 The
Palio has constantly been used to ferry staffers from the Pune office to
Mumbai and back. Given the frugality the Palio’s diesel engine offers
I know at least the number crunchers in the finance department will have
been happy. Nevertheless the trips we made back and forth have not been
entirely pleasant. Not that the car has presented any worries, rather it
has been a very bad case of the tyres getting punctured time and again.
In the last five/six round trips the Palio has suffered almost four punctures.
The first of these was when I was returning from a formal function and there
I find the front left wheel sagging and me decked in regal finery pumping
the jack to hoist the wheel to replace it. The next eventful time was when
Aspi returned from his trip to Germany and we were returning to Pune in
the wee hours of the morning. And guess what, right on. Yet another puncture,
this one too on the front left tyre. We were caught unawares on the expressway,
thankfully it was a slow puncture and not a blowout or else driving on the
expressway the repercussions could have been disastrous. A few days back
the rear right went flat. And just a couple of days ago speaking to Sirish
who had driven off to Goa with the Palio, he informed me quite frustratingly
that the front left tyre had caught yet another puncture. Anybody see any
mirchi limbu around? This was essentially a case of bad quality tubes being
used which became very susceptible to leakages especially round the valves
and joints.
Bertrand D’souza |
November 2004
