I had my mind set on buying a new car after my old Maruti Esteem had started to give a lot of suspension and engine problems. The car would rock side to side when a small pot hole was encountered. The engine was also a lost cause one of the pistons had developed a major fault and when the engine was cold stated the engine would start making a grinding noise. Overall the price estimate was too much to think about repair so I was again in the market for a new car.
I am 6.1 feet tall so you can guess how comfy esteem was anyways also since that time I have put on quite a lot so now I am around 110Kg my body is thus flabby.
It had been quite some time since I had bought any new cars so I started stocking up on car magazines old and new. I had a good idea of what I wanted after reading a few mag’s so I started by filtering the cars and tough I loved the Honda Accord a lot and had the money for it I could not bring my self to keep a driver since driving a car such as Accord is not exactly pleasurable in city traffic.
So I capped the amount for a new car at 15Lac OTR and it had to be a Diesel since the petrol prices are sky high and diesel also gives better millage. Here are the models I test drove and what I thought about them:
Laura: First car I tried since a lot of my friends loved the car. The manual was a drag to drive but nice in overtaking and loved the in gear performance. But the car with such a huge price tag did not have good service centers, my friends 2009 Laura has developed a rust problem but all that the A.S.S did was scratch the rust off put some kind of seal and painted that part which look different than the other areas of the car when asked they say its not their fault but the customers.
Vento: Second one I tried out it had harder plastics than the Laura but I did not care much, the car was quite good to drive. In gear acceleration was also good even better than Laura I think. But I had a problem with the leg space I had the seat back to the max position and still could not keep my legs from hitting the HU maybe it is because of my fat legs but I did not get a good drive position.
Cruze: Third car I tried and what a car it is I loved the thing, its engine is a gem but only in highways not in city roads. Had to shift up/down in city and the car has one mean clutch. I had a blast of a time on my TD the problem was the brand I mean Chevvy is not something I would like to spend 14Lac on. The LTZ model is a very good model and was almost flawless. I made up my mind that I would buy the car if I find noting better.
Linea: Fourth car I tried only after I found out that Tata and Fiat had partnered up, the car does not have a full adjustable steering it only can be tilted up and down which was a departure from the other models I tried but it was not much of a problem because of my height the steering felt in the right place. It has the worst plastics of all the four cars but given the price it was quite obvious. The engine was a bit dull for the highway took about 20sec to reach 120-130kph but It was quite good in the city. The Linea amazed me with the drive the car is a total driver car and it has lots of features like Blue&Me that even the Cruze LTZ does not.
Corolla: The last car I tried and frankly it was the worst one of all, yes the interiors were good but they were not as good as the Laura and more near to Cruze quality, bit better than Cruze. The car was better at genral performance than the Linea but not even near Cruze or even Vento.
Now comes the short listing the Laura and the Corolla were out of the picture and I had my eyes set on the following cars:
Linea: A seal with a sheep inside, the looks are great and will dye very slowly. Really a drivers car that will never reach its full potential on the highway. A city car that is acceptable on the highway.
Cruze: A lion with a panther inside, the looks are too sharp they will become out dated sooner than later. Not as involving as the Linea but quite good non the less, city drives are bad and it takes time to get used to turbo lag which is even more than the Linea. Highway is where the Cruze shines.
Vento: A horse with a horse inside, the looks are plan and even run of the mill but the performance is quite good and better than the linea even reaches near the 10sec mark for 0-100kph. A mix of Linea and Cruze but the Vento lacks steering feel and sadder still is that it does not have features and trinkets that make both Linea Emo Pk and the Cruze LTZ so special.
Experience:
So it was basically Linea vs Cruze in terms of VFM and getting the money’s worth, I pondered a lot and settled on the Linea Emo Pk since the Cruze was quite a lot more expensive and the Cruze LT did not have features that the LTZ has not even steering controls so in my mind “Cruze LT= Vento Highline”.
Booked Linea on Dec and was told that I would get a 2011 model in Jan last week which I did but in Feb. The 2011 model does not have three head rests at the back and the back seat in not adjustable. The car does have a softer HU than the TD linea which is a big plus for me. The new linea also had a better gear feel it maybe because the TD vehicle was used a lot and the gear was worn out.
It has clocked about 230km and the car is rattle free I am ready for small niggles that may arise I have heard of them from Linea and heard about the break pads in Cruze giving out too soon. The Linea is giving me an avg of around 14.21kpl with AC on/off and this figure is derived from the whole 230km.
Modifications:
The car is in stock condition I am planning to upgrade the bulbs and also will look into led lights for the future. One friend told me to up size the tires because my Linea scraped the road on two occasions when the car was full. Also I am planning to put leather seats from Spot Sport and getting a mini fridge for the boot.
Now here the bad points about the Linea:
The back seat head space is less than the Cruze or the Vento. But I am ok with it since my brother rides shot gun and my parents and wife are of lesser height.
The car has a turbo lag tough its less than the cruze but more than the Vento. It takes some time to get used to.
A.S.S is not what it should be I mean its TATA even Hyundai is better. The service is not up to the mark and needs quite a bit of work to get things rolling.
High trunk mouth, I am told its to keep the lid from opening up in a rear crash but its just painful putting heavy things inside the boot.
Narrow spacing among the pedals causes confusion. This was a problem but I have since gotten used to it the dead pedal and clutch are very close together but then I discovered I could used half of my foot to press the clutch and use my accelerator foot to press the breaks this system works wonders and I am very comfy with it.
Here are some good and very special points:
The dead pedal is great, both the Cruze or Vento have it and it is a very good thing to have in long drives.
Blue&Me is wonderful it takes some time to adjust your speech but its wonderful and picks up your voice when given a command.
Side-Notes:
A lot of people told me to wait for the Hyundai Elentra which I did not want to do since there is no specific time it will come and I wanted a car now.