[ajaysurfs]

I beg your pardon for being a lazy bum all this time.

Got my Linea E MJD (medium grey) on 14 Oct 2009. Additional accessories - 3M CS50 (free) and rear parking sensors (forgot the name - its fitted from Prerana @ 4500 bucks). This comes after a long fight and rejecting 2 vehicles (Dyn+) for their month of manufacture/issues seen and finally deciding to change the variant from Dyn+ to emotion. My booking process for a Dyn+ (company car lease) started in May and due to to issues mentioned above finally cancelled the Dyn+ and ordered Emotion as i felt that all Dyn+ i saw had Jan/Feb 09 as their Manufacturing months and i was not comfortable with that. I would like to say that Prerana BLR was very cooperative with me for all the troubles which i put them through (i also sent mails with pictures to Fiat sales guys and the top management of Prerana). With the quality of initial vehicles which i saw, at one point of time i decided to call off Linea and go for either Safari or Scorpio (not that they are great on these fronts). However my company agreed for Emotion variant and went ahead with that. I made sure that i got the chassis number once the vehicle was billed to Prerana . I got a Sept 2009 model delivered in Oct 09 and was very happy with that.

Next day (15 Oct) i drove down to Pune for Diwali. Did 80-100 Kmph max for the whole run (this was supposed to be run-in) and got an average of 19.2 Kmpl for the entire journey (~900 kms). The handling was great and the vehicle was rock steady. Under 2000 RPM can be a little slow, but zooms after that. I was driving alone and i did break at Kolhapur at our family friends place for some rest. Did BLR-Kop in 12 hrs with 2-3 breaks. No issues faced for the whole journey except for few scrapes on the giant mountains of Tumkur road and the bad stretch between Davangere and Ranebennur.

I did a second BLR-Pune-BLR run during the year end, this time also alone and at a stretch of 14 hrs with 3-4 breaks. I hit max speed of 140 kmph this time.
However there was one issue during the onward journey. As usual i started early 05:00 from BLR and passed tumkur. Somewhere in between (i guess i was a bit sleepy ) i was not dead slow on one of the bumps and the underbody again scraped. No issues so far. When i was driving (just before Sira) i started hearing something scraping down. I put the audio on mute and switched of the AC, and i could hear the noise pretty loud. The thought which crossed my mind was that one of the tryes must be punctured and that i drove the car long enough to completely blow up the trye. This happened to me with my Indica and i dreaded the same. I gradually brought the vehicle to rest, got down and checked all 4 tyres - they were fine. Then i bent to see the underbody and there i saw a plastic cover hanging loose at one end and scraping the road. I later came to know that it was the covering for fuel line and that it came out of its locks. I Somehow pushed it up temporarily and carried on knowing that it was just a covering and nothing serious. I reached Pune by 19:00.

Apart from my lonely Pune trips i also did few local weekend trips (nandi hills, Mantralayam, etc.) and have driven more that 5000 Kms now.

Great things:
- Admiration Guaranteed - One hell of a looker
- Excellent/Spot on handling
- Excellent ride comfort
- Great brakes
- Good FE
- Good VFM for the segment - Gives a big car feeling
- reliable
- HUGE boot
- 15000 Kms service intervals
- No rattling/squeaks whatsoever

Things which could have done/improved:
- Bottle holder: None of the bisleri bottles fit anywhere.
- Better NVH: Especially at high RPM's (>3000)
- More ergonomic seats with thigh and lumbar support: for long drives
- Bulb in glove box and engine compartment: Especially for nights
- A bigger/less cramped footwell
- A little bit more GC

Did my first servicing at Pandit auto (tilak rd, Pune). Only 2 issues - gear knob was loose, 1 mudflap had come out because of scraping on bumps. Service was OK - Washing was not great, they misplaced my warning triangle from boot. Good that i checked the complete vehicle again and discovered this. They gave me a new one. But i doubt that they even do a underbody check. Very casual work approach.

Overall i am happy with the product and have no regrets so far. Will post the pics and more updates sometime later.

Happy Driving

[Soccerfan]

Congrats on the buy and report. better late than ever. Enjoy your ride.
Please put some snaps also

[bnzjon]

Congrats Ajaysurfs. Welcome to the Linea club !
Drive safe and enjoy the beauty.

Post some pics of both interior and exterior.

[jacksons]

Ajaysurfs, Lucky you have completed 5000 km in three months. My Linea is march born and just have completed 5000. Mine is petrol Epack
I too have no issues till date other than Falling rear quater glass chrome strip.

Congratulations and best wishes, ajaysurfs, on becoming a proud owner of priceless product!

[vnagarajs]

Congratulations !!!

I too have the same color and manufactured on the same month as yours. Hope the chrome beeding is in place too.

Thanks.
Nag

[nkrishnap]

Congrats!. Medium Grey Linea like any other color looks very good.

By the way was the Fuel line cover replaced/repaired?

[recshenoy]

Another happy linea owner!
welcome ajaysurfs. nice to read about your cruzing aka surfing report of Linea.

With Pune and local trips, i am sure you have good snaps of Linea. Kindly share same with us!

[MAS]

Ajay - Congrats on your new possession.. Err.. Now not that new.

What scrapped the bottom while you hit the bumps? Was there any damage to the metal at the bottom? If there is no damage to the metal, then is the plastic cover (covering the fuel lines!!!?) the lowest contact point?

[anachronix]

Congratulations mate! Some pictures of your car please. A wise decision made

[Amartya]

Congratulations!

The Linea is a wonderful car. I am sure you mustn't have used it too much, but what do you have to say about the rear seat comfort?

[NutsNBolts]

Congrats Ajay. Many more admiration filled miles to you.

[cosmopolitan]

Congrats on your purchase. Please do post some photos

[ajaysurfs]

Originally Posted by jacksons

Ajaysurfs, Lucky you have completed 5000 km in three months. My Linea is march born and just have completed 5000. Mine is petrol Epack
I too have no issues till date other than Falling rear quater glass chrome strip.

Thanks. No issues with the chrome strip so far.

Originally Posted by vnagarajs

Congratulations !!!

I too have the same color and manufactured on the same month as yours. Hope the chrome beeding is in place too.

Thanks.
Nag

Chrome strip is doing fine.

Originally Posted by nkrishnap

Congrats!. Medium Grey Linea like any other color looks very good.

By the way was the Fuel line cover replaced/repaired?

Thanks Krishna. Service station guy told me that the cover has come off the locks and he just has to fit it back.

Originally Posted by MAS

Ajay - Congrats on your new possession.. Err.. Now not that new.

What scrapped the bottom while you hit the bumps? Was there any damage to the metal at the bottom? If there is no damage to the metal, then is the plastic cover (covering the fuel lines!!!?) the lowest contact point?

Thanks. I think it is the middle body member (may be rails on either sides as i have yet not seen the underbody clearly). There was no visible damage to the engine guard plate - so i guess it should be the guard rails. I think the plastic cover might also brush, as it is pretty low (on the drivers side of underbody)

Originally Posted by Amartya

Congratulations!

The Linea is a wonderful car. I am sure you mustn't have used it too much, but what do you have to say about the rear seat comfort?

Thanks Amartya. Never sat on the back set till date Always drove! Anyways my mom says that the rear seat comfort is good - i am talking about my long pune drives. I think the suspensions (Front -rear) are best in class.

[ajaysurfs]

Thanks for your wishes. Some pics of the Grey beauty. Will post more in coming days (interior/exterior)