The demand for a bigger car (sedan) began in the house sometime in late 2011. My son and wife used to judge every sedan on the road by their looks. I though pretended not to understand what is going on between them but one day in January 2012 the family demand was clearly placed before me and I had to succumb to their pressure. So the search for the new sedan began.
Cars considered :-
The cars that were listed for checking out are as follows :
City
Vento
Verna
Rapid
City : I had a huge fascination for this car since my college days. It was sort of dream car for me, so the first visit is to the Honda showroom. We saw the 2012 model of the City 1.5 V. The car was really fun to drive in the city and the engine was smooth. The interiors are plush but the car lacked features. The steering was very light though. The first impression was good till I took it to some very bad roads, where the City lost all it's composure. The ride felt bumpy on the bad roads and the bottom scraped once. Overall impression was OK and this car was very much in contention.
Vento : This is where the story took an abrupt turn towards diesel. The SA at VW managed to brainwash my family for the diesel Vento HL model and I was totally caught unaware. We took a TD of the diesel Vento TL (as no highline TD vehicle was available). The Vento engine was extremely powerful but bit noisy too. The TD car was kept in such a bad condition that it did not catch the imagination of the family. I was a bit relieved for the Vento TDI highline at Rs. 11.60 lakhs was clearly out of my budget.
Verna : Nothing much to write about for there was no TD vehicle of the diesel Verna. Features were shown in a petrol Verna, but the dealership attitude was something that I could not stand. The Sales Manager clearly told me to purchase a car and have a test drive in the same
. I am not going to put my money on any car without having a proper TD.
Rapid : Rapid definitely handles better than the City and maybe Vento also due to its suspension, and it has a powerful but noisy engine. Moreover I found it to be a very basic car with no features as VW has purposefully placed it way below the Vento in the market.
After ckecking all the available options, the decision was in favour of City since I have never driven a diesel car in my life and the Vento was clearly out of my budget. At this point my wife suddenly brought the Fiat Linea into the picture. I went through the ownership reviews of the Linea on various forums and decided to check out the Linea. I would like to specially thank TeamBHP member
Mr. J. Ravi for his wonderful ownership thread. His ownership thread and also his travelogue to Leh in his Linea helped a lot to build the confidence in me to go for the Fiat Linea.
Linea MJD 1.3 : The car was attractive but I always thought (like so many other people) that this car is seriously underpowered. I started the TD rather reluctantly but after three long test drives of the Linea I had completely different idea about the car.
What I like :
* Beautiful shape & contours - stunning looks.
* 16" alloy wheels (all five including the spare). Heard that Fiat has discontinued the fifth alloy wheel after May' 2012 (not sure though); cost cutting measures ?
* 205/55 R16 tyres - really looks nice.
* GC of 185mm - so fear of bottom scrapping.
* Beatiful handling, the best in the class.
* Fantastic ride quality, handles bad roads and potholes like none other.
* Steering feedback, hydraulic power steering. Gives lot of confidence on the highways, specially at higher speeds.
* Leather seat covers, three head-rest in the rear seat, collapsible rear curtain, rear aircon vent.
* Great improvement in the internal fit and finish over the earlier versions (except for the aircon vents in the dash).
* The clutch still has a long play but is quite soft in the 2012 version.
What I did'nt like :
* Legspace in the rear seat should have been better for a car of this size.
* Headroom at the rear (luckily don't have any six footer in the family except me).
* Lack of bottle holder.
* Narrow driver footwell. Often my left foot get stuck between the clutch pedal and the dead pedal.
* The cool themocol cutout for the tool kit has been discontinued. The tool kits are wrapped in a cheap plastic package. Not sure how long they would last.
What I required from the car :
a. Budget of 10L (typical for C1 segment).
b. My monthly usage is 1300-1500 KMs per month, mostly city driving with some long drive once/twice in a month. I am almost certain that this is going to increase with time. City driving in my case does not mean bumper-to-bumper drive, like in the metros. Roads in the industrial town are wide and less crowded.
c. I would love to have a car that is fun to drive in the highways coupled with better stability, handling and safety features rather than instant acceleration.
d. I seriously intend to keep this car for 8 years, so resale value is not of much importance to me.
I thought the Linea 1.3MJD Emotion fulfilled all my requirements and the choise was made. Added benefit of choosing this car was wife loved the Linea the most amongst the whole lot, so no conflict in the future. Also the car is fully loaded and I don't need to add any accessories immediately except for the GPS and maybe the reverse parking sensors.