Linea T-JET Plus Ownership Review

 

I bought the Line TJet+ on October 16, 2010 from Concorde Motors, Bangalore. The color is tuscan wine. Its been more than a month since I got the car and I wanted to share my experience with others. Here it goes:

 

Look and Style This would depend on an individual's view. For me, this is the best looking car in the Rs. 10 lakh category, when you compare it with Honda City, VW Vento, Maruti SX4, Ford Fiesta or Hyundai Verna. There is no doubt that the T-Jet+ is a head turner. The 16 inch alloy wheels and leather seats only add to the appeal of Linea.

Comfort The drive is excellent... the 16'inch alloy wheels and leather seats add to the comfort. You have excellent leg room in the front seats while rear seat leg room is not as good as City , Vento or SX4. Also, the solid built of this car (the doors close with a thud which shows quality of the steel used compared to Japanese cars) inspires confidence in the ability of this car to withstand any mishaps or accidents, There is adequate leg and back support and the driving position can be adjusted (both seat & steering wheel height) to drivers comfort level. The controls for rear view mirror adjustment and windows are a bit far off, if you have short hands, you will find this a bit irritating .

Pickup The biggest complaint about the Linea was its subpar pick-up. T-Jet has more than made up for this problem and the T-Jet engine never disappoints you with lack of power. The engine is always rearing to go and in fact at traffic signals you need to be gentle with the accelerator when the signal turns green since the car zips ahead of all other vehicles in split seconds. I just took it on a long drive (around 1000 kms) and had a great time driving this beast at 120+ kms/ hour speed on the Bangalore- Coimbatore 4 lane express way with absolute ease. You feel really confident to drive this at speeds above 120 mainly because of its grip on the road (16 inch wheels) excellent brakes which responds immediately with minimal jerks (disc brakes on all four wheels) and the built quality and weight ( it’s the heaviest of the lot compared with City, Sx4 and Vento) .

Mileage While the company claims and average mileage of 14.5 kms for T-Jet, I am yet to get these figures. This could probably be due to the car being new (mileage should pick up after first service) and the wider 16 inch tyres. In city, I am getting around 10.5-11.0 kms / liter while on the long trip I got around 13 kms/ liter. Since T-Jet is a petrol car, and petrol prices moving upwards, this is indeed a matter of concern. I hope to see better mileage figures after my first service (the car has so far done only 2000 kms) .

Best Features Linea has perhaps the best list of features compared to competition. The ones I found really useful are:

·         Automatic climate Control: I really like this feature since it allows me to set the temperature inside the cabin to the level that I want - the temperature is maintained at a steady level and I don’t need to adjust it frequently during travel.

·         Blue & Me: This is perhaps the best feature and the most useful one too since I tend to take many conference calls while driving. With Blue & Me, I have paired my Blackberry and as a result, making calls while driving has become very convenient. In fact, I tend to make most of my calls while driving my car!

·         Disc Brakes on all 4 wheels: I found this really good especially during my long drive. Even at 120 kms speed, the TJet’s braking is swift, effortless and very steady…no jerks, skidding or movement towards the sides. I am impressed!

·         16 inch alloy wheels: The bigger wheels give T-jet better ground clearance than the older model. With 170 mm ground clearance, the T-Jet never disappoints you even while negotiating pot-hole ridden roads or big humps which are very common in India. I have travelled with full capacity (6 people on board) and luggage and never did the underside of the car scrape the road while negotiating humps.

·         Assortment of small but useful features: Display of actual and instant fuel consumption, external temperature display, boot release button on the key, foldable key which easily fits into the pocket, rear A/C vents for passengers at the back, sunglass holder near driver’s seat etc…etc ...

Needs to improve
·         The speakers of the music system are pathetic! I can’t believe fiat decided to fit such sub standard speakers in this car. I got it replaced after two weeks.
·         The USB port is located in a very inconvenient position, fixing the USB player in the dashboard cupboard is a cumbersome process
·         There are hardly any useful cubby holes to keep your nick-nacks! You don’t even have a decent cubby hole to keep even a 1 liter bottle of water.

Overall Experience So far, it’s been great. The only real worry is the mileage, which I hope will improve in the coming months after the first service. This car is highly recommended for people who like driving (and long drives), want a car that looks like a million bucks, offers features that’s on par with car’s in a segment above the Linea / City / Vento range and also offers the best built quality in this segment (perhaps the Vento comes very close on this parameter).

 

Excellent ride & handling, comfort, features, great looksBad music system speakers, rear seat space, lack of practical cubby holes