Story of a 12 L Rupee “LEMON” – The New Fiat Linea. Review on Fiat Linea

Story of a 12 L Rupee “LEMON” – The New Fiat Linea MJD Emotion – Sep 2015

After a lot of research and evaluation of cars in the market, Negated service issues, Spares, cost and ease of maintenance  & poor resale value. It was a descsion from the heart with great passion I decided to go for the New Fiat Linea MJD emotion considering its build quality and safety.

Around 20th Aug 2015, I went to Aadya Motors(Ebony) and test drove the car and decided to go for it, Buying experience was one of the worst as the sales executive, Prajwal does not miss an opportunity to tell lies to the customers & drives very rashly even when customer is along with him & his manager Deepak does not even respond to customer calls and asks customers to coordinate with “your” sales executive. Did not provide invoices for the full sum of money paid, also was charged 16000/- as handling charges( unaccounted) no go even after escalating to FIAT.

Finally they called me to inspect the car, after looking at it I raised few questions and PDI in charge Abdul, was taken back when I demanded for their PDI report as I smelled something fishy, Then I escalated to Fiat & CS head Mr. Mangesh intervened and assured me to go for the select car as he assured he personally inspected it and & there are no issues with it what so ever, I did make it a point to take it in writing!

Note that at no any point I was not allowed to take test drive of my car before delivery.

Finally took the delivery of the car on 30th Aug15, after full payment made and RTO work done.

Immediately after delivery of the car I reported “Left Pulling” to the selling dealer Aadya service in charge & was told it could be minor alignment issues, which can be rectified.

Since the dealers workshop was not operational for 3-4 weeks, I took the car to KHT on 16th Oct, Since then FASS along with Fiat technical team have done hit and trial repairs on my brand new car for more than 45 days, car has now become a test bed / R&D car and no more feels like a new car, My car's alloys, all fasteners have taken severe beating impacting overall long-term reliability, I wondered with this serious defect how this car has passed out of plant inspection.

During adoption of the hit and trial methods by service dealer & Fiat team have taken more than 100 trials and I myself have taken numerous trials till date & car was not to my satisfaction, Hence I conveyed that I am fed up and not willing take any more trials of this car.

I have demonstrated the left pull to Mr. Abhijeet Joshi(Fiat Technical team), who was in a disowning mode and Blaming  as center of the road even on NH are no good, If that’s the case where is one supposed to drive this car? Also Mr. Donald Pinto(Quality Head) while he was driving and continuously using his thumb to steer the car back to right. Its natural human instinct to steer to right if the car is pulling to left.

Having spoken to few of the Linea owners from my circle, this infamous Left pulling issue seems to be a perennial problem with the models of Punto & Linea, there seems to be a design flaw in the caster camber angles or in suspension geometry.

I am not alone, if you Google " linea left pulling issue" one can find umpteen number of customers facing same left pulling issues along with videos demonstrating the issue

This is nothing to do with the road camber. Car would pull to left even on a flat cemented surface and NH as well.

This is very un-safe behavior of steering mechanism which can lead to life risk on the road.

I am not a first time buyer of a car, I have been driving last 20 years and having owned 8 different cars from hatchbacks – sedans – SUV and in which I have used multiple brands of OE recommended tires & have not come across such serious defeats of steering pulling one side.

With this car I have felt shoulder and neck pain from the day one I drove for 30 min. Since it’s a serious issue related to ergonomics, concerned with human anatomy, as well it’s a life risk on road due to defective steering pulling to one side.

I have demonstrated the pulling issue in ALL of the dozen trials conducted since last 3 months with the known good tires set as per Fiat technical team including Bridgestone’s & Goodyear’s, All I see here is blame game in spite of the continental tires which I put and were as per the OE specification(Ref Linea owner manual)   I am ashamed of owning this defective car by paying Rs 12.0 Lakhs.

I am hearing the same reputation from the owners of this model, even a replacement with brand new car will not make any difference, Hence demanded for FULL refund of my money with interest & compensation for all the inconvenience caused including - life risk due to defective steering, I have spent my productive time on unsuccessful trials which is causing high level of frustration and mental agony to me and my family have gone through last 3 months after making such a huge investment. Last but not the least - Car has not been road worthy and unusable last 60 days, due to which I have incurred taxi expenses to the tune of 35000/- for commute to office and back.

I did send communication to highest levels at Fiat to CEO & MD(Mr. Kevin & Mr. Gurpratap) a final request for settlement. After which I will have no option but to send a consumer court notice and as well take this matter to press and social media. Till date I did not get response from both above gentlemen who need to step up and demonstrate leadership & customer loyalty!

On 2nd Dec I was asked to collect the car, I agreed to take the car back "under protest"without providing a satisfaction note.

This piece of crap is now sitting idle in my garage. I feel cheated of my hard earned money.

Never buy these LEMONS called  FIAT cars, Safeguard your hard earned money going into the drain!