kind of roads especially those full of pot holes and speedbreakers and our farms . Hence tolerable GC was a requirement.
Budget :8.5L to 10 L max.
Cars TD :
FORD Ecosport : Liked everything except the butt jarring ride quality on bad roads. Also read a ownership review this forum where owner's mother was complaining that why the ride comfort seems to be of a used car!!
Oh! I forgot to mention the price hikes announced regularly by the fords when there was slack in Indian automobile bussines.
Skoda Rapid :
Liked everything except
1)Although on paper it is 250 Nm torque, didn't felt it practically.At the beginning of TD, the TD executive said that usually customers get a scary feel during TD due to more torque and BHP as compared to competition. But at the end of TD she said that she herself got scared, such was the energy and enthusiasm applied while testing her (Skoda rapid).
2)cost of spares (almost 1 and half times more than the competition) and horror stories of Skoda ASS. Don't know why only Skodas are refraining from localisation of spare part production when all other automakers are doing it on priority basis.?
Reynault Duster :
Looks never attracted me.
Ingress and egress was not as comfy as Terrano.
Also felt some headache during ride on the rear passenger seat (probably marginal body roll or marginally soft suspension)
Nissan Terrano
Felt in love with her. All the drawbacks of the Duster were conspicuous by their absence in the Terrano.
Only problem was Top end diesel was costing 2 L above my budget.
Reynault Scala :
Same SE who gave me Duster TD, told me that since it is a sedan, you need to be careful on the speed breakers.
Yes, it needed to be taken to a speed below 10 km with all downshift.
Gear box & shift of this 10 L car was equally notchy & rubbery as that of Rs 7 L Manza. Same was true about clutch. And pickup was also sluggish.
However, I liked the interiors.
Sunny : Punny rear seat nullifies all the advantages of knee room and legroom, rest same as Scala.
Hyundai Verna :Rear seat was not as comfy as Manza. Suspensions crashed on most of the big potholes. Also topend model was way costly.
Elite i 20
I was coming across a red RRE with its roof painted white for few days on my daily route during night time . I use to get her rear view from a distance. One day I happened to get close to her from rear and voila!, it turned out to be Elite i20.
It was fulfilling all my requirements but on rear seat I felt some headache, soft though tweaked up suspension played a spoilsport here. Also interiors were not of my liking.
Waiting period of 3 to 4 months was a no, no for me.
Both these cars have addictive low end torque in first gear, better than Avventura
Chevrolet Sail Sedan : Again low end torque was superb, also built quality was better than Verna, Also body roll and suspension setup were better than verna.
Added rear underseat storage space is boon for long journey.
I wondered, why the heck this fiat powered car is lagging behind the Verna on sales chart?
I did some research, and found that the MJD provided by the fiat was modified by chevy to call it a smart tech engine only to screw up the FE.
Honda city Idtec :
I could get only 3 km TD. Noisy engine from a brand known for refinement was a let down.
I also learnt that the air intake inlet of the engine is placed low, it was so low that during rains it sucked water from roads screwing up the engine leading to expenses and headache worth 2 to 3 Lakh rupees for the owners. SE in Pune showroom confirmed the same and said dealer is now providing some extention for the inlet of the air intake so as to raise it up. Similar problem was reported by Amaze owners. Also one of my friend who owns Amaze said that once the airbag didn't deployed, also one sided brake was not working despite they were replaced three times. Now the car is taken back by Hondas.
Ford Fiesta 2014 :
It was real pain for me to reject this car. Great seating position, superb low end torque. World class interiors.
Reason to reject was that the underbody scrapped on a speed breaker on my usual route. My mother helped me by saying that space is little lesser than Linea.
2014 Fiat Linea : SE told me that Linea has best in class GC. Although you can get better GC in Sumo, Bolero and likes, best part of Linea is that despite high GC the suspension is tuned in such a way that you get a feel of sedan and not truck.
During TD, I practically confirmed his statement umpteen times. With five people on board, I took it on a off road track where only Ecosport, Duster, Terrano were allowed by respective SEs. And car didn't disappointed me at a speed of 30 to 40 kmph where other sedans and hatches were moving at snail's pace or were taking optional routes.
I passed it over all the big speed breakers (meant for prevention of chain snatching crimes committed using bikes), Linea was passing over them @40kmph without hassles most importantly without giving a scary feel to the passengers. On the same speed breakers, it was not possible for other sedans TD so far unless speed was reduced bellow 10 kmph!
So almost finalised it, also there was whopping 1.5 L discount on the top end model. But then I TD Avventura.
Fiat Avventura (1248 cc 93hp , torque 209 nm @2000 RPM DIESEL car) sub 4 meter SUV. Fiat also calls it CUV (Contemporary Urban Vehicle)
Following are my observations :
The SA greeted me & was courteous. Overall ambience & internal mileu of the showroom was way ahead of erstwhile TATA - fiat joint showrooms.
Coming back to Avventura,
Exteriors:
It was orange colour beauty standing along with EVO punto & Linea. but it was definitely catching the attention though I had seen it in the past.
Front looks are similar to EVO with black colour goblet design grills though personally I like first generation punto 's checkered grills. The fog lamp case is devoid of chrome garnish but looks decent as compared to EVO' s.
Striking differences between EVO & Avventura was the colour of the head lights, it has dark grey tint on it, fog lamp and the sporty bottom plate bellow the front bumper.
I loved the almond shaped ORVM s with turn indicators on it standard across all the variants.
There are reviews on Internet which criticise this car for not providing the grab handle type door handles, I liked the black coloured concealed type handles.
Doors open and remain open in 3 stages, Rear doors also open wide enough to make it comfortable for a overweight person.
Being a high slung car, getting out of the car is not tedious for elderly occupant as experienced in sedans.
Ingress & egress is lovely & easy experience.You need not climb in or climb down from the it was thought & expected in a high GC car.
Comparatively, in case of Ford Ecosport, I felt one needs to take little more effort & feel climbing up inside the car.
Rear or back is all together different thing. Tail gate opens upwards similar to Punto, However there is a on more gate (two horizontal bars) mounted on the right rear most pillar the on which spare wheel is mounted along with a good looking cover. If you want to open or close the tail gate you need open the spare wheel mount sideways towards right. There is a grab handle with a lock within it provided on the spare wheel so as to unlock it & open.
I have read some internet reports cribbing about probable inconvenience for the mall security men while opening it. But could not find it that difficult. Also some people were saying that spare wheel gate when opened sideways requires additional space on right side over the width of the car making it difficult in tight parking spots . But IMHO, driver usually keeps almost 12 inches space so as to come out from the car so accommodating the 10 inch odd wide spare wheel should not cause any problem.
As found in Punto EVO, the tail lamp cluster is placed on the upper part of the rear pillar making it immune from scratches from auto rickshaw & bikers.
Boot :
What I had anticipated that the boot space must be really mediocre as they haven't used the spare wheel space of the Punto for increasing the boot space, rather they have used it to store the Jack & spanners etc.
In the end the boot space is not as humongous as Linea or Manza, But it is not as small as punto because of raised height of the cabin at the rear. It is adequate for long drive trip for four. Rear seat can be split fold 40:60 and boot space increases a lot both front & upwards.Also it possible to double fold the rear seat close to the front seat.
but then this car gets converted into a two seater.
Mention must be mentioned about the functional roof rails, (capable of carrying, 75 kg. ) (grey +silver combo) as shown in advt of Avventura, you can carry extra luggage & even bicycles on it
There are good looking alloys I must say. Tire size is 205/55 R 16 and look good and befitting.
Front half of the cabin :
Interior look is definitely awesome, the black + soft touch faint grey dashboard
I took one more TD, at night time.
Overtaking experience :
You need to have correct selection of gears & RPM above or @2000 to swifly overtake long vehicles like buses & lorries if they are running at normally found speeds.
Overtaking short vehicles like cars is not a problem at all.
Overtaking experience was little bit more confidence inspiring than the Linea, probably due to the lesser length of the side profile of the Avventura than Linea.
ORVM : The view is adequately inclusive for changing lanes and taking quick U turns. . The movements of mirror generated through the electric adjustment buttons are fantastically adequate for tight parking maneuvers.
Body roll :
I found a open strech and drove the car in zig zag fashion at good speeds just like African Mamba. And there wasn't much body roll.
Speed breakers & pot holes :
Occupants don't come to know about them. Yes, the driver come to know about them just because his eyes or on the road.
I purposely passed the tires over some big stones lying on the side of the roads but they failed to destabilise the car.
As we were not able to take the car to really bad stretches due to bumper to bumper traffic on our way, I purposely took the car over a broken road divider for a distance of 100 meter approx. The divider was 6 to 9 inch tall and was broken by default at every foot interval. Right sided tyres were passing over the divider and left side tyres were on the regular road surface, believe me, not even the SE could make out that car tires are running on the dividers, however upcoming drivers were giving some expressions. I must say that I have not come across such a butt friendly thing in this budget .
Lights :
Head lights and front fogs :Adequate for city & highway driving if upcoming vehicles are following light manners.
No blind spots at night time also.
Rear fog lamp: Yes, only one located on right side rear bumper, brightness is adequate to grab attention.
Reverse light :I forgot to test during TD, however now I feel they are satisfactory.
Cabin lights : It is available only at front. It illuminates front half of cabin nicely but fails to reach on rear part of the cabin, had to purchase a portable, solar chargeable LED torch.
Orange scheme of lights for dash, DIS & power window buttons looks awesome and give elegant look to the interior.
ORVM :
The horizontal row of the LED bulbs for turn indication (I am not sure if they are LED) on the almond shaped ORVM looks lovely and adequately grabs attention of upcoming drivers.
Few criticising points :
If the front seats are fully pulled back (In my case (180 cm) they didn't required to be) there is mediocre knee room left just enough for kids. So I feel it would be difficult scene for adult rear passengers if front passenger is more than 6 ¼feet tall.
The rear glasses roll down only up to 60 %approx.
Some times on sharp undulations I heard some short rattle (as if a spoon is falling in to the aluminium vessel) probably from the cover of the spare wheel.
Flashback
Year 2001:
Our family's first car : Fiat Uno Trends diesel. I use to sit on the passenger seat as I didn't knew four wheeler driving.
Year 2003:
One day I got engaged with my then fiancee now better half. Next day, she called up me to see her as she wanted to talk.
By then, I had 2km experience of driving a four wheeler independently. I took out the car and drove down in the heart of Pune (a total of 30 km drive) with heart & everything in my mouth..
Then next month, I brought my wife to my home in the same car after the marriage.
My only grouse against UNO was low GC and poor and costly ASS. Once oil sump broke due to GC leading to expenses equal to my monthly salary.
So I decided to sell it with 1L km on odo, pathetic resale value. And I decided not to buy a fiat car unless they come up with improved GC.
Then we bought. WagonR BS 2 ,Indigo LS diesel, WagonR BS 3 with a difference of 2 years between them.
Then came the time to replace the Indigo LS . I liked Linea, as I got to see few plying on the road. On internet, I came to know that GC was still poor and underbody getting scraped on bumps. Hence settled down with Tata Manza on the pretext of the engine being same.
Nov 14 ;
Manza completed 85 kkm, And since 70kkm it started incurring additional ASS expenses @Rs 6 k /month on things such as timing chain, pretentioner, clutch, suspension over routine maintenance.
Also tyres and battery replacement was due.
So I thought, it is better to replace the car with new one, spending on EMI rather than the ASS of Manza. Also, it was not possible for me to spend time on comparatively more visits to ASS.
Requirements :
My father's WagonR is also due for replacement next year. So I had opportunity to try combinations and permutations of new duo of the cars(one 5+ seater and other one 4 seater) . So in other words I wanted to purchase one apple and one orange and only question remained to be answered was what first?
But, first car had to be diesel as my monthly running is 2k km.
Also, running involves all kind of roads especially those full of pot holes and speedbreakers and our farms . Hence tolerable GC was a requirement.
Budget :8.5L to 10 L max.
Cars TD :
FORD Ecosport : Liked everything except the butt jarring ride quality on bad roads. Also read a ownership review this forum where owner's mother was complaining that why the ride comfort seems to be of a used car!!
Oh! I forgot to mention the price hikes announced regularly by the fords when there was slack in Indian automobile bussines.
Skoda Rapid :
Liked everything except
1)Although on paper it is 250 Nm torque, didn't felt it practically.At the beginning of TD, the TD executive said that usually customers get a scary feel during TD due to more torque and BHP as compared to competition. But at the end of TD she said that she herself got scared, such was the energy and enthusiasm applied while testing her (Skoda rapid).
2)cost of spares (almost 1 and half times more than the competition) and horror stories of Skoda ASS. Don't know why only Skodas are refraining from localisation of spare part production when all other automakers are doing it on priority basis.?
Reynault Duster :
Looks never attracted me.
Ingress and egress was not as comfy as Terrano.
Also felt some headache during ride on the rear passenger seat (probably marginal body roll or marginally soft suspension)
Nissan Terrano
Felt in love with her. All the drawbacks of the Duster were conspicuous by their absence in the Terrano.
Only problem was Top end diesel was costing 2 L above my budget.
Reynault Scala :
Same SE who gave me Duster TD, told me that since it is a sedan, you need to be careful on the speed breakers.
Yes, it needed to be taken to a speed below 10 km with all downshift.
Gear box & shift of this 10 L car was equally notchy & rubbery as that of Rs 7 L Manza. Same was true about clutch. And pickup was also sluggish.
However, I liked the interiors.
Sunny : Punny rear seat nullifies all the advantages of knee room and legroom, rest same as Scala.
Hyundai Verna :Rear seat was not as comfy as Manza. Suspensions crashed on most of the big potholes. Also topend model was way costly.
Elite i 20
I was coming across a red RRE with its roof painted white for few days on my daily route during night time . I use to get her rear view from a distance. One day I happened to get close to her from rear and voila!, it turned out to be Elite i20.
It was fulfilling all my requirements but on rear seat I felt some headache, soft though tweaked up suspension played a spoilsport here. Also interiors were not of my liking.
Waiting period of 3 to 4 months was a no, no for me.
Both these cars have addictive low end torque in first gear, better than Avventura
Chevrolet Sail Sedan : Again low end torque was superb, also built quality was better than Verna, Also body roll and suspension setup were better than verna.
Added rear underseat storage space is boon for long journey.
I wondered, why the heck this fiat powered car is lagging behind the Verna on sales chart?
I did some research, and found that the MJD provided by the fiat was modified by chevy to call it a smart tech engine only to screw up the FE.
Honda city Idtec :
I could get only 3 km TD. Noisy engine from a brand known for refinement was a let down.
I also learnt that the air intake inlet of the engine is placed low, it was so low that during rains it sucked water from roads screwing up the engine leading to expenses and headache worth 2 to 3 Lakh rupees for the owners. SE in Pune showroom confirmed the same and said dealer is now providing some extention for the inlet of the air intake so as to raise it up. Similar problem was reported by Amaze owners. Also one of my friend who owns Amaze said that once the airbag didn't deployed, also one sided brake was not working despite they were replaced three times. Now the car is taken back by Hondas.
Ford Fiesta 2014 :
It was real pain for me to reject this car. Great seating position, superb low end torque. World class interiors.
Reason to reject was that the underbody scrapped on a speed breaker on my usual route. My mother helped me by saying that space is little lesser than Linea.
2014 Fiat Linea : SE told me that Linea has best in class GC. Although you can get better GC in Sumo, Bolero and likes, best part of Linea is that despite high GC the suspension is tuned in such a way that you get a feel of sedan and not truck.
During TD, I practically confirmed his statement umpteen times. With five people on board, I took it on a off road track where only Ecosport, Duster, Terrano were allowed by respective SEs. And car didn't disappointed me at a speed of 30 to 40 kmph where other sedans and hatches were moving at snail's pace or were taking optional routes.
I passed it over all the big speed breakers (meant for prevention of chain snatching crimes committed using bikes), Linea was passing over them @40kmph without hassles most importantly without giving a scary feel to the passengers. On the same speed breakers, it was not possible for other sedans TD so far unless speed was reduced bellow 10 kmph!
So almost finalised it, also there was whopping 1.5 L discount on the top end model. But then I TD Avventura.
Fiat Avventura (1248 cc 93hp , torque 209 nm @2000 RPM DIESEL car) sub 4 meter SUV. Fiat also calls it CUV (Contemporary Urban Vehicle)
Following are my observations :
The SA greeted me & was courteous. Overall ambience & internal mileu of the showroom was way ahead of erstwhile TATA - fiat joint showrooms.
Coming back to Avventura,
Exteriors:
It was orange colour beauty standing along with EVO punto & Linea. but it was definitely catching the attention though I had seen it in the past.
Front looks are similar to EVO with black colour goblet design grills though personally I like first generation punto 's checkered grills. The fog lamp case is devoid of chrome garnish but looks decent as compared to EVO' s.
Striking differences between EVO & Avventura was the colour of the head lights, it has dark grey tint on it, fog lamp and the sporty bottom plate bellow the front bumper.
I loved the almond shaped ORVM s with turn indicators on it standard across all the variants.
There are reviews on Internet which criticise this car for not providing the grab handle type door handles, I liked the black coloured concealed type handles.
Doors open and remain open in 3 stages, Rear doors also open wide enough to make it comfortable for a overweight person.
Being a high slung car, getting out of the car is not tedious for elderly occupant as experienced in sedans.
Ingress & egress is lovely & easy experience.You need not climb in or climb down from the it was thought & expected in a high GC car.
Comparatively, in case of Ford Ecosport, I felt one needs to take little more effort & feel climbing up inside the car.
Rear or back is all together different thing. Tail gate opens upwards similar to Punto, However there is a on more gate (two horizontal bars) mounted on the right rear most pillar the on which spare wheel is mounted along with a good looking cover. If you want to open or close the tail gate you need open the spare wheel mount sideways towards right. There is a grab handle with a lock within it provided on the spare wheel so as to unlock it & open.
I have read some internet reports cribbing about probable inconvenience for the mall security men while opening it. But could not find it that difficult. Also some people were saying that spare wheel gate when opened sideways requires additional space on right side over the width of the car making it difficult in tight parking spots . But IMHO, driver usually keeps almost 12 inches space so as to come out from the car so accommodating the 10 inch odd wide spare wheel should not cause any problem.
As found in Punto EVO, the tail lamp cluster is placed on the upper part of the rear pillar making it immune from scratches from auto rickshaw & bikers.
Boot :
What I had anticipated that the boot space must be really mediocre as they haven't used the spare wheel space of the Punto for increasing the boot space, rather they have used it to store the Jack & spanners etc.
In the end the boot space is not as humongous as Linea or Manza, But it is not as small as punto because of raised height of the cabin at the rear. It is adequate for long drive trip for four. Rear seat can be split fold 40:60 and boot space increases a lot both front & upwards.Also it possible to double fold the rear seat close to the front seat.
but then this car gets converted into a two seater.
Mention must be mentioned about the functional roof rails, (capable of carrying, 75 kg. ) (grey +silver combo) as shown in advt of Avventura, you can carry extra luggage & even bicycles on it
There are good looking alloys I must say. Tire size is 205/55 R 16 and look good and befitting.
Front half of the cabin :
Interior look is definitely awesome, the black + soft touch faint grey dashboard
I took one more TD, at night time.
Overtaking experience :
You need to have correct selection of gears & RPM above or @2000 to swifly overtake long vehicles like buses & lorries if they are running at normally found speeds.
Overtaking short vehicles like cars is not a problem at all.
Overtaking experience was little bit more confidence inspiring than the Linea, probably due to the lesser length of the side profile of the Avventura than Linea.
ORVM : The view is adequately inclusive for changing lanes and taking quick U turns. . The movements of mirror generated through the electric adjustment buttons are fantastically adequate for tight parking maneuvers.
Body roll :
I found a open strech and drove the car in zig zag fashion at good speeds just like African Mamba. And there wasn't much body roll.
Speed breakers & pot holes :
Occupants don't come to know about them. Yes, the driver come to know about them just because his eyes or on the road.
I purposely passed the tires over some big stones lying on the side of the roads but they failed to destabilise the car.
As we were not able to take the car to really bad stretches due to bumper to bumper traffic on our way, I purposely took the car over a broken road divider for a distance of 100 meter approx. The divider was 6 to 9 inch tall and was broken by default at every foot interval. Right sided tyres were passing over the divider and left side tyres were on the regular road surface, believe me, not even the SE could make out that car tires are running on the dividers, however upcoming drivers were giving some expressions. I must say that I have not come across such a butt friendly thing in this budget .
Lights :
Head lights and front fogs :Adequate for city & highway driving if upcoming vehicles are following light manners.
No blind spots at night time also.
Rear fog lamp: Yes, only one located on right side rear bumper, brightness is adequate to grab attention.
Reverse light :I forgot to test during TD, however now I feel they are satisfactory.
Cabin lights : It is available only at front. It illuminates front half of cabin nicely but fails to reach on rear part of the cabin, had to purchase a portable, solar chargeable LED torch.
Orange scheme of lights for dash, DIS & power window buttons looks awesome and give elegant look to the interior.
ORVM :
The horizontal row of the LED bulbs for turn indication (I am not sure if they are LED) on the almond shaped ORVM looks lovely and adequately grabs attention of upcoming drivers.
Few criticising points :
If the front seats are fully pulled back (In my case (180 cm) they didn't required to be) there is mediocre knee room left just enough for kids. So I feel it would be difficult scene for adult rear passengers if front passenger is more than 6 ¼feet tall.
The rear glasses roll down only up to 60 %approx.
Some times on sharp undulations I heard some short rattle (as if a spoon is falling in to the aluminium vessel) probably from the cover of the spare wheel.
