I bought my Linea emotion pack Diesel from Metro Motors, Ambala on 26 Jul 10 and have done about 1700 kms so far. The staff at the showroom was extremely courteous and did make you feel special and pampered. I fly for the Air Force, and driving the Linea out of the show room made me feel like being in a cockpit of a new type of aircraft. Believe me, if you are looking for a car that is loaded with features and has space and ‘beauty’ too, then do try this one! It’s a car which literally talks to you and squeaks every time you do something wrong. Before zeroing on to the Linea I had seen the i-20, Fiesta, Verna, Aveo and Optra. I chose Linea for its looks, features, comfort and space. I felt it had a unique freshness about it….something more than just another car.
Coming to the performance of the car, the engine is not noisy at idle RPM. But you do hear it roar when you are accelerating fast….otherwise when you are cruising, it is pretty silent inside. I feel that the power is adequate. It gives you the required acceleration when you are overtaking on the highways. For an immediate response to the accelerator, do not let your RPM fall below 1500. As far as the slow speed performance goes, the car cruises at 30kmph with no accelerator in the fourth gear and gives an instantaneous mileage of 21 km/l. In the 5th gear it is 40kmph with 24 km/l. For the city drive, it generally stays in the third gear and gives a mileage of 14.8 km/l(all figures with air-conditioning ON). On the highway it gives a mileage of 19 km/l and beyond depending upon the speed. Also the manufacturer prohibits the use of premium Diesel, so you save a couple of bucks on the fuel option too.
The ACC(automatic climate control) is very effective and silent. At times you do have to increase the fan speed for faster cooling. One very good feature about the ACC is that it never allows misting on the front wind screen even if you set the temperature to minimum in the semi-automatic mode. It overrides the manual settings and increases the temperature to prevent misting on wind screen. This can be confirmed by seeing the door windows getting misted up.
The ‘Blue and Me’ feature is very impressive and useful particularly for people who are always on the cell. It is pretty easy to operate. The music system is also very good with enough features. It has an excellent fidelity, sensitivity and stereo effect at normal volumes.
One has to be careful about the ground clearance. Before I bought this car I had expressed my concern about it to a Linea owner. He advised me to keep the wheel pressure correct. I have done that and have been dead slow while negotiating deadly speed breakers. I am yet to touch one so far. I am based in UP and it does have some very nasty speed breakers.
The suspension is excellent and very stable even at speeds of up to 130 kmph. The ride is very smooth and gives you a feel as if the car is effortlessly flowing on the road. Braking is excellent.
I have not been to a workshop as yet so I will not comment on that. But the car does feel pretty reliable and everything functions the way it should. It has a warning for practically anything and everything that can go wrong or that can be missed out by the driver. For example a beep comes on if you drive with the parking brake ON or a door not closed. The company seat covers are good though I would not recommend the foot mats.
The car does get you all the attention of your colleagues and at times strangers’ too. It does live up to its USP of ‘Admiration Guaranteed’. Overall the car has met all my expectations so far and I am really very happy and satisfied with my choice.