Fiat Linea facelift coming next year

Fiat India has revealed that the updated Linea saloon will be showcased at the upcoming Auto Expo early next year. The Italian carmaker gave a mid-cycle facelift to the Linea in international markets like Turkey way back last year.

The new Linea will come with a restyled front grille, re-profiled bumper, new fog lamp clusters and lots of chrome. At the rear, the bumper gets minor tweaks with an additional chrome strip and the number plate has now moved on to the bootlid. The side profile looks identical to the current car though.

The updated Linea’s cabin will get a new three-layered, two-tone dash that looks refreshing and feels more upmarket. The steering wheel is similar to the current car, but now comes with a touch of silver and the centre console gets a new integrated audio system and more modern-looking AC vents with useful cubbyholes above them. The gear lever, climate control knobs and door pads, however, look similar to the current car. The instrument cluster will now come with chrome-ringed recessed dials and circular centre. Continued..

There is no news on the engine front as of now. We expect the updated Linea to carry over the current engine line-up, which consists of a petrol, diesel and a turbo-petrol T-Jet engine.

Fiat recently launched the 2013 Linea T-Jet, which, unlike the previous model, comes in three trims. So when Fiat does launch the new Linea in India, the current model will most probably be rebadged the 'Linea Classic' and will be sold alongside the new car. A cut-price version of the Linea saloon, called the Linea classic was also launched recently.

Fiat has also revealed that it will launch nine new models in the next three years, of which the first one, the Linea Classic, has already hit showrooms.  Fiat will also launch the Abarth model range in India next year.