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My Fiat Linea 1.4 Petrol: 13 years and counting

21st March 2023, 14:05 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

If I were to replace it today, the car which I would consider would be the Skoda Slavia 1.5 MT.

BHPian RajBajwa recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Update

The Linea completed 13 Years in October 2022. I am sharing pictures of how the car looked in October 2022 after a DIY wax polish session.

The car serves me well as a beater car. With the age, there are the usual problems.

I changed all the Tyres in September 2022 (Yokohama Earth 1). These are the second set of new tyres which I got in the last 13 years. First replacement happened at age 6. I got them online from tyresnmore.com. I found the pricing competitive compared to retail stores and I liked the service of them changing tyres with wheel balancing done at your doorstep.

The other work which I did was the suspension overhaul. The car feels firm as new now.

There are some other minor niggles which come up. AC cooling drops and I have to get a coolant gas topped up.

I am tempted to get a replacement but the brain wins over the heart. I don’t see the value of spending 20 lacs on a new car when my usage is limited. I like sedans which sit low with a low ground clearance as they are more fun to drive with low body roll and corner-carving ability. If I were to replace it today, the car which I would consider would be the Skoda Slavia 1.5 MT. I am old school and like manual transmission over automatic. The only gripe with the Slavia is that it is not low enough and I feel it will have some element of body roll and won’t feel stable enough during high-speed cornering.

The other part is that the Slavia will cost me roughly 20 lacs on road in Mumbai. The annual servicing costs will be in the range of Rs. 12,000 – 14,000 and the insurance cost will be in the range of Rs. 40,000. I don’t see the value of spending that kind of money to replace a car when my current one serves the need.

As of now, I am focussing on my career to have the requisite funds to replace my cars in the garage. I do not take car loans and I believe that I should buy a car only if I have savings which are a certain multiple of the cost of the car or in other words use only a small percentage of savings to buy a car.

Based on the cars available in the Indian Market today I would want to replace my garage in the following manner: