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Fiat Linea road test : Linear Programming

Fiat has been in India for a long time. We had the Millicentos, what are commonly known as ‘dukkar’ Fiats, the ubiquitous Padmini, and the Uno. It was in 2001 that the Palio wowed the automobile-buying public, but the after-sales and service left a lot to be desired, as it did with Petra and the Palio Weekend/Adventure. Now, however, they’ve given themselves a new lease of life with the Linea, which is a sedan based on the Grande Punto, itself a car that has revived Fiat’s fortunes worldwide. Does it work for India?

Fuel efficiency, value

Petrol power, turbo-lag in diesel

Comments Latest 10 are shown

Rachit on 14 Nov, 2009 at 06:59 PM

What makes you feel the plastic quality is cheap in the Linea? It ain't that bad.  If you notice the cost cutting Honda (in Civic) and Toyota (in Fortuner) has done, you will be shocked.

Edit Remark: Please do NOT quote preceding post (since deleted).

 

 

Bala on 14 Nov, 2009 at 03:07 PM

even toyota and honda have,had collobration here,did that cause a problem,that observation is wrong

PRAVEEN TYAGI on 14 Nov, 2009 at 10:19 AM

Linea is overall good car but pity is that they brought with less powerfull engine and with poor plastics.

In order to establish in the market they should have brought a car with finish at the cost.

I have observed that any collobration with the car manufacturer who is in India are facing problem e.g.,

1. HM-Mitsubshi

2. mahindra - renault

3. Tata-fiat.

 

Ranjan Gupta on 13 Nov, 2009 at 07:49 PM

Now you got it right Avik..... It all depends on personal preferences......

Even I was hooked on to fun driving/ speeding ......  drove my bike even at 135 km/Hr..... met with many accidents..... was gifted life 3 times...... but then may be when I did my first postmortem that too of an accident case it all died down. Rash driving / speeding is now a No No for me. I now suggest everyone Life is very precious don't waste it. Drive carefully...some one is waiting for you at home!

Getting stuck up with a car ???? No I dont think so . One buys a car keeping in view all its pros and cons.... technology is always upgrading ..may be tomorrow we will have a car which will run on air..or something else...... we always have to upgrade . Once the new technology comes and it is very important to change then of course all of us will change but then changing just for the car being underpowered is only left for the few millionaires. One should have thought about it at the first step before buying itself!

 

Bala on 13 Nov, 2009 at 02:40 PM

@avik sarkar, again friend this is not to hurt you,but honestly linea is not that slow or boring as you make it out to be,i think you are writting these things from hear say views and talks,you should take a proper drive and you will change your notion,certainly linea is spirited and very involving and interesting to drive

Victor on 13 Nov, 2009 at 02:09 PM


Fourth was complete change of direction

4 – Ferrari, ownership, manufacturing, Gallardo pushing

Fifth topic shifted to comparison with cars driven by self

5 – Accord, SX4, Swift , only Palio owners will find Linea good

Several people gave real life feel and data comparing Linea performance with Swift as well as other cars.

Sixth , took a U turn

6 – “who said bad engine, tiny engine frustratingly slow”

Data was given comparing its midrange performance of several cars.

Seventh, was

7 – “data given is wrong”

That was again responded that it is authentic data taken from mags


8 – personal preferences and priorities

However good the car is you will get bored, “stuck”,   Esteem and Ikon

 

One common streak I can find among all the postings from you is that, “you want to talk negative about Linea and bash Fiat in one way or the other – starting with “performance” and ending with “personal feeling”.  

You have all the rights to feel that Linea is bad – it is your personal feeling.  The “actual” feeling can be felt by everyone else to directly use and feel and come to conclusions.

Victor on 13 Nov, 2009 at 02:08 PM


I think if one does not mind whether Petrol or Diesel, people would actually upgrade from City to Linea MJDSmile


Hi Avik

If we go through the sequence of your postings

First you started with

1- worst engine with terrible mileage and resale value

Many in the forum responded with real experiences and data.

Second you moved on to

2 - pathetic car which refuses to go beyond 120

 Again people responded with even photos how comfortably they can take their Lineas to high speeds

Third you shifted to

3 – speedo error of 13%

Participants said error is not that high and how the error is less with Linea

Charles on 13 Nov, 2009 at 08:13 AM

But I don't think the Linea sluggish enough to want to upgrade to a City. :)

VahanPujari on 13 Nov, 2009 at 02:01 AM

Everybody is not so confused as to get "Stuck" or "Bored" but takes informed decisions. Repeated statements with words like "Stuck"/ "Bored" coupled with the pattern of your cars that you mentioned shows there is confusion prevailing in mind & its those turmoils that are taking you to a status of feeling "Stuck" or "Bored", What you're doing is assuming everybody is confused like that Wink - e.g. talks about performance on one hand but gets into a car opposite to it on the othe rhand & then creeps & get bored, talks about safety standards on one hand & on the other hand gets into Ikon 1.6 with braking issues

Avik Sarkar on 13 Nov, 2009 at 12:22 AM

Now thats best left to personal preferances and priorities.

One point I must raise is that no matter how good a car is otherwise, when it is no fun to drive, you will surely get bored of it in no time. When newer and more powerful cars with better safety standards come out, you will feel that you are "stuck" with this car feel like changing it  as soon as possible, which means that you will loose alot of  money in doing so as Fiats never hold good resale values.

I know so because i had an Esteem VX in 1998( the 65Bhp one) and i was forced to sell it off although it was in perfect condition and upgrade to a more powerful Ikon 1.6 in 2 years just beacuse i was bored of its lacklustre performance.