Words: Rohan Patil
The India-bound 2013 Fiat Linea Facelift has been spotted testing by us in Pune. There were a couple of sedately driven test mules on the Pune streets, which we chanced to spot while cursing the mad Pune traffic.
As can be seen in the images, the Linea Facelift has a revised boot-lid which houses the rear number plate. The boot-lid also houses a chrome strip (which would certainly find favor with us Indians). While the test mule wore heavy camouflage to conceal this chrome strip, the fact that international spec car has it makes us believe that we would get it too.
The 2013 Linea facelift is already available in many European car markets and the updated Linea has good chances of getting launched in India by this year’s festive season.
On the front side, the Fiat Linea facelift consists of a revised front fascia housing a new bumper and a revised grille. Also, the car gets revised taillights. With this, the designers of Linea facelift have done away with the Audi-ish ‘Bulgarian beard’ and the car now gets a new front grille that brings back memories of the one seen on the last gen Hyundai Accent/Verna.
It is being speculated that the Linea facelift will get a 1.6 litres Multijet diesel engine. Other engine option on offer might include the 1.4 litres turbocharged petrol motor that powers the Linea T-JET, the performance variant of the Linea sedan.
The Linea has never set the sales charts on fire in the upper C segment of Indian car market and has suffered mainly due to poor after sales support that was being provided by the Tata-Fiat venture. But now, as Fiat India and Tata Motors have parted ways for good, the Fiat’s attempt on improving the service network might make the Linea facelift enjoy a better fate than its predecessor.
Go to next page for more pics of India bound 2013 Fiat Linea facelift test mules
Good and sweet