Test drive Fiat Linea since 2006 sedan

Thin red linea

The main advantages of Linea are the size, spaciousness, relatively good basic equipment at moderate cost

The Italians came up with Fiat Linea four years ago, and in 2008, together with their Russian partners, they planned to start its sales in our market. But the crisis started a little earlier, so that then it did not work out with the launch. But it happened in 2010. A solemn presentation was waiting for us for the mama, and today the car can easily be bought from the dealer. Unless, of course, the price suits.

For the budget sedan, the price tag is too much. Marketers, of course, are right: the model, as they say, in the market, the main competitors all the same are approximately the same, so the price is not taken from the ceiling. But that’s the problem, the mass consumer loves with his eyes. Moreover, the last couple of years, not so much the car itself as a piece of paper with its cost.

Here the Germans, for example, attached a trunk to Polo and wrote: 399,000 rubles. Three months of active PR and an annual plan of 3040 thousand cars can not even be discussed. And everyone does not care that the versions for the notorious 399 thousand do not exist in nature (the few that will be released will leave the state order), and the normally packed VW stands like a Ford Focus under half a million. And then immediately 584 900 rubles. With by no means Volkswagen reputation

Maybe that's why in the plans until the end of the year to sell only one and a half thousand cars? The paradox is that if the Italians came up with a budget version of Linea, things would have gone no worse for her. Or maybe better. After all, this is not Polo, but a whole C-class sedan with a nominal length of more than 4.5 meters, with a 2600-mm wheelbase, even in theory not to worry about the rear passengers

In other words, the FIAT Automobile God did not offend the external data. Here is the design, as they say, for an amateur. Italians are fuckers. Their cars have never been reliable, but with what inspiration they draw! As a result, with the same degree of probability, a masterpiece like Alfa Romeo Brera and the terrible quasimodo Multipla may be born. Both will be produced, the latter is even slightly sold contrary to common sense and is the fault of the authenticity that allows you to somehow stand out against the backdrop of the boring Golf and Passat in its monotony.

Projects are just cars in the home Fiat Centro Stile often forget on the shelf. The only chance for such a sketch is to be realized in the image of a car to be sold to the left, some third-party company (somewhere in Korea or in a China thirsty for other people's intellectual values)

However, in the case of Linea, everything is upside down. It seems that it was forgotten to warn that Linea, albeit not for Europe, is still Fiat, who are responsible for the project from Italdesign. As a result, out of habit, they took out another project in the storerooms and gave them to the customer. And the car turned out to be absolutely non -tax. If the same facade in the generally accepted style of the brand is generally hit, then feed and profile at the level of relatively fresh Chinese or Latin American Opel Astra Sedan. Both, by and large, are not so bad, but the main competitors, including the Chevrolet Cruze, Kia Cerato and, of course, the ubiquitous Ford Focus, look much more solid.

The same story with the salon. He is old -fashioned. Even the Chinese already refuse a visor of half the front panel, not to mention the Koreans. Plus deliberately gray plastic and single -level tidy.

Boring. However, here the task of surprising the client seems to have not stood at all. First of all, it had to be placed. What the Italians did quite successfully.

Ergonomics and landing, like the seats, are far from the ideal, but are quite acceptable. In Focus, at least sitting is no better. Moreover, if in Ford it is periodically disappointed in some ways, then in Linea some features of the structure (a narrow pedal node, for example, or an insufficient range of high-altitude adjustment of the steering wheel) for some reason seem quite appropriate and expected, so that the feelings of disgust do not arise here. Moreover, Fiat surprisingly quickly adapters in just a couple of minutes.


There are not so many obvious shortcomings. The rigidity of the plastics trouble is fully class, so there is only to scold Linea here for not very high -quality disguise.

The assembly at the level, however, the salons have not yet been collected here, I liked the seats less. Thick and fairly short pillows, supple rollers, which ideally should provide side support for an hour or two on it without problems, longer, especially if your dimensions do not quite correspond to the calculated parameters.

The author of these lines was larger. As a result, the hourly simple before the railway crossing on the outskirts of Kazan responded to painful in some Korean and French auto rumbles in the lower back.

The second row of Fiat turned out to be relatively spacious: there seems to be no extra place, but the protruding parts of the body are pressed by the structure much less categorically. In this case, you can only put on rather thick pillows, stealing a couple of centimeters in a vertical plane.

But sitting is quite comfortable: the crown is located quite close to the ceiling, but the legs for the legs are enough, which, by the way, is amazing, especially against the background of the same Chevrolet Cruze. The three, however, your correspondent would still not advise the body width to be loaded here, with all the ensuing from here.

That's what Fiat retained the Italian spirit, so it is in the motor. He, as is adopted today in many budget models, is one. The volume is small 1.4 liters, but there is a turbocharged, so their passports 120 hp. The four practices in full.

Honestly, at first there were concerns regarding her enthusiasm, but literally a couple of kilometers to the driver to start up to the driver (especially in Tatarstan, where high -speed cameras hang almost on every second pillar). A good technique, and almost with idle, the sane acceleration must be adjusted only when touched, although the lack of traction in this case is the disease of all modern cars.

It would be worth working with pedals. That gas, that the clutch goes as if in jelly: you practically do not feel under the sole, focusing exclusively on the intensity of acceleration and howling of the unit itself. His voice, by the way, is noticeable, it overcomes noise insulation once, but with the radio turned on, it practically does not bother, on the contrary, even adds a little typically Italian aggregate noise.

The box would be more like a motor, it would not have been the price, but it was not by definition: the transmission is the same as putting on a similar in order to armate Grande Punto. The transfer numbers are decent, but the switching mechanism, alas, is fuzzy. Search, of course, is not necessary to search, but they stick with a noticeable effort. Yes, and the moves are too big

Oddly enough, the suspension left the best impression, although, given the Turkish pedigree, all the more adapted to our roads, it never occurred to the good thing from it. C Renault Megane, such an adaptation played a cruel joke, immediately everything is quite decent: there is enough articulation, energy intensity at the level, although the sedan’s move is still closer to the hard.

At one hundred and twenty, however, diagonal buildup begins to appear, but in general the car moves quite decently: it works out the bumps and steer well. However, the steering wheel here is precisely Turkish overly facilitated and empty in the nearol zones. However, this does not bother, like the car itself.



Certificate MK
Fiat Linea originally budget, designed for third world countries sedan. In Europe it is not sold or produced. The assembly sites are organized in Brazil, India and Turkey. Since September this year, Russia has also been added to the list. The assembly is still coarse, that is, the screwdriver, the whole point of which is to make components assembled in the Turkish bouquet, implicitly saving on customs. But the CKD mode, as usual, transforms into a relatively full SKD in a couple of years, so that this fiat will be localized to the same extent as the VW Polo Sedan.

Competitors

KING
Ford Focus was and remains one of the most desirable and, accordingly mass cars of the Russian C-class. And, judging by the expected sales figures, Linea will not affect the leader in any way. Ford even today looks noticeably presentable and has quite tangible advantages in choosing additional equipment, power units and transmission. And a year later, Focus will become the third, and then Fiat as a competitor will disappear for him completely

COSMOPOLITAN
Renault Fluence is another Turkish European, whose assembly will be established in Russia in the near future. Formally, Renault will be the main rival of Linea, as it was also developed for third world countries and is very close to Fiat precisely in running qualities. But not according to the design. First of all, this concerns the appearance and execution of the interior (the third generation of Megane). The second point is at least two power units and a complete set of transmission, including CVT. Here in the basic equipment it is inferior.

Namesake
The Chevrolet Cruze was somewhat replaced by a single-phase Lacetti sedan, therefore it is positioned as a relatively affordable car. Nevertheless, unlike Fiat Cruze, not just a budget sedan, but a GM global anti -crisis model, on which the concern was betting, including in Europe. As a result, it is carefully drawn and better decorated. Nevertheless, these machines practically do not differ on the go (fiat even quickly), so almost the only advantage of Cruze in this aspect is the presence of two engines and automatic transmission.


SPECIFICATIONS
Fiat Linea

Dimensions (mm) 4560x1730x1494
Wheel base (mm) 2603
Mass (kg) 1180
Trunk volume (L) 500/870
Slave. engine volume (cm3) 1368
Max. Power (L.S.) 120
Max. Twist the moment (NM) 200
Max. Speed \u200b\u200b(km/h) 195
Acceleration 0100 km/h (c) 9.2
Average fuel consumption (l/100 km) 6.7
Price (rub.) From 584 900
 

Source: Mkobil magazine [November/2010]