Brain went Linea but Heart wanted to Cruze

 

I initally wanted to buy a Cruze and that also a LT model because my friend had a bad experiances with the sunroof jamming and the keyless entry feature.

 

This all started after I took Cruzes test drives and was quite sure I wanted to buy it after quite a few talks with my friend who allready had a LTZ model I settled on the Cruze LT but when I used my friends Cruze in traffic it was a bad experiance ther mid range was not very good and overtaking fast trucks was hard work. In the test drive I drove in traffic less street and also without much speed control.

 

Matters went downhill from there the LT model did not have ACC and had a single line display for the car funtions. I had no plans on Linea did not consider it because it was a cheaper car so i did not think it had anything against Cruze but i was wrong.

 

My friend took me to FIAT's showroom in his Cruze and I took a testdrive of Linea with my friend following me in his car. Intally I was not impressed the Cruze's centre console looked much sporty and the plastics were a bit better "Not a lot". Linea took the city roads quite well and I was impressed that a 90PS car could give a better drive in city than a 150PS car could. Overtaking cars/trucks was easy in city due to better mid range and I was impressed with the handling also.

 

I will compare Linea to the Cruze in the below attrib's because given the dimensions and the fact that it was my other choice it would be a good write up.

 

Exterior Wonderful lines a work of art can be said for both Linea and Cruze. Linea had a artistic air about it, it has the lines that can make people gasp but only if one looks at it for some period of time. Cruze has a much more bolder and beaffy look it has a American face even if it was designed somewhere else. People will take time to notice Linea's beauty. People will take half a second to notice Cruze.

 

Interior (Features, Space & Comfort) The interior's for the Linea are a bit smaller than the Cruze when i say a bit smaller i mean the back head room and the door spaces. The Cruze lets me keep big bottles in my door space but Linea does not. The space in the driver part of the cabin is good as good as the Cruze and there is a foot dead pedal that the Cruze doe not have and it proves to be very comfy on trip's. Both Cruze and Linea have weak lumbar support but Linea's rear seats are super comfy. Features are similar on Cruze LT and Linea Emo Pk but things like Blue&Me are extra, Space in both are ok for the driver but rear seat legroom is less in Cruze and headroom is less in Linea.

 

Engine Performance, Fuel Economy and Gearbox Engine performance is low on Linea and its something that i dont like after i tried on Cruze but as i have allready noted the in city performance is great pointing to the great mid torque that the car can deliver. The performance is good keeping in mind that this is a 1.3 with a variable turbo same as the Cruze with its 2.0 and a variable turbo. FE is good and gearbox is a bit like rubber but Cruze's gearbox was not slick either still it was a bit better than the one in Linea. Engine is ok not great but good for city drives okish for highway, cruze is opp. its great on highway and bad on city

 

Ride Quality & Handling Linea has one of the best ride quality in the segment and compared to Cruze it stands out what i mean is that Cruze has a harder suspension setup than Linea and its a hard ride for mid level speeds but once speed is incresed to around 90kph the ride smooth's up a lot. Linea has wonderful handling the hatchback underpins dont really show themself's, Ride quality is quite good a mix of soft and hard a must on Indian roads.

 

Final Words Bought Linea Emo Pk instead of Cruze LT because it drives better in the city, gives better FE, is cheaper to repair, has similar dimension's, have similar brand value, resale value for Cruze would not be high nor do i expect Linea to be high, better braking time and lower distance covered 100-0kph than Cruze, Blue&Me and ACC were the final points in the deal.

 

Areas of improvement Back seat head room, Plastic quality, Engine power.

 

Driver's seat, City drive, Steering and Handling and safetySome plastics bad, Highway performance and rear head space