Can FIAT Re-Establish Itself in India?

[Tornado]

FIAT sales promotion campaign called the “Doctor’s Campaign. Like its name suggests, this latest campaign is aimed squarely at Indian medical practitioners,
ICB

Such campaigns are run by every car co. always in india for doctors and others too. Fiat has only named it after doctors. They need to change here.

as both linea and punto combined sold more than 2000 units after a long time.It seems that 2012 models have created some magic.[thinking]

This was possible because of the improvement in GC, which is a 'national need' of indian roads.

Fiat can definitely sustain in India, with new separate showrooms and ASS, but this is (new infrastructure)going to cost more to the custemer. Now they will need' more affording custemer '


For that they will have to compete with hyundais, hondas and toyotas .And to succeed in this competition they need to bring in new models which can compete with verna, h city, altis (segment leaders) And Mr Ratan tata is telling them to do exactly the same since day one of the Jv. (Bussiness Standard) He never wanted fiat to compete with its linea s/puntos to compete with their foster sisters such as manza/vista, dezire/swift.

To restablish in india I hope fiat has started responding to Mr, Tata (owner of jaguar and tata too.)

 

[redbull]

One hundred people for punto tjet doesnt looks promising from production and business perspective.

I did not say "one hundred", just hundreds which is I guess a figure of speech. What I meant to say is FIAT just does not know who it's target audience is. If it wants to appeal to the Indian mass, then there is a clear cut direction what cars to make. Look at Hyundai - auto reviewers in India repeatedly target it saying it makes soft and wallowy suspension, lifeless steering etc. But that is precisely what the Indian mass market wants. I can't believe that Hyundai does not know how to make good handling cars.

FIAT on the other hand is providing "half cooked" cars which neither appeal to the mass market nor the enthusiast. People want a hot hatch and not a hot sedan, they want a powerful and comfortable sedan. If Skoda with it's horrible reputation can manage decent sales of it's attractive propositions, then why not FIAT.

Still long way to go, before Indians start thinking in the way you mentioned above.

That thinking will never change for the mass market, but today there is an increasing number of Indians who are ready for pay good money for driving pleasure.

 

[jayadev]

FIAT on the other hand is providing "half cooked" cars which neither appeal to the mass market nor the enthusiast. People want a hot hatch and not a hot sedan, they want a powerful and comfortable sedan. If Skoda with it's horrible reputation can manage decent sales of it's attractive propositions, then why not FIAT.

2 word answer is "Fiat can't" .
they are benchmark of failure in India and who else could be a substitute ?
To earn some respect they should learn to respect masses.
By current standards and state of affairs they are fooling us Indians with dated obsolete models and pathetic service backup.
I agree the fiat design is one of the best but product and reliability still continues to be one of the worst.

My 2 year old Punto's body shell was recently found with rust.
my neighborhood has 14 year old maruti 800 which haven't seen rust or corrosion even 1000 miles near to it.

 

[redbull]

2 word answer is "Fiat can't" .
they are benchmark of failure in India and who else could be a substitute ?
To earn some respect they should learn to respect masses.
By current standards and state of affairs they are fooling us Indians with dated obsolete models and pathetic service backup.
I agree the fiat design is one of the best but product and reliability still continues to be one of the worst.

My 2 year old Punto's body shell was recently found with rust.
my neighborhood has 14 year old maruti 800 which haven't seen rust or corrosion even 1000 miles near to it.

"dated obsolete models" I agree but not "pathetic service backup". It is not pathetic everywhere. But in any case even if it was pathetic, people will still buy if they are provided with offerings which simply cannot be rejected. People routinely buy DSG autoboxes from Skoda inspite of their notorious failure rate.

 

[Gurrala74]

2 word answer is "Fiat can't" .
they are benchmark of failure in India and who else could be a substitute ?
To earn some respect they should learn to respect masses.
By current standards and state of affairs they are fooling us Indians with dated obsolete models and pathetic service backup.
I agree the fiat design is one of the best but product and reliability still continues to be one of the worst.

My 2 year old Punto's body shell was recently found with rust.
my neighborhood has 14 year old maruti 800 which haven't seen rust or corrosion even 1000 miles near to it.

I agree with you Jayadev. But you know all the new cars whichever is the brand are getting rust somewhere or other. The M800 because of quality in materials, process and workmanship it is good even today and I believe any car will be like that of those days Today it is lot on cost cutting and negligence on quality and small issues by everybody

 

[Tornado]

I

People want a hot hatch and not a hot sedan, they want a powerful and comfortable sedan.

This is what was decided at the time of jv agreement. Tata said they have to come with new innovative model s if they want to survive.

That thinking will never change for the mass market, but today there is an increasing number of Indians who are ready for pay good money for driving pleasure.

It is practically and financially impossible to cater masses in those 5 star fiat cafes.
Tata wanted fiat to target people who are willing to pay, tata themselves are already nurturing masses along with maruti.

2 word answer is "Fiat can't".

Fiat can.but they have to bring models equal to or better than altis, laura, cruze, fortuner.

 

[visran]

Or they can bring the Jeep brand to our market, at the least their sales number will double and dealers too get to make some more money.

 

[Vinu]

Fiat should 'poach' some big body from MSIL and make him their India operations head. That's of course, if they are serious about India.

 

[dharmesh]

It's only we who are discussing so much about FIAT as a brand. But FIAT is already earning in huge by selling engines. So it is not that, they are not making profit, but only FIAT as a car company is not established in India. And this is the reason they are doing at snail's pace.

 

[Gurrala74]

@Dharmesh,

Yes they are doing good business of engines, but on car sales side, they are always advertising those two models Punto & Linea and no news of any new model since quite long time, so do you think they will be able to establish themselves like where other brands are almost launching a car every alternate day

 

[jayadev]

@Dharmesh,

Yes they are doing good business of engines, but on car sales side, they are always advertising those two models Punto & Linea and no news of any new model since quite long time, so do you think they will be able to establish themselves like where other brands are almost launching a car every alternate day

I wonder what is your source of saying Fiat engine business is doing good.

AFAIK, Indica Vista,Manza,Suzuki Ertiga and couple of Fiat cars are the only consumer for Fiat engines which doesn't translate to huge numbers considering billion dollar infrastructure they had set up in Ranjangaon India.
I believe many of these engines are being exported from India due to lack of sales .

 

[Gurrala74]

I wonder what is your source of saying Fiat engine business is doing good.

AFAIK, Indica Vista,Manza,Suzuki Ertiga and couple of Fiat cars are the only consumer for Fiat engines which doesn't translate to huge numbers considering billion dollar infrastructure they had set up in Ranjangaon India.
I believe many of these engines are being exported from India due to lack of sales .

OK, to be short on this, just check the sales of Vista,Manza,Ertiga,Ritz,Swift,Punto,Linea and one more I think is Sail diesel. So how many more you want to get convinced that engine sales are huge. Do you still need a source, then I need to search it out and I am bit busy at the moment. I really wonder at times Jayadev, that you never agree with anybody on the forum

 

[jayadev]

OK, to be short on this, just check the sales of Vista,Manza,Ertiga,Ritz,Swift,Punto,Linea and one more I think is Sail diesel. So how many more you want to get convinced that engine sales are huge.

FYI, swift and Ritz doesn't use fiat manufactured engines but DDis is manufactured in Haryana by suzuki themselves. (poor Fiat)

Profit margin gained by selling engines versus fully built cars would leave much to be desired for a company like Fiat..lol.

Do you still need a source, then I need to search it out and I am bit busy at the moment. I really wonder at times Jayadev, that you never agree with anybody on the forum

I can not support vague assumptions and immature opinions .
nonetheless I never contradict against facts put up with solid evidence.

 

[Raja]

OK, to be short on this, just check the sales of Vista,Manza,Ertiga,Ritz,Swift,Punto,Linea and one more I think is Sail diesel. So how many more you want to get convinced that engine sales are huge. Do you still need a source, then I need to search it out and I am bit busy at the moment. I really wonder at times Jayadev, that you never agree with anybody on the forum

Sail diesel you can't say its fiat only engine since it was devloped by gm and fiat both and so gm dosent even have to give them any royalty and the reviews say that GM has tuned the engine and gear box much much better then what fiat has done for its cars like punto and linea .

 

[jayadev]

Sail diesel you can't say its fiat only engine since it was devloped by gm and fiat both and so gm dosent even have to give them any royalty and the reviews say that GM has tuned the engine and gear box much much better then what fiat has done for its cars like punto and linea .

Punto and Linea sold in India is obsolete and discontinued since 2005 in rest of the world.

Check Fiat European website and compare the specs of same cars in India.

I find it nothing but milking Indian masses with some dated technology (read cheaper resources) and Fiat is doing so good at it