Can FIAT Re-Establish Itself in India?

[Gurrala74]

" I repeat very aggressive"..
I think such perceptions sound too casual to be in a forum .There is no scale for aggression.

If they brings in right product at right time for which market exist ,buyers would automatically get in track.

Punto and Linea is not that bad from market point of view but there are certain Limitations for fiat itself ,we should blame their management.

Rather than Aggression I would like to use term "flexible" here, where Fiats are the least.

Punto was apple of eye for fans and admirers equally . But we know what fans looks for a scorcher a performer. Both fiat cars failed at those ends.

Much much later they tried to buckle up with T-jet when Honda city was having a hayday in India along with Verna. Nobody noticed Linea t-jet just because they were not better but almost equally good cars .
Punto 90 Hp almost never came in frame at all.

Then Fluidic Verna took the market like storm with contemporary in demand features and our Linea t-jet was left in oblivion.

fiat 500 was a good product at i10's price range but they tagged it with niche market and cult car ideas and it disappeared .

I think Fiat should be accredited with worst Blunders in automotive Industry of India and they deserve their position very well.

Fiat have to understand that in modern days people prefer to go with the direction of wind.

+100 Jayadev. I agree to all your points, but apart from poor planning and strategy, I strongly thing that they lack proper marketing plan for what ever models they are showcasing right now, I am saying this purely as I spent my life as sales & marketing professional for 15+ years. Today apart from features and specifications one needs very aggressive advertising and promotional plans. This is the reason I used the word "aggressive". Now what is this aggressiveness, I would have done and shown to them if I could have their sales & marketing head

 

[jayadev]

+100 Jayadev. I agree to all your points, but apart from poor planning and strategy, I strongly thing that they lack proper marketing plan for what ever models they are showcasing right now, I am saying this purely as I spent my life as sales & marketing professional for 15+ years. Today apart from features and specifications one needs very aggressive advertising and promotional plans. This is the reason I used the word "aggressive". Now what is this aggressiveness, I would have done and shown to them if I could have their sales & marketing head

My respects to your Experience. its a general talk nothing personal hope we are clear.

I bet If timing is bad no marketing trick can do no miracle.

How to sell tickets for a world-cup which ended a week ago.

ANyway Its all not over yet . Lets wait and enjoy the show.

Being a failure is good ,it can be an example for others to succeed.

 

[dharmesh]

Ohh man, I was bit late in to the discussion. I agree to all of you above.

Finally What all of us wants to say is (although different ways).

1. People mostly buys car with either influence or herd's mentality and one fine day they realize the mistake, but they dont admit and go "ga ga" about their car.
2. FIAT needs aggressive promotion, marketing , advertisement and few more models in their stable.

I think this sums it all.

Now what we all can do is play a waiting game and hope that FIAT re-establishes them self pretty soon and don't runaway from India, keeping all PUNTOs and LINEAs begging here and there for spare parts.

 

[carfreak]

This is what a well known Indian Auto reviewer had to say after reviewing Punto 90HP Sport

"Punto’s suspension suits well for Indian road conditions. Especially, the fact that the Punto ground clearance is now raised to 185mm, you can really take her across any bad road stretch without any worries. 195/60/15 Tubeless tyres grip the road like a toddler to its mother’s hand. It is quite obvious that we have the making of a car that can corner like cheetah.

​

The Fiat Punto 90 Sport is a perfect hot-hatch package on sale right now on the Indian market. The fact that it is high performance diesel itself means that it will give you true driving pleasure without burning your wallet. The only competition right now is the Volkswagen Polo 1.6L which unfortunately is a petrol powered hot-hatch.

If you are in the market for a fast hatchback your options are limited – in fact there is only one that makes sense to head as well your heart. And guess what – its Italian"

Not trying to prove any point here. Just for the sake of FYI !

 

[Raja]

This is what a well known Indian Auto reviewer had to say after reviewing Punto 90HP Sport

"Punto’s suspension suits well for Indian road conditions. Especially, the fact that the Punto ground clearance is now raised to 185mm, you can really take her across any bad road stretch without any worries. 195/60/15 Tubeless tyres grip the road like a toddler to its mother’s hand. It is quite obvious that we have the making of a car that can corner like cheetah.

​

The Fiat Punto 90 Sport is a perfect hot-hatch package on sale right now on the Indian market. The fact that it is high performance diesel itself means that it will give you true driving pleasure without burning your wallet. The only competition right now is the Volkswagen Polo 1.6L which unfortunately is a petrol powered hot-hatch.

If you are in the market for a fast hatchback your options are limited – in fact there is only one that makes sense to head as well your heart. And guess what – its Italian"

Not trying to prove any point here. Just for the sake of FYI !

Car freak ^^^ review is perfect and all auto lovers know it , it's just unfortunate that fiat is not able to make this understand to normal people , and make them buy their car .

 

[shailinder]

Market is not encouraging Fiat nor Fiat is encouraging market to sell more cars. Look at the figures they have M-o-M basis. They are pathetic from an angle that the company has roots in this country from some decades.

What are they doing about ? NOTHING !! Studying market and not correcting themselves is suicidal and Fiat has reach to that point now. They cannot survive if they open separate sale and service units. People are not buying Fiat cars because they do not know about them or never heard a good thing about them.

Penetration of Fiat cars or information about them is almost ZERO considering entire Indian Population.

Maruti sold some 10K+ Alto, some 900 Swifts etc last month and they were feeling the heat and Fiat ? Volkswagen recruited top sale personal from Hyundai (Forgot name) and reduced prices of Vento and Polo and Fiat ?

They are still sleeping, I feel bad about this but let us accept the truth. They are never going to change. Period..

 

[dharmesh]

Car freak ^^^ review is perfect and all auto lovers know it , it's just unfortunate that fiat is not able to make this understand to normal people , and make them buy their car .

What you wrote is real agony of every FIAT fan and owner. I always try to explain others how good FIAT cars are. And what I get in reply is "Just because you own FIAT does not means they are good." And then I smile sarcastically and think that there is no use of explaining the people as they have filled up their mind with something else.

There is one quote: "Your teacup is full (Empty your cup)"

Detail explanation of same can be found at Your teacup is full (Empty your cup) | | Bengt's NotesBengt's Notes

 

[Gurrala74]

Car freak ^^^ review is perfect and all auto lovers know it , it's just unfortunate that fiat is not able to make this understand to normal people , and make them buy their car .

In addition to this I will also like to tell you that why people are afraid of buying it !! like a middle class person like me who does not have much Auto knowledge

1. Why this car is in TATA show room Oh they don't even have their own space, then who will listen to us if some thing goes wrong. Will TATA listen to us putting their own babies a side which always keep crying !!

2. Oh this seems to be a foreign company Oh !! Italian, will it suit for Indian conditions

3. Since it is Italian the price must be much higher, Oh and what about service and spares, must be high priced. If a part gets breakdown, then oh parts must take lot of time as they have to come all the way from Italy

4. Shall I go nearer to the car and see, no why to waste time any way we are not going to buy it. let us enquire about some TATA car and go away.

Suddenly a Fiat lady looks me who is looking at Punto suspiciously and come to me saying " good morning sir, this is great Fiat car Punto", then I say " No madam actually I have come to see Nano, Vista" then she " No problem sir, have look at this great car" then I say " no madam it must be costly, I do not have that much money " she says " No, sir, it is not that costly, first you come and see that and have a TD, then we discuss about the price, I will offer you a very great price" then I say " no madam first you tell me the price then only I will look that" then she calculate some thing and say" sir, it will be around 6 Lakhs , and we can still discuss on that" then I get some courage to touch it and goes and see the car inside out, Oh god this really awesome one, then she force me to have a TD still I bit afraid to take a drive, but she really makes the atmosphere so well saying " sir don't worry , just do the TD and tell us your impression and you don't need to buy sir ", then I gain some confidenc e and go for the TD and believe me its awesome experience. first that lady drives the car and explain everything so well in detail and excellent driving, then I take the car and drive it back and she asks me to get into a bad road and see the suspension and others and a empty road to do zig zag and all and arrive back to TATA showroom with a great feeling of great car. then comes the pricing part she tries a lot to match with the other contenders ritz and vista but ended up at some 6.10 for base diesel model which is beyond my budget, the she gives her card to me and tell me to call if i decide on that. then i come back home and she follows up for two times, then I told her that I bought Ritz, then she says no problem sir I wish all the best for your purchase and please recommond your friends to us they may like to buy the Punto

Why I wrote all the above is which is my own experience with Punto TD last year and I just wrote my initial fears to try Punto, then after it was the initiation of that lady which made me to drive punto and have some good opinion on the same, if not I would have seen it from far and and get away with out even touching it.

So Fiat just see these kind of experiences from people. Make sure to open more outlets, advertise regularly, invite people to just to have a look at their facility and experience the cars, no need to buy. first become more friendly with people and remove the impression being a costly company or a company hardly have no space of their own to park the display cars.

 

[Raja]

What you wrote is real agony of every FIAT fan and owner. I always try to explain others how good FIAT cars are. And what I get in reply is "Just because you own FIAT does not means they are good." And then I smile sarcastically and think that there is no use of explaining the people as they have filled up their mind with something else.

There is one quote: "Your teacup is full (Empty your cup)"

Detail explanation of same can be found at Your teacup is full (Empty your cup) | | Bengt's NotesBengt's Notes

My dad is a huge huge fan of punto and linea . Infact he feels linea looks better then Laura too . when we have arguments on whethere to buy a suv or not he keeps on insisting buy a linea rather then safari / strome or xuv .
Dharmesh no point in suggesting a punto to any 1 , I was ridiculed by my friends many times to an extent that I work secretly for fiat maybe so I keep talking about punto and linea all the time .
If fiat would have opened their own showrooms from the start it might have helped . Well let's see now what they are doing I just hope the bring some new models here like the panda too and some mini suv .
But 1 ray of hope is that fiat is already working on a small car for India lets see howit turns out .

 

[carfreak]

Today morning got an update from Aadya motors Bangalore (where I bought my Punto) that they are opening exclusive FIAT showroom and service probably in a month's time. Location: near Mekhri circle

So if things go as per planned, Bangalore will have @ 3-4 all exclusive FIAT showrooms atleast by end of this year!

 

[dharmesh]

Any news about something similar in Mumbai?? Anyone?

 

[Gurrala74]

Atleast Hyderabad Fiat owners are happy that One exclusive outlet opened recently Tejaswi motors in Banjara hills

 

[Raja]

GOOD NEWS for pune members fiats opens exclusive a.s.s in Pune . common fiat go go go you can make it for sure .

FIAT Group Automobiles India Private Limited (FGAIPL) on Friday inaugurated its first independent state-of-the-art workshop -Millennium Drive Workshop in Dapodi, Pune.

This will be FIAT's first exclusive workshop in India. The 20,000 sq ft service utility with best of equipments and human dexterity is specially designed to give a delightful servicing experience to its customers.

This is another move by the company in strengthening its brand presence in India, after having launched its Fiat Caffe in Pune a few months ago. FIAT customers would now be able to buy cars from the Caffe and will provide a fascinating FIAT buying experience.

The dealership was inaugurated by Mr. Ravi Bhatia, Head- Business Development, FIAT Group Automobiles India Private Limited and Mr. Neelesh Naik, Managing Director -Millennium Drive.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Ravi Bhatia, Head- Business Development, FIAT Group Automobiles India Private Limited said: "FIAT core brand philosophy is best customer experience and this has been our guiding philosophy in all our initiatives.

This first exclusive and world-class FIAT workshop is our inexorable attempt to provide each of our customers with an unmatched servicing experience leading to a delightful vehicle ownership experience. I am confident that the discerning and loyal customers of Pune will appreciate owning FIAT cars.

I reiterate the fact that going forward, world-class servicing standards will be the key differentiator and we will continue to create new benchmark and take a lead.

We have been focusing on strategically expanding our network in India and this new world-class workshop is yet another step to move closer to the customers".

Source-
FIAT Group inaugurates its first exclusive workshop in Pune - The Economic Times

 

[visran]

This move will surely help Fiat to gain customer confidence.hope they open more such centres across the metro cities.

 

[dharmesh]

This is really great news from FIAT and I think they are trying and lets wish them all the best.