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. |