Fiat Linea is the “AUTOBEST 2008”

[breezydrive]

Just saw this on a website.
Fiat Linea is the “AUTOBEST 2008”
Dec 07, 2007
SKODA Auto elected “COMPANYBEST 2007”

Fiat Linea was voted “AUTOBEST 2008”. With a total of 850 points, the winner overtook Kia cee’d with 66 points, and Mazda 2, came third with a total of 704 points. 8 members of the Jury selected Linea as the winner, and other 4 gave the first place to KIA c’eed. Mazda 2 managed to obtain two № 1 position. With just one № 1 position among the Jury members, Skoda Fabia came on 4-th position with 679 points and Toyota Auris on 5-th, collecting 583 points.


“It was a very tough competition, with strong competitors. The new Fiat Linea proved to be an overall winner with an excellent value for money, a very good car for the needs of regular customers. KIA cee’d was a fantastic contender close to the winner and shortly followed by Mazda 2. All these three models are simply great cars, with strong sales. However, we can only have one winner. The new Linea is representing the best buy car for many countries around the world, not only the 15 countries represented by the Jury members.” Mr. Dan Vardie, AUTOBEST Chairman, stated.

.

For AUTOBEST car winner, Jury made its decision taking into consideration 13 criteria, each of them counting a specific number of points that reflect a different importance in the final vote of each car. The price, with 60 points out of a total of 240 available to be distributed among the finalists, is the most important. Other sensitive issues for the region, like distribution network, service and spare parts availability, consumption, versatility and boot capacity, count for 20 points each. All of these specific criteria for the customers in emerging countries totalize more than a half of the total number of points. Other issues, common for all European countries, like new technologies, handling, dynamics, environmental friendly, are less important. The design, evaluated with 30 points maximum, becomes more and more important for the clients in emerging countries.

AUTOBEST organization is the only international independent jury focusing on best-buy choice for mainstream customers.
AUTOBEST is the second largest independent motoring Jury of Europe.

Member countries:
Bulgaria
Czech Republic
Cyprus
Croatia
Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia
Greece
Hungary
Poland
Romania
Russia
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Turkey
Ukraine

I hope this sedan arrives in India by this year

[Nitin]

The Linea looks pretty good. Liked the red one at the auto expo. It should enter the Indian market sometime this year,if FIAT wants to carve a market for itself after the Palio.

[PatchyBoy]

Originally Posted by breezydrive

Fiat Linea is the “AUTOBEST 2008”

Fiat Linea was voted “AUTOBEST 2008”. With a total of 850 points, the winner overtook Kia cee’d with 66 points, and Mazda 2, came third with a total of 704 points. 8 members of the Jury selected Linea as the winner, and other 4 gave the first place to KIA c’eed. Mazda 2 managed to obtain two № 1 position. With just one № 1 position among the Jury members, Skoda Fabia came on 4-th position with 679 points and Toyota Auris on 5-th, collecting 583 points.


“It was a very tough competition, with strong competitors. The new Fiat Linea proved to be an overall winner with an excellent value for money, a very good car for the needs of regular customers.

For AUTOBEST car winner, Jury made its decision taking into consideration 13 criteria, each of them counting a specific number of points that reflect a different importance in the final vote of each car. The price, with 60 points out of a total of 240 available to be distributed among the finalists, is the most important. Other sensitive issues for the region, like distribution network, service and spare parts availability, consumption, versatility and boot capacity, count for 20 points each. All of these specific criteria for the customers in emerging countries totalize more than a half of the total number of points.

Me too. And I really wish that FIAT improves its AS&S and gives the competetion a run for their money. I wish that FIAT was as passionate about the other areas like Marketing and AS&S as they are with design and engineering of a car.

Cheers,
Rajan

[karanraheja]

Who knows it could well be our ' Car of the year' too !! Waiting for its launch.
Looks awesome!

[DKG]

The Linea's styling and finish conveys an air of sophistication, not common to cars in its class. I reckon it should do very well for Fiat in India. Only concern is they plan to launch it with an uprated version of the multijet diesel (used in Swift). Hope the car doesn't feel underpowered. If that is not a cause for worry then the Linea should be a winner. Price wise they should peg it at 10-12 lacs max

[kurmist]

Originally Posted by DKG

The Linea's styling and finish conveys an air of sophistication, not common to cars in its class. I reckon it should do very well for Fiat in India. Only concern is they plan to launch it with an uprated version of the multijet diesel (used in Swift). Hope the car doesn't feel underpowered. If that is not a cause for worry then the Linea should be a winner. Price wise they should peg it at 10-12 lacs max

Too true. Plus it would be a bonus if they were to offer a suitably powered diesel with an auto box option. The car looks very handsome, and would definitely have quite a few takers, if all other parameters (pricing, ***, dealership quality etc) were taken care of.

[ishotmydog]

thats quite a award. looks promising and would love to see that on our roads soon.

[DKG]

Originally Posted by kurmist

definitely have quite a few takers, if all other parameters (pricing, ***, dealership quality etc) were taken care of.

Fiat India has a golden chance to get their act right and become a major player with cars like the Punto, the Linea and even the exclusive 500. I really hope they do as they are such fun cars. I for one am waiting for them to offer the 500 in 1.4 petrol, will have to have one no matter what price

[FERRO]

Originally Posted by karanraheja

Who knows it could well be our ' Car of the year' too !! Waiting for its launch.
Looks awesome!

We already know Fiat Linea would NEVER be our "Car of the year".

Reasons:

• Fiat-India don't have enough finances to buy the media journalists, who go gaga over some very much hyped car models coming from other manufacturers with great A.S.S.
• No matter how good Fiat cars maybe it will NEVER please our Indian public, they will always find something missing in Fiat cars.
• Average Indian public want cars which could travel over 20 kmpl+.
• Average Indian wants trouble free cars (Fiat ? no way)

(my personal opinions only)

[JayD]

Originally Posted by FERRO

We already know Fiat Linea would NEVER be our "Car of the year".

Reasons:

• Fiat-India don't have enough finances to buy the media journalists, who go gaga over some very much hyped car models coming from other manufacturers with great A.S.S.
• No matter how good Fiat cars maybe it will NEVER please our Indian public, they will always find something missing in Fiat cars.
• Average Indian public want cars which could travel over 20 kmpl+.
• Average Indian wants trouble free cars (Fiat ? no way)

(my personal opinions only)

Wasn't the Fiat palio car of the year a few years ago?? 2001 i think?

[raul]

10-12 lakhs for the Linea is too much, where did you pull up that figure from? Its not sold for that much anywhere. In Turkey its starts at 15000YTL, 1 dollar = 1.17YTL. You love to overpay for cars or what?

The last I heard it was supposed to start at 6.5. 10-12 is civic category, leaving aside that even Civic is not sold for that much in other countries.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by FERRO

Fiat-India don't have enough finances to buy the media journalists, who go gaga over some very much hyped car models coming from other manufacturers with great A.S.S.

Palio was car over the year choice of these magazines in the past. And the very same magazines are repeatedly choosing the Palio 1.6 as the best hot hatch in the country, even in recent comparisons.

Originally Posted by FERRO

Average Indian wants trouble free cars (Fiat ? no way)(my personal opinions only)

So, in your opinion, FIAT cars are not trouble-free?

[sujaylahiri]

I like the clean lines. Much better than the Bangle-ised Bimmers.

[DKG]

Originally Posted by raul

10-12 lakhs for the Linea is too much

If you reckon it'll come in at 6.5, WOW! would be the first to be in queue to buy one. I have no clue what it would be priced at, from the look of it thought they'd price it at that level. I could be totally off on that though.

[kewlferrari]

Well magazines have been quotong 7-9 L, so that sounds good considering the car is loaded with all the bells & whistles. The only down-side is the 1.3 engine for a car which is wider and bigger than the corolla. Hope it's not under-powered!

I am considering a car in this budget and honestly am in two minds whether to wait for Linea or not.