Re: The 2014 Fiat Linea Facelift - Test Drive & Review Folks,
Sharing my experince on my first long road trip in brand new Tjet emotion. The post is a bit long one so a humble request to everyone to bear with me on this.
Being an avid and passionate follower of history and mythology, for long I wanted to undertake a road trip from Pune to Hampi. When I bought Tjet couple of months back, the desire grew stronger and finally I planned it in the month of Oct'14. Could not post earlier as I was completely swamped by work after joining office.
The trip was planned with 2 cars and 2 families. Tjet : Family of 5 - (My parents, wife and kid). Honda City : Family of 3 - (Sister, her hubby, daughter). Stay was to be 5 full days at Hampi. The route taken was Pune - Kolhapur - Belgaum (overnight stay)- Hubli/Dharwad - Gadag - Koppal - Hospet(Hampi). When I landed up in hospet (hampi), changed my plans to cover badami, pattadakkal and aihole as well; so from hampi went to badami via Kushtagi and stayed there for 2 days. Return journey route taken was Badami - Kulgeri (join Bijapur highway) - Hubli/Dharwad - Belgaum - Kolhapur (overnight stay) - Pune.
Now comes the point why I am writing this post.
My experience was somewhat like this - Great starter, great main course and bad dessert. Pardon my using this (foodie) analogy but could not find any other best way to describe it. I am sure you would understand as you read on.
Tjet was smashing to drive, extremely competent engine, addictive turbo and very stable. NH4 was a breeze from Satara onwards all the way to Dharwad. I had to control my urge not to go to higher speeds. The speed masking was so good that I had to watch the speedometer many times to ensure I do not go beyond 80s/90s. On NH4 I put her on cruise control at times and did have brief periods when I took her upto 100 as well. Absolutely great drive throughout.
Worth to mention was that my mother who has spondilitis was also extremely comfortable throughout the journey and no one complained of any fatigue. One more point lest I forget, when I bought Tjet in June'14 and had taken my initail rides, I could not find any comfortable position and my lower back started to pain. It got me worried if I made a mistake. However in 2 days time, I could adjust well and after that the pain was gone. Now after this long journey, I can safely say that the lumbar support and the way the front seat hugs your back actually made me so comfortable that I experienced no fatigue. So full marks there too.
On way from hospet to badami via kushtagi and then from badami to join the bijapur highway, we had to pass through small village roads. The roads around Badami - Pattadakkal - Aihole are extremely narrow and at times the condition is such that I wondered if this was done with the intent to transport us back to that time when the roads were almost non-existent!. It was that bad. The sites esp. Pattadakkal is truely worthy of being world heritage site. Here the honda city scrapped many times and tjet not once. Both cars were full of luggage typical of indian families so whatever boot space you have, it is always too less.
The overall experience was exhilarating to say the least! Just one word - Amazing heritage! For me personally even a month did not feel sufficient. Snaps taken were almost 1500+. Maybe when I will post detail travelogue whenever I get sufficient time at hand.
So there end the starter and main course which were great. Now comes the bad dessert part.
On my return journey I had stayed at Kolhapur (Hotel Opal). Next day morning I joined NH4 and just after couple of kms, filled up petrol at a BP petrol pump. A couple of kms before Karad, i experienced barely noticeable jerks while driving at @70 - 80 kms or so. It was typical of the experience when we suspect that the fuel is impure. I too thought it to be something minor and continued at lesser speed though a bit more watchful. After some time it was happening intermittently and I started to feel that definitely there is more to this. At karad I pulled over and had a look in the manual. While I do not recall it right now, the recommendations given were to drive it at lower speed and take it to nearest service station if the engine light was flashing. If the engine light was constant, then stop the car and call up the service station to avoid engine damage. Since the light was not constant, drove it at very low speed. Around @30 kms before satara (Umbraj to be precise) the engine light showed up and remained constant. I immediately pulled over as I did not want to get stranded on highway with my family and boot full of luggage. As luck would have it, the honda city (my sister) had taken the route to Sangli to visit some relatives. So no support on that front.
I called up fiat road side assistance and here comes up some relief. Realizing my precarious sitation, the fiat guy told me he will call back in few mins. since as there was no fiat authorized service station in satara and esentially this means a tow on top of a flatbed crane would need to be arranged all the way to Pune. So there was I waiting anxiously for his phone call. True to his word, he called back within 10 mins. flat and put me through a conf. call with a flatbed crane service vendor. I gave that guy my location as I had made a note of crossing the flyover at umbraj. After the financial discussions, he told me that he will come there as soon as possbible. True to his word, he reached at my location in @15 mins. I was surprised to see him so soon. He mentioned to me that his office was nearby. God bless.
So the last part of my journey @140 kms from Pune was on top of a flatbed crane with my family members. I guess this was the longest period ever that being in driver's seat I did not have to hold the steering. Infact there was a time when my father dozed off and when he woke up he was shocked to see the back side of a truck and even more shocked to see me without any hands on the steering. Then he realized that we were on top of the crane being transported to Pune!.
Landed up at Bavdhan service station at Pune. Gave complete description of the problem to the Manager. I had already called him up when I was stranded. He was extremely helpful and promised to have a thorough investigation. I told him that through out the jourey there was no issue and only in this last leg of the journey I faced this. Luckily for us they had an internal shuttle which had just come. He quickly arranged it to drop me home with my luggage. Finally at @5pm I was at home.
He delivered the tjet in 2 days and told me that the fuel pump had been replaced. There were some impurities maybe fuel or in the tank due to which the problem had occurred. He also mentioned that he has completely cleaned the entire system and also filtered the fuel and there was no need to replace the fuel that was there. Since I had filled up the tank just after Kolhapur at a BP pump, I enquired if impure fuel was the reason, he said he cannot answer with certanity on the origin of the impurities but definitely one of the reason could be fuel. For the past decade or more I have been filling at BP pumps and had never faced such an issue. So was not sure if that could be the reason. He said that in earlier times some private pumps used to mix ethanol in petrol which used to be the culprit.
I took it with a pinch of salt and still am not able to comprehend what exactly would be the root cause. However I give full marks to fiat road side assistance and service folks for their promptness and full attention to the issue at hand and of course their politeness.
Comming back to the present, I made another journey to Kolhapur recently on the same fuel and have faced no problem whatsoever; of course with a new fuel pump!
There ends my road trip and my experience - great starter, great main course and bad dessert! |