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-   -   Growing up with a Fiat Linea T-Jet for 10 years (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-term-ownership-reviews/231632-growing-up-fiat-linea-t-jet-10-years.html)

So this is just going to be review about my time with my fathers FIAT Linea T-jet. A car he loves so dearly that he does not want to part with.




This is not gonna be a full in depth review because this car is 10 years old and no one's really gonna buy one now. And FIAT is dead so.. you get it.

If you want to see a detailed review check this out:https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offic...ve-review.html

LIKES:
*Build Quality
*Handling
*Exterior looks
*Good equipment.
*First car in its segment to have disc brakes on all 4 wheels.

DISLIKES
*Availability of spare parts. ( takes a long time to come)
*Bad resale value.
*Rear headroom is not great.
*Some plastics are rough.
*The ergonomics are not great.

INTRODUCTION

INDEX

THE REASON

BUYING

EXTERIOR

INTERIOR

ENGINE

DRIVING

THE THINGS I LIKE

THE THINGS I DONT LIKE

OWNERSHIP

CONCLUSION

So to understand why my father opted to buy a FIAT let me tell you a bit about him.

My father is a man who loves cars. A man who emphasis on handling over power. He has been watching top gear since 2003. He literally used to make me watch top gear since I was born. He is also a excellent driver and is pretty good with a go kart.

He likes Jags. His favorite car is the Jaguar X-Type. A car that has many similarities with the T-Jet (I'll talk about that later).




So the T-jet is the second car he has owned in his life. The first being a Nissan Altima (year 2002 or 2003). And yes it was the best handling among it's competition.






So after seeing his taste and emphasis , the FIAT Linea T-Jet was the only logical car for him. And when ever I ask him why he bought the T-Jet , he always tells me that it is the best car for a driver and that it has leather seats (Just like the Jag). He Also bought it because it has a turbo (everyone likes a turbo).

So My Father originally wanted to buy a TATA Safari Dicor . A good 4x4 and ute but not a ideal daily driver or family car.



Back in the days TATA and FIAT used to share dealerships. So my father had visited the dealership to check the Safari in August of 2010.

When he came home he told me and my mother that he was gonna buy the T-Jet instead of the Safari. He wanted to by the car because of its handling and turbo .Both of us were like "yeah".

So he had finalized to buy the T-Jet. But there was a problem. The T-Jet was not available until October . So we just waited . I mean its understandable . Everyone likes a 4 banger with a turbo.

So when the bookings opened in October , we went took a test drive and booked the car. We had some Italian man from FIAT thanked us for booking the car (Guess we were one of the first).My father went for the exclusive T-Jet colour ( that weird goldish beige colour).

The car took 3-4 months to reach us. We received the car on 8th January 2011.


(sorry I had photobombed all the photos that day. This is the only one with the car in clear sight)

The Linea looks like a typical Italian car. Only one word can describe it. Beautiful

The Linea definitely has a timeless design. A design that shouts out taste . A design with the right amount of elegance and sportiness , just like a Jag.

The Linea kinda has a coupe design. as you can see.




The front of the car looks beautiful .




The back helps its achieve it's coupe design.





The Linea's design seems to be inspired by the FIAT Coupe. Another legend.

The Interior of the Linea is plain and simple. The Seats and armrests on the doors have leather. The dashboard has this kind on nice soft rubber which easily gets sticky. The steering wheel is surrounded by leather. The glove book area has some hard plastics. the car has two cup holders also.



The build quality is amazing. You get to know that when you open or close the door. It feels heavy and you get that "THUD" sound when you close the door.

The car has dual front airbags, ABS + EBD brakes, leather seats, steering-mounted audio & phone controls, height-adjustable driver seat, height-adjustable driver armrest, climate control, MP3 / CD audio system with Blue&Me (FIAT software) and a USB input, rear air-con vents, a curtain for the rear windscreen, the foldable key with boot release button.

The car has some really good safety features like:
* A door warning system that tells you which door is open.
* The car makes a very loud beep sound if the driver has not worn his/her seat belt.

Always were your seatbelt when you're in your car.


The leather seats are amazing. It's just amazing. Just like a typical Italian car. Honestly, the leather in this car has no wear and tear after 10 years.




The speedometer looks good.




The centre console has a nice and simple look. It has nice quality smooth plastics.



The AC vents are also of high quality.

The switches, speedometer, centre console glow in orange.

The audio quality of the speakers are fine. We are satisfied with it.

dual front airbags, ABS + EBD brakes, leather seats, steering-mounted audio & phone controls, height-adjustable driver seat, height-adjustable driver armrest, climate control, MP3 / CD audio system with "Blue&Me" and USB input, rear air-con vents, a collapsible curtain for the rear windscreen, electric mirrors, the foldable key with boot release button

The back seats are nice and comfortable. The rear headspace is fine. My Head keeps on hitting the sides when I sit upright.



The heading is made of this rough fibre.

Overall it has a solidly built cabin.

The Boot is also nice. You could fill in 5-6 medium-sized suitcases in it.



This photo was taken from the official review.

The T-jet engine is the star of this car. It's a 1.4L turbo 4 cylinder. It has a output of 113 or 115 bhp (Not sure). The engine sound is pretty good . Has that low growl when you floor the car. The engine is mated to a 5 speed manual. The fuel economy is fine. Averages 7-9 kmpl in the city.


This photo was taken from the official review.

Ok, so I am underaged to drive. I am 16 years old so I would come up with my review on the driving experience in two years if my father lets me drive it (Which is highly unlikely).

So in my opinion (As a backseat driver).

My father tells me it is a drivers car.

Talking about the suspension. Its nice, comfortable and stiff. Like a Jag. You can feel the road with this suspension. You can also feel the stiffness when you take a turn in this car.

The road noise in the cabin is not as high as you would expect at highway speeds. You can hear some rattling noises. The wind noise is LOUD.

Overall I would say that its the kind of suspension I would prefer in a car.

The car has brake disks on all 4 wheels. Has pretty good performance.

You need these kind of brakes in this car because you can't stop going fast in it.

There a lot of things I like about this car. Let me state them down over here:

The side mirrors are absolutely beautiful. I am sorry but no other mass market car has better looking mirrors.




The door handles are also beautiful. The chrome on this is very reflective.




The wheels look good a help in making the Linea stand out.




I like the round fuel lid.




And at last I like this.



Same parts as Lancia and Alfa Romeo.

There are also things I don't like about this car. Let me state them over here:

I am not a big fan of the mudgards. Reminds me of the ones on a Defender.






I really hate these chrome bits over the car. Its kinda overkill.







The exhaust pipe looks hideous . And why is it sticking out like that? It just looks horrible.




The color is interesting. But i just hate it when people say it is brown. trying to tell my friends that its not brown kinda goes like this:



Hammond: That's a brown car.
Me: It's beige.
James May: It's clearly brown.
Me: No it's not!
Jezza: It's browwwwn !
Me:Oh shut up.....
( Only true fans would Know)

So the T-jet has done 63252 km under our ownership.

Owning this car has been nice. Built like a tank. Amazing quality inside and outside. The car is perfect for the city and the highway. The car has been dependable. No major faults. Goes to prove that the FIAT does not stand for Fix It Again Tony or Fix It Again Tomorrow

The car has mostly been fault free. Speaks volumes about this cars quality.

The servicing experience would be a 9.5/10 for ten years

The first few years were fine. No problems. Just routine oil changes and stuff.

The car has to go for annual maintenance once a year.

And the car only goes to the service center once year for annual service.

Except once when we had to go after two months . I'll Explain the reason down here

It loses half a rating because of one very Italian repair. So the light bulb of the front headlight had kinda become lose. so the servicing guys put a peace of foam to hold it up. After two months or something we found that out when we took it to another service center in Nagpur (We do a yearly road trip to our home town Nagpur. It's around a total of 2500 km bothways) when we felt the the light was dipping to much. We did not take it seriously .Instead we had a small laugh at that innovative solution.

Otherwise the servicing has been amazing. We are highly satisfied with it. The guys do a great job down there.

Overall the car has had no major faults. just a few light replacements and stuff. The only major one is for the AC. We sent it for annual servicing in December 2020. The Ac unit had become a bit underpowered. The guys said that we would have to wait for the parts. We are actually fine. But this is a example of the problem of availability of parts.

Overall a good experience. We would not mind owning it for another 10 years.

This car is very dear to me. I was 6 years old when this car came home. I a now 16 years old and it has not changed a bit.

Well people ask sometimes if we would buy a new car. We tell them no, we are happy with the T-jet. My father tells them that he loves his car and he would keep it forever. And if we even want to buy a new car what would we buy? There's really not a proper car to upgrade to. The only logical one would be a Jag . But buying a Jag is like buying FIFA points from EA , i.e a bad financial decision. So we would just keep as long as possible.

The next car we would buy would mostly be for me . I always wanted the Abarth as my first car. But now I just have to search for something else to buy for my self because FIAT is dead .

We all took FIAT for granted when they were offering cars for us . Now its gone and we miss it.

Anyways, thank you for reading.

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Reviews section. Thanks for sharing!

Your car will go to our homepage tomorrow :thumbs up

Excellent short review my young friend.

You can tell your dad that he has plenty of head scratching company when it comes time to upgrade. I still haven't found anything that I would like or could afford as the next logical step, so like your dad will keep mine chugging along as long as I can.

PS: Your dad should try driving one with a remap and a bigger Intercooler.

Lovely short review. Reading about your car bought back very fond and wonderful memories of our 9 year old Linea Tjet that we sold in 2019 after having done 80,000+ kms and cannot agree with you more, inspite of all the brickbats by online forum and wisecracks (Fix It Again Tony), the car aged like fine wine!

Hope you don't mind, but can't help sharing some pictures of the beloved...

On of the many road trips!



On the way to Goa, when Chorla was still Chorla. A blast to drive in the Linea! clap:



Great Country, Great Car! :Cheering: