Fiat Linea 1.4 Petrol Ownership Review


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Hi guys, I have a flamenco red Emotion Pack regular petrol, done about 25000 km so far. I love to drive and drive fast at that.

Well guys, I did have reservations about owning a Fiat car and was initially more inclined towards ANHC. Did a number of test drives of both the cars and while the Linea was the winner in my books as far as the styling, handling and equipment went, the City felt a wee-bit quicker, only just, mind you. However, the fully equipped Linea had about 20 more features than the then available top-of-the-line 1.5 SMT. I was amazed though at the deluxe pricing for the ANHC and plonked for the Emotion Pack 1.4 FIRE Linea which was a hopping 1.8 lakhs cheaper than the ANHC. I'll tell you this, I'll be lying if I said there was a single moment when I repented the decision. More on this later...
 

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Hi Navtej,

A very warm Welcome to The Automotive India. Do share about yourself in a separate thread in this section. Many congratulations for your Fiat Linea.
However i am a bit confused by your statement below. Would you please shed some light on this?

I'll tell you this, I'll be lying if I said there was a single moment when I repented the decision. More on this later...
 
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don't tell me you took pic yourself . it very dangerous to do such thing . try to avoid it in future

congrats and some pic of exterior and interior would good .
 
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Hi Navtej,

A very warm welcome to TAI and have a wonderful stay here! Linea is a wonderful car to own and expecting a very detailed review and more pics of the beauty.
[:)]
 
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That's a wonderful ride you got there mate.
Enjoy the beauty and drive safe.
please throw some light upon the service experience, mileage, AC etc.
How are the interiors holding up? Can you post a few interior pics?
 

350Z

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Welcome to The Automotive India, Navtej. I'm always happy to see some Linea owner with us. You have left the story in a mysterious end, please post more on this and upload a few more photographs too.

Drive Safe,
350Z
 
Thread Starter #9
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Hi Navtej,

A very warm Welcome to The Automotive India. Do share about yourself in a separate thread in this section. Many congratulations for your Fiat Linea.
However i am a bit confused by your statement below. Would you please shed some light on this?
Hi Akash, thanks a lot for the warm welcome.

I got the Linea on the 26th of June 2009. As far as my somewhat ambiguous statement is concerned, what I meant to say was that I have never repented the decision to buy the Linea petrol in preference to the ANHC. Nearly everybody had advised me to go in for the ANHC. I, however, remained unconvinced.

For me, it was to be my new car for at least 5 years and to me, the Linea appealed more from almost every point of view.
 
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Thread Starter #11
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Welcome to The Automotive India, Navtej. I'm always happy to see some Linea owner with us. You have left the story in a mysterious end, please post more on this and upload a few more photographs too.

Drive Safe,
350Z
Hi 350Z, mastersquall, speed-thirst, Safire90, HolySatan, Akash- thank u guys for the welcome.

Mastersquall, I took the photos myself. Admittedly, it was a stupid thing to do; I am a bit of an emotional man and I was riled by a friend's remark saying the Linea was underpowered and he wondered if it could go past the 120 kmph mark. In fact, I got the speedo needle over the 180 kmph mark. The Linea has about +6% speedo error in that the actual speed when the speedo is indicating 100 kmph would only be 94 kmph. Car India in its March 2009 issue mentions this fact in their test drive of the Linea 1.4 Petrol regular on page 111. They recorded an actual top speed of 170.1 kmph with the speedo indicating 182.
However, Autocar India mentions the actual top speed of the 1.4 regular petrol Linea as 182 kmph in their monthly New Buyers' Guide.

Car India recorded a 0-100 kmph time of 13.94 sec as against 15.14 sec that the Autocar India mentions.

I trust the Autocar India more than the other car mags though I have a feeling the 0-100 kmph figures for the ANHC might not be as quick as mentioned. I have driven my friend's ANHC a number of times and I have NEVER felt like I am driving a 118 BHP car. The ANHC's pickup is in no way superior to the regular 1.4 petrol Linea's and you have to really rev it in order to make quick progress. This may be due to taller gearing or something else done to improve the fuel efficiency or the engine of my friend's car might not have been tuned properly. I would like my ANHC-owning friends to share their experiences on this.
 
Thread Starter #12
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Welcome to The Automotive India, Navtej. I'm always happy to see some Linea owner with us. You have left the story in a mysterious end, please post more on this and upload a few more photographs too.

Drive Safe,
350Z
I shall be writing about my whole ownership experience in respect of my 1.4 petrol Linea over the course of the next few days. In the meantime, please go through a few more photographs:[;)]
 
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The buying experience or rather, the process of finalizing which car to buy was a little prolonged. I am entitled purchase of the car through the CSD and it was only in May 2009 that the Linea became available through the CSD. However, only two models were to be sold through the CSD: the Linea diesel Emotion and the petrol Emotion Pack.

Since I wanted only the top-end model, the option of buying the diesel Linea went out of the window. However, this led to the beginning of a war between the Linea petrol 1.4 Emotion Pack and the ANHC 1.5 SMT in my head (the VMT was not available then). Nearly everybody advised me to go for the ANHC. Ditto for nearly all the auto magazines and automotive websites.

I took a number of test drives of both the cars (at Lalli motors and Joshi autozone). Apart from the higher engine noise in the Linea's cabin, the slightly heavier steering of the Linea at low speeds and the slightly bumpier ride of the ANHC on bad roads, I found no appreciable difference in the two cars. Most importantly, there was almost NO difference in the pick up/ acceleration of the two cars. I might, however, be wrong since almost every auto magazine says the ANHC is quicker and has a higher top speed. The car salesmen at both the dealerships did not allow me to drive fast and the traffic police in Chandigarh are overactive, so there was no way I could test the high-speed behaviour or handling prowess of the two cars.

The point, however, is that I was simply not convinced of the superiority of the ANHC's engine (my younger sister drives a CRV and I love that machine, there was no question of my being prejudiced) as compared to the Linea's 1368 cc FIRE petrol.

What further helped me make the decision was the equipment the Linea top spec came with. The following were present in the Linea and conspicuously absent in the ANHC:

1. Climate control
2. Bluetooth telephony
3. Voice Recognition System with steering-mounted voice telephony controls
4. CD Player
5. Engine temperature guage
6. Foldable key
7. Electric and remote boot release
8. My Car controls with programable speed beep/ warning settings
9. Auto door-closing when travelling (e.g. at 20 kmph)
10. Programable 'follow-me-home' headlamps from 30 to 210 seconds
11. Front and rear fog lamps
12. Alloy wheels
13. Vanity mirror lights
14. Rear AC vents
15. Rear sun-blind
16. Multi-functional display with audio-visual warnings/ on-board diagnostics, also displays which door is open (or if the boot is open) with audio beep
17. Programable passenger airbag on/off, instrument panel light settings, buzzer/ button volume, external audio volume, language/ unit selectors, speed-sensitive audio system settings, graphic equalizer settings, service schedule reminder
18. Double-crank prevention system, Fire prevention system

On top of that, the Linea was longer and wider, had fatter tyres and was priced significantly less than the ANHC. However, I liked the fit and finish of the ANHC more.

Still, the phrases 'after-sales service and spares, lower resale value, probable lesser fuel efficiency' kept resonating in my head. Finally, the beautiful styling, many features that would make one feel special and the reassuring door-shuts made me overcome my demons and I booked the Linea 1.4 Petrol Emotion-Pack in flamenco-red with Joshi Autozone, Chandigarh on the 15 Jun 2009 and I was told to take delivery of the car on the 26th of June 2009.
 

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