[manish7]

Originally Posted by VahanPujari

Yday only I mentioned here no niggling issues except for 1-2. Ironically, I faced them today itself (mentioned in my ownership thread in scattered posts, recapturing here in consolidated form)

PART-1 :: Yesterday my Pen Drive dropped between 2 front seats. While picking it up from the floor, I saw a triangular Plastic cover/ cowl like thingy on the floor between 2 seats. I could not find location from where it has fallen off. 1st 2 pics below are of this plastic thingy which decided to have a stroll in my car on its own.

PART-2 ::
Since it gave me a high dose of irritation & I was continuously feeling uncomfortable that how such things happen in Rs. 8 Lacs premium car, today my restlessness again prompted me to check where it has fallen off from. While I could not find the location, what I found was even more horrible. Another whole Plastic Cover is missing from under the driver seat door side near the seat height adjuster lever thro' which the seat belt comes out & which covers the entire assembly of seat height lever & reclining lever. On the Passenger side the same cover is intact whereas on driver side entire assembly is exposed & looks horrible in a brand new Linea. Both pics - passanger side & driver side with & without that plastci cover are posted below:

I'm more upset on how these stupid things are happening & the quality. I mean I owned a Ford Ikon & In almost 6 years with 90,000 kms, such small plastics, buttons, nothing inside the cabin came out nor needed any replacement. No niggling issue at all. Plastic finish & fittings was spotless. What worries me more is the way the missing plastic cover is fitted. I've seen it on passenger side. It'll come out imdtly with a slightly harsh pull of seat belt. It looks very shoddy. Looking back, all mechanism in Linea - be it seat height adj lever, seat recline lever, these plastci covers types, steering tilt lever are sub-standard & flimsy. Quality can be experienced when you touch these types & they feel rock-solid. Here, you feel it can fall off any time.

Fiat - If you're reading this, you're spoiling my ownership experience. Giving good quality plastics & finish won't cost you more than Rs. 2K-4K & why to spoil overall excellent car with such small items

Had to quote entire thread because I really agree with every point mentioned in it. And this has been my biggest concern about buying GP or Linea - I know these are petty issue but I will be very annoyed if plastic just keeps falling every now and then. Again, I wholeheartedly agree with what VahanPujari mentioned as a conclusion - it's just a matter of few thousand rupees more. Customers are spending 9L+ for MJD emotion+ and such experiences just make you very, very disappointed. And this quality, is not subjective, looks can be subjective.

Fiat, please give better quality plastics and smallish fitments to this beautiful car, it surely deserves better.

Originally Posted by amit_mechengg

i will try to contact the service and design as well as production people of fiat and ask them their action plan for the small issues mentioned here.
one thing i know is that FIAT is damn serious about the customers and they also have a special team that will act on special war-footing basis to solve any problem that customers have. also the dealer have been advised so.

It would be great if you can do it!

ps. I'd be obliged if someone can teach me how to use multi-quote.

[greenhorn]

I guess fiat's learning a thing or two from tata. So far we've had only these sort of threads for tata cars

well, its not alone. even the newer marutis have plastics that rattle to kingdom come , but for fiat, a brand which sells because they are built like a tanks®, this is a strict no no

@ manish - Team-BHP - Team-BHP FAQ: Advanced Forum Usage

[lineattack]

I love my Linea MJD E+ and like all my previous Fiat buys (the Palio and the Uno) this one is built like a tank too. The only irritant I have faced is that the right rear quarter glass chrome strip had fallen off within a few days and Fiat has not been able to fix it so far. Prerana Motors says they dont have a part number to order it. First service is coming up and I hope they get it by then. Here is a pic of the issue.

[gemithomas]

I dont really understand the indian customer mindset. FIAT gave us great quality cars at very competitive prices in the UNO and the first 2 variants of the Palio with not enough takers. We still have users with their old palios without any major issues or even rattles on the plastics.

Now they come up with cost cut editions of palio and suddenly there are a number of buyers who later complain about sqeaks and rattles. They then give out a linea with interiors and exteriors that look a class above at a price at the lower segment. And again we have buyers who later complain about quality of plastics and other niggling rattles. I know i am going to get killed for this by both FIAT and Non-FIAT Fans. But the linea too had a price to meet. They handle better than a verna, eat up potholes better than a fiesta or even a honda and looks a class higher from any angle both inside and outside. Now dont tell me that you guys did not know that FIAT should have compromised somewhere to stay within the price bracket.

I find it quite an acheivement that the compromises are only on the chrome strips and the pastic fittings.(Atleast as per the story this far.)

[VahanPujari]

Originally Posted by gemithomas

I dont really understand the indian customer mindset. FIAT gave us great quality cars at very competitive prices in the UNO and the first 2 variants of the Palio with not enough takers. We still have users with their old palios without any major issues or even rattles on the plastics.

Now they come up with cost cut editions of palio and suddenly there are a number of buyers who later complain about sqeaks and rattles. They then give out a linea with interiors and exteriors that look a class above at a price at the lower segment. And again we have buyers who later complain about quality of plastics and other niggling rattles. I know i am going to get killed for this by both FIAT and Non-FIAT Fans. But the linea too had a price to meet. They handle better than a verna, eat up potholes better than a fiesta or even a honda and looks a class higher from any angle both inside and outside. Now dont tell me that you guys did not know that FIAT should have compromised somewhere to stay within the price bracket.

I find it quite an acheivement that the compromises are only on the chrome strips and the pastic fittings.(Atleast as per the story this far.)

Agreed & which is what I also have been insisting all along that these issues are small which can be fixed / rectified easily by FIAT. But these are too petty issues to be allowed to tarnish image of an overall excellent car. Better quality plastics, chrome strip glue etc would have cost 2K, 5K or at the most 10K. Why to allow it to distort an overall excellent VFM package Car?

On your 2nd point - you never know where all compromises have been made though till date it does not seem that compromises are made anywhere else than plastics

[SkyWalker]

@gemi: I am sorry - but i cannot agree to this philosophy. If i buy a car close to 9L on road, most owners would find these irritating to say the least. Instead spend 10K extra - make sure they are of good quality. Ask any person spending 7l+ on a car and he/she would happily spent that 10K extra to make sure nothing falls off.

To me this is not cost cutting, but poor quality control.

[pradster]

So barring the plastics everything else with the car is solid? does not sound like a bad deal to me!!

[manish7]

Originally Posted by SkyWalker

@gemi: I am sorry - but i cannot agree to this philosophy. If i buy a car close to 9L on road, most owners would find these irritating to say the least. Instead spend 10K extra - make sure they are of good quality. Ask any person spending 7l+ on a car and he/she would happily spent that 10K extra to make sure nothing falls off.

To me this is not cost cutting, but poor quality control.

Exactly. Agree wholeheartedly here. It will be great if Fiat can actually work on these smallish issues and fix those problems by having stricter quality control for its vendors.

[gemithomas]

Originally Posted by manish7

Exactly. Agree wholeheartedly here. It will be great if Fiat can actually work on these smallish issues and fix those problems by having stricter quality control for its vendors.

The Palio Adventure Costed Close to 7L and there are still people driving around without rattles and minor glitches. The Palio Adventure Sport came at a pricing of close to 1L less. My Sport rattles, its got a lot of minor glitches and i can very well see a lot of compromises even when i compare it with the UNO we had at home.

The Ford fusion (the first models) came at above 7L. I have not heard of any major complaints with their owners. We bought the newer fusion which came at just above 6L. We have changed a few shock absorbers and most owners have had the plastic beadings flying around when doing high speeds.

It was not just the ABS and the power rear view morrors and other extras that were removed to reduce cost. There was always a decline in quality aspects too.

How many would have bought a linea if it was priced even 50-80K higher. Its not a question of a few thousands when it comes to improving quality controls and improving plastic quality and proper more controls with vendors. There is a much larger cost involved which i dont think we would have been willing to bear for the car from FIAT atleast.

I am in no way saying that its ok for the beadings to fly off and the plastics to fall off. I was just saying that its a very minor glitch that is very common when the manufacturer thinks of cost cutting. I'm sure FIAT will take care of things in the newer batches.


I think i am leading this thread to OT discussions. Will stop. Just wanted to share my views. Sorry. Lets continue with the topic.

[autocarcr]

Originally Posted by VahanPujari

Agreed & which is what I also have been insisting all along that these issues are small which can be fixed / rectified easily by FIAT. But these are too petty issues to be allowed to tarnish image of an overall excellent car. Better quality plastics, chrome strip glue etc would have cost 2K, 5K or at the most 10K. Why to allow it to distort an overall excellent VFM package Car?

On your 2nd point - you never know where all compromises have been made though till date it does not seem that compromises are made anywhere else than plastics

Originally Posted by SkyWalker

@gemi: I am sorry - but i cannot agree to this philosophy. If i buy a car close to 9L on road, most owners would find these irritating to say the least. Instead spend 10K extra - make sure they are of good quality. Ask any person spending 7l+ on a car and he/she would happily spent that 10K extra to make sure nothing falls off.

To me this is not cost cutting, but poor quality control.

@Vahan: A Agree- I just saw a few days back (when i went to enquire about GP) newer batch of Linea emotion+ and the plastic was absolutely first class! No problem whatsoever and as far as the petrol Linea is concerned when i recently took a TD I didn't hear one single rattling sound- the fit and finish of the car was solid both inside and outside! The chrome strips were intact even though the car showed a reading of 2700 km- and I don't think the showroom repaired any chrome peel-offs because I privately asked the manager about the problem. So I don't think the others should be making such a big issue out of such small day-day issues.

@skywalker: I do not agree with you. A car even if it was 9 lacs OTR can afford to have minor glitches like chrome strip peeling off. When Honda cars riduculously priced at close to 10lacs OTR can atrociously sell without having meagre facilities such as CD player, Climate control, Fog lamps or bluetooth- I would rather buy a CHEAPER (by paying close to 2 lacs cheaper for petrol) more feature laden, service backed up car like the Linea. Spending 200K less on a VFM car is the new 'philosophy'- Linea is not cost cutting Honda is cost jacking!

So everyone stop nagging about minor issues which might nibble into Linea sales and start protesting against ridiculous Honda pricing!

[vipul_singh]

Although my experience with FIAT boils down to just one vehicle (my GTX), I have developed huge faith in FIAT's depth of engineering. I suffered many of the same problems in the intial 2-3 months of ownership as many of the Linea owners have identified. But since then, the car has been (almost) as reliable as the sun, even over some really bad terrain. In fact, once the initial rattles got gradually rectified, there have been no further surprises for the past 7 years.

A few weeks ago, the boot lock started getting sticky in its operation (fixed by lubrication). To my surprise, I could not recall when was the last time the car developed a problem.

I hope the Linea too would earn a reputation for long-term reliability. I am not writing this to defend FIAT (I am not related to FIAT in any way, so why should I?). I say this to try to reassure the Linea owners that things might not be nearly as bad as they seem now.

[SkyWalker]

Originally Posted by autocarcr

@skywalker: I do not agree with you. A car even if it was 9 lacs OTR can afford to have minor glitches like chrome strip peeling off. When Honda cars riduculously priced at close to 10lacs OTR can atrociously sell without having meagre facilities such as CD player, Climate control, Fog lamps or bluetooth- I would rather buy a CHEAPER (by paying close to 2 lacs cheaper for petrol) more feature laden, service backed up car like the Linea. Spending 200K less on a VFM car is the new 'philosophy'- Linea is not cost cutting Honda is cost jacking!

Dude, you are reading this completely wrong. I never claimed Linea is not VFM. I don't know why you are quoting Honda here, no one claimed Honda is cheap or VFM anyway. But remember - when you buy a City you know the price already and you know the features are missing. Do you really know the chrome and plastics will fall off when you buy the Linea? There are few brands here who are famous for rattles and niggling issues. I am not sure if FIAT want to go that path and get branded like that.

As for niggling issue - to me i will be irritated for sure. I guess all of us have different tolerance levels. Luckily i have been happy with my Palio, seven years and still going strong and has no niggling issues that i have seen so far.

Anyway, been talking a lot in this thread. I will move on. I am still hoping Linea would come up as #1 or #2 in this segment for the sheer value it offers.

[VahanPujari]

Originally Posted by SkyWalker

Anyway, been talking a lot in this thread. I will move on. I am still hoping Linea would come up as #1 or #2 in this segment for the sheer value it offers.

Since I got a dubious distinction of initiating this debate, would like to sum it up from my perspective. I've always maintained that these are very vey small issues & can be easily fixed without costing much to FIAT. Believing FIAT's image of "built like tank" cars, I hope & trust FIAT will rectify these issues & also replace & rectify them in initial owners' Lineas (FIAT - are you reading this thread?).

As for Linea, I've always maintained that its a fabulous car, a class apart from its segment. I feel its priced almost 1.5 - 2 lacs lower (because of obvious reasons) than what it should command (imagine, if everything remain the same & only the badge changes from FIAT to Honda or Maruti, at what price would Honda/ Maruti have positioned it)

I wish Linea to do very well, this segment needs a car to really stand up & give tough competition to the estblished models which will be good for the industry & the market (like what Reliance & Airtel did in mobile telephony? We know how it has impacted overall market, economy & convenience of much larger population)

[Santy]

Being a Linea Owner for 3 months and 3200 kms, driven to all sorts of terrains I can say its a too good product

one has to understand that Automobile is a very complex product and when the new product is launched its filled with whole lot of complex support activities on production, these intial cars may develope some unfortunate irritating issues to few owners as the settling of these background process on production take some time. that cant really categorise the product on issues side.

so I would request moderators to change the title on more neutral side

till date I havent faced any issue on my Petrol Linea and I am enjoying driving it every day

I normally put my radio On so have not noticed noises if any, but kind of roads we drive cars ON, I would put more credit to government for noises

mine being Active model I dont have chrome to fall off

I agree with the Headlights throw issue raised, I need to get my Headlights adjusted for long throw, in lower beam its really too short

I belive rather than discussing the niggling issues (which are so minor, and all brands have it), the owners should start discussing their drivability experience of the ownership period and the car characteristics

To start with me

I have frequently driven it on Mumbai Pune Express highway, once to Harihareshware and Once to Mahabaleshware

the Petrol car is lot more fun if you can adjust to its high rpm power and push it sufficiently in each gear before changing, otherwise it will be boring

the pick up has got better after 1500 Kms

the most important is the mileage, i am getting 16-17 on Mumbai Pune Exp highway. City its 11 -12 kmpl . I am so happy that I go Thane to Pune and
back in Rs 850 /-. with FIAT Petrol, (before buying everybody Cautioned me for, I dont repent on my decision for Petrol)


I did my first service with Rs 0/- bill, the next service is @ 15,000 kms which will be 1 year of driving for me and, so I will not spend single penny on maintenance for a year

I normally drive fast getting down from Khandala Ghat, on turns at speed I feel the steering is not 100% accurate and needs some corrections while turning. its may be due to the soft suspension on rear which sort of throwing tail out and so its giving some effect on steering, I dont know, that is my conclusion

The braking is just too good, I dont have ABS but hardly felt the need as braking is quite effective, but once when I was driving on kind of narrow village road, suddenly before I could realise the Tar road section just got over to kuccha rasta, panically I slammed the brakes on the end of Tar rad which was sandy, brakes did get locked the car skid but it just went in straight with out loosing its line, there was no other car or obstracle on the road to meet with any unfortunate accident, but I was really surprised with the way brakes were tuned proporatnately to all the wheels to keep it straight even with skidding

I would certainly reccomand this car to all the inteding buyers, for its build quality, solidity, the equipments for the Price, low cost of operating and maintenance, and last but not the least the Admiration which is gauranteed, dont worry about small niggling issues, if at all they are there because in return you will get lot more for the penny you are spending from her

[trrk]

Hi,

Originally Posted by Santy

I agree with the Headlights throw issue raised, I need to get my Headlights adjusted for long throw, in lower beam its really too short

Did you not get a better throw even with the headlamp level switch?