[opendro]

Originally Posted by madhokritesh

Just changed my Avtar pic to Fiat , gearing up myself for the Linea Launch. Lol.

BTW lots of other Indian cars had this European Stalks ie the Opel astra, Optra, Skoda, Matiz etc trust me it takes not more than 2-3days to get used to it.

It is not about getting used to. Left hand has more things to do. And we need to use the indicator every now and then. This makes me irritated as I have to bring my left hand every time. Otherwise, I steer and control the indicators with right hand. In situations like overtake or curve, my left hand is on the gear for sure and I need to show indicators. I say this from Spark experience.

[manoj_joseph78]

Originally Posted by lancer_rit

I wanted to ask the guys who have TD/checked it out already, is the legspace so less in the Linea ? !

When I positioned the front seat (I am 5`10") my friend who is of same height didn't have enough space in the rear. His knee was hitting the front seat, though he was impressed by the comfortable seat angle. Also in spite of the height adjustable seat and tilt steering, the driving position was not comfortable. The foot well also seemed to be cramped. The dead pedal seems to be positioned higher than it should be. The interior space space seems be less for the size of the car. I have a feeling that the Indigo Vista, when it comes out, will easily beat Linea in terms of rear seat space.

Other than these, everything else in the car was impressive. Along with other goodies, I liked the switch on the console to open the boot. No more fumbling below the seat in the dark as in most other cars. The key was also good with key portion folding on the the remote part. Should be comfortable in trouser pockets I guess.

Some auto magazines said the sound of engine inside is more than expected. But I thought the sound at idling was quite OK for diesel. It was certainly comparable to my swift petrol, may be only a little more :-( I don't know how good is the sound insulation in Verna and Optra diesels. May be thats what the magazines are comparing it to. Also I didn't have a test drive.

[ritz830]

Tata dealers will be more than happy to sell you off the showroom model. If you wanna book a car, then try asking the sales man about booking it on the showroom model.

[SkyWalker]

Originally Posted by karanraheja

Ah!! so finally you TD it.

Yeah

Originally Posted by karanraheja

I was hoping for a better turning radius in Linea after driving the Petra ( which has quite bad turning radius IMO).

Actually, it felt much worse than Petra. But then again, its a much longer car compared to Petra. It will be difficult to maneuver in the city for sure. One gotcha you should be aware of that is that even ANHC has higher turning radius (5.3m) compared to the NHC (4.9m).

Originally Posted by karanraheja

The airbags is not standard on Emotion and is available on Emotion Pack only??

they dont. Emotion is priced at 7.82 ex and has not airbags+blue-n-me+alloys. Emotion+ for diesel includes airbags+blu-n-me for about 50K more (8.36). It would have been nice if they priced the Emotion with airbags for about 8L ex showroom.

[Vid6639]

Skywalker the turning radius is large because the car itself is huge at more than 4.5m and the wheelbase is 2600mm which is comparable to the Corolla Altis.

[SkyWalker]

Originally Posted by raajks

Saw an OFF-White Linea going from the rear entrace of Forum towards Diary circle...

If you saw it around 12PM-1PM on Saturday - that would have been me. They have an off white and red one, but the white one is the ones used for TDs for the time being.

I saw quite a few people racing towards me and then slow down. First instinct was that i have done something wrong, then i realized they were examining the car.

Originally Posted by lancer_rit

Linea is a very good car IMO. What surprised me, though, in the ACI review of Linea in the Dec issue is that the total legroom (sum of front legroom + rear legroom) in the Linea is the same as Ford Ikon . ACI issue had a TD report on both Linea and the Ikon TDCI in the same issue. Compared to a 2603mm wheelbase for Linea, Ikon wheelbase < 2500mm but they have the same legroom!!

I don't know about Ikon, i can clearly say its got better legroom & shoulder room than Fiesta. I TD'ed City & Civic immediately after the Linea and i could not make out any major differences (other than headroom) in anyof these cars. Ride was best in Civic, followed by Linea & City.

Originally Posted by opendro

It is not about getting used to. Left hand has more things to do. And we need to use the indicator every now and then. This makes me irritated as I have to bring my left hand every time.

I agree with you here. i think it was a small change and probably FIAT should have done that before releasing it here. But on the positive side, you should be ok during your occasional US trips

Oh - btw - did it mention the Boot was huge? Although on paper ANHC & Linea has 500L boots, Linea one looked much bigger in comparison. The mafia would love this boot

[greatDrive]

Does anyone know the official figure of the turning Radius of Linea.
Petra's TR is 5.4m.

[muni]

Originally Posted by manoj_joseph78

. The foot well also seemed to be cramped. The dead pedal seems to be positioned higher than it should be. The interior space space seems be less for the size of the car.

Yes the dead pedal positioning and placement did feel a bit awkward and am curious what other members feel about it. The overall darkish interiors might have something to do with the feeling of less interior space.

The seat height adjustment/ reclining outer plastic levers were coming off and the salesman told me that the other linea cars dint have this pblm.

[sukrit7]

Originally Posted by greatDrive

Does anyone know the official figure of the turning Radius of Linea.
Petra's TR is 5.4m.

The same, 5.4 according to a bit of goggling
Fiat Linea Review - Fiat Linea India, Fiat Linea 1.4 L 8v, 1.4L 16v T-Jet,1.3 Multijet 16V Specifications & Features

[freddie]

Originally Posted by greatDrive

Does anyone know the official figure of the turning Radius of Linea.

Presuming that the Indian variant of the Linea is more or less the same as the International variant, download this brochure detailing the technical specifications of the Linea. Hopefully, it should be able to answer your query and more…

[SumitBahl]

I visited one (and the only one in chandigarh) tata/fiat showroom.
They did not have the car on display.
The salesmen were rude, did not wanted to get up from behind the desk, had no information whatsoever about linea and told me it would be launched/available in chandigarh somewhere around April.

They still haven't learnt the lesson.

[oss]

Just picked up the latest edition of Top Gear. The TG team has test driven the Linea Diesel version, and they are mighty impressed with the handling of the car and the ride comfort.

The engine according to them is not a scorcher but does the job. It might lack the outright straight line performance, but certainly not underpowered in their opinion. Engine noise and gear shift quality were mentioned as few minor issues.

Overall is seem to be an excellent value for money and quite a spacious car loaded with feature for the money spent.

[lancer_rit]

Originally Posted by muni

I have checked the car in person.

I can say that the car has sufficient leg room both at the front and the rear. One thing is for sure is that it doesnt feel or look very big inside but everything looks/ feels right interms of ergonomics and quality.

Originally Posted by manoj_joseph78

When I positioned the front seat (I am 5`10") my friend who is of same height didn't have enough space in the rear. His knee was hitting the front seat, though he was impressed by the comfortable seat angle. Also in spite of the height adjustable seat and tilt steering, the driving position was not comfortable. The foot well also seemed to be cramped. The dead pedal seems to be positioned higher than it should be. The interior space space seems be less for the size of the car. I have a feeling that the Indigo Vista, when it comes out, will easily beat Linea in terms of rear seat space.

Originally Posted by SkyWalker

I don't know about Ikon, i can clearly say its got better legroom & shoulder room than Fiesta. I TD'ed City & Civic immediately after the Linea and i could not make out any major differences (other than headroom) in anyof these cars. Ride was best in Civic, followed by Linea & City.

Ok, so we have somewhat differing feedback though 2 reports seem to represent limited legroom. Also, headroom at the rear is less due to sloping roof and height of the car. Width of the car and shoulder room is very good - I don't think that is a complaint area.
I do find it strange that 2 5'10" people can't sit in front and rear :-( You can do this in the Ikon itself -maybe it depends on how far back the front seat has been pushed back as per driver's position ?

Guys, can somebody measure with a tape the front legroom to the dashboard, and the rear legroom to the front seatback when you are TD-ing/in the showroom (keeping the same position of front seatback, and measuring in the angle of the seat at knee level)? This is the only way to confirm if the ACI numbers are correct ? What I found in the past, is that the legroom issue is somewhat confusing to compare between cars (esp when done at different times), and also subjective factors creep in (like other space attributes like shoulder/headroom etc) ?

BTW, Skywalker, Civic legroom is signficantly more than City or Ikon. I am quite sure of that :-)
Regards,

[luky_13]

Just came back from a TD at concorde motors, dairy circle. Linea certainly has that 'Vow' factor. I drove the diesel version, emotion. The motor is noway underpowered, loads of torque. Beyond 3k rpm its a beast, could easily zip past traffic, nice throttle response. I'm 6'2" so had to recline the drivers seat by about 15 degrees and lowered the height for a comfy position. My wife was sitting right behind me and she did'nt complain of leg room shortage. The car has lot of features and a good solid build quality, doors etc are quite strong. I will rate it much above the ANHC in all depts, this car is complete VFM.
Way to go FIAT!

Cheers.

[opendro]

I also did a short test drive in the Concorde, opposite Christ College today at around 12pm. My observations, which may be different from megazine's views:
- Clutch foot rest or dead pedal, whatever people called, didn't bother me. In fact, I didn't even realize its presence during my short drive. But then my feet are not that that big.
- Steering and seating are comfortable for me, but then I'm only 5'6".
- Pickup is very good, much better than what people project it out to be. But first gear ran out too quickly. May be we should sparingly use this only when required
- People praise this groovy steering wheel. But I love driving with only hand sliding over it and let it ease through my palm during release. So, it was not suitable for me. Of course, it looks good.
- I heard that there are only four alloys. Fifth one is steel. That is bad. They should have given all five steel or alloys in Emotion pack also.
- After rear seat is folded up, it is at the same level as the boot and midgets like me should be able to lie down easily with pillow.
- They should have provided reverse parking sensors at least.
- Audio seemed to be good, but then I'm not a audio crazy to know the finest details. But I could feel it to be definitely good.

@luky_13, I don't know if it were you, the person who test drove just after me at around 12pm spun the wheel on the cemented parking floor of the showroom to the gate. It was impressive.

Thanks SkyWalker for letting us know that Concorde had got a car for test drive. They must be right, you could be the first one. They didn't have a test drive car before as far as I know.