[sandeepmohan]

My ride is finally here. It was a painfully long wait though. I had never planned on buying a Linea T Jet Plus. The decision to buy this car happeneed after a test drive. It was the best thing to have happened. My wife and I had decided that it was time to replace our Ford Ikon. All it did was drain my wallet. Fixing it cost so much. Not the gas. I would have held on to the car if it was cheap to fix. It was a 11 year old car. I have a tendency to get emotionally attached to just about anything I buy. A car is next to human for me. If something is not working right, it needs to be addressed right away with a cost no concern approach. I could not do this anymore. I was simply unable to save any money at the rate the car was visiting Ford work shops. I don't really blame the car. It was old and every old car needs attention once in a while. It was Ford that ruined it. After a good 9 years in to production they had not managed to bring down the cost to maintain a Ikon. It looked like they did not care. The Ikon is a wonderful car. It is an out right drivers car (except for the pathetic brakes), is spacious, comfortable and is built well. The car had to go. The replacement had to be a drivers car. I made this very clear to my wife. However, she was not happy about buying another new Ford after the Ikon experience. She had a very valid point. At the time, the only other car I wished to buy was the Fiesta S. By the time I went to Ford they had stopped production of this car. The next best option for the ultimate drivers car under 8 lacs was the Fiesta Classic. This was the only option. The pricing did not make any sense though. Ford did drop the prices for the Fiesta Classic but it was effective only on the base and mid variant. They actually jacked up the Sxi price on the Classic. This was the variant I wanted. It made no sense paying 9 lac for what is an old model now. I liked the Fiesta's looks, not the price. I started saving up for this car. It was not easy. My wife was pregnant and we had to save money for the hospital expenses. Only the married club will understand the expenses involved during this phase and what is lined up after your little one arrives. I decided that it was time I quit all small luxuries in life as this was the only way I could save up a decent down payment for our new car. I stopped buying music, stopped going to the pub and a couple of other things just to save up.

One day, a Fiat nut head in my office who drives a Grande Punto called for the T Jet test drive from KHT Motors. He was not planning on driving the car himself. The drive was for me and another colleague. One test drive was all it took and it was decided immediately that this was going to be my next new car. Had a chat with my wife on delaying our car purchase a little more so that we could save up for the Fiat. The best part was she loved the Linea. It was a car she always wanted us to have but never mentioned it or even knew what it was called. When I showed her pictures of the car I had in mind, she got very excited. Funding this car was the only concern as it was 11lacs. Not a comfortable number for me. I started doing my research on Team Bhp, Team Fiat and read everything I possibly could about the car. I did reach out to a couple of Fiat owners on their experience with new generation Fiats and the response was very positive.

Our son Manhar was born on 3rd October, I sold the Ford a month and a half later and once I got 95% maternity reimbursement from Insurance, I booked a Sun Beam Beige T Jet Plus. It did not go very well with KHT Motors. I finally ended up re booking the car with Prerana Motors. These guys know how to sell cars. I got delivery of my T Jet on 15th December 2011. It was a long wait to drive my new FIat. It also happens to be the first new car in my family. My folks were really happy. Prerana were unable to get the IND number plate done on the same day so I drove off with a Registered sticker on the wind shield. I was among the 30 odd car deliveries Prerana did on 15th December. Out of the 30 cars, 23 of them were yellow cab Indica cars. I was probably the last one to take delivery for the day. It was a grand event, at least for me. I requested Ms. Sudha from Prerana to do a little puja for the car and she was happy to do it. The entire Prerana team were present for my car delivery. Right from Mr. Praveen, Mr. Ananth, Mr. Srinivas and Ms. Sudha. Apart from them I had Senior Manager - Sales Satisfaction & Support Mr. Sai Kumar V.C & Mr. Suresh Hegde who is Divisional Manager - Finance and Accounts at Prerana. There was no real need for these people to be present but they were and it makes all the difference. I doubt if I would have got one third of this treatment had I stuck to KHT Motors.

Before delivery, I was at the showroom to collect all the documents such as receipts, extended warranty information, Car Manual, etc. Prerana have dedicated staff at every level. The keys were also handed over at this point. Once this was done, I was taken to the car and this felt really good. I took a quick look around the car. Except for a slight misalinghment at the bottom of the rear door, something I did not notice during the pre delivery inspection, everything was spot on perfect. Ms. Sudha and Mr. Srinivas introducded me to some of the electronic toys that the car has. I found it difficult to listen to their instructions. All I wanted to do was drive my new car. Days before the 15th, I was having dreams of driving my new ride. Afer this I asked the team responsible for my car for a group photograph and then handed over a box of sweets from KC Das to each member of the Prerana team. Mr. Praveen deserved more than a box of sweets and I am going to buy him something for the incredible support.

Driving out of Prerana was scary. It was around 7pm and Lalbagh was jam packed with traffic. I took it easy. FIrst thing was to tank up. I moved the car out gently and onto the road. The first drive was a bit of a struggle. I was not comfortable. Something with the seat setting was not right. I was sinking towards the rear of the seat . As many have reported, it does take a while to find the right driving position. The drive home was a nightmare. I could not go past 3rd gear or 40Kmph. It was horrible traffic all the way home. I was so worried about someone running too close to the car. After reaching home I had to deal with the turning radius problem all Fiat cars suffer from. Took a while to park the car but finally did. I managed to sync up my phone over Blue N Me. Incredible feature. It even read out an SMS. One annoying problem was the Blue N Me to start up at really high volume. I made a call to my folks to tell them I had taken delivery of the car and the volume was way too high. I hope there is a way to drop the default phone call volume.

The climate control system on this car is pretty cool. Evenings during this part of the year are pleasant in Bangalore and you don't really need air conditioning. You need it only to keep out noise, pollution and dust. So I set the air conditioning to around 24.5 degrees. The system was sending out luke warm air out of the central ducts and cold air out of the side ducts. Pretty awesome this. I guess this is how it maintains the set temperature.

Next up was the stereo. I dropped in a CD and plugged in a USB drive full of music. Upon every crank the stereo would start playing music off the USB. The Media Player to be precise. The Media player on this car is actually a part of the Blue N Me feature. Not the CD player and Radio. The solution to this was to switch off Auto Play in My Car setup. I have not explored too much of the Blue N Me so will post more on this later. One thing I did discover was the voice commands. The phone received a new text message and the Blue N Me asked, while driving, if I would like the system to read out the SMS. I said yes and the lady voice in Blue N Me read it out. Ain't that cool. There are a ton of things that you can get Blue N Me to do. There is a dedicated user manual for this too.

In all the driving I have done, H 175km to be precise, I have not revved over 2200rpm. I plan on setting a speed alarm at 110 Kmph. I want the engine to bed in well during the first 1000km. It is not a very quiet engine. When I cranked the car up the next morning, it sounded like a diesel on the outside. The inside is quiet. I guess this has to do with the new engine. All moving parts are nice and tight and they need to loosen up a bit.

The parking sensors turned out to be a blessing. It is a Fiat original acccessory. It looks like the model delivered each time is different as Karthikk did not get the same one I did. What has come with my car is voice based. A new central rear view mirror is also an addition. It has a little digital display within and tells you in meters, how far you are from banging you car. I have yet to build confidence with the system as I am a first time user of parking sensors. It did help though in the diffifcult parking confines of my apartment. It screamed STOP STOP when I was about to ram into the wall. When I got out to check. There was about 20 inches of space left before the bumper would have hit.

I wish the cars central auto locking system has some finese to it. It makes a loud cluk cluk sound when you lock, unlock the car and even when it auto locks the doors post 20Kmph. This number can be customized.

I find most things well put together in the car. There are some grey areas where Fiat could have used better quality materials. The horn boss is well made. It does feel premium when you sit inside this car. The seats are incredible. They are nice and firm and do hint that those long drives are going to be supported well. I ripped off the plastic covers on the 2nd day. In the process of this, I learned how to flip the rear seats. At the same time I wish they used a better quality BEEP buzzer. The BEEP heard when you use My Car sounds as if it is already on its last legs.

On the first drive to work, I took the long route via Old Madras Road to Whitefield. While building up speed on the freeway I started to hear the noise if air coming in from somewhere on the front door. Sounds like an air leak through some small gap on the rubber beading of the front door. This needs some investigation.

I noticed a lot of brake pad dust build up on the wheel rims. Not sure if this is normal so early in to their life. The car has run just 100km. All braking in the said distance was very gradual. Not once was there any panic braking.

My hunt for the best drivers cars this side of 10lacs went from the Fiesta Classic to the Fiat Linea T Jet. I have no regrets. In only 6 hours of spending time with the car, I am already in love with it. The way the car drives, steers, the way the doors shut, the response of the engine, just about everything is leagues ahead of the old Fiesta. There is no car that can better the T Jet Plus right now. This is the poor mans Ultimate Driving Machine.

Update 1

The team bhp review for the Linea T Jet states that a inter cooler for the turbo is missing. This is in correct. I have taken photo graphs of the inter cooler. It is located right at the bottom and can be seen only from the lower grill on the bumper. It is a small unit but full width of the the bottom ventilation grill. A search on google images for linea tjet turbo inter cooler brings up a similar result that a inter cooler does exist in the exact same location.

From the attached photograph, among all heat exchanging devices, it is the inter cooler that sits up front and first in the list followed by the air conditioning condenser behind it and above the inter cooler and behind the condenser is the radiator for the engine.

Just did a road trip to Cochin, my home town. I set a speed alarm at 105Kmph. It was hard to hold speeds below 100kmph but I did as bedding in the engine is important. Efficiency was not so great. I got 12.6 Kmpl. However, the first 100km odd on the same tank full was under city cycle. I am not really worried though, for now. This figure should improve once the engine has run a little more. The odo reads just a shade under 800km. Other wise, the car was a joy to drive. Some images attached of the "H" on the odometer gone after 199km. The passenger air bag was switched off as my wife was sitting up front with our 3 month old son.

More details to follow on the drive and the car. I may be able to update this only on the weekend.









Update II

There is a considerable drop in power. I am not sure about the cause. I suspect bad fuel when I did a 2nd tank full in Palghat (Chandranagar India Oil gas station) on the Bangalore to Cochin drive. This is a large and well know gas station that sells quality fuel. My previous car, a Ford Ikon has been tanked up at this gas station and I have never had any trouble. The T Jet is probably sensitive to bad fuel. There is turbo surge felt only in first gear. There is next to no turbo surge in other gears. You can feel some turbo boost only past 2500rpm. The feel of the turbo spooling starts as early as 1800rpm and you don't really need to rev over 2300rpm to get ahead when everything is working well. There is also slight vibration felt when the engine is idling without the air conditioning. You can feel the engine ticking over every few seconds. It is not an alarming shudder. Will do another tank full and check if the situation improves.

Some photographs attached. An engine label, turbo charger & exhaust manifold. The last photo graph, which is a broader view of the engine bay is to highlight a coolant pipe running to the turbo charger. Some VW cars use this method to cool the turbo charger. I am not sure if it is the same on the Linea.

I saw the engine label only this evening. It was hanging deep down on the oil dip stick chamber. The scuff mark on the label at the bottom right indicates it has come into contact with the engine belts.

The turbo charger is Japanese. A brand called IHI. I will try to fetch the part number so we can have more details on it.

The close up image shows the exhaust manifold where it says Lancia, Fiat and Alfa. Part sharing I suppose.

The red circle in the last image is to highlight where Lancia, Fiat and Alfa are written and to show you the coolant pipe running to the turbo charger.

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by Speed Pujari

Beware that brakes and tires are not complementary.

I plan on hanging on to the stock tires. Karthikk has said that they get better with time so I am going to see if this holds true. I am also not in a position, financially, to be replacing the tires. A new set of tires is going to set me back quite a bit due to their size. Let us see how it goes with the stock tires.

[ghodlur]

Congratulations Sandeep on the Jet. The colour looks great on the T-jet.

Now fill in with many pics interior and exterior to compliment the buy. What was the OTR cost of the car? What discounts were offered? Any mods planned? Do put in all the details.

Happy mile crunching and drive safely.

[vb-saan]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

My ride is finally here.

Thanks Sandeep for the detailed write up. Congratulations!

Why don't you get your post moved as a new Ownership thread, and continue there with some mandatory pictures of the new car?

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Now fill in with many pics interior and exterior to compliment the buy. What was the OTR cost of the car? What discounts were offered? Any mods planned

Thank you ghodlur.

I am about 3500km away from the car right now. Will put up more photographs once I am back with my Fiat.

The on road was 9.75lac.

The standard 1lac rupee discount, free insurance, corporate discount at Rs. 7000 was all that I could manage. I got parking sensors, T Jet boot mat, Linea branded carpets and mud flaps for free.

No modifications planned for now. As a long term plan, I may consider an inter cooler but this is some years away.

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

I took delivery of my Fiat yesterday evening.

Congratulations and best wishes, sandeepmohan. Enjoy and explore your powerful Linea T-Jet+. Happy and safe motoring.

I noticed a lot of brake pad dust build up on the wheel rims. Not sure if this is normal so early in to their life.

This is common in FIAT cars as the brake pads are of soft material, so requires frequent cleaning of alloy wheels. But, no worries. I changed my Linea's brake pads after 35 k km.

[carwatcher]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

The system was sending out luke warm air out of the central ducts and cold air out of the side ducts. Pretty awesome this. I guess this is how it maintains the set temperature.

I had read on various places on this forum that Fiat's ACs automatically switch over from recirculatory air mode to fresh air mode, may be that's the reason why luke warm air from center ducts. Just go through the manual and confirm.

While building up speed on the freeway I started to hear the noise if air coming in from somewhere on the front door. Sounds like an air leak through some small gap on the rubber beading of the front door. This needs some investigation.

This specific sound coming from front doors near the OVRM is a common problem reported by Linea owners, may be same in your case too.

There is no car that can better the T Jet Plus right now. This is the poor mans Ultimate Driving Machine.

In one thread on T-BHP about petrol pricing, it was mentioned a common man is one who should not even own a TVS-50 moped. All vehicle owners were considered rich if they spend any amount on petrol. Considering that I won't agree with poor man's part, though fully agree with Ultimate Driving Machine part.

Thanks for this wonderful thread, again.

[sandeepmohan]

I did read the manual. The air circulation switches from re circulate and fresh air automatically if you use "FULL AUTO" in climate control. I have yet to use this. So far, I have hit the Air Conditioning button directly so it is only in "Auto". In "FULL AUTO", the system does everything for you. In "Auto", it works at the temperature you have set. It still sort of functions as Full Auto. Any user intervention, when running in "FULL AUTO", switches the system to manual control or just "AUTO" (As indicated on the digital display) where the user setting is treated as priority. However, if weather conditions detect misting of the cockpit (god knows how it does this), the system will intervene as a safety measure.

I did notice (twice) that the system starts off in Fresh Air mode even if you hit the Air Conditioning button directly (The button that has a star icon on it). So even though I switched off the system in re circulation mode before shutting down the car, it restarted in fresh air mode upon the next crank. Not something I like. I need some time to confirm on how this works.

[Vik0728]

Congrats on Buying the "Civilian Jet" sandeepmohan.

I am not a big fan of a golden/beige color on Car but the one on T-Jet is something else man.

You picked up your TJ from Prerana on Lal Bagh Road, so it means you stay round about South Bangalore. Hmm, there are 2 Jets Patroling the streets of South Bangalore now eh, the other one being Karthik's.

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by Vik0728

You picked up your TJ from Prerana on Lal Bagh Road, so it means you stay round about South Bangalore.

Thank you.

No I do not stay anywhere near Prerana. I live in Bangalore East. Frazer Town to be more precise. I am guessing that my car is the first T Jet in the neighborhood.

[Vik0728]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

Thank you.

No I do not stay anywhere near Prerana. I live in Bangalore East. Frazer Town to be more precise. I am guessing that my car is the first T Jet in the neighborhood.

Ah ha now I get the drift Sandeep, why you were so disgusted with the traffic on your way home post delivery. I was wondering why would you complain so much if you had to get back only few Kms!!!

Well, I guess Karthik's TJ is the only "BHP Jet" in South Bangalore for now then.

I am sure you would not mind "Flying Down" to South Bangalore for a meet if you had to rite ??

[djay99]

Many many congratulations Sandeep. A Tjet+ at 9.75Lacs on road that too in Bangalore is an awesome deal. Drive safely

[hemanth.anand]

congratulations sandeep!!

the noise of air is actually not any leakage but it is from the mirror.
because of the shape of the mirror and the fact that it is somewhat seperated from body, the wind actually splits and creates this noise.
its common for the both fiats and its also reported in many places here on tbhp

enjoy the car, oops jet.

[rikhav]

Hi Sandeep
Congreats on the car

Now i understand what makes you absent from HFV

This is if i am correct that you are the same person

You bought a Fiat and I have almost decided to sell my Petra. Original spares are getting really costly and that made think is it a good option to keep the car and spend money on overhauling the suspension and the engine belts

[Speed Pujari]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

...One annoying problem was the Blue N Me to start up at really high volume. ....

You can change the default volume from audio setting menu.

.. So I set the air conditioning to around 24.5 degrees. The system was sending out luke warm air out of the central ducts and cold air out of the side ducts. Pretty awesome this. ..

If u really want to feel the biological precision in this car switch to FULL AUTO, override the blower to speed to say 2 bars. It feels like home.

... I plan on setting a speed alarm at 110 Kmph. ...

LOL! .. Happy doing it on Jet.. You are sounding like me when I bought my car a year back.

..There are some grey areas where Fiat could have used better quality materials. ..

Thanks to Tata who gets all the criticised equipments such as plastics.

On the first drive to work, I took the long route via Old Madras Road to Whitefield. ..

We can meet someday. I live in AECS layout and including me there are now 4 in this area who owns a Jet (that excludes you).