| My Fiat Linea experience - Vocal White.
As I was abroad then, I contacted the RF Motors, Cochin through email and they were very prompt, came to my house for the booking and also took my family for a Test drive as passengers as no one drives in my house. We booked a Diesel, Flamenco Red, Emotion Pk on 6th April from RF Motors, Cochin . While booking they informed a 20 days booking period. After a week of my arrival, they called to inform that the car is in transit. When I got my cheque and asked them about taking delivery the Manager informed that they don’t have any cars of Flamenco red and informed that 2 ‘Vocal white’ cars have just arrived that day and I could come and see and take delivery of the car if I was interested. So I went to Cochin with my wife to their yard the same day. My wife immediately fell in love with this ‘Vocal White’ car and said that we should buy this instead of ‘Flamenco red’ the white Linea really looked majestic and Royale like a thorough bred ‘White stallion’. Any other colour cars wouldn’t look as prized and stunning as the white one. We immediately made the payment and we were told that we can take the delivery after the delivery inspection in 2 days.
We arrived by noon on 23rd April and took the delivery of this beauty that was all ready and waiting for me to take her home. The RF Motor showroom staff was courteous and very helpful. They cleared all my queries which I had jotted down on a paper before leaving home. As soon as I got in the car the first I asked them to start the car and asked for the kms run and it had run only 23 kms and I was glad as I read in one of the forums that the kms had run 150 kms while taking the delivery. I waited long enough to own this beauty and now I was driving one. I had a chance to drive this car back home 75 kms and so could make a good study on the car while driving. Now for the features about the car:
Looks: Admiration Guaranteed: - The slogan ‘Admiration Guaranteed’ is very much appropriate for the looks of this beauty machine. The exteriors of this car is beautifully built and you can notice that the curves on the sides starts and finishes off smoothly. The rear side can be mistaken for a BMW/ Jaguar or likewise cars. The front grille and shapes give a look of an Audi. The interior is exotic and very neatly done. The dual colour interiors give a luxurious and rich feel when you are inside. You don’t feel like coming out once you are inside. My 5 year old son is all the time inside the car and now knows almost as much as me about the car. The front seat passengers have enough leg & seating space even if the seats are pulled well in front. The front arm rest in the centre is very useful for the driver. Only negative part is the hand brake is just beneath the arm rest. But again you don’t use the hand brake all the time. The dials and the dashboard are beautiful and assembled neatly. All the buttons are easily accessible even if you are fully leaning on the seat while driving. The digital display provides a good information including time, date, outside temperature, and of course the kms run. The plastic doesn’t look that cheap compared to the other cars in this segment including NH City. The finishing inside is very neat and done very well. Only thing I fear is if the door handles would withstand the rough use like on a Padmini or Ambassador car. I am still getting visitors to have a look at the car and surely enough ‘Admiration’ is flowing from all quarters.
Engine performance: 1.3 Multijet engines would be a small engine for a car of this size, but it has enough power to drive this car efficiently. In the first gear you have to pass 2500 rpm to get a steady start, but once you are moving the gears constantly the speed picks up and the drive is also extremely smooth. But in the 1st & 2nd gears you feel a sudden pull but as you move on to higher gears this is not there. The pick up may be lesser compared to other cars, but this is a family car and I am not in for any race. This gives out a steady pick up and I personally feel that’s what is needed in a family car. The best thing I loved while driving this in slow traffic places is that you can drive even in the 5th gear at the speed of 30-35 kms and still the car wouldn’t jerk. When you need to get speed after clearing the traffic, you need to push the pedal slowly and it will gain speed steadily, the good thing is you don’t have to change any gears, its like driving an auto-transmission car. Once inside the car and after starting the engine, I noticed that the engine sound is very minimum as compared to my Ikon & Tavera and when you are at signal etc, you cannot find out if the car is on or off. Twice it happened to me that I turned the ignition in a signal thinking that the engine has gone off.
Fuel Efficiency: As I have driven only 400 kms I have not yet really checked the mileage but my display showed 17km /l while on highways. When I checked with the sales executive he said it would increase after the 1st service.
Control: The driving control is excellent and even on sharp bends you don’t feel the car swirling even a bit. I tried out some sharp ‘S’ curves on some Trichur roads at 90 kms speed and it was taken very smoothly by the car. There was no skidding or screeching sound and the tires gripped the road very well.
Comfort & ride quality: The ride is very smooth and even on uneven roads you don’t feel the jerk as the Linea suspension bears it all. We had gone for a long trip 150 kms with my parents at the back and after returning they were as fresh as when we left from here. My father remarked that he felt as if we were sailing in a boat and with the continuous air condition from the rear a/c vents, felt like the cool sea breeze. The arm rest in the back seat is also handy with the cup holders.
Boot space: There a monstrous space in the boot and this would be very useful when you have enough luggage for a world cruise.
Technology: The technology installed in this car is the best among any other cars. The ‘Blue&me’ system is very useful for people who are constantly over phone all the time. This system is very user friendly and you doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out how it functions. Once you pair your Mobile with the ‘Blue&me’ everytime you get in the car with your mobile’s Bluetooth ‘ON’, it will automatically connect to the car’s system. You have first to download your phonebook to make any calls by name if not, you can also tell the car to ‘DIAL’ and then read out the telephone number. I don’t know why but I couldn’t download my contacts from my N95 phone, but then I changed my SIM card to Motorola V8 and downloaded the phone book just for a trial purpose.
Another feature is if you receive an SMS from any of your phone book contacts, then car will ask you if you need the SMS to be read out, say ‘YES’ and it will read out the SMS irrespective of the language. I tried out a couple of Malayalam ‘SMS’ and it read out these SMS very clearly but with an English accent. The quality of the speech is also very clear and there is no echo or anything. One of the engineers advised me not to download the phone contacts as this would create some problem on your mobile in future. I reverted back to him that why they didn’t inform this to the customers initially while they were canvassing the ‘Blue&me’ system. We pay an extra 50000 for the emotion pk and then end up with this type of advises after purchasing the car. I said I would report this to FIAT Company and immediately he said that he heard rumors like that and hence wanted to caution me. I jokingly told him that I will download the phone contacts and if anything happens to my mobile set, FIAT would have to compensate me for the loss.
Music system: The Blaupunkt music system is excellent but not very sure about the quality of the speakers. There is also option to play your favorite music from your pen drive by connecting to the USB port that is located in the dash of the car. I tried out that too and it is very nice to hear your personal favorites while on long drives. You don’t have to depend on the FM. The FM is also very much crystal clear. Only negative point is there is no provision for fixing a DVD player.
Maintenance & Reliability: Finally the most important thing, maintenance. As the service has to be done only in 15000 kms the maintenance schedule is very long and hence I feel till that time it would be a ‘ Fill it, Shut it and Forget it’ sort of an affair. Of course, some times you could get a punctures as well.
Fiat cars were always known for their reliability but it is the looks and the service that let them down in India . But this car is ‘Bold & Beautiful’ and the I believe Tata service would also cater to all the needs in future. If FIAT starts their own service centres than it would escape the step-motherly treatment from TATA’s.
To conclude I would say this is a great car and I never expected that FIAT would come out with a Car like this. I learnt from the dealers that many people who had booked for SX4, Dzire, NHonda City already cancelled their bookings and booked for Fiat Linea and most of them already taken delivery of their cars compared to the 6-8 months waiting period of DZire & SX4’s.
I suppose my review was a long one, but I am really sorry, I didn’t want to miss out on anything that my friends wouldn’t want to miss.
I would advise anyone who is looking forward to buy a car to opt for this car as you are getting a ‘D’ segment car at the price of a ‘C’ segment car with so many features. I wouldn’t have any easier way to explain why to buy this car among all the others. You will definitely understand what I meant when you drive it around your neighborhood.
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Last edited by Jaggu : 27th May 2009 at 17:22.
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27th May 2009, 16:22
