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Old 9th February 2009, 11:09   #361
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I did a TD of Linea diesel yesterday.

First thing that comes to my mind is, it is severely under powered for its size. I knew 86BHP is at the lesser side, but still hoped it could do much better than what I experienced
The car doesn't pull at all until it crosses 2000rpm. What I felt is, at 3rd gear beyond 2000 rpm, the engines starts delivering its power.

If you are crossing a hump at 1st gear, you will see the entire would moving ahead of you until you can reach to 3rd gear and steady at 2000rpm. Engine becomes very quiet at this stage.

I really could not feel the torque as in the spec. The response lag is again very disappointing. It is more like the push you get on a small car when you put off full throttle A/C. You have to floor and pray for the car to respond.

So this is absolutely not a driver's car.

Now coming to other aspects.

Exterior looks much better than I expected, especially the front grill and the bonnet is eye catching.

Interior is decent enough. Back seat is comfortable, but the middle seat is hopeless as in any other sedan of its class.

You feel the car is sturdy on the go and breaking is very prompt. Maneuverability and gear shift is again good.

It would have been a decent car if the engine delivered sufficient power and provided better response. Wrong engine on a right car I would say.
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Old 10th February 2009, 10:20   #362
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How much power is enough?

With all this talk about Linea being "underpowered" .
It would be interesting to have opinions of:
NHC owner after test driving the Linea(P)
Fiesta(D) owner after test driving the Linea(D)

Both cars are successful ones regardless of their power.
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Old 10th February 2009, 12:37   #363
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I second Ajitsank on the Linea petrol

Ajit I apologize, the Linea Petrol you did TD with Malik, is truly horrendous. Forget an SX4, the car performed worse than my Esteem. Most if not all of your observations were correct. I did not try to do a back to back TD of SX4 because I was convinced with your TD report.

I feel this is a lemon, did you notice the center console, the buttons were actually broken, this definitely was not a confidence giving car.

I have booked Linea petrol Emotion+ with Concorde, I am in touch with the sales guys, I think you/I/we need to test out another Linea petrol before we can actually conclude Linea petrol is not all the bang.

I did ask my friend to take a TD of a petrol Linea in Bangalore, he was very satisfied with the car. He drives an Accent GLS.I will PM you as soon as a Linea is available at Concorde in Khairatabad circle.

Once again, sorry for the outburst.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ajitsank View Post
What is there fishy about? Do a back to back TD and put in your comments Mate! Period. If you do not feel what I feel then you have your right to your opinion

Call Malik cars for Petrol TD, they will be happy to come running with the car. I have no doubts on the dealer, they are the best in Hyderabad and they have the best sales guys.

Call Now and also do call for a TD of SX4 & please ensure you do a back to back TD. Call a maruti dealer and get and SX4 come over to your place right after you have TD'd Linea.

Then put in your thoughts and observation. As somebody just mentioned I need to do a TD of linea from another dealer, which I am looking forward to doing so.

I would love to hear from you on your back to back TD, if you do not do it back to back then we are assuming.

People are shooting their mouth without doing a back to back TD, come on guys. I am holding to the cheque for Linea. If you put your comments It will make my life easier in giving cheque to Mallik

Last edited by downsouth : 10th February 2009 at 12:38.
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Old 10th February 2009, 13:06   #364
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Quote:
Originally Posted by downsouth View Post
Ajit I apologize, the Linea Petrol you did TD with Malik, is truly horrendous. Forget an SX4, the car performed worse than my Esteem. Most if not all of your observations were correct. I did not try to do a back to back TD of SX4 because I was convinced with your TD report.

I Once again, sorry for the outburst.
Wow this is great. Ok now why would fiat do this. Isn't crazy. I hope to do the TD on Wednesday or early Thursday at concorde and should decide. Will also wait to hear from you on the TD.

I was all confused and was tempted to call for one more TD with the same car, lucky I did not. Had I done that I would have run into a maruti showroom and handed over the cheque without even negotiating.

I hope fiat does not let its customers down. Hope somebody from fiat is reading this.
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Old 10th February 2009, 14:32   #365
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Downsouth, I am surprised that a new Test drive car is a lemon, did someone at the dealership meddle with the car?

Can you please report this matter to: service@fiapl.com

Also please update us after you TD the Linea petrol at another dealer.
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Old 12th February 2009, 08:08   #366
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Linea Petrol Doomed Part 2

Ok Now I the heading of this post does not literally mean it after my second test drive.

Here are my first observations and the observations after the final test drive.

1. AC: Very Poor. Me, my wife and kids was sweating half way through to the drive. This is after setting the climate control to auto.
New Report: AC is still poor & The AC blower makes hell a lot of sound this is as compared to an SX4.

2. Gear Shift: I had to struggle lot many times to engage gear.
New Report: The brand new TD car had no problem in engaging gear

3. Clutch: Man this is annoying. I felt like pushing the clutch to eternity to engage the gear.
New Report: I stand corrected as I undertand this is a characterstics of Fiat Vehicles and as compared to an SX4 this is indeed a longer push to engage gears.

4. Engine Noise: FIRE has let me down. I am not able to understand this. The sound of engine is so loud that I cannot compare that sound to anything else. Initially i thought it was the road sound that is getting trasmitted in to the cabin. Boy I was wrong. The engine makes hell a lot of sound while running, this is directly audible in the cabin. ANNOYING
New Report: Engine Indeed makes a lot of noise. When stand still there is little noise, the noise is hell loud while running and SX4 wins hands down on this. (Now please do not draw this discussion into a long term report for SX4)

5. Power Steering: Jee I hate the hydraluic steering. I was dead tired after driving the car for 30 mts. The tyring part was when I tried to park into my parking bay. Boy o Boy it was tough, what I mean is it was hell difficult.
New Report: I hate hydraluic steering, come what may. Why I hate it becuase in the roads I drive which needs frequent turning an Hydraluic assisted power steering is more strain than an Electronically assistied Power steering and I hated the same on my santro(This is very personal observations and I have no way to compare Linea Hydrualic is good or bad as I have not compared with a car with the same segment which has an hydraluc steering. Fiesta I guess is Hydraluc and I never liked that too). So I guess I stand corrected on this as it is not a Linea specific concern and yes I still feel SX4 steering is a gem that is according to my liking.

6. Turning Radius: I am not sure if SX4 is got more turning radius, while parking SX4 in my parking bay. I felt no difficulty at all and could park in with ease.
New Report: I am not sure, this may be due to the factor SX4 is Electronic Assisted Power steering and Linea being a Hydraluic assisted power steering and Yes I FELT SX4 is got better turning radius.

7.Road View from drivers seat: I was not comfortable, inspite seat beeing set to higest position.
New Report: All of us know that how comanding position the SX4 front seats are. Thus again it is a Linea specific characterstic and is a very personal observations. Some may like the linea seating but for me that is bit uncomfortable, now this could be partially that I was driving a Santro earlier and that too had a comanding drivers seat.

8. Alloy Wheels: Linea has 4 Alloy Wheels, the 5th and spare tyre is a steel.
New Report: Now why did I write this. Well how much does a spare alloy wheels cost, I assume this is Rs.5000 and if one adds that price to the price of linea the price goes up and once in a while we see a beautiful MERC driving arround with 3 beatufull alloys with one black ugly steel rim.

9. Power of Engine: I guess this is would be a 1.4 working to it is best, nothing much to complain here. The powe was OK, but in no means can be compared with SX4, FIESTA, NHC08.
New Report: I stand by this and yes the engine is not refined and does struggle when compared to SX4, then again SX4 is 1.6 right.

New observations:
1. Plastics: Jee can't they get designers to get rid of rough edges, gaps.
2. Doors: 2 of the doors I closed the windows rattled (I guess this can be corrected)
3. Railing of Front Seats: I have never observerd this on any other cars that I have TD'd. The railing of the front seats are way long. It is so long that the person sitting back is uncomfortable. The railing almost knocked out my thumb nails.

All right. I am good to go and have asked the SX4 sales guy to pick up the cheque today morning that is 12th February, 2009. I love the supreme red but then the maintenance of any dark colour is difficult, so might get pushed over to the silver. Any thoughts on that?

All the best to all the Linea Petrol owners current and future. I have waited for for it for 4 months and truly I am upset (Very personal observation only-GUYS please don't spew venom on me).

DownSouth: The TD was done in one of the dealers who is readying the TD Petrol Car. I can't name them in this forum, if you could call few of them and insist you need to TD before you go and book, they might just get pushed to arrange you one.
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Old 12th February 2009, 11:57   #367
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Ajit - This is a great TD report. SX4 itself has not taken off that well in India despite it being a fairly good car with lot of good features. I fear how far Linea Petrol will succeed.
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Old 12th February 2009, 12:03   #368
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ajitsank View Post
Wow this is great. Ok now why would fiat do this. Isn't crazy. I hope to do the TD on Wednesday or early Thursday at concorde and should decide. Will also wait to hear from you on the TD.

I was all confused and was tempted to call for one more TD with the same car, lucky I did not. Had I done that I would have run into a maruti showroom and handed over the cheque without even negotiating.

I hope fiat does not let its customers down. Hope somebody from fiat is reading this.
I think it is a one off situation ajit, its not the companies fault but it is the dealership who have to be blamed. Your desicion was correct not going in for the TD of the same car.

I dont think Fiat will let it slip this time around .

Quote:
Originally Posted by ajitsank View Post

DownSouth: The TD was done in one of the dealers who is readying the TD Petrol Car. I can't name them in this forum, if you could call few of them and insist you need to TD before you go and book, they might just get pushed to arrange you one.
I know which dealership you are talking about, but are you sure if its not the same car you did a TD?, sorry to hear that you are not buying the Linea, but happy that you are buying the SX4, that was my first chioce till the Linea arrived.

Last edited by downsouth : 12th February 2009 at 12:04.
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Old 12th February 2009, 13:25   #369
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DieselFan View Post
Ajit - This is a great TD report. SX4 itself has not taken off that well in India despite it being a fairly good car with lot of good features. I fear how far Linea Petrol will succeed.
I agree with you, SX4 is a really nice car, but there are a few perceptions which cannot be broken by the Janata. But considering the enthusiasm Linea has received(in such depressing times), i think things will change for Linea, I hope.

Quote:
Originally Posted by finneyp View Post
Downsouth, I am surprised that a new Test drive car is a lemon, did someone at the dealership meddle with the car?

Can you please report this matter to: service@fiapl.com

Also please update us after you TD the Linea petrol at another dealer.
Well, there are always the odd ones in a basket. Thanks for the suggestion, let me be a little fair to the Dealership and do a second TD before I am going to write to Fiat.

I hope to get the TD of a Linea Petrol before the Weekend, I hope to get pictures this time. Will update as soon as that happens.
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Old 12th February 2009, 13:37   #370
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ajitsank
have asked the SX4 sales guy to pick up the cheque today morning that is 12th February, 2009. I love the supreme red but then the maintenance of any dark colour is difficult, so might get pushed over to the silver. Any thoughts on that?
Both the colors you mentioned look nice on an SX4 - Black is another nice color on that car. I felt that SX4 does not look good in the other colors it comes in.

Regarding whether to go for dark or light color in a car, the simple question is "Do you wash/clean your car yourself OR have someone do it for you on a regular basis - say once in 2 days or so?" If its the former, it is better to go for a low-maintenance light color. But if you have someone cleaning your car on regular basis, go ahead with a dark color.
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Old 12th February 2009, 14:02   #371
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Quote:
Originally Posted by supremeBaleno View Post
Both the colors you mentioned look nice on an SX4 - Black is another nice color on that car. I felt that SX4 does not look good in the other colors it comes in.

Regarding whether to go for dark or light color in a car, the simple question is "Do you wash/clean your car yourself OR have someone do it for you on a regular basis - say once in 2 days or so?" If its the former, it is better to go for a low-maintenance light color. But if you have someone cleaning your car on regular basis, go ahead with a dark color.

why are we discussing this in the linea test drive thread?
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Old 12th February 2009, 14:24   #372
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SX4 in fiat linea thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by supremeBaleno
Both the colors you mentioned look nice on an SX4 - Black is another nice color on that car. I felt that SX4 does not look good in the other colors it comes in.

Regarding whether to go for dark or light color in a car, the simple question is "Do you wash/clean your car yourself OR have someone do it for you on a regular basis - say once in 2 days or so?" If its the former, it is better to go for a low-maintenance light color. But if you have someone cleaning your car on regular basis, go ahead with a dark color.




why are we discussing this in the linea test drive thread?

Maybe because the SX4 and Fiat are actually related!? Isn't the SX4 some cross bred, "hybridized" fruit of the Union of GM and Suzuki with Fiat thrown in for good measure!?
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Old 12th February 2009, 14:26   #373
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Guys,

Heard any news about Linea MJD Emotion Pack delivery ?
Here in Chennai,No cars are available.
called dealer and seems,Consignment is not started from Pune factory.
I was promised earlier to get delivered the car by 16 Feb 2008.
But it won't happen.i don't know whether dealer is fooling me or the FIAT.
I got the Loan Approval and got my cheque too.
But due to the availability problem,i am not handed it over to the dealer.
I asked him to confirm the delivery date and collect the cheque from me.
He doesn't have answer for the date of delivery.
It's weird.it's almost 4 weeks gone(Booked on 22 Jan 2009).still no idea about delivery date.
I still love the car.that's why the dilemma.
Whether i can wait for linea or looking for some other car ?
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Old 12th February 2009, 14:29   #374
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ms001
why are we discussing this in the linea test drive thread?
Was only replying to a query in this very thread. And again the light/dark confusion can happen to someone buying the Linea also. So would help him/her too.
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Old 12th February 2009, 14:34   #375
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ajitsank

Congrats. SX4 is a nice car and it's a pity Linea did not live up to your expectations. I TDed the petrol as well and agree Fiat has messed up big time with the engine. I wonder why :(
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