There are 30 odd pages in this thread, with post after post singing praises of the car's performance, handling, along with the very justified praises for its looks/braking/ride quality.

I actually thought this car was going to be a stonker after hearing about it endlessly since I joined TBHP. There were multiple threads on linea sightings, linea specs, linea pricing, linea performance,linea launch dates. The barrage of brainwashing was irresistible. I'm ashamed to say, I fell for it!

Then I went out and did a TD. I came back and wrote that it was a Point A to Point B car that does most things tolerably.

It is a decent car! What is disappointing is the shameless hype that surrounds it on our forum.Fiat india and the automags are trying to earn a living by hyping this car.What is TBHP's excuse?
It actually does more harm than good.

@extreme torque- Diesel is cheap in india. Too bad the car sucks in a straight line and in the corners.
@finney-so you agree it's an average car?
I believed what the salesman told me, he was appointed by FIAT.
Why is no one testing the petrol? if numbers are not available yet, we shall go with what the Salesman told me-slower than the (slow) Diesel
I shall go scrolling back through the mammoth 30 page thread to see if anyone has claimed if its a powerful petrol. Right now, dont have the time.
but that is the general impression I got everytime I read a new TD report about the car by a giddy, breathless, fiat admirer.

On TBHP, we should be trying to give the right info for the car buying public in india. The info being given out on this thread so far, is advertising. It is not unbiased.
Why should people be hounded out when they come up with something negative about this car? what is so sacred about it?

5 stars from me too

Admiration Guaranteed, till you step on the accelerator pedal!

[swami]

Originally Posted by rippergeo

Diesel 0-100 16.xx secs.
Did not bother to try and find out about the even more lethargic petrol.
@sukrit- seriously, if you're looking for that faster version of the car, get the diesel,pete it or remap it. The petrol is not worth it!

Originally Posted by rippergeo

My answer was in response to a specific request for the 0-100 timings to be put up. I had the info at hand for the Diesel, I put it up.I was told by the sales staff that the petrol is slower, I passed it on.

Wonder which version of the story is correct.

Editing my comment: Did not see Ripper's last post. He has clarified the thought process. So I guess the correct version has come out. As neotraveller has pointed out let us wait till march then.

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by rippergeo

Fiat india and the automags are trying to earn a living by hyping this car.What is TBHP's excuse?

On TBHP, we should be trying to give the right info for the car buying public in india. The info being given out on this thread so far, is advertising. It is not unbiased.

Why should people be hounded out when they come up with something negative about this car? what is so sacred about it?

Well said, Louis.

I've had it with this shamelessly open and totally biased worship of the F brand that goes on out here. It gives a bad name to the forum.

[FERRO]

Originally Posted by DKG

Drove a friend's diesel Linea yesterday and I must say I am impressed. Its a lovely car. Feels solid, steering weighted well, good suspension and as long as you keep the engine revved up a little the power is fine. The car does give you an overall feel good factor. Now for Tata to support it well and in time ensure the resale vales remain decent. Fiat might just have a winner.

one more Fiat mafia gang member, ah so many of them here

only steer & ripper are distinguished enough to judge Fiat cars.

[extreme_torque]

There are others on the forum too with their 2 tonne liability with most of it changed under warranty bashing certain stinger everytime they see an oppurtunity.

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by rippergeo

I actually thought this car was going to be a stonker after hearing about it endlessly since I joined TBHP. There were multiple threads on linea sightings, linea specs, linea pricing, linea performance,linea launch dates. The barrage of brainwashing was irresistible. I'm ashamed to say, I fell for it!

We all knew right from the outset that it'll have a 1.3 90 bhp unit under the hood and if you though it would give stonking performance, then rightfully you should be ashamed.

Originally Posted by rippergeo

Then I went out and did a TD. I came back and wrote that it was a Point A to Point B car that does most things tolerably.

I agree and respect your opinion but there are other who loved it and are being labelled Fiat Fanatics... how convenient is that?

Originally Posted by rippergeo

It is a decent car! What is disappointing is the shameless hype that surrounds it on our forum.Fiat india and the automags are trying to earn a living by hyping this car.What is TBHP's excuse?
It actually does more harm than good.

So if someone actually likes it and heaps praises on it, its Hype?

Originally Posted by rippergeo

@extreme torque- Diesel is cheap in india. Too bad the car sucks in a straight line and in the corners.

So I go out and buy an overpriced diesel saloon just because its faster. Unfortunately to me a car is some of all its parts and not just the engine. Why do you have problems accepting that someone else finds the performance adequate? It will be an endless argument with you tryin to justify that its slow coz you feel it is slow and those who didnt found it slow. So let be it why label them as fanatic or whatever.

[neoonwheels]

underpowered or not... It gonna sale...

[anupmathur]

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

There are others on the forum too with their 2 tonne liability with most of it changed under warranty bashing certain stinger everytime they see an oppurtunity.

Indeed!
Shamelessly open and totally biased worship of ANY brand gives the forum a bad name!
But the views being expressed are entirely personal, and not those of the Forum, and that is what readers must keep in mind.

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

Well said, Louis.

I've had it with this shamelessly open and totally biased worship of the F brand that goes on out here. It gives a bad name to the forum.

A classic case of 'Look who's talking'

[sushanthr77]

Wow! This thread is now really amusing

History says that, threads which contain the words FIAT or Palio have been the most amusing.

Typical life cycle of a FIAT thread:
01. Creation by an excited Fan.
02. Inputs by the more exited (also very happy) “Fan Club”.
03. Some “words of wisdom” from the “Other club”.
04. Counter “words of wisdom” from the Fans.
05. Some mudslinging.
06. More mudslinging.
07. Desperate request for closure by a few.
08. Moderator to rescue: THREAD CLOSED!

Mind you all this with just two words:
01. FIAT
02. Palio

What we are seeing now is the induction of a new word to this list! The L word.

I wonder what will happen to TBHP when this word list looks like this!
01. FIAT
02. Palio
03. Linea
04. Punto
05. XXX

More fun guaranteed!

I don't know about the automotive industry, but is FIAT the best thing to happen to TBHP?
"ARGUMENT GUARANTEED"!

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

There are others on the forum too with their 2 tonne liability with most of it changed under warranty bashing certain stinger everytime they see an oppurtunity.

@e_t, did not quite understand what 'stinger' stands for.

Personally, I am quite curious about how the Linea will do where it matters most ie. the market. We can think of ourselves as auto-enthusiasts and can post that a particular car is not good-looking while the other is, this is not having enough power and so on and so forth. But history (however short it might be for tbhp) shows that the layman on the street does not necessarily agree with us. We love our Palios, Balenos and Safaris, but these are/were not necessarily loved by the market. We hated the NHC's looks, but it was a segment-leader for almost all months of its existence. Hey Diabloo, I know you would be reading this, but gotta give credit where it is due.

With Fiat having a new offering after soooo long a time + the Tata-Fiat partnership, I am curious to see how the Linea fares in the market. I don't know if the 'keep-the-cars-low-on-power strategy' was just a decision that happened to be or it was based on feedback from the Palio debacle, but if is backed up by good FE, then I guess it is half the battle won. That part is still a grey area.

Major part is bringing the sceptics to the car, which is not easy. The Fiat fans/users might ignore the issues that plagued Fiat in the last innings and line up to buy the car, but to actually garner enough sales month-over-month, that is not enough. Fiat needs to be able to convert the sceptics (who are the majority) to their side. If they manage to do that with the Linea, I guess the battle is fully won. Will be interesting to wait and see.

P.S. : I personally believe that while Fiat was on a resurgent note in India, it would have been a better decision to avoid going the Tata-partnership way and instead put their efforts in building their own network. Might have taken quite some effort and time, but if they are here for the long run, the dividends would have been worth it. Again, we will know soon whether they were right in taking this decision.

[swami]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

Personally, I am quite curious about how the Linea will do where it matters most ie. the market.

Well said SB. Even my cousin (who should know next to nothing about cars and Fiat's history in India) mentioned that while the car looks great, am I not concerned about ***. Had me stumped but then I realised that she had gotten this input from another cousin of mine.

So yeah, even assuming that half the battle has been won with adequate performance - decent efficiency cars, the other half, and an even tougher, if i may say so is yet to be decided.

Hopefully FIAL & Tata will allow the initial buyers to sing Jai Ho

[Meer]

I am not going to be biased by what is written earlier in this thread. One of my friend wanted to buy a new car in the 7-8 lacs range. So we landed up in FIAT showroom to test drive the Linea.

Before Driving:
We had the first impression of the car standing in display:
Postives:
1. Looks awesome, elegant and easily the best looker in this category. The silver colour with the red tail ramps looks too good to resist, so its the rear 3 quarter which appealed to me the most.
2. spacious interiors and decent quality of material used

Negatives:
1. Very less storage space internally
2. Boot has narrow opening and the wheel arches bulge inside, not sure how usable the space will be in practice (i may be wrong here)

Driving and post (TDed the Petrol one, diesel had some issues as per salesman):
Positives:
1. Its a looker so you will get people to turn and look
2. Very practical blue and me technology, display

Negatives:
1. I did not find anything exciting in the engine or handling. Average car for running at constant speed once you attain it.

My verdict:
If you want a great looking car and dont care too much about pushing the engine or driving like a maniac, then it is a car which can be considered. It has good road presence.. In the driver seat, not very exciting though.. Even with Tata, there is hardly much confidence I get from FIAT, so it will take FIAT some time to attract the folks who have this concern.

My friend is currently deciding between Fiesta SXi and SX4 ZXi.

Note: All views written above are my own and not to offend anyone.

[roms]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

Major part is bringing the sceptics to the car, which is not easy. The Fiat fans/users might ignore the issues that plagued Fiat in the last innings and line up to buy the car, but to actually garner enough sales month-over-month, that is not enough. Fiat needs to be able to convert the sceptics (who are the majority) to their side. If they manage to do that with the Linea, I guess the battle is fully won. Will be interesting to wait and see.

P.S. : I personally believe that while Fiat was on a resurgent note in India, it would have been a better decision to avoid going the Tata-partnership way and instead put their efforts in building their own network. Might have taken quite some effort and time, but if they are here for the long run, the dividends would have been worth it. Again, we will know soon whether they were right in taking this decision.

That is a fantastic post supremo, and at just about the time when this thread was starting to go downhill.

Anyways, Have to agree on all your points completely. At the time when the two companies decided to tie the knot, Fiat was in no position to dictate terms. They still cant for that matter. But if this is actually their long term strategy, maybe Fiat will pay a price for it eventually. The reason I say this is because the spare parts availibilty has taken a further hit post the tie up, atleast for the Palio. The top service guys at Fiat are nothing but co-ordinators and they are helpless at the hands of Tata. There are cars lying at ASCs for want of spares, common stuff like alternators and suspension parts are just not available on demand and need to be ordered. While you could argue that its because the Palio is a bombed car, but then that was the whole point of the service tie-up, that spares for Palio should be readily available. But its just the other way round. Because the Linea is their only hope in India, they will probably support it well though.

[psp62in]

Nearly 500 posts on this thread so far, and last 60 or so have very little to say about the test drive. At one point I thought i was wasting my time trying to look for some real useful information.
Mods, I think time has come to split this thread into three:
a) Linea -diesel test and comparison with others
b)Linea -petrol test and comparison with others
c) All other love-hate discussion about FIAT, and you can have hundreds of posts in that.
Please consider