re: Unexpected love affair with an Italian beauty: '13 Fiat Linea MJD. 30,000 kms up Selection Process - Test drive report Test Drive Route: We decided to test drive all the cars in the same route so that it will help us to compare easily. The test drive route was the traffic heavy BG road, NICE Road and then some real bad roads off BG road. My wife took the rear seat always during the test drives to experience the back seat comfort. Ertiga( 3 Test Drives): Likes:- Quickly I got the driving position right (May be because I am coming from WagonR and Dzire) and felt very comfortable with the driver seat.
- Ingress and Egress was a breeze
- Very spacious second row, good head-room
- Felt very much like a car
- Didn’t feel that it is under powered, but 1.6/1.5L would have made a big difference.
- Flexibility of 7 seater or Excellent boot space for long drives minus third row
- Good FE
- Excellent Service Network
Dislikes:- No Climate Control like Dzire
- My wife was not happy in the second row at all, she felt it was very bumpy especially on the uneven NICE road stretches. She said Dzire was excellent in these stretches(I couldn’t believe this). To confirm this we took repeated test drives on different Ertiga from Kalyani Motors, but her feedback was same. So, we put Ertiga on hold.
- After discount ZDi was close to 11L. This was outside our budget. Accessories like seat cover, Reverse sensor etc will take it to 11.2L, way outside our budget.
SX4( Two test drives):
Likes:- Again, like Ertiga it didn’t take much time to get adjusted to the driving position. I felt very comfortable.
- Ingress and Egress was a breeze
- Braking was good
- Good head-room
- Good ground clearance
- Excellent Service Network
Dislikes:- Didn’t feel like an upgrade from Dzire
- @11L after discount, it is overpriced – Not a VFM car at all.
- Again my wife was not happy with the rear seat.
- Getting discontinued soon.
- Believe me, I was told a waiting period of 2 months since manufacturing is done based on orders.
Fiesta Classic(Two Test drives):
This is the second time we are having a try @ Ford. Before booking Dzire in 2011, we were more interested in Fiesta Classic, but a bad dealership experience @ Lathangi made sure that we move away from Ford. This time again we had to check @ Lathangi since this dealer is closer for us,
Likes:- VFM pricing, top end was around 9.4L
- My wife was happy with the rear seat ride quality
- Build quality looked good
- Proven diesel engine
Dislikes:- Didn’t feel like an upgrade from Dzire because no climate control, skinny tyres, under powered when compared to Dzire, interior quality was not great etc.
- I was not happy with the driver seat, especially the under-thigh support.
- I was not happy with the attitude shown by Ford Lathangi/Elite. Especially, no proper and swift response for test drives. Had to follow-up with them so many times before they would come for a test drive.
- 20days – 30days waiting period
XUV 500 (Two Test drives):
Despite being obviously out of our budget, we couldn’t resist taking this for a test drive.
Likes:- Very Spacious
- Noise level was very low considering the engine size
- Umpteen features
- I was very happy with the driver seat and the steering comfort.
- I am hearing good customer service from Mahindra, at least they are improving
Dislikes:- To be frank, I didn’t find any cons apart from what is mentioned in the niggles thread.
- Pricing outside our reach
Skoda Rapid:
I was interested in this because there was an offer going on in which the down-payment was around 3.5L and EMI starts after 15months(this offer was for 2013 models only). This very much suited to our financial situation and hence we showed interest despite the –ve feedbacks on their customer service. But, top end models were sold out under this scheme. I checked with all the dealers in Bangalore but in vain. Vento:
I have done a test drive couple of years back and liked its power, stability, build quality. But it was outside our budget at around 11.5L for top end. Verna/New Honda City:
These were dropped since the variants that we were looking at were outside our budget. Ritz/Punto:
I also thought of Ritz and Punto but my wife was not interested because of less boot space. Linea MJD Emotion(Two Test drives):
This is our second attempt on Linea. Previously we ignored Linea due to ground clearance, but this time with good ground clearance we were interested in it. Some time back I drove my cousin’s Linea MJD from Bangalore to Nagercoil(670 Kms) and I was impressed with its handling on the highway. I had a discussion with KarthikK and Krishna(nkrishnap) and they suggested me to go with a test drive since some good discounts were going on for 2013 models. Likes:- Build quality
- Handling on highways
- Bigger tires
- Leather Seating
- Awesome looks despite being around for a long time
- Features like rain sensing wipers, auto lighting, Blue and Me
Dislikes:- Driver seating position, as it was low compared to Dzire.
- Limited Service Network
- Niggles, especially the quality of their spare parts
- Ride quality was stiff to my liking especially on the city/bad roads
After the entire test drives on all the options we considered, we decided to go with Fiesta Classic or Linea MJD. Maruti lost out because SX4 is not a VFM at all and Ertiga was not in our range but still I was keeping this in mind.
Last edited by arun_josie : 13th June 2014 at 11:14.
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