Time to own my very own italian beauty - Fiat Linea Petrol E+

VahanPujari · 13th April 2009, 23:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by rajagopal_j

Thanks everyone for the wishes!

Just got an update from the dealer, he may not be able to deliver the car today. Blasted him to oblivion, with a threat that I will come over there and cancel the car. Again he has promised that he will give my car today.

But I do know that at the moment I am helpless, because the form 20 is signed, so he can just register the car and I wont be able to cancel anymore!!

Hoping things just work out and I get the car today!

This was discussed in another thread, cant remember which one. But the basic conclusion was that Me and RedOne are getting our cars early because we paid in full immediately!

Insurance & Registration takes min 1-2 days. If you do not get the car today, you should get it by tom noon.

Am still not sure on full cash yielding faster delivery

Quote:

Originally Posted by -xplora-

Well, I was ready with my full bank DD for over three weeks, the dealer did not take the full payment since he did not have the car or the confirmation of its availability. The delays are in Epack MJD that too Black has maximum, it was also due to March ending, now I think the factory is just focusing on E packs or converting Emotions into E packs, hence the deliveries are better than a month back.

Exactly, I've also seen dealers not accepting full cash even if it was offered. may be this dealer would have received a surplus stock somehow someway or the other

VahanPujari · 14th April 2009, 00:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by VahanPujari

Exactly, I've also seen dealers not accepting full cash even if it was offered. may be this dealer would have received a surplus stock somehow someway or the other

may be what worked is the threat of losing the customer as rajagopal could have easily gone for scorpio which may have forced dealer to "manage" somehow
in any case, congrats raj & all the best. do post your initial review

Caramelo · 14th April 2009, 08:18

congratulations. man!

hey what kinda accesories do they have. any alloys? 16" 17"??

rajagopal_j · 20th April 2009, 14:08

Sorry guys, I havent been able to post an initial report till date. Things have been super busy since we got the Linea!
Anyway here goes. Leaving where I left off!

My fingers are crossed and I have just finished typing out my first post about my Linea buying experiences on T-Bhp, There is this weird buzzing noise coming and I am wondering what the hell is happening. It takes me a couple of minutes to realise that its my phone on silent mode vibrating on my desk counter. I answer the call to find my excited wife, our beloved sales guy (hence forth called "pathrao") had called her and asked her about a number preference and had promised to deliver the car the same evening.

2hours hence.
Again my wife calls me. Bad news this time, Pathrao is asking if they can deliver the car the next day. I look at my watch its 1:00PM. I ask her why next day? Apparently they stil have to do the PDI, then registration and then the cleaning. So it wont get done the same day. Waitaminit something is wrong here!

Its 1:00 PM, why in god's name has the PDI not been done. I call Pathrao and go ballistic, at this point I am starting to get the feeling that things happen only when I go ballistic and the best way to walk into a car dealership is with a perpetual frown and an I got fire in my ears look.
Anyway after a lot of verbal exchange short of explicit cursing, Pathrao relents and agrees to deliver at 8:00 PM.

Clock strikes 5:00PM.
My wife and I are out of office (we work for the same firm), go as fast as we can in our decrepit old M800. Atleast as fast as it could take us without falling apart. We reach home, quickly gulp down a coffe and 5:45 PM we are out on the streets waiting for a rick.

6:00PM
Not a God**** rick in sight! To make things worse, my wife is happily talking to her mom about what she is planning to cook for dinner and I am just plain cursing under my breath.

When you are driving your brand new car its like as if its raining ricks all around you waiting like vultures to scratch/dent/disfigure it but when in need, you have to wait for 15 mins!!

Finally we spot one who refuses to go to koramangala "Thumba traffic saar, alli", well that really didnt help my nerves. So first I start my barrage in whatever Kannada I know, as we progress I realise I am talkin to a tamil auto driver. Well well well, tamil happens to be my mother tongue so I knew some very choice words just for him.

To the auto guys respite, my wife had finished her cooking discussion and came in between me and him. She plays the "I am pregnant, are you going to help or not" card. We negotiate a "over the meter" deal and we are off.

rajagopal_j · 20th April 2009, 14:09

6:40PM
We walk into the dealership and find Pathrao. He very graciously show us a black E+ car sitting outside. I look around its pretty dirty. Pathrao mentions that there are another 3 cars being delivered the same day and hence ours is in the queue to get cleaned up. Ok no worried after all I was an hour and 15 minutes early. So my wife and I deceide to look around, the car. I am sitting in the passenger side and my wife in the driver's seat. I notice something is different. I remembered an imperfection in the stichining on the driver's seat, but now surprisingly all's well. How is that possible. Something has got to be wrong. So I start looking for clues.

7:00PM
I am still frantically looking for clues while I have my wife on duty to find that scrap of paper in which we wrote down the 2 chasis numbers and Engine Numbers. While I am running around the car in circles to spot and remember anything else.
black linea - check
Alloy wheels - check
Steering mounted controls - check
Air bags - check
hence Emotion + variant - check

I open the boot to read the chasis number, maybe I might remember vaguely and thats when my wife's sweet voice floats through the air, "Raj, what does multijet mean?". I stop dead on my tracks. "[Gulp] Why are you asking". "Its written here on the front grille" BINGO!!!

I walk into the showroom and find pathrao and bring this whole fiasco to his notice. I make it clear to him that if they have registered the wrong car in my name, I am more than happy to take it and I will not be liable to any excess payments. By now Pathrao, sweating profusely and dropping bricks from his backside, gets his team leader, a couple of other Pathraos are also put into the task to find out which car was registered.

7:20PM
Pathrao, is all smiles when he breaks the news to me that they just brought the wrong car down from the yard. Well the smiles were very shortlived werent they, He gets another dose from me about how amazingly disorganized they are and now they have effectivly increased my waiting time by 1 hr and so and so forth.

Nett Effect, free mats for the car, ganesha idol and air freshner.

7:45PM
My a drives into the dealer parking lot with a still dirty black linea. We quickly check the chasis numbers againt my precious scrap of paper, the car and the documents which pathrao produced out of magic, considering that it wasnt available to check when they wanted to bring the car from the yard. Anyway all's good and they whisk the car away to get it all cleaned up.

8:20PM
After a test drive of the safari, the new tata indica, the palio stile etc etc, pretty much every car the dealership had for a TD. We deceide we prefer our very own car and we walk down to the cleaning area to watch the cleaners. I have a brainstorm and I try and do all my initial checks, like the electricals etc etc, it shud save me a lot of time right. Wrong! I was just in the way of the cleaners. I quickly realised that and moved away.

8:45PM
The car is all cleaned up and is brought back to the parking lot, where pathrao is standing there with the papers and 2 checklists. He hands over the checklist and takes me around the car and shows me each and every button/stick/feature listed in the checklist and those which werent there as well like blue & me for example. I have to agree here that this was very proffesionally done and I liked it. He didnt ask me to sign the papers, he didnt ask me if I wanted to check the car nothing. It was assumed that it has to be done and it was done. Finally something good.

9:00PM
All checks done, papers signed, received documents along with fuel coupons for 5 ltrs of petrol at the bunk 2 blocks from the dealership.
Small puja performed, photos clicked and we are off.

The car drives very beautifully, my wife and I at the end very happy and contended.

This concludes part 2 of buying the car.

Very soon.
Part 3: Initial driving experience and first long trip to chennai.

Switch · 20th April 2009, 15:30

You declined a Multijet. Now thats a shame J/k

Seriously this is not a good car buying experience. I am too waiting for the delivery of my car this week and this is all just quite scary. Congratulations on the new car though. Do post some pics.

HappyWheels · 20th April 2009, 15:56

Hahaha... a good circus you have been thru, RajaGopal! Good that you noticed the mix up!

I wonder what would have happened if you had not noticed it when driving out for a couple of day! Mmmm....

Ok... waiting for the Chennai trip log.

VahanPujari · 20th April 2009, 16:04

Ha, Ha, Ha Pathrao -- Nice way to call him

Hey raj - nicely written update

neotraveller · 20th April 2009, 16:05

Congrats Raj on finally being able to possess your own italian beauty.
I went through my share of circus too during my Red Linea E+ (P) delivery last week.

LOL even I had this brainstorm and was promptly told by the sales guy that its a bad idea

Quote:

Originally Posted by rajagopal_j

We deceide we prefer our very own car and we walk down to the cleaning area to watch the cleaners. I have a brainstorm and I try and do all my initial checks, like the electricals etc etc, it shud save me a lot of time right. Wrong! I was just in the way of the cleaners. I quickly realised that and moved away.

-xplora- · 20th April 2009, 20:05

Congratulations on new car, although I had to wait for the car for a few days, my delivery experience was good ( I was not there, but was told from who dook my car's delivery ).

From your narration, it reminds me of the serial "Office Office" ..lol

Enjoy the ride, one question, why did you not take the MJD if it was available in the color you wanted, unless it was a budget issue.

pradster · 21st April 2009, 11:10

Many congratulations rajagopal_j, I was feeling sorry for you. Thats is untill i read this TBHPians experiance buying an i10! http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...automatic.html

It surely would have been a funny scene had you gone to tank up your "multijet" linea with petrol!

rajagopal_j · 22nd April 2009, 10:18

Have you guys noticed something weird in the Linea?

It is so difficult to find THE position for the driver's seat. After driving 1100+ kms, I still dont have the right position for me. Everytime I get into the car I adjust the seat, front-back, up-down and also the steering wheel up-down positions.

I get this weird feeling that when my car is parked for 1 hr or more the seat slowly moves down and hence when I get into the car the seat is low and I have to increase the height!! Anyone felt this??

Also during my trip to chennai last weekend I started getting back pains after about 2 hrs into the journey and I had to adjust my positions. This happened both while going to chennai and while coming back!!

Are others having similar issues??

sharma_sanjeevi · 22nd April 2009, 10:56

Hi Rajagopal_j,

Congrats for owning this beauty, thoroughly enjoyed reading your post & enjoyed "Pathrao" the most

nice style for writing a review..!!

Where are pics dude ?, waiting for them, Exteriors as well as Interiors.

MuraliR · 22nd April 2009, 10:58

Rajagopal - congrats on your new ride - drive safe.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rajagopal_j

She plays the "I am pregnant, are you going to help or not" card. We negotiate a "over the meter" deal and we are off.

Congrats again if this is true - else, this is a nice way of tackling our Auto drivers. lol.

MadRash · 22nd April 2009, 11:05

Hi Rajagopal:
Congrats on your buy. Black Linea with those silver linings looks hot. Upload some pics mate.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rajagopal_j

Have you guys noticed something weird in the Linea?

I never heard of this from any Linea owners here. Is it beacuse you are new to the sedan with low seats?

14th April 2009, 08:18	#18
Caramelo BHPian Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: ahmedabad Posts: 769 Thanked: 16 Times	congratulations. man! hey what kinda accesories do they have. any alloys? 16" 17"??
	() Thanks

20th April 2009, 14:08	#19
rajagopal_j BHPian Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Bangalore Posts: 37 Thanked: Once	Initial buying Experience - Part 2.1 Sorry guys, I havent been able to post an initial report till date. Things have been super busy since we got the Linea! Anyway here goes. Leaving where I left off! My fingers are crossed and I have just finished typing out my first post about my Linea buying experiences on T-Bhp, There is this weird buzzing noise coming and I am wondering what the hell is happening. It takes me a couple of minutes to realise that its my phone on silent mode vibrating on my desk counter. I answer the call to find my excited wife, our beloved sales guy (hence forth called "pathrao") had called her and asked her about a number preference and had promised to deliver the car the same evening. 2hours hence. Again my wife calls me. Bad news this time, Pathrao is asking if they can deliver the car the next day. I look at my watch its 1:00PM. I ask her why next day? Apparently they stil have to do the PDI, then registration and then the cleaning. So it wont get done the same day. Waitaminit something is wrong here! Its 1:00 PM, why in god's name has the PDI not been done. I call Pathrao and go ballistic, at this point I am starting to get the feeling that things happen only when I go ballistic and the best way to walk into a car dealership is with a perpetual frown and an I got fire in my ears look. Anyway after a lot of verbal exchange short of explicit cursing, Pathrao relents and agrees to deliver at 8:00 PM. Clock strikes 5:00PM. My wife and I are out of office (we work for the same firm), go as fast as we can in our decrepit old M800. Atleast as fast as it could take us without falling apart. We reach home, quickly gulp down a coffe and 5:45 PM we are out on the streets waiting for a rick. 6:00PM Not a God**** rick in sight! To make things worse, my wife is happily talking to her mom about what she is planning to cook for dinner and I am just plain cursing under my breath. When you are driving your brand new car its like as if its raining ricks all around you waiting like vultures to scratch/dent/disfigure it but when in need, you have to wait for 15 mins!! Finally we spot one who refuses to go to koramangala "Thumba traffic saar, alli", well that really didnt help my nerves. So first I start my barrage in whatever Kannada I know, as we progress I realise I am talkin to a tamil auto driver. Well well well, tamil happens to be my mother tongue so I knew some very choice words just for him. To the auto guys respite, my wife had finished her cooking discussion and came in between me and him. She plays the "I am pregnant, are you going to help or not" card. We negotiate a "over the meter" deal and we are off.
	() Thanks

20th April 2009, 14:09	#20
rajagopal_j BHPian Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Bangalore Posts: 37 Thanked: Once	Initial Buying Experience - Part 2.2 6:40PM We walk into the dealership and find Pathrao. He very graciously show us a black E+ car sitting outside. I look around its pretty dirty. Pathrao mentions that there are another 3 cars being delivered the same day and hence ours is in the queue to get cleaned up. Ok no worried after all I was an hour and 15 minutes early. So my wife and I deceide to look around, the car. I am sitting in the passenger side and my wife in the driver's seat. I notice something is different. I remembered an imperfection in the stichining on the driver's seat, but now surprisingly all's well. How is that possible. Something has got to be wrong. So I start looking for clues. 7:00PM I am still frantically looking for clues while I have my wife on duty to find that scrap of paper in which we wrote down the 2 chasis numbers and Engine Numbers. While I am running around the car in circles to spot and remember anything else. black linea - check Alloy wheels - check Steering mounted controls - check Air bags - check hence Emotion + variant - check I open the boot to read the chasis number, maybe I might remember vaguely and thats when my wife's sweet voice floats through the air, "Raj, what does multijet mean?". I stop dead on my tracks. "[Gulp] Why are you asking". "Its written here on the front grille" BINGO!!! I walk into the showroom and find pathrao and bring this whole fiasco to his notice. I make it clear to him that if they have registered the wrong car in my name, I am more than happy to take it and I will not be liable to any excess payments. By now Pathrao, sweating profusely and dropping bricks from his backside, gets his team leader, a couple of other Pathraos are also put into the task to find out which car was registered. 7:20PM Pathrao, is all smiles when he breaks the news to me that they just brought the wrong car down from the yard. Well the smiles were very shortlived werent they, He gets another dose from me about how amazingly disorganized they are and now they have effectivly increased my waiting time by 1 hr and so and so forth. Nett Effect, free mats for the car, ganesha idol and air freshner. 7:45PM My a drives into the dealer parking lot with a still dirty black linea. We quickly check the chasis numbers againt my precious scrap of paper, the car and the documents which pathrao produced out of magic, considering that it wasnt available to check when they wanted to bring the car from the yard. Anyway all's good and they whisk the car away to get it all cleaned up. 8:20PM After a test drive of the safari, the new tata indica, the palio stile etc etc, pretty much every car the dealership had for a TD. We deceide we prefer our very own car and we walk down to the cleaning area to watch the cleaners. I have a brainstorm and I try and do all my initial checks, like the electricals etc etc, it shud save me a lot of time right. Wrong! I was just in the way of the cleaners. I quickly realised that and moved away. 8:45PM The car is all cleaned up and is brought back to the parking lot, where pathrao is standing there with the papers and 2 checklists. He hands over the checklist and takes me around the car and shows me each and every button/stick/feature listed in the checklist and those which werent there as well like blue & me for example. I have to agree here that this was very proffesionally done and I liked it. He didnt ask me to sign the papers, he didnt ask me if I wanted to check the car nothing. It was assumed that it has to be done and it was done. Finally something good. 9:00PM All checks done, papers signed, received documents along with fuel coupons for 5 ltrs of petrol at the bunk 2 blocks from the dealership. Small puja performed, photos clicked and we are off. The car drives very beautifully, my wife and I at the end very happy and contended. This concludes part 2 of buying the car. Very soon. Part 3: Initial driving experience and first long trip to chennai.
	() Thanks

20th April 2009, 15:30	#21
Switch BHPian Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Noida, India Posts: 221 Thanked: 55 Times	You declined a Multijet. Now thats a shame J/k Seriously this is not a good car buying experience. I am too waiting for the delivery of my car this week and this is all just quite scary. Congratulations on the new car though. Do post some pics.
	() Thanks

20th April 2009, 15:56	#22
HappyWheels Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Bangalore Posts: 4,106 Thanked: 537 Times	Hahaha... a good circus you have been thru, RajaGopal! Good that you noticed the mix up! I wonder what would have happened if you had not noticed it when driving out for a couple of day! Mmmm.... Ok... waiting for the Chennai trip log.
	() Thanks

20th April 2009, 16:04	#23
VahanPujari BANNED Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Mumbai Posts: 1,308 Thanked: 8 Times	Ha, Ha, Ha Pathrao -- Nice way to call him Hey raj - nicely written update
	() Thanks

20th April 2009, 20:05	#25
-xplora- BHPian Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Ahmedabad Posts: 126 Thanked: 264 Times	Congratulations on new car, although I had to wait for the car for a few days, my delivery experience was good ( I was not there, but was told from who dook my car's delivery ). From your narration, it reminds me of the serial "Office Office" ..lol Enjoy the ride, one question, why did you not take the MJD if it was available in the color you wanted, unless it was a budget issue.
	() Thanks

21st April 2009, 11:10	#26
pradster BHPian Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Delhi Posts: 292 Thanked: 16 Times	Many congratulations rajagopal_j, I was feeling sorry for you. Thats is untill i read this TBHPians experiance buying an i10! http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...automatic.html It surely would have been a funny scene had you gone to tank up your "multijet" linea with petrol!
	() Thanks

22nd April 2009, 10:18	#27
rajagopal_j BHPian Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Bangalore Posts: 37 Thanked: Once	Driver's seat position and back pain!! Have you guys noticed something weird in the Linea? It is so difficult to find THE position for the driver's seat. After driving 1100+ kms, I still dont have the right position for me. Everytime I get into the car I adjust the seat, front-back, up-down and also the steering wheel up-down positions. I get this weird feeling that when my car is parked for 1 hr or more the seat slowly moves down and hence when I get into the car the seat is low and I have to increase the height!! Anyone felt this?? Also during my trip to chennai last weekend I started getting back pains after about 2 hrs into the journey and I had to adjust my positions. This happened both while going to chennai and while coming back!! Are others having similar issues??
	() Thanks

22nd April 2009, 10:56	#28
sharma_sanjeevi BHPian Join Date: May 2008 Location: Mumbai Posts: 598 Thanked: 113 Times	Hi Rajagopal_j, Congrats for owning this beauty, thoroughly enjoyed reading your post & enjoyed "Pathrao" the most nice style for writing a review..!! Where are pics dude ?, waiting for them, Exteriors as well as Interiors.
	() Thanks