|
Search Forums |
Advanced Search |
Go to Page... |
Search this Thread | 19,519 views |
15th October 2011, 08:31 | #46 |
BHPian Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Amritsar
Posts: 329
Thanked: 326 Times
| re: My Fiat Linea MJD EDIT: 365 days completed, 36000 kms driven
Absolutely true, it is a timeless beauty. No matter how many times you look at it it always gives you a sense of elation. i own a linea MJD in white since the last 1.3 years and still it is so relaxing to see it parked that it always brings a smile to my face |
() Thanks |
|
19th October 2011, 18:31 | #47 |
BHPian Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Bangalore
Posts: 221
Thanked: 255 Times
| re: My Fiat Linea MJD EDIT: 365 days completed, 36000 kms driven @rohittunga, After your 3-4 months of ownership, how do you rate your experience? Do you suggest this one to others? Why I am asking this question is because, I am selling my current Accent by this month end and will be without a car & planning to buy the next one by Jan. The current list is 1) Optra Magnum (my heart is not allowing me to kick this off the list) 2) Linea MJD EmPk & 3) Tata Aria (if I can stretch my budget a bit more). Main competition is between Optra & Linea. I am not having any close friend/ foe who owns a Linea, (there are pleanty of Punto owners, totally satisfied, but no Linea owners). So from an owner's perspective, would you suggest this car? |
() Thanks |
19th October 2011, 20:00 | #48 | |
BHPian Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Amritsar
Posts: 329
Thanked: 326 Times
| re: My Fiat Linea MJD EDIT: 365 days completed, 36000 kms driven Quote:
| |
(1) Thanks |
The following BHPian Thanks manasmadaan for this useful post: | Jakku |
16th March 2012, 22:23 | #49 |
BHPian Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Chicago
Posts: 243
Thanked: 790 Times
| re: My Fiat Linea MJD EDIT: 365 days completed, 36000 kms driven Request to MODERATORS: Please Change the title to “My Linea MJD EDIT: 365 days completed, 36000 kms driven” Finally had the opportunity to write a detailed ownership experience of my car. It has been a long time since I’ve updated this thread. So here it goes… Exactly a year back we purchased this car and the delivery process wasn’t an incident worth remembering for. But I’m glad to say that a year later, the smiles are back on my face which went missing this time last year. Oh yeah, I’ve successfully completed 1 full year of ownership in which I’ve covered 36000 km. So 36000 km in a year???? Some people might be wondering where all have I travelled in this car. Well, it’s been to Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and of course lots of places in Karnataka. We really enjoy travelling long distances in this car. Rather than explaining about the places we visited in this car, I’m going to tell about the ownership experience. It has been through three regular services and many many many visits to the dealership. From the last time I’ve updated this thread, there has been one major fault in the car which was brake shuddering. The SA thought the brake discs and pads were defective from factory and offered to replace both of them under warranty. This was done at 9300 km mark. Fast forward to 11300 km mark. Again the brake shuddering returns to haunt me, just 2000 km after putting new ones. Remarkably the SA still thinks that the brake discs are defective AGAIN and offers to put new ones under warranty to which I agreed. Now Fast Forward to 16000 km mark. Would you believe it, the brake shuddering returns back with a bang. This time I was adamant that it’s just not possible to have 3 sets of brake discs and pads to be faulty. Upon my repeated persuasion the SA finally agreed and closely inspected the whole braking system for 2 days and came out with a verdict that it’s the Front Hubs that were defective as they developed a slight bulge causing uneven wear on one of the discs. But he insisted that this time he has found the root cause and offered to put new hubs and brake discs / pads under warranty. I’m glad to say that after 20,000 km, the problem hasn’t resurfaced. But I wonder how much loss would Fiat be incurring due to these Incompetent SA’s. Just in my case alone Fiat has lost about Rs 7350 and I’m sure there are going to be hundreds like me facing such issues. But one thing that deserves special mention here is the fact that Fiat honors Warranty without second thoughts and must truly be appreciated. Braking issues aside, there hasn’t been any major issues with the car, just small niggles here and there. But just one visit to the dealership isn’t enough. They want us to come there again and again because they’ve either ordered the wrong part or (in most cases) they order the right part, but Fiat dispatches the wrong part etc etc etc… Here is a description of two such incidents. First being the issue of sudden loss of power which happens just after flooring the throttle in 2nd, 3rd and 4th gear. Nobody really understood the cause of the problem but could experience the problem that I’ve faced. This time I tried KHT Motors who said the Vacuum Accumulator is faulty and replaced it but it was of no avail (had to wait for a week for the part to arrive. As usual the part was available with Aadya Motors).The issue still unresolved, I went to Prerana Motors (Kudlu Gate). There they kept the car for a week and finally came to the conclusion that the Accelerator Pedal Sensor was faulty as it was sending wrong information to ECU causing the loss in power. Unfortunately, such parts will never be in stock and it took another 10 days for them to source it. After putting new pedal sensor, this problem is has totally sorted out. The second issue is that of the AC Relay going kaput. We drove all the way to Shirdi on Feb 28th 2012. Over there when we stopped at our hotel, I noticed the AC Fan still running. I thought it’ll probably stop after a couple of min, but to my surprise it didn’t stop even after 15 min. Without any of my family members noticing, I quickly disconnected the negative terminal of the battery and went to bed. The next morning, before any one got up, I quickly went to the car to reconnect, but again to my shock, as soon as I reconnected, the Fan started running. So that entire trip I used to be the last person leaving the car and the first person entering the car just to disconnect/reconnect the battery. When I got back to Bangalore, it was very late in the night (probably 2am) and I forgot to disconnect. Now the next morning when I started, guess what …. The Battery was dead. I was literally kicking myself because of the situation I was in. Somehow with another battery I started again and immediately called Vitthal (Concorde Motors) and explained him the situation and said that I’m coming now whether you like it or not. Now when I reached the service center, another weird thing happens. I’m just unable to replicate the problem. The AC fan behaves just normally and Mr. Vitthal was perplexed with me and the car. Finally when he checked the fuse box, he found the AC Relay burnt. I breathed a sigh of relief, but not so soon. The cause was identified, but….(you would’ve guessed it by now) part was unavailable with them. He promised me to arrange the part from somewhere and get the car ready by evening. True to his words, I get a call from him at 3:45 pm saying that he sourced the part from other dealership and the car is ready. Was quite relieved that this issue is also been sorted completely. I have created an excel sheet where all the expenses that I incurred in 1 year as well as all the parts replaced under warranty and upgrades are mentioned. Surprising to know that the amount I paid (which includes 3 free services) is Rs 16,917, but the cost of parts changed under warranty is Rs 24,172 and the cost of all those free upgrades is Rs 10,440. This implies that the amount I paid for maintenance (Rs 16,917) is less than half the amount spent on Warranty & Upgrades (Rs 34,613). In a year the car has travelled on all kinds of roads be it Golden Quadrilaterals, Expressways, State Highways and no roads as well (Shiradi Ghats just after monsoons). And when we do long trips it’ll always be 5 people and boot full of luggage. It’s really on the highways that the Linea truly shines. No matter where we go, it never feels out of place and is supremely comfortable. My longest drive nonstop has been from Vapi to Bangalore with a 3 hr break in Mumbai. Even after this 1100 km journey, our backs weren’t broken, nobody got arthritis. Everyone was fresh and active. Since we travel a lot, I thought that the stock speakers must be upgraded to ensure that the journey becomes more enjoyable as well as other modifications
The usual daily routine for the car is a drive from home to ITPL and back which is about 65 kms and a long drive (500~750 km) almost every weekend and a truly long drive (2000km +) once a month. Now regarding the after sales service (which is THE most important part of owning a Fiat), as per my experiences with them, here are my observations
Here is the list of little things that I found very useful in the car
The negatives of the car are pretty much what everyone else who owns a Linea have faced. They are:
Enough of writing now let me update on some of the statistics.
Here is a snippet of the average distance travelled per day between services
OVERALL AVERAGE KM/DAY : 98.60 km/day Cost of ownership
So how do I sum up this car? Well it’s definitely not given me the peace of mind which other car manufacturers claim. Hell even our 12 year old Maruti 800 with over 1, 25,000 km didn’t have these many issues. However, when I take it out on the highway or drive around some twisties or drive through pot holes or just close the door of the car hearing the loud thunk, it just blows me away. All these small issues are quickly forgotten and I begin to really enjoy the car and that’s what matters to me at the end of the day. I’m so glad that I chose this car over its rivals at the time of purchase. All the smiles which went missing at the time of purchase are back now, a year later. A true drivers car indeed. Here are some of the pictures of the car taken at various places that it has visited. This was the odometer reading when the car was new This is the odometer reading a year later Ground Clearance check with 4 ppl and boot filled to the brim Sunrise at Jaisalmer My top speed Some random shots from a recent trip to Chikmagalur This is the attached excel sheet which has details of all expenses incurred thus far. Cost Breakup.xls |
(6) Thanks |
The following 6 BHPians Thank rohittunga for this useful post: | autocrat, J.Ravi, Jakku, Kartik Kumar, one-77, TNAWAYAJ |
17th March 2012, 09:14 | #50 |
J.Ravi
Posts: n/a
| re: My Fiat Linea MJD EDIT: 365 days completed, 36000 kms driven |
(1) Thanks |
The following BHPian Thanks for this useful post: | rohittunga |