Fiat Linea T-Jet - First Drive

It could be conveniently said that the Fiat Linea was the first step in the reformation and resurgence of the Italian marque which has had a presence in India for a few decades now. While the Palio was still a car that had a more real world appeal, the model available in India was slightly dated, and nowhere close to the design and style oomph that the Italians have been known to incite amongst car lovers. With the Linea, the company looked to change its image, and to some extent the C-segment sedan game in India-and it would not be inaccurate if we were to say that Fiat managed to do that to an agreeable extent. More heartening than anything was the fact that a properly Italian compact sedan, with the same drop dead gorgeous looks with which it graces streets in Europe, was available to be used and enjoyed by Indian car lovers.

There was a small bit of a problem though. While the widespread opinion amongst car lovers and automotive journalists around the country seemed to be that the engines that were being offered in the car were lacking power, the same powerplants seemed to work just fine on Tata and Maruti Suzuki cars. We traced the problem to gearboxes with ratios inappropriate for Indian driving conditions ? they just didn?t work well in cohorts with the engines. The cars were still in line with the tenet that India prefers small, frugal engines, but for a vehicle that had inherently great underpinnings and suspension which imparted it with impressive handling and ride quality, the engine-gearbox combinations were game spoilers to a small extent. The shortcoming though is about to solve itself after a year and a half of the car being around, with the entry of the turbocharged, direct injection 1.4-litre T-Jet engine.

Before we get into the nitty-gritties of the car itself, a quick word on Fiat?s T-Jet engine. Based on a direct-injection technology in which fuel is injected directly into the combustion chamber as opposed to in the manifold, the T-Jet family of engines subscribes to the new philosophy of European manufacturers opting to maximize the potential of small displacement engines. Volkswagen has been following a similar approach to petrol engines with its TFSI technology, and despite initial reservations the new way of treating fuel has taken off this side of the Atlantic in a big way. What seals the case massively in the favour of turbocharged direct injection is the responsiveness it imparts to engines ? from big torque of good driveability and fuel efficiency, to the high revving performance one would expect from a petrol mill. And all this with big savings in fuel and emissions, thanks to cleaner and more efficient burning inside the cylinderse.

Say hello to the Santa Fe a vehicle which is big and butch in a Korean-Euro style but has many in a dilemma as to whether its svelte style is that of a serious mud-plugger or it can pull it off with its overtly butch soft-roader appeal. This is key for the Santa Fe's move to dislodge such established runners as the Toyota Fortuner, the Honda CR-V and the Mitsubishi Outlander, all of which have stamped their mark among punters willing to splurge/invest (select choice of word as per one's inclination) in this class of the car market.

The introductory drive of the Linea with its new powerplant took the ZigWheels team to the airstrip at the Amby Valley City at Lonavla near Pune. While testing and experiencing the car on a 1.5 kilometre straight with cones thrown in to test the car?s response to change in direction was far from the perfect way to evaluate the new car, it did bring a lot of things into stark notice. To start with, the quickness of the T-Jet engine in a straight line is encouraging. We?ll still need to subject it to real words roads, in different gears and over different gradients, but preliminary impressions are good. The figures on paper are interesting too ? pumped by a 2.2 bar turbo, the 1.4-litre T-Jet engine makes 114PS of power at a high 5000 rpm, but also manages to churn out a startling 207Nm of torque, which is commendable for a small-displacement petrol engine. The T-Jet version also gets bigger 16-inch wheels and wider 205/55 tyres, which should aid handling sufficiently for the enhanced speeds.

In a nutshell, the experience when compared to the current versions of the Linea is much more exciting, and looks further in the direction of customer satisfaction, especially so for performance minded buyers. Our final tests on real roads and surfaces will be more telling, and the ultimate judgment on the car will depend on how Fiat prices the car, so log on to www.zigwheels.com for our report on the car, real soon!