Fiat Palio or Maruti Swift which one to buy.

I drove the new Palio SDX and I was very happy with the complete experience I liked the fact the car is not very boring to drive and is responsive for a diesel car. Two things I did not like about the car are

1. If you start to rip the car the engine makes a lot of noise but less than the TATA cars but I expected more refinement from an award winning engine or may be Fiat has not done a good job to restrict the noise entering the cabin any ways there is more noise in the cabin as compared to Maruti Swift..

2. I was expecting to see new interiors in the Palio from Fiat. I knew that Fiat was going to launch the car with the same interiors, but if Fiat is making a fresh start with a new logo, new engine and have also tied up with TATA for sale & service I guess they could have given new interiors to the Palio.

All said and done at the end of everything you ask your self do you want to buy a car which looks good and is spacious for a hatchback on the other hand you have Maruti Swift which is 25K more than the Palio but in India Maruti rules and it would be difficult for Fiat to make a dent. I feel Palio is no threat for the Swift but Fiats next car the Grand Punto will help Fiat to grab the market.

After driving the Swift I feel Fiat Palio is one level below the Swift in terms of handling, response from the diesel engine, pick up, cabin sound (less in the Swift) and not to mention the mileage. Swift and Palio use the same diesel engine manufactured by Fiat and Palio being lighter that the Swift should return good mileage as compared to the Swift but it I is the other way around Swift beats the Palio in the Mileage department as it returns better figures than the Palio. As the Palio has been in the market for a number of years I feel the chassis is out dated and should be redesigned so that the Palio can have similar handling characteristics if it has to be compared to the Maruti Swift.   

Everyone tells me that Palio is value for money but I do not support this let me give you a simple example: Let’s say I buy a Maruti Swift (Diesel) and a Fiat Palio (Diesel) I have spent 30K to 40K more for the Swift. I use the car for a period of 4 to 5 years and make the most of both the cars now there is something new in the market and I have to sell both my cars as per the Indian market I will get somewhere between 2 to 3 Lakhs for the Swift and something in the range of 1 to 2 Lakhs for the Palio and on top of that I will have more buyers for the Swift as compared to the Palio this will make my life easy as I can sell the Swift easily and for the Palio there will be few takers so I might have to bend down to sell the car even at a lower rate think about it, as it is important to see where you stand at the end of everything and not what you are paying now.    

Now everything comes to a personal choice. Do you buy the Palio coz according to you it looks good is Spacious and costs less than the Swift or you go ahead with the Swift. My heart loves the Fiat Palio but my mind and the fact sheet is always pointing towards the Maruti Swift. The choice is yours to make coz you are the one who has to buy, maintain and drive the car everyday. If I am given this choice I will buy the Maruti Swift 10/10 time’s because for me Fiat Palio is an out dated car (except for the engine) and I will not ignore the facts and buy an outdated Product from any car company.