A real beauty. Review on Fiat Linea

The car is a stunner, there is no doubt about it. I almost missed a beat when I saw it going past me a couple of days back. The rear look was really awe inspiring! I immediately decided to give this car a serious thought and went to Malik motors, Hyderabad the vevry next day.This was first time I was visiting a TM showroom and the experience was very dull to say the least. The sales person hardly showed any kind of enthusiasm either in entertaining me or sowing interest in selling the car.

Well I checked the car and was literally blown away with the excellent design and finish. I particularly liked the way its boot releases and goes till the rear windsheild providing max area for loading luggage, not to mention other areas like dash board styling, buttons & switches quality, seats comfort, steering design, twin barrel headlights, rear lamps, front grill and almost everything I lay my hand on. All and all I really liked this car very much and was eager to test drive it but I was told that the test drive vehicle is not availale and is in workshop. A dumb way to say that they dont want to give test drive.

Anyway I went to concorde motors next day and here the story was completely different. The sales persons were as good as you can expect at any good car showroom. They were very welcoming and eager to tell the features about the car. One nice sales person Madhu gave me a sort of detailed tour about the car explaining company philosophy about this car, the design, interior features to exteriors, engine, comfort, looks and what not. Although I already knew almost everything about it but I still liked his interest in telling all this to me. Finally he offered me a test drive which I happily accepted.

The demo vehicle was a diesal emotion pack. My first reaction on driving this car was that it is not that underpowered as I had expected considering its massive 1250Kg being pulled by a 1300 cc engine.The engine response was not that great but it was sufficient to pull it through smoothly. The engine noise is very minimal and different than other diesal cars. Here the engine sound was a smooth sound( slightly and obviously more than petrol engine) but unlike usual cluttering diesal sound. The breaking is good but not anything exceptional.Gear shift is smooth and the ride quality is pretty solid and comfortable

Here is what I like about the performance:

Engine smoothness and linearity in delivering the power.

Low engine noise levels

Comfort

What I would expect more:

Power

To sum it up I find this car very good for this price except that it does not provide that grunt which a driving enthusiast like me expect in his car. Linea has to be driven gently and it definitely can not put your heart racing which is a slight letdown for me personally. If you want loads of style and comfort, I think there is no other car which can beat it at this price.