Pleasure car but very delicate

Exterior Should I say anything about exterior? Looks wise, she is definitely a head turner wherever she goes. I have a Hip hop black and she looks really georgeous.

Most of it are very useful.Seats are comfortable, leg room is good even at the back. Over all interiors and features are very good.

Engine Performance, Fuel Economy and Gearbox I have testdriven other vehicles also before buying Linea. I liked the power of optra, its awsome. In verna, you feel very good in city driving as it is very torquey. Vento is again an ultimate machine. Inspite of all these, the reason I opted for this is, See, we mostly drive in the city atleast 5 days a week. Weekends we go out, so keep around 500 kms. and probably twice or thrice in a year we go for very long trips for around 2500 to 3000 kms one trip. Now, with more powered and torquey vehicles, definitely the driving pleasure is more. But we have to take the hit on the fuel economy daily in city. About highways, Just with power nothing happens,consider whether the body dynamics of the car can handle so much power. For e.g. verna engine has the capacity to push the vehicle to 191 kmph. But the body can't handle more than 140 kmph in a stable way.

And where can you drive more than 150/160 kmph continuously in india? atleast as of now, So, I was looking for a vehicle which can reach a top speed of around 170 kmph (If need be), which linea does. without compromising much on milage. She is torquey also. And as it is 1.3 cc engine, so better milage also. I love the way she grunts when you increase the throttle. Engine means its gotto be a Fiat engine. I think Fiat is the trend setter and others follow. And next thing was the waiting period. Verna diesel and VW Vento's waiting period was around 6 months. But I wanted a car immediately. That was one of the reasons I started shortlisting only those vehicles where the waiting is almost nil.

Ride Quality & Handling Ride quality is brilliant. Handling is ultimate. (period). You have to drive it to believe it. the way she handles the curves at speeds is very good.

There was some problem with wheel alignment. The vehicle pulls to the left. I went to the showroom, and the service guy said, they don't have the part and it will take around 10 days to come.

Regarding the wheel alignment, he discouraged me saying all vehicles have that problem. And it seems that I have to hold the steering while driving. He is teaching me how to drive. I have been running around the service center for 5 times, still they haven't fixed it.

At the end of trip, my remote locking stopped working. I had to use the key hole to lock and unlock the doors. At the service station, they took the key inside and said there should be some minor loose contact and then made it work and returned the key.

Next day again the same problem. Remote not working. Again they did something and said its working. 2 days later again it stopped working. I asked them to change the battery they said, not required, and fixed it again. 

2nd week, I observed that the beeding on the roof was peeling out. Weekend we went for another long trip, While returning I observed that the chrome beeding on the bumpers are coming out. one front and one back. I observed that the mud flaps are hanging. (It seems they had forgotten to screw it before delivery). When I took it to the showroom, they fixed the beeding, roof as well as the chrome one, with fevifix and said its done. I had not heard of all these problems earlier in my 5 years of driving experience.

I am not sure whether it was a wise decision buying this vehicle by just keeping in mind what goes under the hood. If a small sound comes from the vehicle, first thing my wife does is turn back and see if any part has fallen down.😎 Anyways, I am still living with the broken cover and faulty wheel alignment. Lets see when the part will be available and they will be able to fix it. btw remote is still working.😷

Final conclusion is if you can live with these kind of minor problems and parts falling out of the car etc, don't think too much, buy it. If you want a great handling but delicate darling go for it. If you look for very good engine and drive performance this is the car for you. One thing I will tell you. let alone all these problems, once you sit inside the car and start driving, you will just ignore all these things. Even though I had read about all these things in the reviews, after a test drive, I just booked it. Now, I really feel like a king when I am inside the car. handle it like a baby and she does everything just fine.

Areas of improvement Definitely the fittings. After sales service. Service engineers training. Spares availability. Fiat has come out with a diamond. but with these minor things, they are not getting the deserved respect.

If only these things can be addressed, Fiat really rules.

- Prashanth.

* Review after completing 9000 kms...

I have cloaked 9000 kms with my Linea.

I will tell you, I am very happy with the performance of the car. I have touched 175 kmph with this in my last trip to bangalore from hyd on NH 7. Travelling in 140 feels so cool, that I have to really check the speedo meter to believe I am driving at that speed. You don't feel it at all. 

And the braking is fantastic.. The confidence you ll have when you r driving this beast is so much that, you can rip in 160-170 easily. 

Hey another thing, I had another vehicle hit my car's backside bumper in a signal. It had a big dent and the chrome mould was cut. I got it repaired (the chrome mould was replaced), u know how much I paid? Just about 3000 man.. can you believe it? I am so happy about the work done also. I got it done with concorde motors in sanath nagar. 

Its always a pleasure to drive my car. I cover hyderabad to bangalore in 5 and half hours. with a couple of smoke breaks in between. There are no other problems I have encountered so far later. It has amazing ride quality and handling. At around 90-100 kmph if we can maintain, it gives me a milage of around 21 milage and when I am ripping at 160-175, I am getting around 17 kmpl. good enough.

Best car to buy in that price tag. I am obscessed with Fiat for sure.

- Prashanth