[pdma]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

By the way, I think the ground clearance of Linea is more than the City, Is there a change in ground clearance for new Linea?

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

I'm really surprised City is still taller than the Linea, even though Linea stands 20mm higher from the ground!

And what a brilliant analysis. Didn't know Linea was 3 lakhs cheaper on road than the City SV

Thank you folks, yes that was a silly typo from my end as you guys rightly pointed out Linea has better GC than the City.

Also let me put a different analysis with the price list as of today on the other thread shortly, we can then see how the numbers fall in place.

Originally Posted by Blue Bird

Well now all I need is a copy of this analysis!

Do take through test drives before you plonk big bucks. All the best and keep us informed.

Originally Posted by Umesh Kumar61

There a few more things which FIAT has not said anywhere and is left for the user to discover.

Thank you Umesh for highlighting them.

Cheers,
pdma.

[pdma]

From a couple of days I was experiencing a slight pull towards the left side and today I took the car to have the wheel alignment checked. After some checks and a test drive the folks manning the stores confirmed the same, and they swapped the front tires left to right and vice versa. Iam not experiencing the pull now, however is this an appropriate solution ? Also I am attaching a copy of the report here and you can see that the primary angles of caster (not sure what this is) are not falling in between the min & max range defined, these guys told me that it is normal and nothing much to worry. I would request knowledge folks to advice so that I can go back if any corrections are needed.




Cheers,
pdma.

[a4anurag]

Sorry to be late to the party PDMA Sir, just noticed this thread of Linea!

Brilliant looking car IMO even more pronounced are the lines with the Grey shade. Good colour selection.

I can see the registration number bearing 'TS 10' - which is Bowenpally area. Where are you staying? I stay nearby!

Wish you happy long miles of ownership with this beauty!

[Autocop]

PDMA - Congrats. Wish you many many happy miles and good time with your new ride.

Drive safe, take care!

[pdma]

Originally Posted by a4anurag

Brilliant looking car IMO even more pronounced are the lines with the Grey shade. Good colour selection.

I can see the registration number bearing 'TS 10' - which is Bowenpally area. Where are you staying? I stay nearby

Thank you Anurag,
Honestly Grey was not my first choice, it was Pearl white which eventually ran out of stock due to delays from one of the dealer here. I have started liking the grey now though . Well the TS 10 is only the TR registration as I took the car from AV motors Secundrabad, the actual registration is TS 15 as the I stay in Ameenpur which falls under Medak district.

Originally Posted by Autocop

PDMA - Congrats. Wish you many many happy miles and good time with your new ride.

Drive safe, take care!

Thank you very much Autocop. Yes, for sure Iam enjoying the drive and every minute I spend with it.

Cheers,
pdma.

[pdma]

Its hard to resist a few temptations and driving the Linea has already made to the top of this list in my case. The car urges you to drive more, the sheer pleasure of cuddling yourself with this beauty coupled with the awesome drive experience irks the greed in you to find out more excuses to hit the roads.



So it was mid April and I was to attend a training for my career enhancement in Bangalore. Flash !!! and without any second thoughts I opted to drive down instead of taking the usual Arial route, two other like minded friends & colleagues jumped in and we were all set. The training was scheduled on 20 & 21 April, what better could it get with a weekend to spare at hand. So it was decided that we would start of Friday afternoon and hit Bandipur spend the weekend admit the wildlife and move onto Bangalore.



With a raw plan at hand the journey was set off and no hotel reservations were made as we were unclear on our options and time to be spent at each location enroute. The only thing we had in the mind was Hyderabad > Bandipur > Mysore > Bangalore > Hyderabad.

Odo reading at the start of the trip



It was Friday 17-April around 2 PM I pulled my baby out of the parking lot for the long run ahead. I head straight to a fuel station en route and got the tank up in the usual method (auto cutoff), got the air checked and slowly moved around the city to pick my friends up. A little after 4 PM we crossed the city limits and we were crunching miles at a gradual pace. We were in Anantapur by 810 PM and took a 50 min break for dinner and resumed our journey by 9 PM.
As soon as we crossed the border and entered Karnataka we have started encountering huge speed breakers which have jolted us a few times and tested the breaking ability of the car to a large extent. We managed to reach the outskirts of Bangalore by 11:15 PM and stopped for a tank up again as there was bandh planned on the next day 18th April.



Following the GPS we took the right from Hebbal and planned to take the bypass route and hit the Mysore highway however we never imagined that at 1130 PM there could be heavy traffic jams. It was around 2 AM when we crossed the Christ college onwards to Mysore after we successfully evaded the traffic madness. Took a 10 min break and started proceeding further. The nightmarish speed hills / mountains continued all along the Mysore road and we were fed up with the frequency we were encountering these humps which killed all the momentum. After the torturous drive we hit Mysore by 430 AM and we took another 10 min break.

The GPS guided us well and we reached the Bandipur forest gate by 545 AM, 15 min prior to the opening of the gates. There as already a huge line of vehicles waiting for the gates to open. After a snails pace for a kilometer or so we were into the lap of nature and the feeling was out of the world.

Sunrises always look special when you are in lush greens.



The dew drops giving the car a relaxing therapy after the long drive.



We took the safari organized by the forest department and I should admit we were lucky enough to spot some wildlife, a few pictures below.



The most common & exciting sight in the forest.



We got a glimpse of some Tusker's as well.



Hello people





In the gracious company



It was around 8 AM by the time we completed our 1 hour safari ride. We were exhausted, totally down on energy levels as it was close to 18 hours that we have been driving and it started showing a toll on our bodies.
We started looking for some accommodation and found a few however the prices quoted were exorbitant, hence we came downhill and finally bargained a cottage at Vanavihar for Rs 2600 for 24 hours. We took a quick shower had mild breakfast and crashed onto the bed and no one knew what happened in this world for the next 4 hours.

The cottage we stayed in.



It was half past two by the time we woke up and walked to the restaurant for lunch. Post lunch we spent some time in leisure and then went to a nearby temple on the hill top.



On the return we entered the forest again and spotted a beautiful peacock and some deers.



We returned to the hotel by 7 pm and had some early dinner and retired to bed by 9 PM. Had an excellent sleep, we were up by 5 AM the next day and by 6 AM we were ready to roll again.

The car was covered in a thick blanket of dew by the time I walked upto it in the morning. I anticipated this to happen as we have seen heavy fog the previous morning and hence I made sure I cleaned the car thoroughly with good amounts of water the previous night before hitting the bed. This saved the car from the bad combination of murk+fog and it would have been really hard to get rid of the stains later as we all know.





The plan was to have breakfast at Mysore and so we went back to the forest got some fresh air circled around for an hour amidst the wildlife and started down hill by 7 AM.



The greenery constantly kept us enveloped.



Spotted a T-Jet as well.



And we moved on to Mysore, Adios !!!



It would be a while again before the me and the car gets this fresh oxygen.

[pdma]

@ Mysore and the return journey.



As per the plan we were in Mysore a little before 9 AM and stopped for breakfast.
Post breakfast we went for some shopping and bought some items made of Sandle and all of us bought some famous Mysore silk for the ladies back home. After filling the boot by emptying out pockets.



You can see the suspension has lowered to a large extent post the full utilization of the 500L boot space.



We moved on towards the amazing heritage, The Mysore palace and we were awestruck.



I had some social visits in Mysore and by the time I closed them it was around 3:30 PM and we proceed towards Brindavan gardens. The place still looks beautiful however the most famous garden from yester years seems to be out of scope of the swach Bharath mission.





We purposefully skipped the light show and moved on to Bangalore and en route we were hit badly by heavy traffic all through the Mysore Bangalore road (weekend movement), this coupled by the speed mountains only made our journey miserable and we reached Bangalore only around 1030 PM.
We stopped for a quick bite and proceeded towards our hotel. Took a good long shower and retired for the day so that we are active for the eventful next day.
The two day training was insightful and the lunch at Eloft ( where the sessions were conducted) was good .
On Tuesday we reembarked the return journey and started around 6 PM. By the time we came near Elanhka it was 830 PM so we stopped for some dinner and started again at 9:15 PM after a refill.



I took a quick nap while my friend was at the wheel and we switched places around 1230 AM with 8 KM to Anantapur. We were home by 430 AM, both me and the car took a good shower and retired to get some rest.



Overall the trip has really been amazing and would definitely be a memorable one. Thankfully no events occured and we returned safe.

The Drive experience.

> During the onward Journey the car ran for about 19 hours with minimal breaks and it did not show any fatigue.
> The drive was simply amazing and the Linea gobbled miles with easy.
> The under thigh support was excellent and we were definitely comfortable all along the long hours spent in the car.
> However the 18 hour drive (onward) and all of which I was in sitting position did give me a lower back ache post day 1, and thankfully I returned to normalcy by the evening that day.
> With multiple seat adjustment options it was easy to get a good position and sit comfortably at the wheel.
> As my car is the dynamic variant I sorely missed the cruise control option.
> There were times on the return when I was taking curves at some speeds that I do not want to mention here and the car hug the roads like a leech and never did I feel I should lighten my right foot.
> A Scorpio and a Duster kept me some company from Kurnool, they were hard to keep up with on straight roads but when it came to huge curves the Linea overtook them with so much ease and the car was as comfortable as a fish in the water.
> The 1.3L showed its short comings when negotiating the higher hairpins on the ghats where the car did break into sweat and had to be slotted into 1st a few times to gain momentum.
> The engine is a different beast all together post the 2500 rpm and the car behaves absolutely composed no matter what kind of tarmac you throw at it.

Final Odo reading



The fuel efficiency stayed a tad lower than the 20kmpl mark on all the three refills due to the speeds, ghats and heavy traffic conditions in Bangalore city.



Some pics of the car in the beautiful locations.



You can partially see me at the wheel.



Absolutely loving every minute Iam spending with the car .

Cheers,
pdma.

[ghodlur]

@pdma,

Nice pics and nice narration. Suggest you to start a separate travelogue thread to capture the essence of the trip.

Its been ages since I visited Mysore, good to recollect some of those place through your pics. Have to plan a visit soon.

[Blue Bird]

I like the way you take care of the car , I wouldn't have had the energy to give it a wash before hitting the bed , specially after such a long drive.
Nice narration , keep it coming
cheers.

[arun_josie]

Very nice pics there! and a nice write-up.

Speed breakers before bangalore entry is a known thing. And during day time you can see cops stopping over speeding vehicles. Speed limit is 80Kms which is very difficult to follow in those stretches.

Originally Posted by pdma

Its hard to resist a few temptations and driving the Linea has already made to the top of this list in my case. The car urges you to drive more, the sheer pleasure of cuddling yourself with this beauty coupled with the awesome drive experience irks the greed in you to find out more excuses to hit the roads.

This is very true.

Started planning for the next drive

[pdma]

Originally Posted by Blue Bird

I like the way you take care of the car , I wouldn't have had the energy to give it a wash before hitting the bed , specially after such a long drive.
Nice narration , keep it coming
cheers.

Thank You mate.

Originally Posted by ghodlur

@pdma,

Nice pics and nice narration. Suggest you to start a separate travelogue thread to capture the essence of the trip.

Thank You ghodlur,

Well it was just a short trip, also I did not have much to elaborate and hence I accommodated the small posts and a few pics in my ownership thread here.

Originally Posted by arun_josie

This is very true.

Started planning for the next drive

Why am I not surprised :-).

Cheers,
pdma.

[pdma]

The car was dropped last week for the first service (5000Km / 6months).
Service Center : Butta Automotive.
Number of KM on odo : 4780.
Type of Service : Free.
In Time : 930 AM
Out Time : 11:30 AM
Total Bill : Rs 2541 (As I opted for engine oil and filter change).



I called the SC a day before and booked the appointment for 930 AM. I was on time and just managed to park the car in the parking slot. People from Hyderabad would know
why I specifically mentioned about parking, as Butta has got the worst parking space and most of the times the cars parked outside the service center cause a huge traffic jam leading to uninvited trouble. There was only one SA that day and he was quick enough to clear the queue. No complaints and as per the schedule the service center is expected to check the fluid levels and alignment, however I requested for oil change and filter change and I informed them that I would bear the cost. After a little hesitation they accepted the requested and the car was pulled into the service bay after another 10 min.
I preferred to stay back along with the car and spent some good time with the GM Nagaraju there. He seemed to be a very good person and we spoke about FIAT and a few
general things. I watched the car being rolled to the alignment station and I followed it stood there and had a conversation with some mechanics there.

@ the alignment bay.



Post the alignment they changed the engine oil & filter and everything happened under my watchful eye. Post this they wanted to take the car for a wash however I did not see the need for the same as I already cleaned it thoroughly a few days back and hence opted out. The GM was generous and informed me that I can avail the free wash any time I prefer in the future and I definitely felt good.



Not my car but this is a Punto at the service center, I clicked this picture to show how well they covered the steering wheel and the seat to avoid stains.



Overall I was happy with the service and rated them as 9/10 on the feedback form as we all have room for improvement. The next day I received a call from the CRM and she took the feedback over the call and just before the close of the call she informed me that I can drop the car anytime I prefer for the free wash as I missed the same during the service, a good gesture from them.

Cheers,
pdma.

[pdma]

The 5000 KM mark came up in about 61 days of ownership and what an awesome experience it has been so far.



The current ODO reading stands close to 5500 KM and the car has clocked around 700 KM post the first service and the engine for sure is revving better now. In some occasions I have maintained the RPM at 2100 in gear 3 & 4 and the turbo kicking in is clearly evident with a small tap on the accelerator.Not even a single squeak anywhere inside the cabin in-spite of the car running on all kinds of tarmac.

For anyone who is under the misconception that the Linea is bad at fuel efficiency, below stats might help them think different.



Best & worst fuel efficiency till date.



Average monthly fuel efficiency.



Graph showing the FE over a per of time as per refills.



Some additional stats.

ODO graph in this period of ownership.



The average refill cost per Km is approximately Rs 2.7.



Fuel cost in this period of ownership.



I have already spoken about the pros and cons extensively in the previous posts and hence do not want to repeat the same.
Iam extremely happy with the car and every time I roll it out of my parking at home it gives me immense satisfaction. As I have been mentioning and also showcased via a chart a few posts before The Fiat Linea is definitely a classic example of an under rated true Value For Money without any compromise on quality and the recent examples of multiple folks traveling thousands of kilometers along with their family for vacations is a true testimonial of what the car is all about.

Cheers,
pdma.

[pdma]

Its been close to 1000KM post the first scheduled service and so far all is well. The car is running definitely smoother and continues to impress me in many ways. As most of you would have understood by now that Iam a very sedate driver, I maintain good distance between vehicles, avoid hard braking, avoid sudden acceleration and the gear shifts happen below 2K. Also my work timings do not push me in bumper to bumper traffic and hence I do get some excellent FE which does make me happy, below are the numbers after the recent refill yesterday.




Average speed maintained.



Trip distance.



To avoid any ambiguity on the FE numbers I usually post, Iam adding the invoice details as well to ensure 100% transparency.



Overall historical FE chart, on the recent refill I again noticed that the tankful to tankful calculation resulted in a higher number than the MID.



Cheers,
pdma.

[pdma]

With the heat coming down, occasional showers and with a few more days left for the schools to reopen meant that this is an apt time to have the machine flex its muscles again.

Destination : Shirdi.
Start date : 12 June 2015
Return date : 14 June 2015

The plan is in place and with a slight confusion still lingering around on which route to take of the below.

Option A : Hyderabad > Zaheerabad > Sholapur > Ahmednagar > Shirdi.



Option B : Hyderabad > Nirmal > Nanded > Shirdi.



Option A being shorter is known to have a bad stretch between Zaheerabad & Sholapur whereas option B even though slightly longer seems to have better roads. I did read go through some information on the driving conditions along both the options and Iam yet to decide which one to choose. Looking forward for the trip and I will keep you folks updated on the trip stats when Iam back.

Cheers,
pdma.