Team-BHP - One more Fiery, Emotional Drop in the LINEA(r) Ocean!!

Hello all,

This is my story:

A few months ago, dad was contemplating on a new car since the good old Indigo GLX was 88k km old and beginning to belie its age. Reading the torrential strem of lineas and their (mostly) good reports, I suggested this to him. But a Diesel Emotion pack was going beyond our budget and not wanting to miss out on the best features we (read he) decided to chuck the idea and we were looking at the i20 instead.

Then, i moved to bangalore for higher studies which cleared the way for dad to usurp my (figuratively speaking) alto and hence give up the idea of a new car ALTOgether.

But as fate/luck would have it, somewhere in his destiny, the word fiat was etched firmly, in RED. (i should mention that he previously owned the good old primiere padmini - with license plate 1994 in the year 1994!). His office decided to become generous all of a sudden and allotted a meaty ~8L for a car of his choice. Along with his colleague they decided on a linea as fully worth that amount and gave B U Bhandari, (pune) the go ahead for a Linea Petrol Emotion. I tried to talk him into a diesel (and stretch the company's budget a bit) but the company declined.

One way or another, today, we took the delivery of the car today - no prizes for guessing the colour - FLAMENCO RED.

Did the PDI according to TBHP checklist. Most financial things didnt apply as those had been taken care of previously.

2 GLARING faults we noticed:

1. Petrol tank cover misaligned with body even after locking - Dealer refused to acknowledge it as his fault and claimed most other cars had it. Upon further argument, he agreed to fix it but asked us to bring in the car after 2 days. This being an auspicious day (karthik Poornima) dad was keen on taking delivery of the car.

2. No Ciggy lighter. On pointing out, the fellow said - it is supposed to be like that only. I laughed at his face and led him to the display linea. He conceded the error and well, took out the lighter from the display vehicle and placed it in our car! lol:

Otherwise, the car was in good condition. One thing i was skeptical about - the odo showed 216 kms! Upon asking, he gave us some spiel about driving from ranjangaon (which is definitely lesser than 216 kms). What do others have to say about this? I was unsure about the procedure and what was within our rights to have done in this situation, since the payment/ registration was already done. (though no signatures of my dad taken).

As of now I haven't driven the car, and will post my impressions later (though I'm sure everyone has more than a fair idea of the Linea by now)

As for the T-JET, We unfortunately couldn't wait. Car was booked over a month ago.

I'd be happy to answer any other queries. :)
I shall post the pics soon. (I've to figure out the protocol of posting on tbhp)

Cheers!

Fist of all congratulations and welcome aboard the FIAT owners club.

For the ODO at 216. I am pretty sure if you put a mail to someone senior in FIAT they will tell you that they don't dispatch the cars to be driven from Ranjangaon to the dealers shop. If thats the case I suppose people buying a FIAT in Assam will have about 3000 or so KM on there ODO. The dealer just takes you on a ride coz we are fine with the explanation and moreover what can we do. After all it doesn't make any sense to take the dealer to a consumer court for this matter.

Anyways enjoy your ride and be safe.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sultanofswing (Post 1562279)

Thank you very much :)

other than the aforementioned niggles, nothing as yet. If someone with prior experience of contacting FIAT could help me out with appropriate e-mail IDs, i would be very grateful. I was quite surprised to see 200+ kms.

Also I remember (some time ago) coming across a thread where all linea owners made a collection of niggles and how they got fixed (with more issues cropping up on diesel variants, of course, my memory could fail me). I am somehow unable to locate that thread despite searching. If some one could post a link, it would be very helpful.

Also there was a "did you know this about your car" type thread for the linea. Not able to come across it in my search.

That's all for now,
more updates to follow.

PS: Blue & Me ROCKS! :D

congrats on your car. Hope you are enjoying Dire straits in your car now. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by sultanofswing (Post 1562279)

Otherwise, the car was in good condition. One thing i was skeptical about - the odo showed 216 kms! Upon asking, he gave us some spiel about driving from ranjangaon (which is definitely lesser than 216 kms). What do others have to say about this? I was unsure about the procedure and what was within our rights to have done in this situation, since the payment/ registration was already done. (though no signatures of my dad taken).

the dealer is talking nonsense. I would strongly advise everyone not to take a car above 100 Kms in the odo as there's a chance that it was used for TDs. Anyway since you have already taken possession, just forget about it and get it out of your mind.

Update:

got sun control films installed from Bafna Cars, (ghole rd, Pune)

Llumar Steel 20 (i think) for the sides and rear: 5.5k (which i thought was a little on the higher side)

3M CR 70 for the front windshield: 6k

Installation was very well done. Now the Linea's look has improved and we just can't stop looking at her! (not that the case was much different earlier)

Problem is, I don't seem to find decent seat covers. I visited 3-4 places but all their Art leather range feels very cheap and the stitch is visibly lacking in quality. I know (after seeing pics here) that Art leather CAN look very good, provided good ones are installed. Do any Pune members know of a place which offers a good range of seat covers and are reliable fitters? Any help would be appreciated. Budget: 6-8k. Willing to stretch absolute max to 9/10 k.

Also, Bafna is coating 3k for Teflon coating with one additional coat after 6 months. Is it advisable? From what I gather, the opinions are mixed about the pros/cons of Teflon coating.

That's it for now,
more to follow.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sultanofswing (Post 1568224)

Congrats dude! Get behind the steering wheel and feel the emotion. My personal view is that Linea OEM seat cover is much better than art leather. If you can do it, keep the originals rather than going for a badly fit or even sagging seat cover. It can be such a turn off.

As pointed out, teflon coat is a bluff. Look out for paint protection instead. If not possible, stick to wax once a month and shampooing every week.

Enjoy the ride.