So finally after a wait of about 50 days, we got our third car!
First White, then Red and now a Blue… my family tends to stick with the primary colors only 🙂
Radha and Meera outside the house 🙂
Let’s talk about the good in this car as I observed in the first 5 kilometers of my drive
1. The front of the car is very bold, and aggressive. Makes it stand out well!
2. The lights are smartly designed, though I would have liked a different set of headlights. GM has toned down some styling to cater to the cost conscious Indian market.
3. The rear door handle is cleverly concealed next to the window, and does not show up on the door, giving it a two door feel in the first quick look. The original (which was first seen in Transformers 2 is a two door)
4. The interiors are futuristic… Brilliantly designed dashboard, gives it a sports car feel, and the matte chrome three spoke steering wheel is just adequately sized.
5. The rear lights are big and would be helpful in Delhi fog
6. The head room is great
7. 14″ wheels are standard and that gives the car a better fuller look, plus helps a bit of stability
8. The LT version that I got has an integrated music system which makes for a good looking interior and plays my iPOD
9. The seats hold the back very nicely and have a decent lumbar support too
10. The speaker system is decent if you do not want to spend more on thump and sound volumes
11. The paint job is nice and clean and the build quality of the vehicle is good. This is anyway expected from GM
12. The car is extremely silent
13. There are intelligent spaces in the car to keep things
A few things that are not so good about the car
1. The boot space is bad and so is the glove box. Its very small too.
2. The tires are thin… 155/70R4 is something screams for an upgrade to atleast 170/65R14… It would take away a few previous kilometers from the mileage though…
3. There is no left foot rest!!!! What was GM thinking? That will make long drives difficult!!!
And now because I have been driving a FIAT… let’s talk about how BEAT feels when compared to a PALIO
1. It feels light.. very light… has both advantages and disadvantages..
2. Palio feels very rich in terms of its interiors as compared to the Beat…
3. The tyre upgrade that I did for Palio makes it feel more stable… I am already waiting for my first tyre upgrade
4. The doors of a Palio close with a THUD… and the Beat closes with a slightly subtle thud… makes me feel strange!
5. Palio has door stoppers which stop the door from swinging open when you get out of it.. you always have to make an effort to open the door… That simple functionality has helped me a lot in the last 5 years of owning the car!
Its great to have two good cars now.. One which is very slick, modern and smart, and the other which feels safe, strong and is still going very strong after 5.5 years of a trouble free ownership. And both bold, aggressive, and very stylish in their own worlds!!!!
