Fiat Linea 125S Long Term Review – First Report

Fiat Linea 125S Long Term Review

The Fiat Linea 125S qualifies for a family sedan that can be raced around with

From all the long term cars I had, they were personally classified as a mini-bus, a front-wheel-drive SUV and the last one was a crossover hatchback. All the cars had diesel engines with decent mileage figures and used to go easy on the pocket. The crossover hatch was the Fiat Urban Cross and I really liked it a lot. However, I never really had a sedan to drive. This time I got lucky and got the longest car in the segment, the Fiat Linea. And to make the travel more interesting, it came with a 125 HP turbo petrol engine.

Being a Gujarati, I knew it’s not going to be easy for me to drive around a car like this. But the 1.4-litre engine producing 125 BHP and mighty 210 Nm of torque kept me going. Of all the long termers, the Linea was in the best of its condition and I personally thought that it had the best fit and finish overall, considering this was a media vehicle and not any owner’s car. About 1100 kms underway in the first month itself, I had already spent about Rs. 10,000/- in fuel expenses. With a few trips outside the city the best mileage was 11.1 km/l while the worst in the bad Mumbai traffic came down to 5.4 km/l.

In the day to day routine which includes a little city as well as highway driving, it returned a single digit figure of 9 km/l. There was a downside to the fuel efficiency but on the other hand, the comfort and dynamics were on-point. However with the increased ground clearance it isn’t much of a fun lover but does a great job with bad Mumbai roads. It takes on the worst of potholes and speed-bumps without hitting itself like a boss. Pun intended. Fiat has kept the suspension a little stiff and this becomes a great advantage for maintaining triple digit speeds on the highways.

Being the longest car in the segment gives a premium feel but it becomes an issue for parking in a place like Mumbai. The parking sensors are helpful, but they have a slightly delayed response and it sometimes becomes an issue as it’s not a sub 4-meter hatchback. However the size is an advantage as it gets massive boot and not to forget, good amount of road presence. In a city like Mumbai, it doesn’t really get better because the length of the car concerns the driver a lot while it does drives like a hatch. Adding to it, the massive 16-inch rims with 205-section tyres hold the road well. They are so wide that they come out of the wheel arches too.