[geeash]

Hi Guys , i am back from the vacation. Eager to post the experience and assessment. Will write soon

@trrk

God forbid: You get a deep scratch or damage. The area is repainted. would they do the paint protection for that area free of charge?

Yes they do the paint protection for that part free of cost

Umpteen number of small / other size stones etc would be hitting your underbody and possibly damage the anti rust coating. How is it going to prevent rusting if the coating itself is damaged?

First of all these small stones hitting the underchassis doesnt damage the underchassis painting. Only the big speed bareker bumps and scrapping could shear off the painting in that area. Even if it does damage it doesnt mean that it will start rusting within a day or two. Rust to develope the exposed iron need to get oxidised and it will take some time and monsoon enhances it. If people think that monsoon is nearing and by all probability that it might rust soon, we can take up the car immediately and have it repainted in a jiffy for the damaged part free of cost. Or if we preffer we can wait till the next inspection and have the painting done at that time.

In the Linea's (and my City's) case, any decent speed breaker loves to touch / scratch the underbody. So the likelyhood of the anti rust coat getting damaged in day to day use is more

Not if you drive a little carefully. In my 1 month of linea ownership i have scrapped in speed breaker only twice. For the likelyhood of the antirust getting damaged in day to day use, that is why these people give 5 years warranty and inspection every 6 months to repair the damaged area.

[trrk]

Hi,

Originally Posted by geeash

@trrk
Yes they do the paint protection for that part free of cost

Thanks geeash for the response. If they do what all you have claimed it sounds fine.

[geeash]

Total distance covered : 834 kms

Route Up: Chennai - Tindivanam - Ulundurpettai - Kallakurichi - Athur - salem -Yercaud
Route Down: Yercaud - Salem - Krishnagiri - Vellore - Chennai

Date : 29-31 MAY 09

People travelled : 2 (Me and my Wife with 1/2 boot loaded )

Avereage consumption up to yercaud : 12.8kmpl (chennai - yercaud including ghats) (Courtesy bad roads and heavy lorry and trailer traffic)

Average consumption down from yercaud : 14.1 kmpl ( Mid display)
(I know i could have achieved much more if i had kept her under 100kmph but the idea was to rip her apart)

Maximum speed achieved : 170 kmph sustained for about close to one minute 4 times during the downward journey.

Average speed for whole trip : 72kmph

Speed at which car was mostly driven : 140 kmph during the downward journey

Travelogue

Started from chennai on 29th of may at 5:41 on clock. Chose to travel via the tindivanam. Had a couple of stops at madurantakam and ulundurpet. Till ulundurpet road was fantastic and had a great cruise at sutained 140kmph. After ulundurpet it was a nightmare. Roads were too bad, full of pot holes and heavy lorry trailer traffic And because of that i could not even touch at constant 60kmph with constant shift of gears and slowing down. Reached salem late by 2 hours and then had our lunch. We started the ghat section climb and reached yercaud at 3:15pm on clock. Had a great stay at hotel grand palace. I would definitely recommend this place to team-bhp guys if someone has to travel to yercaud. Rooms were neat. Had a great valley view rooms. Had plenty of outdoor entertainment. Food was a tad costly but more than palatable. Finished my sight seeing.

Had a bit of a surprise when i saw satya from team-bhp in his linea there in my hotel were he also chose to stay. Was very happy to see two lineas together.

Started the downward journey yesterday at 2:15pm. Chose to go via the other route ( courtesy - satya). Trip was great as the roads were near to perfection. Decided to revup the car and reached 170kmph 4 times. Came to chennai in 5 hrs time.

Positives

1.Ride quality is exceptional
2.Handling is described by the word :"fantastic"
3.Ghat climbing: Was able to climb the ghats with 20 hairpin bends without a single lugging of engine mostly in 3rd gear and sometimes in 2nd gear. Handling in hairpinbends is great and i had no problems due to big turning radius in hairpin bends.
4.Now the mainpoint : 170kmph top speed with great responsiveness to touch of the accelerator. For those of you who say the car is underpowered, must come one on one with me in this highway road. I was able to relegate scorpios, endevours, ANHC, Fiestas, innovas to dust. These highprofile cars could not even come near what my linea would do in 80-170 speeds.

Now C'mon guys please wake up from your slumber and dont go by the paper and say linea is under powered.

An interesting thing is that a guy with KA registration in his All New HC decided to give me a fight from dharmapuri to krishnagiri. But poor thing he couldnt even touch me on the criuse. He would try to catch up with me and play hide and seek when ever a lorry trailer comes in front of me and me beating him on pickup and criuse happened repeatedly . He came up to me when i stopped in krishnagiri for refreshment and asked me whether i got this car imported ( Poor guy from bangaluru doesnt even know linea exists on earth and in india too).

So for those of you who want to bait linea is underpowered, you can continue saying so until there are no more poeple to listen to you.

5. Huge boot is definitely a plus point . I was able to shove in what ever crap i got, inside and all the more i found the car more responsive when the boot is full.

6. The car had speed volume control on. So when ever i slowed down the car, the volume of the radio would come down and when ever i revved up the audio volume would go up. I was giving a demo of that to my wife who was pretty impressed. When i revved my car up the audio volume goes up to a certain extent and because of which i did not need to increase the volume of the stereo to obliterate the engine sound. this is indeed impressive and you guys must try it out.

Negatives

1. A-pillar issue: I found it slightly difficult to drive in the ghats with the a pillar frequently giving me some blindspot though not frequently. I have mostly driven cars like antro and verna without the quarter glass so i have always felt comfortable. May be i have to raise my seat and get used to it a little

2. Roaring - Beyond 150+ the car roars but not to a extent that it hampers your audio hearing. but still roar is a roar.

3. GC. I had a couple of scrapes in potholes in yercaud. Guess if gc was a little more it wouldnt have scrapped. If only the GC was a little more Alas!!

4. Fiat has to definitely do something to the drivers handrest. As stated before i was not able to grip the steering with my left hand comfortably with my elbow rested. Either they must lengthen the handrest or they must bring it forward.

I have taken pictures but could not post it as my photoshop has gone down the drain. Will try to re-install and post the pictures soon...

Till then keep waiting.......

cheers
Drashkum

[Sathya_sc]

Originally Posted by geeash

Negatives

3. GC. I had a couple of scrapes in potholes in yercaud. Guess if gc was a little more it wouldnt have scrapped. If only the GC was a little more Alas!!

Good write-up. Enjoy every mile buddy!

Yes.. I too had 2 big hits in Yercaud. I was worried.. I saw under the body but was not able find any visible problems.

Anyhow, I may take it to the Service center for a check-up to ascertain that no damage has been done.

Regards,
Sathya

[aks_karthik]

Don't worry guys.
It won't affect the car parts.
I too got so many scraps and thud in different places and little bit worried.
But once i saw the underbody I was very happy that nothing happened abnormally.
Every hit was well absorbed by the steel rails/bars in both sides of the car.
But if you were hit with a stone or heap,it would have assaulted the underbody for sure.
I think,Already Aswin got a strike in his exhaust pipe.

[sanjaymugur]

Originally Posted by geeash

So for those of you who want to bait linea is underpowered, you can continue saying so until there are no more poeple to listen to you.

thats a great statement.. ENJOY the FIAT engineering...

[SSN]

Nice post. I too feel that the A-pillar does create blindspots at some angles. Also the engine sounds a bit harsh at speeds above 140. Anyway enjoy your drive and keep posting your experiences. Waiting for the pics.

[pranava999]

Nice writeup ashwin. I always knew the Linea could hold her own with the other sedans in the same class.

[StarVegabond]

Hi Geeash, great report.

I have driven my Palio at 165 KMPH on Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Palio begins to become unstable to control beyond 135KMPH speed.
i had expected Linea to perform better. your report confirms it.

but, i would suggest you to drive max 110 KMPH. our roads are not made for speeds higher than these. Summers would melt the tar causing car to skid. Rainy season would bring lot of small stones on to the roads, occational (some time roadful) pot holes. The curves on the road are not designed for high speed turing/routing. high speed will cause the car to often skid. more over the fellow drivers are also in the similar mode causing accidents waiting to happen

Speed Thrills, but kills too.
hence drive safe, enjoy your linea for years to come. keep posting your experiences.

[geeash]

By the by during the trip the car crossed 3k mark. Had contacted the dealer yesterday ( concorde ambattur) for first of the free service and inspection. He had asked me to come today morning at 9 am. I am going for it and will soon update you.

[geeash]

Originally Posted by StarVegabond

Hi Geeash, great report.

I have driven my Palio at 165 KMPH on Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Palio begins to become unstable to control beyond 135KMPH speed.
i had expected Linea to perform better. your report confirms it.

but, i would suggest you to drive max 110 KMPH. our roads are not made for speeds higher than these. Summers would melt the tar causing car to skid. Rainy season would bring lot of small stones on to the roads, occational (some time roadful) pot holes. The curves on the road are not designed for high speed turing/routing. high speed will cause the car to often skid. more over the fellow drivers are also in the similar mode causing accidents waiting to happen

Speed Thrills, but kills too.
hence drive safe, enjoy your linea for years to come. keep posting your experiences.

Thanks. Will try to adhere. But sometimes clean roads and empty horizon make your foot a little itchy to press on.

Originally Posted by SSN

Nice post. I too feel that the A-pillar does create blindspots at some angles. Also the engine sounds a bit harsh at speeds above 140. Anyway enjoy your drive and keep posting your experiences. Waiting for the pics.

Downloading photoshop. Will soon post the pictures

Originally Posted by pranava999

Nice writeup ashwin. I always knew the Linea could hold her own with the other sedans in the same class.

I never have that element of doubt. Only some people here in team-bhp still say linea is underpowered. Mine and Sathya post would put that to end.
But as said by spiderman " with more power comes greater responsibility"

I have given the car for first service to concorde. Have reported a few niggling issues like rattling in rear left door. Will report back about it in a detailed post after the service

[trrk]

Hi,

Off topic:

Originally Posted by geeash

Downloading photoshop. Will soon post the pictures

If it is for resizing of your photographs, then you could try a freeware called as 'Prish resizer' which gives you right click resize function for individual / group of photos.

[geeash]

If it is for resizing of your photographs

No mate!!. It is also for enhancing the origional one and also to decrease the photo file size as each photo is huge in size.

[RedOne]

Originally Posted by geeash

6. The car had speed volume control on. So when ever i slowed down the car, the volume of the radio would come down and when ever i revved up the audio volume would go up. I was giving a demo of that to my wife who was pretty impressed. When i revved my car up the audio volume goes up to a certain extent and because of which i did not need to increase the volume of the stereo to obliterate the engine sound. this is indeed impressive and you guys must try it out.

geeash, Is this speed volume control a setting on the HU? Does the display indicate the higher volume level? I haven't noticed it before, so how do I enable it?

Gears,
Red-One.

[aks_karthik]

Originally Posted by RedOne

geeash, Is this speed volume control a setting on the HU? Does the display indicate the higher volume level? I haven't noticed it before, so how do I enable it?

Gears,
Red-One.

Yes you can see it in menu in the audio.
you have to activate the Speed Volume Control.
There is 2 sensivity(High and Low).

Nope there's no change in Volume level indicator.
Only the sound increases/decreases depends on speed of the car.