[Caramelo]

Originally Posted by rajagopal_j

Considering its Microsoft technology, I am sure it was developed in the US, but then it is a FIAT initiative, But then its true that you have to have an American accent.

I have a E66 which has speech aid. It will read out the name of the caller if the number is stored in my contacts, and the accent is as american as it gets. My wife's name is Swapna. When she calls my E66 says "Swap"-"na".

lol thats what exactly i am talking about. its so weird and funny at the same time. lolz

my friends name is chirag bhatia. my phone calls it. chi- RAG. BHE -TIA lolz.

for rushabh, it says RUSH -UB. lolz

man i so love it. and guess what linea has it too.



ok seriously but i think A2DP enabled phones should connect very well. then i think it will connect better with the car. hey can it play songs from the phone?? it should do that.

[VahanPujari]

Time to update - OD shows over-1000 kms now !!

Tank-full to tank-ful mileage - 9 kmpl (90% in Mumbai bumper-to-bumper city traffic with AC ON 100%)
MID Mileage shows - 9.2 kmpl
Avg Speed on MID - 18 kmph

I took her out on highway to free her up for 2 small trips, details for that from trip B MID as under:

KM's travelled - 80 km's (30% within city, 70% on Highway)
Mileage on MID - 11.8 kmpl
Avg Speed - 34 kmph

City driving rapidly reduces the mileage. Yday it took me 2.5 hours to reach home crossing only 31 km's. The mileage before the journey was 9.6 kmpl on MID. It has reduced to 8.2 kmpl midway thro' & finally ended at 8.8 kmpl when I reached home.

My guestimate is it would give me 8.5 to 9 kmpl in Mumbai & around 12-13 kmpl on highways. Anyway Mileage is not of much concern to me.

Most of the Pro's & Con's I've mentioned earlier in this thread remains unchanged except for following:

I would be wrong if I say it does not lack Power. It lacks power & this statement is not on absolute terms but on comparative terms.

I was using Ford Ikon 1.3L nxt earlier. Compared to even that car, I feel les power in Linea & Ikon 1.3L was not considered a real "powerful" car, right? In Linea, I do not feel Lack of power when I'm cruising at Higher Speed / Higher RPMs. It is felt - 1) at pick up from 1st/ 2nd gear & 2) when you are going in 4th/ 5th gear & the speed is lowered (not as low as to warrant shifting gear down to lower gear) & then again she has to pick up.

Point 2 above, in defence to Linea, I still feel my perception/ experience may get changed after some time as its possible that I may not be lowering the gear at right speed/time, probably I'll have to get used to lowering the gear at higher speed than what I'm anticipating right now.

In Mumbai traffic, there is a fight for every inch & my Ikon was not allowing any other car to raise its nose ahead from side-lane to enter into the lane I'm driving & to come ahead of my Ikon. With Linea, I've seen that happening a number times. By the time I accelerate & gain momentum, the side-lane guy leaves his lane & enters my lane as there is a gap & there is that fraction of a second time he has. Here again, in defence to Linea, it might be entirely possible that I'm driving her carefully/ cautiously than what I was driving Ikon.

Handling is very good, I feel its 90% to that of Ikon. But it seems that will change over next 1-2 months & I feel I would say it has matched or even exceeded that of Ikon.

Manuevering is brilliant - comparable to Ikon, if not better.

And all those Features & Beautiful curvy looks are Big Big positives.

Overall, am not much concerned on lower power as it is heavily offset-ed
by overall brilliant packaging with all the features & looks.

After all, Where can I get such a car in Rs. 8 Lacs?

BTW - Off Topic. Look at the below Pic I clicked yday on my way. That's the cost of being a Mumbaikar. See the Logo of the car (Skoda?)? - Replaced by a sticker - exactly what I said last week that I'll put a proper Smiley there if ever my Fiat Badge/ emplem is stolen again

[rajagopal_j]

Hey VahanPujari,

Great writeup!!

Originally Posted by VahanPujari

Time to update - OD shows over-1000 kms now !!

Congrats on hitting the 1k mark!!

Tank-full to tank-ful mileage - 9 kmpl (90% in Mumbai bumper-to-bumper city traffic with AC ON 100%)
MID Mileage shows - 9.2 kmpl
Avg Speed on MID - 18 kmph

I took her out on highway to free her up for 2 small trips, details for that from trip B MID as under:

KM's travelled - 80 km's (30% within city, 70% on Highway)
Mileage on MID - 11.8 kmpl
Avg Speed - 34 kmph

My guestimate is it would give me 8.5 to 9 kmpl in Mumbai & around 12-13 kmpl on highways. Anyway Mileage is not of much concern to me.

I guess 9 - 10kmpl in the city and something around 12-15kmpl on the highway, depending on speeds maintained, condition of roads etc etc, seems to be the standards for the Linea Petrol

I would be wrong if I say it does not lack Power. It lacks power & this statement is not on absolute terms but on comparative terms.

In Linea, I do not feel Lack of power when I'm cruising at Higher Speed / Higher RPMs. It is felt - 1) at pick up from 1st/ 2nd gear & 2) when you are going in 4th/ 5th gear & the speed is lowered (not as low as to warrant shifting gear down to lower gear) & then again she has to pick up.

The point to note is how low does your rpm meter come down to? What I have noticed is there is a jump in power at about 1700 rpm. The car idles at just below 1000rpm and its pretty much dead till you reach something like 1700-1800 rpm and then with a jerk the powerband starts and stays on till about 3500rpm where it plateaus. I havent taken the car past 4000rpm as yet, but my best guess is it would prolly start dropping in terms of power to effeciency ratio.

Given this requirement to keep the rpm at 1500+, i guess its just a question of getting adjusted to a high revved driving style before you stop feeling the lack of power.

But all this said, this is no 1.6 duratorq or a hyundai crdi either. Its a simple 1.3 FIRE engine which is not a performer in the usual terms, but a performer in a more overall sense, just there amount of power, decent mileage, good smooth engine. In one word its adequate!
adequate speed, adequate mileage, adequate smoothness, adequate overall!

Handling is very good, I feel its 90% to that of Ikon. But it seems that will change over next 1-2 months & I feel I would say it has matched or even exceeded that of Ikon.

As you drive more and you get adjusted to the long play clutch and the keep revved up engine, you will start moving up the speed ladder. Once that happens you will start loving the handling capabilities of this car.

And all those Features & Beautiful curvy looks are Big Big positives.

Overall, am not much concerned on lower power as it is heavily offset-ed
by overall brilliant packaging with all the features & looks.

After all, Where can I get such a car in Rs. 8 Lacs?

Pretty much what made all of us buy this car! Aint it??

[swami]

Originally Posted by rajagopal_j

I guess fiat has loads of niggles like these to fix. In my car
- my front passenger door refuses to close unless banged
- seat height adjustment doesnt stay in place. seat keeps coming down
- side chrome beading came off

Passenger door or any one door refusing to shut is a phenomenon I have observed in the swift / esteem. Typically, this problem occurs when the rest of the doors have been shut tight already. If you are sitting in the car, then try closing the door with the window rolled down. It should make it easier.

I think seat height adjustment is linked, somehow, to the seat travel. It is illogical, I agree.

Side chrome beading - well that must be irritating.

Originally Posted by rajagopal_j

So I did a quick experiment, i fired up Blue & Me and said "Dial swap na", worked like a charm. Disconnected and tried "Dial Swapna" result "Please try again". Again "Dial swap na", works like a charm again! Well I was all gay with glee, but the missus was fuming "I will show you what swap na can do, the next time you use that infernal E66 of yours and this stupid blue & me", snicker!!

I have this habit of storing contacts as <First name> <Last name> or give some sort of description to the name like "Electrician Haribhai". B&M expects me to say the full name and if i do not then it picks up a contact whose "First Name + Last Name" is closest to the first name that i said. But then you learn and get on with it.
My boss, who purchased an Altis, found the B&M pairing so useful that he went out and picked up an external system called "Parrot" that enables the phone to be used in a handsfree manner. However, it does not display the number and on its own does not have a dialling feature. It costs 2.5k to add to the 13.5L for the Altis

[VahanPujari]

Calling Linea owners___

I thought I had solved mystery of Media Player auto-starting everytime you turn on the car. I changed the settings to "Auto-play - OFF", removed the pen drive, deleted some sones & added some songs, again checked & confirmed settings Auto-play OFF, then inserted pen drive (this process is also mentioned in manual). It didn't start automatically & I thought the puzzle got solved.
But I was wrong. Now again everytime the car is turned on, Media player automatically starts eventhough the settings still shows Auto-play OFF.
The manual says, after turning Auto-play OFF in the settings, it will not start media player only if - a) you insert another different pen drive or 2) you make changes in existing pen drive & insert it only after changes are made (addition/ deletion)

[aks_karthik]

Originally Posted by VahanPujari

Calling Linea owners___

I thought I had solved mystery of Media Player auto-starting everytime you turn on the car. I changed the settings to "Auto-play - OFF", removed the pen drive, deleted some sones & added some songs, again checked & confirmed settings Auto-play OFF, then inserted pen drive (this process is also mentioned in manual). It didn't start automatically & I thought the puzzle got solved.
But I was wrong. Now again everytime the car is turned on, Media player automatically starts eventhough the settings still shows Auto-play OFF.
The manual says, after turning Auto-play OFF in the settings, it will not start media player only if - a) you insert another different pen drive or 2) you make changes in existing pen drive & insert it only after changes are made (addition/ deletion)

Yes it will play automatically though Autoplay is OFF.
The reason behind,
you forgot to STOP MEDIA before leave the car.
Just press window button and say "STOP MEDIA". It's done.
Now start the car,Media Player won't play.
If you need to play again,press window button and say "PLAY MEDIA" or "PLAY ANYTHING".
I every time stop mediaplayer before leave the car.
it's a good practice too.Since it's after all MICROSOFT.

[VahanPujari]

Originally Posted by aks_karthik

Yes it will play automatically though Autoplay is OFF.
The reason behind,
you forgot to STOP MEDIA before leave the car.
Just press window button and say "STOP MEDIA". It's done.
Now start the car,Media Player won't play.
If you need to play again,press window button and say "PLAY MEDIA" or "PLAY ANYTHING".
I every time stop mediaplayer before leave the car.
it's a good practice too.Since it's after all MICROSOFT.

thanx, will try this

Another thing I noticed - when you try to stop Media Player by pressing the ON/OFF button on HU for slightly longer time, HU shows that the system is OFF. However, MID shows "Paused". That means, Media Player is paused & not stopped or not turned off.
What is the other way of turning off Media Player apart from Voice command mentioned by karthik?

[geeash]

I think voice command is the only way to stop playing media.
As rightly said by karthik, you need to stop media before stopping the car for it not to play at the start

[VahanPujari]

Got to get mudflap urgently. yday it was drizzling in Mumbai & when I reached home, could not see red colour of Linea on all 4 sides, it got so dirty.

FastLove - If you've got mudflap, pls post pics

Also, since it was drizzling yday, I checked heating of ORVM. I guess the button on the central console near parking blip lights is for this purpose. Pressed it & all water drops on ORVM got evaporated.

Have also noticed 1 more thing yday. The front windshield glass was getting defogged automatically in 1-2 seconds imdtly at the slightest creation of fog. This happened quite a number of times, one can not notice it unless focussing it very closely. I did not press any defogging button neither pressed AC button which directs flow to windshield. Has any Linea owner came across this?

[aks_karthik]

Yes OEM Mudflaps is released from FIAT.
Check you dealer.It will be available in 10-15 days.

[VahanPujari]

Originally Posted by VahanPujari

Time to update - OD shows over-1000 kms now !!

Tank-full to tank-ful mileage - 9 kmpl (90% in Mumbai bumper-to-bumper city traffic with AC ON 100%)
MID Mileage shows - 9.2 kmpl
Avg Speed on MID - 18 kmph

Time to update - ODO shows 1800 kms - also to compare with my previous updates, if any changes

Tank-full to tank-ful mileage - 9 kmpl (100% in Mumbai B2Btraffic with AC ON 100%)
MID Mileage shows - 9.6 kmpl

I think its getting setlled that I'll get around 9 kmpl FE in Mumbai city, not a concern though.

On Saturday morning, It gave me a mileage of 16.5 kms for a stretch of 10 km in Mumbai city though with no traffic & 100% AC ON. Then I got into traffic & by the time I reach my destination (total 30 kms), the FE dropped to 14.5 kmpl. My "guestimate" is it should give 14-15 kmpl on highway/ long drives.

OK, now comes the imp part. The high standards set by Ford Ikon in terms of Driving Pleasure, Ride quality, Maneuvering etc was preventing me to enjoy Linea thoroughly.

Handling is very good, I feel its 90% to that of Ikon. But it seems that will change over next 1-2 months & I feel I would say it has matched or even exceeded that of Ikon.

Manuevering is brilliant - comparable to Ikon, if not better.

The car has grown on me. It seems she has suddenly waken up from a slumber & became silky smooth. May be crossing 1500 kms, may be the short-bursts I gave her to free her up or may be I got used to her with my driving style more aligned to Clutch-Geat-Accelerator combo/ config. But I must say that now she has surpassed Ford Ikon in Driving Plwasure, Ride Quality, Maneuvering. I'm now driving her like a toy, able to maneuver her brilliantly - here, there, left, right so on & so forth absolutely like a toy. This is the biggest pleasure for me as these qualities are very imp to me, relieves few of my worries, makes me so happy

I was using Ford Ikon 1.3L nxt earlier. Compared to even that car, I feel les power in Linea & Ikon 1.3L was not considered a real "powerful" car, right? In Linea, I do not feel Lack of power when I'm cruising at Higher Speed / Higher RPMs. It is felt - 1) at pick up from 1st/ 2nd gear & 2) when you are going in 4th/ 5th gear & the speed is lowered (not as low as to warrant shifting gear down to lower gear) & then again she has to pick up.

Point 2 above, in defence to Linea, I still feel my perception/ experience may get changed after some time as its possible that I may not be lowering the gear at right speed/time, probably I'll have to get used to lowering the gear at higher speed than what I'm anticipating right now.

In Mumbai traffic, there is a fight for every inch & my Ikon was not allowing any other car to raise its nose ahead from side-lane to enter into the lane I'm driving & to come ahead of my Ikon. With Linea, I've seen that happening a number times. By the time I accelerate & gain momentum, the side-lane guy leaves his lane & enters my lane as there is a gap & there is that fraction of a second time he has. Here again, in defence to Linea, it might be entirely possible that I'm driving her carefully/ cautiously than what I was driving Ikon.

All my earlier reservations about Power (or lack of it) has now gone out of the window. Somehow she became so silky that even the 2nd gear doesn't seem to let me feel any lack of power. And like Ford earlier, in B2B traffic, now she does not allow other cars to intrude & come in front of her lane from adjoining lane !!!
What is amazing is that in 5th Gear above 2000 RPM's, from a speed to 50 - 60 kmpl, if you press the accelerator, she just surges ahead like a jet & very smoothly. Brilliant, Brilliant.
Poise, Stability is top notch even when I throw her in corners.

The only "less power" I now feel is when I'm driving her in 5th gear & due to traffic the speed reduces (have not noted what reduced speed -may be around 40 - 50 kmph - have to check), it takes some time to recover the lost speed. This may be felt more on highways in overtaking, though again in Linea's defense, I'll have to wait for some time to check if its due to my driving style.

I had a driver earlier whom I let go when I purchased Linea as wanted to do run-in for initial 1500 kms myself. After enjoying the rides in Linea, am seriously reconsidering not to hire a driver now.

Have yet not taken her on a Long Drive, eagerly waiting for it.

Last but not the least, 2 days back I parked my car near my home & was getting out. A motocyclist passed, crossed 100 meters, took a U turn & came to me to ask about Linea. 1st question he asked is what is the Price. Next question what is the FE? Third question - is diesel available & what price?
Second instance - yday the washer guy when he was washing the car showed me that everybody stares at her while going past!!

Admiration Guaranteed!!

[VahanPujari]

Have been thinking of getting Paint Protection & Anti-rust Treatments done. Completely agree with FastLove that these are "Good to Have" and not "Must Have".

For anti-rust, Fortune offers dinitrol which seems to be almost full body protection (includes underbody, door panels, bonnet, boot etc). Full-body protection costs rs. 4500/-

Then I checked with Wasan. It offers only Wurth & says Dinitrol is no longet approved by Tata-Fiat. Wurth offers 2 options - 1)only underbody treatment cost rs. 3-3.5K & 2) Full Body as mention above - this they say is generally they do not do as its not needed.

I think I'm inclined to go for 3M Paint Protection (rs. 4500) & Dinitrol full-body anti-rust
Any suggestion most welcome

[FastLove]

I am confident that you would not regret the money spent. After you have done the paint protection , you will love just running your fingers over the car body (more than before) and that, my dear friend , is a complete "PAisa Vassool" feeling. I found the cleaning of the body becomes much much easier and enjoyable. Also , dont be surprised if someone actually offers you money to allow him to clean the car (this smoothness wears off gradually, however you will have the next coating coming up in 5 months).

I had bought a Car Polish sometime last year when i was in bangkok. A local thai guy was demonstrating this Magic Stuff on a car bonnet. He would make scratches with a car key in front of me and remove it just by wiping with the car body with this stuff. and boy was i impressed !! i bought it for some 3000 baht and still use it sometimes when i see any small scratch on my car. and it works. It also is a good car shine product and gives this same smooth feeling after application. It , hwever cannot remove deep scratches where the paint is completely removed from the area.

Regarding Dinitrol i suggest you do Whole body and not just underbody as it would be penny wise pound foolish not to go that extra mile

[VahanPujari]

Yes, FastLove
Have decided to go for 3M Paint Protection & Dinitrol full-body anti-rust
I'll have to get it done at fortune powai. Do you know anyone there?

[VahanPujari]

The much awaited Long Drive Trip is finally happening tomorrow. Will post update on Monday