Fiat Linea review / road test : from Pune to Delhi

We told you all about the 2010 Auto Expo and brought you ultimate coverage of the event in real time, like none other that you have seen ever before. But we never told you about our epic road trip to the Expo, did we? Here’s the ‘behind the scenes’ story of how Motoroids can never really get enough of cars or of driving them.

Words: Mihir Gadre

Photography: Eshan Shetty

About the trip…

You might call us wackos, but when we planned our trip to the Expo, driving from Pune to Delhi never seemed like a crazy idea to us. Going to Delhi by car was always our first and completely natural choice. The guys at Fiat were gracious enough to lend us a car and that was it, we were good and ready. But being pressed for time, we had to make both our Pune-Delhi as well as the return run in under a day each. That meant driving non-stop throughout the night. Of course, we did make stops to eat and pee, but other than that we did go 1600 kms non stop either way.

Going at full blast on the arrow straight highways is fun for a while, but after a few hours into the journey the endless tarmac does start getting onto your nerves. We drove through four different states and through night and day. We started with the best bit of road in the country the Pune-Mumbai expressway. It is surprising that even in the pitch dark, you can tell which state you are in just by the quality of the roads underneath. Gujarat has by far the best roads. It feels like the state is some 5 years ahead of any other Indian state in terms of development. Rajasthan is not bad either. But it really gets worse and worse until you reach right into the heart of Delhi.

Driving 24 hours at a stretch is not a joke. Even after having four drivers in the car and taking turns at the wheel, by the time we reached our destination we were at our wit’s end. But it was an experience that will remain with me for a long, long time. And for the 2012 Expo, we won’t think twice before doing the same thing again, albeit at a more leisurely pace and with some overnight stops.

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