[Utopian]

Your Linea looks absolutely amazing despite it being 15 years old. Kudos to the way you have tended to her. This maroon shade looks the best.

[vigneshram]

Originally Posted by RajBajwa

15 Year Update:

In the last two years I have worked on the car suspension again as they had become weak and there were too many rattles. The car drives like a charm.

I haven’t yet fixed the display of the digital odometer panel in the car. I hence do not know the exact kms that it must have run but it must be in the range of 90,000 kms.

The FIAT Dealer in Salem, TN(True Sai Works is the name of the Dealer) has a solution for the cluster display issue.Contact them for more info.

Car looks awesome. Brings back memories of my FIAT Punto.

[evil_grin]

Originally Posted by RajBajwa

15 Year Update:

Car completed 15 years in October 2024.

How have you been able to make your car look brand spanking new?

Even my cars look way newer than they are but yours looks like it is ready for delivery!

[RajBajwa]

Originally Posted by sunilch

Thanks for sharing the details.

That 20x factor of your bank balance is a good conservative approach. I personally take 11x into account. I never thought someone else too would be using this same approach

But it should ideally be that of your liquid assets and not only bank-balance. I hope that is indeed the case with you. You need to enjoy cars within your reach

I do have 2 cars in my garage, and I think I’ll upgrade both my cars with a cap of 15% of my liquid assets which too I think is too much purely because I am in my mid 40s and I think it’s not a wise expense at this stage in life.
I have become ultra conservative with spending on cars for an upgrade. I think the primary reason now is that the financial priority is to create the retirement corpus before spending on cars and vacations.

In my earlier post when I mentioned the cap of percentage of my bank balance, I meant liquid assets which is a combination of bank deposits and equity market portfolio.

I do not have any debt and do have a full paid house, but I aspire to upgrade it in terms of a larger space and a more desirous neighbourhood in the city as that asset appreciates in value.
I think there is a separate thread in tbhp about how much one should spend on a car and how to manage finances.

Originally Posted by FiatDiesel

Such cars are masterpieces which are rare and getting extinct now. My opinion is you don’t need an upgrade for the sake it’s 15 year old if it’s serving you well.

Thank You. The car is serving me well. I use it regularly. I call it my beater car but I do keep it sparkling clean and shiny with regular wax polishing which I do it myself. Yes, I can manage without the upgrade but if my finances were better, I would definitely have gotten an upgrade whilst keeping the Linea as a 3rd car in the house.

Originally Posted by Utopian

Your Linea looks absolutely amazing despite it being 15 years old. Kudos to the way you have tended to her. This maroon shade looks the best.

Thank You! We are car guys and we'll shower that bit of TLC on our mechanical steeds.

Originally Posted by NavtejS

Your car is looking very nice. Really well maintained. I always liked the design of both linea and Punto.

Many more years of driving with this beauty!

Thank You!

Originally Posted by evil_grin

How have you been able to make your car look brand spanking new?

Even my cars look way newer than they are but yours looks like it is ready for delivery!

Every few months I pull up my sleeves and after giving the car a thorough wash, I polish it myself with carnuba wax polish. I use the formula 1 brand.
I also polish the tyre walls with the specific tyre polish spray to make them look like new.

The car being old has some minor scratches and swirl marks. They didn't get captured in the pictures.

[_Jasim_.__]

Wish I could maintain my car as pristinely as you do, but the external elements and kids in the colony get the best out of it.

nevertheless, your tips and polishing work inspire me to keep up the work, polishing my car every 6 months and keeping her as presentable as possible. When I first read your post I felt very confident that polishing a car would be a fairly easy task. Little did I know that it would completely wear out my elbow grease. It took me four hours and a good level of patience to complete my first-ever polish. Hats off to you for keeping her in pristine condition throughout the years.

One more thing I wanted to ask. Have you changed your rubber and plastic running components (timing belt, engine mounts, air filter box, etc.)? I ask this because it's been 15 years and I am facing these problems ( I have the same spec as you BTW). and sourcing parts has really been a challenge, specifically coolant hoses which I haven't got hold of to date. you can refer to my post if you want, just to give you a reference

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-...l-2-years.html (My experience buying & owning a used Fiat Linea 1.4 Petrol for 2 years)