[qAnand]

Finally took delivery of Fiat Linea FT Azure from Tafe Reach. My experience goes like this:
I booked my car on July 6th and chose FT azure (premium color). I was told Premium color would take max of 3 weeks for delivery (say 31st Aug max). I was really excited and happy, because I own a Swift and it took almost 50 days for delivery. I started following up for the delivery after the mentioned period. I was told there is some problem and the vehicle would start for Transit in a couple of days, I did not hear any news from them for the next one week. Finally I was told that that the vehicle would be here by 12th Aug (6 weeks).
I started to follow up again and learnt that the vehicle has already come and it is in the warehouse, I requested for PDI, which they agreed. I fixed up a date (14th Aug) so that I can go and check if Vehicle is safe from Dents and scratches. I called up the salesperson the same day and again to my surprise I was told that there are some formalities to be done to bring the vehicle from the warehouse to the showroom and it is getting delayed. I had no choice, the sales person promised that the PDI will be arranged the following week after continuous follow ups, again the date was decided to be 21st Aug. This time I did not call the salesperson, I directly went to the showroom. To my surprise, I was again told that the vehicle was still in the warehouse (not even a courtesy call to inform). Fortunately they agreed to show the vehicle in the warehouse itself (I wonder why it was not before!!!). They took me in their demo car and showed me the vehicle. The vehicle was in good shape (odometer reading was 25km). I was finally happy to see my car.
I checked for an auspicious day and time and told that I’ll be taking the delivery of the vehicle on 27th Aug (between 4.30 pm - 5.30pm), which was agreed by them.
Finally the “D” day came and I was too very excited, I left home at around 3.45 and on the way I received a call from them asking for a confirmation (if I’ll be coming). I told them that I’ll be there in the showroom by 4pm.
I reached the showroom, and they told the vehicle is yet to come from the warehouse, they are fixing the rear parking sensors and it will take around 1 to 1.5 hours to come. I was not happy when I heard that. I somehow convinced myself and told “fine let it come at least”. I went out and came at 6pm, they told they have not fixed the sensors yet and it will take some more time (does it take so much time??).
No choice but to wait.. wait.. and wait.....
At 7.00pm i got a call from the delivery manager warehouse saying that they misplaced Linea specific sensor circuit boards and asked if i can come the next day to fix the sesors. I got wild now...
I blasted them and told them to refund the sensor cost and just deliver the car immediately.
At 7.45 the guy again called and told that they located the Linea specific Circuit board and he'll fix it in 15 mins time and send the vehicle by 8.30pm positively. I had no choice but to agree..
Finally the vehicle came at 9pm. The odometer reading was showing 81kms (the RTO was quite far, so I understood the purpose of run)
They quickly cleaned the car and they started explaining the features of the car. I learnt that I knew the features better than them. Looks to me that they are only trained to understand "Tata make cars".
After all the formalities and paper work, I took the delivery at 9.45pm (Almost 6 hours)
My complete excitement got over...

Linea is one of the best cars in that segment, but these kind of experiences worry people who think of selecting this particular car.

The next day i.e. 28th Aug, I went to Tyrestores, Greams Road Chennai for replacing the tyres to Michellin Primacy LC.

This shop got all the tyres replaced within 45 mins. After fixing the tyres, I drove to Sri Balaji Agencies for 3M sunfilm and Body polish (near SIET college). This guy does a decent job.

Finally did the pooja in the evening. I am uploading some photos.

Thanks for all the guidance and help shared in this website. Will upload some photos, please have a look and share your comments and thoughts.

Regards,
qARS


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[PaddleShifter]

I'll read it after I congratulate you. Let me be the first one.
Congrats. Linea looks awesome in FTA. Waiting for pics.
Don't worry about initial dealership experience. I'm sure the excitement came back on the very moment you got to drive your car. No other car matches the ride quality of this car. My friend who is an ANHC owner was speechless to see the features this car offers.
By the way, you haven't mentioned the variant.

[CliffHanger]

I sincerely request you to send this in a mail to Fiat. They ought to know that Tafe Reach doesn't have any inclination to improve, continuing to be the most notorios Tata dealer in Chennai. I've had the exact same experience a year back when I booked my Punto and my expereince with them has detoriated further since then.

The least said about their after sales service is better. Even a road side mechanic will do a better job on your car. Shift to Concorde for your future visits, they are no better to Tafe, but at least you can expect someone to calll you back if you escalate.

And Congratulations to FTA Linea. A FTA Linea has an altogether different presence. Enjoy the beauty!

[qAnand]

Thank you guys. Sorry for not mentioning the variant. Its emotion pack - diesel.

Regards,
qARS

[qAnand]

[Harshavarthan]

Originally Posted by CliffHanger

I sincerely request you to send this in a mail to Fiat. They ought to know that Tafe Reach doesn't have any inclination to improve, continuing to be the most notorios Tata dealer in Chennai. I've had the exact same experience a year back when I booked my Punto and my expereince with them has detoriated further since then.

The least said about their after sales service is better. Even a road side mechanic will do a better job on your car. Shift to Concorde for your future visits, they are no better to Tafe, but at least you can expect someone to calll you back if you escalate.

And Congratulations to FTA Linea. A FTA Linea has an altogether different presence. Enjoy the beauty!

My Linea is in Tafe garage for past 40 days. Met with an accident and gave it on 19th July and that's a Monday. I call them every Monday and enquire about the status.

First Monday i called up and the service person said that they have given order for a/c condenser and radiator and that the spares are yet to arrive.

Second Monday i called up and the reply was ditto.

Third Monday i called up and again the same reply. So i decided to mail Mr Mangesh who is in Fiat customer services department, Mr Ricky Walter and to service@fiapl.com. Got a reply from Fiat service saying that they will look into the issue and got a call from Tafe enquiring about my Car's no and that's it. Not a call again.

Fourth Monday i called up the service person and the reply was the same. "sir, spare parts had not reached the garage, we are expecting it soon". So again i mailed Mr Mangesh and Mr Ricky Walter and got a reply from Mr Mangesh saying he will look onto it.

Fifth Monday i called up and as usual the reply was same. Spare parts had not reached tafe. So as usual and third time i mailed Mr Mangesh and [FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3][COLOR=blue][COLOR=blue][/COLOR][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]Mr Ricky Walter about the issue but i little harsh this time. After two days i got a call from a Asst Manager, Customer Support, Tata Chennai and he said that the service incharge person had given order only after two weeks and that's the reason for delay. But i could sense some work has finally started. They have agreed to give my car within a week.

My conclusion is Fiat themselves are not taking *** seriously. I have planned to sell the car *** soon as i take delivery and also decided i should never ever buy Fiat or Tata again in my life time.

[aargee]

Congratulations Anand; Linea looks very beautiful & its one of the sedan that I love next to Audi. Expecting an ownership review from you on Linea.

PS - You've used 6 smileys against the forum rules of 2 per post. Pls avoid.

[ph03n!x]

Congrats on owning one of the best lookers

Any reason you bought the car in Chennai, when your location says B'lore?

Be extremely wary of TAFE - they were Hyundai dealers before, and were removed from selling Hyundai cars because of some malpractice or other (it's documented on T-BHP, IIRC, they sold a lower variant badged as higher variant after fitting accessories stripped from another car or so).

[qAnand]

Hi,
I moved to Chennai a couple of years back. Forgot to update the profile
I took my car for a long drive (Chennai to Pondy) about 300 kms to and fro. The drive was great. As I told I already own a Swift and I was finding some of the features inferior.

a) Gear Box - Swift gear box is great. Did not find the same in the new car.
b) Audio system - Quality of the audio system is not that good. Also I need to remember it to switch it off, every time I come out the car and move out (is there a work around?)

The drive was pretty smooth otherwise, I could feel the difference after replacing the tyres with Michellin Primacy LC. I was tempted to cross 100, but I was told that I should limit my speed to 70 - 80 for the first 1000 kms.

I have few questions on the linea emotion pack. I was told that emotion pack comes with 3 rear headrests, mine had only two (unfortunately i noticed it only today). The ashtray was not given, when they delivered the car (is it an accessory, or it comes with Emot Pack).
One more peculiar thing, the area under Glove box (place where the leg of front passenger goes), was badly covered with some thick cloth (to conceal some wires and plastics), it was actually coming out and was touching the legs. Did anyone notice this?? I am basically talking about the space above the feet of the front passenger.
If required, I'll upload some photos of that area.

Thanks.

Regards,
qARS




Regards,
qARS

[sidindica]

yet another below par experiance, though congratuations on your linea! Whats going wrong with fiatata every now and then? why can't humans treat humans like humans?

[Crazy_Eddy]

Originally Posted by qAnand

a) Gear Box - Swift gear box is great. Did not find the same in the new car.

I have few questions on the linea emotion pack. I was told that emotion pack comes with 3 rear headrests, mine had only two (unfortunately i noticed it only today). The ashtray was not given, when they delivered the car (is it an accessory, or it comes with Emot Pack).
One more peculiar thing, the area under Glove box (place where the leg of front passenger goes), was badly covered with some thick cloth (to conceal some wires and plastics), it was actually coming out and was touching the legs. Did anyone notice this?? I am basically talking about the space above the feet of the front passenger.
If required, I'll upload some photos of that area.

Congrats on your Linea!
Make sure you put in the extra effort to ensure everything is right with your car, and it should be smooth sailing. Unfortunately most of us - me included - do not really have the time keep nagging the TASS about it :(

Agree about the gearbox. It loosens up significantly by 10k kms, though still isn't slick like the others.

Yep, it comes with 3 rear headrests.

Ashtray is part of the pack.

Not noticed this, there aren't any loose wires AFAIK.


Why TAFE anyway? I think its pretty much a given that you should avoid TAFE at all costs. Even their Skoda branch is bad news.
Switch to another TASS. Sadly even Concorde is hopeless, but i guess if you keep monitoring what they do, you can get it done.

Congratulations and best wishes on becoming a proud owner of Fiat Linea FTA, qAnand. Happy and safe motoring.

[scopriobharath]

Good Buy, I got my Santro from Tafe Access (Formerly Hyundai Dealer before Fiat). They are a part of Amalgamations group, so they will be much more honest than others.

[binaiks]

Originally Posted by qAnand

b) Audio system - Quality of the audio system is not that good. Also I need to remember it to switch it off, every time I come out the car and move out (is there a work around?)

Go to settings (in the player), and set the "Radio off" to "00 min". By default it is set to play for 20 minutes more after the ignition has been turned off.

[diffsoft]

Originally Posted by scopriobharath

... They are a part of Amalgamations group, so they will be much more honest than others.

I wouldn't bet on that. TAFE in Bangalore has a terrible reputation. I myself suffered at their hands when they had the registration of my Skoda L&K Combi forged.

Here are the details: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...signature.html

No one from TAFE in Chennai responded to my requests for help - and I started from the same premise that they would be honest as they are part of a reputed group! I even wrote a letter to Mr Sivasailam - the venerable Padmasri awardee and the group Chairman, but no response from his office either. On that count Skoda was relatively better because I got an apology note from their India marketing head, Mr Keuhl.

Cheers,