[VLOCT]

Thanks for the picture. It looks a little too fat and crude, in my opinion. A well designed kit should complement the overall stance of the car. The above kit unfortunately neutralizes the stance of the car with a boat like look. It really spoils the beautiful lines of the car. But, that's just my opinion. Linea definitely deserves better.

Thanks again for taking the time to post a sample.

Have fun with the car.

[KarthikK]

Okay its been a while since I've updated the ownership thread. Actually, not many things have happened to warrant any updates, so that's a good thing. In fact, nothing has happened at all. Just goes to show how reliable the T-Jet is, as a car. So much for Fiat critics who think Fiats are about niggles. On the contrary, I've found it to be perfect in every manner, plus the after sales service at Prerana is top notch to complement the beast-driving experience. I really couldn't ask for more.

Over the past 6 months, I have done perhaps 4-5 highway trips, each around 300-400km on average. The Jet® has been splendid as usual. The car has fully opened up after crossing the 5k mark on the odometer, and I see what FIAT aficionados mean when they talk about this 'opening up' phase as the car ages.


Here are some ownership updates (section-wise) about what I have observed / done over the past year :


Exteriors - No scratches whatsoever, no dents, no scuff marks, nothing in the past one year. Mutiple 'touchwood's! Thankfully, no incidents anywhere anytime. Black remains glossy as ever. I visit 3M Car care centre once in 2-3 months for a 'Power-shine' treatment which includes exterior foam wash + polish + interior cleaning + engine bay cleaning + tyre dressing. I don't need anything else for the exterior. No washing-boys allowed near my black color car! They ruin it. Till this past month, I used to wash it myself every fortnight. Then I got myself the Jopasu car cleaning kit with duster et al. last month. That takes care of my day-to-day cleaning needs.

Interiors - 3M Leather cleaning solution - I spray and wipe once in 2 months. This is sufficient for my needs. I am almost always driving with the A/C on, so hardly any dust gets in. I do need to get hold of the 3D Kagu mats, that is next on my hit list. The current ones which came with the Jet® are getting some weird fibrous knots here and there. Moreover, these things are made of fabric, are not waterproof, and whenever someone steps in with slush-dipped shoes, I have to wash these mats the next morning to remove the mud, and dry them for hours together. They need to be got rid of quickly.

Equipments / Electricals - no issues faced anywhere with anything. Everything works perfectly

I.C.E - speaker upgrade has been on the anvil for ages, but somehow I have been procrastinating. Either because I don't use this car much (it only goes out on weekends) or I have been plain lazy. The OEM audio setup has been doing duty diligently and I have no comments. No issues faced with the audio system anytime, except for this funny incident once in January when I started the car suddenly at a signal and the music system showed "CANCHECK" and stopped responding to buttons. I stopped the car after around half an hour, switched off and switched on at the next signal. This rectified the problem. Later when I called my advisor, he said its a diagnostic check done by the ECU on the music system CAN lines. I googled it up and cross-verified with some overseas Fiat forums on this - he was right. It has never happened again, so I am not bothered.

Driving characteristics - the engine has opened up fully now. It feels more responsive, more refined and a slight tap on the throttle gets the car to surge ahead with a sense of urgency. The turbo boost is all the more perceptible when it kicks in at 1800rpm. It really is a hoot to drive now after opening up, and when you are driving, you lose track of how long or how far you have driven. The drive is mesmerizing to say the least. The brakes have fully set in too, they have more than adequate bite power to stop this heavy beast in its tracks. I don't have to keep harping about the handling and ride comfort balance, it is a known thing with the Jet®.


Future tweaks / mods planned :

- ICE Speaker upgrade

- Shark fin antenna on the rear. I tried to find something hollow which would sit on the current antenna after unscrewing the bee-sting dummy aerial, but couldn't find anything. If someone has any leads on this, they could help me out.

- Upgrade to Michelin Primacy LC 205/55 R 16 tyres for extreme performance. Still not sure how practical this will be as I travel a lot, and might need some ruggedness to tackle bad roads in estates/village roads, etc.

- Reverse camera installation



Ownership updates apart, My Jet® will be completing one year on the 1st of July. Yes, time flies by so soon, doesn't it? It was just like yesterday when I brought the car home from the showroom *sigh*. Nostalgia aside, the 1 year landmark also brought with it a service reminder - my second service was to be done at 15000km or 1 year from date of purchase. Needless to say, for my low running, it was the latter which became the reason to head to Prerana motors for the 2nd free service today.


I got an appointment for today at 9am, headed to the service centre on Hosur road and as scheduled, a service advisor came along. My usual advisor, Surendra was on leave and on calling him up yesterday, he had already told his buddy by name Ramesh, about my case and about me being from "team-BHP". Oh yeah, they know the dreaded word and go to any extent to make sure we BHPians give good reviews about them on the web.

He came along promptly at the stipulated time, and started filling the job card. The best part was when he wrote down all the routine tasks and asked me "Sir, do you have any problems?". And I said "No"! For the first time in my life, I have gone to a service centre with a vehicle and said "No Problems whatsoever" . It didn't happen with my dad's old M800, or our Swift that we have, or Accent that I had prior to the Jet®. Heck, it didn't happen even with the Honda Dio scooter. There was always some or other issue that I would have for them to fix. There's some Fiat reliability for you! They just had the routine 2nd service schedule of stuff to do, that's it!

Now that I just returned from my scheduled service trip, here is the screenshot of my second free service expense sheet and details of work done. The only request from me was to get wheel balancing done. Rattles were occasionally happening, but they weren't too noticeable. The front seat was creaking if i sat down suddenly with a thud. The SA nailed it down to lack of lubrication near the metal rails. Both these trivial issues were fixed well. Specific job-level details are self-contained in the worksheet attached here.





The experience at Prerana motors was once again strictly no-nonsense. The car was returned to me spic and span, and all the tasks done were explained by the substitute advisor Ramesh. No compaints, my next visit to the Fiat service station will be in June 2013. By then, Fiat will have its own service centres and I can have Italian cappuccino while watching my car getting serviced with other Italian exotics, instead of watching Indicabs and Sumos.

Looking forward to another pleasurable year of driving the Jet®! The Jet® will soon get a new garage sibling in the next few months, so I can create a nice comparo thread once the younger sibling arrives.

[vnabhi]

Nice update, KarthikK. I am curious to know how many kilometers you've munched so far.

To me , it looks like you could be surpassing my record of 7 K kms per year average!

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Nice update, KarthikK. I am curious to know how many kilometers you've munched so far.

To me , it looks like you could be surpassing my record of 7 K kms per year average!

Thanks vnabhi. Well actually I have surpassed your record already . I have just 6k kms on the odometer now

[nkrishnap]

@Kartikk, you can very well expect Prerana Motors to serve you Itialian Cappuccino as they are coming up with their independent Fiat Dealership. I believe the one on the Sarjapur Road is being converted to a FIAT Dealership and not too sure about the service center location.

[KarthikK]

After Prerana doing the wheel rotation during the service, I noticed the car was pulling slightly to the right side. I took the Jet to Madhus enterprises on saturday (owned by BHPian nikhilb2008), to get the alignment re-checked and corrected if necessary. After the computerized report came in, tyre guru Nikhil explained all the numbers and figures and what they all meant , thanks to him for that. The alignment was fine so that was not the cause. He explained that ideally the tyre rotation should have been done from front to back retaining the left and right sides. That meant left front had to become left rear and vice versa. Ditto with right side as well. This would ensure that there would be no uneven difference of tyre wear between left and right sides. Prerana had mistakenly swapped left front to right rear and right rear to left front. This was the cause for the slight pulling.

He got the tyres swapped from left front to right front and vice versa. After I took a short test drive, I found the problem was gone!

The trip to Madhus also helped me get more insight into the cost and advantage of using those Michelin Primacy LCs (another item on my hitlist). The plan is off the anvil for now, at least for another year. Nikhil suggested I use up the life of the OEM Goodyear eagles and then switch tyres.

As a bonus for visiting Madhus, I got all tyres filled with Nitrogen. Now the Jet truly flies above the ground .

Originally Posted by nkrishnap

@Kartikk, you can very well expect Prerana Motors to serve you Itialian Cappuccino as they are coming up with their independent Fiat Dealership. I believe the one on the Sarjapur Road is being converted to a FIAT Dealership and not too sure about the service center location.

Thanks nkrishnap, this is good news. The Service Advisor had told me that Prerana would be taking up the Fiat dealership for sure, but he didn't have any full size information on where it would be, etc. He was saying that the existing Fiat SAs and mechanics would be moved to the new facility and service would continue as is, from the new service facility. We will know by this year end, according to what he said they are launching the Fiat exclusive service centres from January or something, but he wasn't 100% sure.

[KarthikK]

An update on the Jet. The OEM mats were of pathetic quality and the strip that was stitched for the driver's foot under the pedals, was tearing up in some odd places. They were of fabric quality, like I mentioned in my previous posts. I finally decided to get rid of them. Just two weeks ago, I got a set of 3d Kagu Maxpider mats installed for my Jet.

These things are available in black and beige colors for the Linea (they are model specific by the way). Since the car itself is black, and part of the interiors are black too, I opted for Beige 3d mats, to break the monotony of black everywhere and to give it a so-called 'luxury' look.

They set me back by 5600 bucks at HotTracks, Victoria layout. HotTracks had an option to install this mat for the boot also, but I didn't want to blow up cash on 3d boot mats, considering the boot is just a utility area used to dump luggage. The existing T-Jet branded boot mat does its job well anyway.

Here are some pictures of the beige 3d Kagu mats:


Driver's side 3d mat, with front seat fully forward



Driver's side with front seat fully pushed back.



Closer look - it covers the dead pedal too, and adequate space to operate the fuel lid lever



The front row seats with the new beige mats - blends well with the entire black and beige theme of the seats and dashboard



Co-driver side. Notice how the beige mats break the monotony of Black in the cockpit



Back seat, driver's side



Back seat, co-driver's side



The entire seat blends with the mats



The OEM 'T-Jet' branded boot mat is retained. Excuse the presence of the older mats in the boot along with the car duster and some other garbage



Yesterday morning, it was another saturday morning long drive as usual. I headed out to a natural dam around 40km away from Bangalore, on an overcast early morning. Giving me company was my friend in his Palio 1.6 Sport. The place was beautiful, also extremely quiet and peaceful. It is possible to take the cars right up to the water here. We had a short FIAT photoshoot here with the Jet and its legendary elder sister, the original hot hatch. A Saturday morning well spent

Some pictures of this place and the photoshoot :


Ruins of what looks like an old shrine






The Ritz belonged to some other nature lover, was there only for a short while (fortunately for our photoshoot)



Some sights of this place







The Jet with the elder sibling



A "Reclaim your life" moment like the famous Tata Safari ad



The nose of a 'Terrestrial Fighter Jet'

[vb-saan]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Here are some pictures of the beige 3d Kagu mats.

Good job Karthik. The mats have really enhanced the overall looks. And really love the perforated leather seats of the T-Jet. Looks awesome

[aviorp]

T-Jet looks stunning! Mats supera irruku, aana 5K koncham over

[jazzrockz]

Hey, had a query for the gearheads here. I got a T jet, 25K+ there is a grazing sound i get (dull) whenever i turn the steering, both ways. The service centre has asked me to get the strut bushes or caps or mounts ???? whatever changed under warranty and the process will take two days.

Now i have a trip to Bangalore planned for Monday (850 km)...so was planning to give this replacement a miss and get it fixed in Bangy.

Wanted opinions if the suspensions (front) can hold till Bangy???
Or is it a critical replacement and HAS to be DONE ASAP!

Please enlighten because i am going to blast the Tjet all the way to Bangy
rare opportunity to escape the city...

[souravc]

Originally Posted by jazzrockz

Wanted opinions if the suspensions (front) can hold till Bangy???
Or is it a critical replacement and HAS to be DONE ASAP!

Even if you get an advice on here is there any guarantee that it would be foolproof ? For stuff which can determine whether you see the light of another day , its better to trust the judgement of the mechanic who had a look at your problem or play it safe and err on the side of conservatism .
T-Jets don't come with chutes , fly safe

[coolboy007]

Originally Posted by jazzrockz

Hey, had a query for the gearheads here. I got a T jet, 25K+ there is a grazing sound i get (dull) whenever i turn ...

That most probably is the elastic pads/strut mounts. Its a known issue in Linea, you will get a low grinding noise every time you turn the steering both ways.

Dont worry about the suspension holding on, its not going anywhere
Drive it as you want but get it changed once you are back.
The elastic pads in mine are also gone at 35k kms and am on a long trip right now to the hills, this issue wont bother you.

[KarthikK]

It has been 2 months since I last updated this thread. The ownership continues to be perfect!

August was the month when my 3M Paint Sealant protection treatment expired, so I headed to 3M car care in HSR Layout for my renewal coat. Sorry for the delayed post since this was actually done around 2 months ago. The Jet® has been dutifully going about its weekend highway chores. The most recent drive was a team-bhp mini-meet at Kolar's CCD this past Saturday night.

Coming back to my 3M visit, in spite of some extra-careful maintenance and zero on-road incidents / known scratches, the car had accumulated some minor scratch lines (not actual scratches). They were so minor, they perhaps happened by people brushing against the parked car when walking next to it, passengers scraping the running board when stepping in, etc. All of these turned out to be surface level scratches which Sidhu sir and Pradeep (3M) assured to remove with just rubbing and sanding. Apart from these, there were just some swirl marks at different spots on the car.

Sidhu sir and I spent an amazing amount of time on my car (almost 9 hours to be precise), and ensured that each and every surface scratch was rubbed, removed and polished to perfection on this black beast. Needless to say, the car was handed over to me gleaming like a mirror. It was well past nightfall when I finally gave them a thumbs up, and the staff at 3M must have cursed me for making them work overtime and treat even invisible scratches.


Here are some pictures from the 3M Paint sealant application session. I took 'Before' pics of the swirl marks, but by the time I could take 'After' pics, it was dark so I will post some more photos a bit later, of the kind of detailing these guys have managed to do on my black car.


The Jet® arriving at 3M and awaiting the treatment. Doesn't look like it needs any 3M treatment at all, eh? *lol*


Entering the pressure wash area












The 'snow' foam application begins.








Scrubbing hard to remove any surface dirt






Allowing the Jet® to dry up



Some sample shots of swirl marks on the paint















The insignificant scratch-like marks that I was talking about are these very minute white lines on the fenders and running boards.



Rubbing, sanding and waxing dispatches all the scratches to hell!








Post paint-sealant application, I take delivery of the mirror-finish Black beast well over night. A full Saturday was well spent in making this car better than a new car.


Special thanks to Sidhu sir, Pradeep, Arvind and all the other 3M staff at the HSR layout car care centre for getting my car to a better-than-new finish!

On the drives front, I changed jobs earlier this year, so I couldn't do as many trips as I would have liked to with the Jet®. Now that I have managed to accumulate some leaves, the flights will begin! The soonest flight is coming up right during Diwali time, and will then be monthly once for the next few months. I'll post here as soon as I have any more ownership aspects to update.

P.S - the Jet®'s younger sibling, christened the Rocket® (sounds corny, I know) is entering my garage next week .

[aviorp]

My gawd! If looks can kill, this is it. She is gorgeous da. Honestly, I dont see much of a difference between the first and the last pic.

Congratulations for the new beauty . I guess it will be the Rocket that might come along for the next few meets.

OT : Would you know, how much would it cost if I get this thing done for the Scorp?

[guyfrmblr]

Wonderful job by 3M car care. I think its time for me to take my car to 3M as there are swirl marks all over the body and some small scratches by Hyundai service guys and two wheelers. How much do they charge for the power shine package? DO we need to take prior appointment?

Eagerly waiting for the ownership report of your Rocket.