Fiat Linea tested by CarWale

Altis too has same rear headroom - or even less and no one even makes a mention about it - including auto mags.

Recently had the opportunity to drive and sit in a linea emotion pack for a 250km ride.

First impressions have profund influence on the follow up views on anything. The swooping C pillar design from the outside tends to give the viewer with the opinion that rear headroom would be small.

My said drive was in the night and hence there was no visual reference to the low rear design before plonking my 5foot 11 inch frame in the rear seat.Impression-there is more than adequate headroom at the rear and no reason to be uncomfortable.

Yes a wagon R would give more space around ones head at the rear, but then what does one do with the same? Unless someone is wearing a tophat they wont be complaining about the headroom.

So the bottom line is there might be less headroom in relative terms but there is no reason that one would feel uncomfortable with the same, the two aspects are different in my perspective.

I saw the comments about rear headroom. Now let me give a real life incident. Me and 3 of my friends had the chance to travel in Linea and on course, the driver dint see a hump and went over it lil fast. End result is that my friend (5'11") banged his head against the roofline in the rear. this proves some of the people in this thread wrong. Why should one pay so much money and get ur head bumped

Well 'banging the head on the roof'-this i have experienced in many a car, my take home was it was more to do with the bump(and the speed) rather than the car.

@Shinuak: This happened despite your tall friend wearing his seatbelt?

This is a perfect car only if you are chauffer driven.

Its got the worst engine plonked on the heaviest car of its segment and not only does this gigantic log of wood take an eternity(17seconds) to hit 100 kmph, its mileage is enough to make you tear your hair out( a dismal 8.5kmpl).

The interior plastics are terribly hard and cheap and the stereo seems to produce  no bass whatsoever and the steering feels vague around the corners. The car twitches and feels wallowy over uneven roads and this is evident at high speeds.

The only plus points about this car must be the looks and thats about it.

Not to forget FIATS TERRIBLE RESALE VALUE and  reputation thats its earned i India, which means that when you spend 6-7.5Lakhs on this FIAT, you cant expect more than 1.5-2 Lakhs in return on resale.

Blue and me is/was one of the greatest and most talked about distinguished feature in the Linea. But now, it seems like many aren't able to get it working. Blue & Me refuses to recognise voice commands. It might be due be either accent or the phone model which is the culprit.

But then Blue & Me turned out to be more of hype only

@ Sujit: Blue and Me is only the hype.

Apart from the look which is meant only for admiration, there is nothing else in the car.

I was very much disappointed when I did the TD last week.  1st and 2nd gear its too sluggish.  Poor interiors and very poor plastics parts which were broken from many places.

Nothing to admire.

You get blue tooth feature also in Cedia which is far better car.

Several statements here are false or misleading - could be due to the fact that it is not from direct experience but based on observation of what is on paper or from hearsay. I am answering statements in the psot below

"Its got the worst engine plonked on the heaviest car of its segment and not only does this gigantic log of wood take an eternity(17seconds) to hit 100 kmph"

If some one sees just the specs on paper it looks so.
In terms of performance,

- if we are looking for racing track performance then SX4 and City score better than Linea. (but in normal driving situations, you do not start from 0 with all other cars in the same line after flag-off)

- if you are looking for performance in the normal range then Linea scores far above SX4 and City.

Normally whether in City or highways, you are already above 30KMPh often and Linea gives performance where you need - in the mid range.

To talk in terms of data

 0 to 100 - Linea - 15 seconds, Optra - 10.9, City - 10.3, Civic - 9.6, Verna - 11.3, SX4-12.1

But

20 to 80 - Linea - 11.8, Optra - 12.8, City - 12.9, Civic - 12.3, Verna - 12.3, SX4 – 13.75

40 to 100 - Linea - 13.6, Optra - 14.9, City - 16.7, Civic - 16.4, Verna -  16.4, SX4 – 20.92

So, the feel that SX4 or City or Civic has better performance is due to the fact that they have much better figures on paper in terms of bhp, cc etc. But in reality the story is different.

"The interior plastics are terribly hard and cheap and the stereo seems to produce  no bass whatsoever and the steering feels vague around the corners"

This is again wrong. The plastics are not great - even ANHC plastic is not great- but good.  Falling off - could be a statement heard from a Palio friend.

The car twitches and feels wallowy over uneven roads and this is evident at high speeds.

 This is the statement in the entire post which is farthest from truth.  Every user as well as auto mag has appreciated on one point - that is the ride and handling and the predictabilty at high speed combined with excellent dynamics.  The best ride over bad patches of roads or uneven roads is the best thing in the Linea compared to even ANHC, ALtis, Civic, SX4 - not to mention Verna whose ride quality and high speed nervous dynamics are well known.

Not to forget FIATS TERRIBLE RESALE VALUE and  reputation thats its earned i India,

 I guesss you or your near one had bad experiences during Palio days. This is true. FIAT did not earn a good name in India in the past. But they are trying thier best after tieup with TATA as well as launching FIAT FIRST and Roadside assitance program similar to Honda at 1/3rd the cost of Honda.

its mileage is enough to make you tear your hair out( a dismal 8.5kmpl).

 The mileage of Linea Diesel is at least 15+ in city and 19+ on highways with AC. If you say that the mileage is 8.5, then I really wonder.