Fiat Linea MJD E+ - Test Drive Experience

sumanths · 11th November 2010, 21:30

Hello,
After a lot of consideration and research on sedans available, decided to test drive a Fiat Linea. The following points were on my mind while upgrading to a sedan from a Hatchback. I owned Suzuki Swift (Petrol) for close to 5 years now and thoroughly enjoyed the car for its peppiness. Going for an upgrade, I needed the following things:

Better highway and City Fuel economy than existing one (11/16 kmpl).
Big Boot space - This was the major factor in upgrade.
Features!

Given the above, apart from Honda City, no other petrol cars offered better FE. Hence, decided to go with Diesel Car. My options were, in-fact, quite limited - VW Vento / Fiat Linea / Tata Manza / Swift DZire and Hyundai Verna.

Being a big fan of German cars, my first choice was VW Vento. However, I never was able to reach the dealer from the contact details provided in their webpage and there was a long wait time. I never managed to test drive this car.

Had done a test drive of Honda City earlier this year and felt the car to be very Sedate during the test drive (coming from the peppy feel of Swift). Also, I've always felt that Honda City is a tad overpriced. This was out of question. Didn't want to go with DZire, as that would be Swift again and wanted a change from Maruthi. Manza was an option, but it was Indica at the heart with very good makeover. Hyundai has never been on my radar for any cars, so was totally out of Question. The only other car remaining in the list was Fiat Linea. I had been bowled over with its beauty, but was hesitant to go for a Fiat for a long time.

As I was left with no options and Linea is a stunner to look at, I decided to go for a test drive and booked one online. I was surprised to receive a call from Fiat Marketing (Pune) within 2 hours indicating that a local dealer would contact me. As I'm from south Bangalore, I requested this test drive be forwarded to the Concord Motors on Mysore Road. It was a Sunday and I didn't expect any response on that day. However, I expected someone to respond on Monday. No one from Concord called me and I had to get back to Fiat Marketing team to raise a concern. Finally, I ended up calling the Concord to fix an appointment for a Test Drive. I was promised one on Tuesday by folks in Concord Motors.

Tuesday - No call from Concord. When I called them, they indicated that they do not have a Test Drive Vehicle available then and I'll have to wait. I waited till Wednesday, before I called it off and contacted another dealer - Prerana Motors. I explained my state to the representative (Mr. Pavan) and he promised a test drive on the very same day within 2 hours. I was impressed! I waited for 2 hours and when the vehicle did not arrive, I called again to check the status. Apparently, the car was on its way and got struck in traffic. Henceforth, I got regular updates and the car did come by early evening.

The test drive car MJD Emotion was a disappointment to look at. It was dirty, both inside and out. The rear seat was filled with some marketing material and the buttons on the console were faded. I did take the test drive - approx 4 to 5 KMs in Electronic City, with a little bit of Nice Road Stretch. Low speed handling was ok, with the necessity to shift gears frequently. Once I hit the highway section, I did feel the difference. After crossing 1800 rpm mark, I could feel the Turbo kick in and myself pushed back to the seat. It was fun to take the curve at 60+ kmph, which I normally do at 50 kmph in Swift. Breaking felt good. With this done, I decided on going for Linea, however, I wanted to see a new / better car and get the feel of seating comfort. I visited their showroom and was impressed looking at the beauty it's supposed to be, rather than the one that was given for TD.

My next step was to test the ground clearance, as that is a major factor in my daily commute to work. I asked for another TD near my house as I also wanted to test the parking in our garage. During this TD, I took the car over really bad stretches. This particular stretch of 300m is extremely bad and can be considered a non-existent road. Car did scrape once with very careful driving. Over a few more humps, I saw the bottom scraping. I was driving this car Swift style. With 15" alloys on my Swift, I could easily go over these bumps. The comfort inside Linea was far better while going over bumps than Swift for sure. After this TD, I decided to book the car and did it as soon as I got a decent resale for the Swift. Rear AC vent was very useful for rear passengers during the TD.

As the version I test drove was emotion and did not have Blue and Me, I wanted to test tat as well. I was able to test this in the showroom. The experience was quite pleasant! I was able to pair my phone on the first go and the audio quality and ease of calling was quite good. The amount of features provided in Linea certainly did help in locking on to this.

Finally booked Linea MJD E Pk Fox Trot Azure Blue and asked for delivery on Nov 12th (done late Oct). I was initially skeptical about this. But, I got confirmation that the car is in transit and should be in B'lore by 8th. True to their word, the car was available in Prerana Motors Showroom by 8th and I got the leather seats and sun film ordered.

Now, am eagerly waiting for the delivery tomorrow. Will post the pics as soon as I get my hands on and get some pictures.

-Sumanth.

Schoudhury · 11th November 2010, 23:52

Hey Sumanth.
Let me be the first one to congratulate you .
And i hope you get your car by this weekend and wish you a wonderful time with car.
And also keep this thread updated as soon you get the carm otherwise it might get locked .
Anyways drive safe .

Cheers

gopikb · 12th November 2010, 00:25

Sumanth, Excellent choice. My heart was for the Linea when I changed my car last year. Unfortunately my house parking space was small and cannot accommodate a Linea. Hence finally settled for a Punto. You were talking about taking the curves at 60km/hr during the Test drive. Once you get used to the car, taking the curves at 100km / hour is also not a big deal for the Linea

Enjoy your drive and Congrats.

Klub Class · 12th November 2010, 00:54

Sumanth, Congratulations for being a proud owner of Fiat Linea 1.3 MJD E+

I must say that the color choice is excellent too. And, didn't you find it very difficult to select the color as Fiat Linea looks awesome in all colors

How much did the leather seats and sunfilms cost you? I;m looking forward for your detailed review with pics. Please do carry a camera along with you while taking the delivery of the car.

Make sure that you always wear your seat-belt and drive safe.

Amith

12th November 2010, 08:39

Red carpet welcome to you and your Fiat Linea FTA, sumanths. Congratulations and best wishes on becoming a proud owner of a precious Linea. Happy and safe driving in your Linea.

aks_karthik · 12th November 2010, 09:30

Congrats sumanths,

Welcome to Fiat Linea Club.
Did you order the leather seat from Fiat Accessories or from some other shop like Stanley/Ovion/Karlasson and what is the price quoted?

Enjoy and Drive Safe

AirWind · 12th November 2010, 09:48

Congrats, how is it to drive on b2b traffic? how much did it cost OTR?

sumanths · 15th November 2010, 17:55

Hello,
Back again after owning the car for the weekend now. Firstly, thanks for all the wishes. Had a mixed bag of experience in taking the delivery of the car. The car was indeed delivered on the promised time. However, there were a few minor issues during the delivery.
- cleanliness front - I would give an 8/10 for the car in which it was delivered.
- I got a demo of the reverse parking sensors and the battery would not let me start the engine. I had to get a jump start and a minute or two if battery charging before it returned to normal.
- The beading holding the front wind shield had a small cut. I was given a not asking the service folks to replace it. Yet to get it done in the workshop.

All features were explained properly. Drive back home was a bit scary in-fact, as I was afraid I would scratch the new Linea. This is my first ownership of Sedan (in India) and the shift from Swift Petrol to Linea Diesel was, to begin with, not as smooth as I expected. Surprisingly, I'm getting more comfortable as I drive the car more. Only thing I miss in Linea is - whenever someone cuts across the way in bumper traffic, with Linea I cannot reply in kind. But then, upgrading to sedan has its own merits and shortcomings.

On road price came to 10.3 with discounts of 32K+Insurance+Ext. Warranty and Road side assistance. I ended up paying 9.9L for the car.

Accessories - I went for leather seats from Ovion (costing 36K), Sun films (3M RE50 to side and rear, 3M CR70 to front - total cost of 13K), reverse parking sensors (4.5K) and an extra set of floor mats (800).

Here are the pics of the same. This is taken inside the garage. Will post the outdoor pics soon:

Front View:
Picasa Web Albums - Sumanth Suryanarayan - Linea

Picasa Web Albums - Sumanth Suryanarayan - Linea

Side View:
Picasa Web Albums - Sumanth Suryanarayan - Linea

Picasa Web Albums - Sumanth Suryanarayan - Linea

Picasa Web Albums - Sumanth Suryanarayan - Linea

Rear View:
Picasa Web Albums - Sumanth Suryanarayan - Linea

Interiors:
Picasa Web Albums - Sumanth Suryanarayan - Linea

Picasa Web Albums - Sumanth Suryanarayan - Linea

Picasa Web Albums - Sumanth Suryanarayan - Linea

Picasa Web Albums - Sumanth Suryanarayan - Linea

Picasa Web Albums - Sumanth Suryanarayan - Linea

Picasa Web Albums - Sumanth Suryanarayan - Linea

Picasa Web Albums - Sumanth Suryanarayan - Linea

Regards,
Sumanth

Quote:

Originally Posted by Klub Class

Sumanth, Congratulations for being a proud owner of Fiat Linea 1.3 MJD E+

I must say that the color choice is excellent too. And, didn't you find it very difficult to select the color as Fiat Linea looks awesome in all colors

How much did the leather seats and sunfilms cost you? I;m looking forward for your detailed review with pics. Please do carry a camera along with you while taking the delivery of the car.

Make sure that you always wear your seat-belt and drive safe.

Amith

Thanks Amith. Though the colours are excellent in Linea, I had ruled out all the dark variants, after my previous experience with Swift. A small scratch stands out loud on dark variants. Silver was too common. So, I was left with White or Fox-Trot. Eventually, decided on Fox-Trot, as this is not so common a colour. White would have looked equally majestic, I guess.

nkrishnap · 15th November 2010, 21:45

You can upload the pictures directly on teambhp instead of posting the links.

The FTA looks very good on the Linea. Do enjoy many more happy miles with the Linea.

11th November 2010, 21:30	#1
sumanths Newbie Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Bangalore Posts: 7 Thanked: 0 Times	Fiat Linea MJD E+ - Test Drive Experience Hello, After a lot of consideration and research on sedans available, decided to test drive a Fiat Linea. The following points were on my mind while upgrading to a sedan from a Hatchback. I owned Suzuki Swift (Petrol) for close to 5 years now and thoroughly enjoyed the car for its peppiness. Going for an upgrade, I needed the following things: Better highway and City Fuel economy than existing one (11/16 kmpl). Big Boot space - This was the major factor in upgrade. Features! Given the above, apart from Honda City, no other petrol cars offered better FE. Hence, decided to go with Diesel Car. My options were, in-fact, quite limited - VW Vento / Fiat Linea / Tata Manza / Swift DZire and Hyundai Verna. Being a big fan of German cars, my first choice was VW Vento. However, I never was able to reach the dealer from the contact details provided in their webpage and there was a long wait time. I never managed to test drive this car. Had done a test drive of Honda City earlier this year and felt the car to be very Sedate during the test drive (coming from the peppy feel of Swift). Also, I've always felt that Honda City is a tad overpriced. This was out of question. Didn't want to go with DZire, as that would be Swift again and wanted a change from Maruthi. Manza was an option, but it was Indica at the heart with very good makeover. Hyundai has never been on my radar for any cars, so was totally out of Question. The only other car remaining in the list was Fiat Linea. I had been bowled over with its beauty, but was hesitant to go for a Fiat for a long time. As I was left with no options and Linea is a stunner to look at, I decided to go for a test drive and booked one online. I was surprised to receive a call from Fiat Marketing (Pune) within 2 hours indicating that a local dealer would contact me. As I'm from south Bangalore, I requested this test drive be forwarded to the Concord Motors on Mysore Road. It was a Sunday and I didn't expect any response on that day. However, I expected someone to respond on Monday. No one from Concord called me and I had to get back to Fiat Marketing team to raise a concern. Finally, I ended up calling the Concord to fix an appointment for a Test Drive. I was promised one on Tuesday by folks in Concord Motors. Tuesday - No call from Concord. When I called them, they indicated that they do not have a Test Drive Vehicle available then and I'll have to wait. I waited till Wednesday, before I called it off and contacted another dealer - Prerana Motors. I explained my state to the representative (Mr. Pavan) and he promised a test drive on the very same day within 2 hours. I was impressed! I waited for 2 hours and when the vehicle did not arrive, I called again to check the status. Apparently, the car was on its way and got struck in traffic. Henceforth, I got regular updates and the car did come by early evening. The test drive car MJD Emotion was a disappointment to look at. It was dirty, both inside and out. The rear seat was filled with some marketing material and the buttons on the console were faded. I did take the test drive - approx 4 to 5 KMs in Electronic City, with a little bit of Nice Road Stretch. Low speed handling was ok, with the necessity to shift gears frequently. Once I hit the highway section, I did feel the difference. After crossing 1800 rpm mark, I could feel the Turbo kick in and myself pushed back to the seat. It was fun to take the curve at 60+ kmph, which I normally do at 50 kmph in Swift. Breaking felt good. With this done, I decided on going for Linea, however, I wanted to see a new / better car and get the feel of seating comfort. I visited their showroom and was impressed looking at the beauty it's supposed to be, rather than the one that was given for TD. My next step was to test the ground clearance, as that is a major factor in my daily commute to work. I asked for another TD near my house as I also wanted to test the parking in our garage. During this TD, I took the car over really bad stretches. This particular stretch of 300m is extremely bad and can be considered a non-existent road. Car did scrape once with very careful driving. Over a few more humps, I saw the bottom scraping. I was driving this car Swift style. With 15" alloys on my Swift, I could easily go over these bumps. The comfort inside Linea was far better while going over bumps than Swift for sure. After this TD, I decided to book the car and did it as soon as I got a decent resale for the Swift. Rear AC vent was very useful for rear passengers during the TD. As the version I test drove was emotion and did not have Blue and Me, I wanted to test tat as well. I was able to test this in the showroom. The experience was quite pleasant! I was able to pair my phone on the first go and the audio quality and ease of calling was quite good. The amount of features provided in Linea certainly did help in locking on to this. Finally booked Linea MJD E Pk Fox Trot Azure Blue and asked for delivery on Nov 12th (done late Oct). I was initially skeptical about this. But, I got confirmation that the car is in transit and should be in B'lore by 8th. True to their word, the car was available in Prerana Motors Showroom by 8th and I got the leather seats and sun film ordered. Now, am eagerly waiting for the delivery tomorrow. Will post the pics as soon as I get my hands on and get some pictures. -Sumanth.
	() Thanks

11th November 2010, 23:52	#2
Schoudhury Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Blore/Dallas-TX Posts: 1,066 Thanked: 479 Times View My Garage	Hey Sumanth. Let me be the first one to congratulate you . And i hope you get your car by this weekend and wish you a wonderful time with car. And also keep this thread updated as soon you get the carm otherwise it might get locked . Anyways drive safe . Cheers
	() Thanks

12th November 2010, 00:25	#3
gopikb BHPian Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 554 Thanked: 390 Times	Sumanth, Excellent choice. My heart was for the Linea when I changed my car last year. Unfortunately my house parking space was small and cannot accommodate a Linea. Hence finally settled for a Punto. You were talking about taking the curves at 60km/hr during the Test drive. Once you get used to the car, taking the curves at 100km / hour is also not a big deal for the Linea Enjoy your drive and Congrats.
	() Thanks

12th November 2010, 00:54	#4
Klub Class Senior - BHPian Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: KA17\|KL65\|KL41 Posts: 4,867 Thanked: 1,935 Times	Sumanth, Congratulations for being a proud owner of Fiat Linea 1.3 MJD E+ I must say that the color choice is excellent too. And, didn't you find it very difficult to select the color as Fiat Linea looks awesome in all colors How much did the leather seats and sunfilms cost you? I;m looking forward for your detailed review with pics. Please do carry a camera along with you while taking the delivery of the car. Make sure that you always wear your seat-belt and drive safe. Amith
	() Thanks

12th November 2010, 08:39	#5
J.Ravi Posts: n/a	Red carpet welcome to you and your Fiat Linea FTA, sumanths. Congratulations and best wishes on becoming a proud owner of a precious Linea. Happy and safe driving in your Linea.
	() Thanks

12th November 2010, 09:30	#6
aks_karthik Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Chennai Posts: 1,947 Thanked: 341 Times View My Garage	Congrats sumanths, Welcome to Fiat Linea Club. Did you order the leather seat from Fiat Accessories or from some other shop like Stanley/Ovion/Karlasson and what is the price quoted? Enjoy and Drive Safe
	() Thanks

12th November 2010, 09:48	#7
AirWind BHPian Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Bangalore Posts: 998 Thanked: 404 Times View My Garage	Congrats, how is it to drive on b2b traffic? how much did it cost OTR?
	() Thanks

15th November 2010, 21:45	#9
nkrishnap Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: May 2006 Location: Bangalore Posts: 3,983 Thanked: 7,407 Times View My Garage	You can upload the pictures directly on teambhp instead of posting the links. The FTA looks very good on the Linea. Do enjoy many more happy miles with the Linea.
	() Thanks