[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by selfdrive

I do think Fiat has taken a next step. Whether it is a step forward or backward can only be determined by their efforts and smart positioning. Perhaps they have some aces up their sleeve that they dont want to share at the moment, as this could have a negative reaction from Tata.

So I had said this sometime ago as an assumption without any insider info. But it looks like someone shares my best suspicions.

Got some info from a Fiat guy that they have about 6 cars planned for launch till next year. At least a couple of them by Q1 2013. He added there is one car planned for the segment below the Punto. I asked him if the Panda was one of them and he said it is, though he is not sure which batch that launch would fall under.

Fiat will now have a separate Fiat showroom at the unused petrol pump next to the existing Pandit Auto Tata/ Fiat showroom. Services will continue with Tata.

Again, I am not saying this will definitely pan out in the same way just because I said it. I am just glad that Fiat have some plans and are going about implementing them rather than letting Tata have front end preference at joint showrooms.

Also, managed to convince a fencesitter colleague to go in for a Punto. It really was the best among those TDed. I hope Fiat provide him great service on an ongoing basis.

[volkman10]

"Lots of brands with sports utility vehicle (SUV) or SUV-like products are coming to India. The segment is growing. The next probable brand from Fiat-Chrysler for the Indian market is Jeep," Fiat India Automobiles Ltd (FIAL) Senior Vice President (Commercial) Enrico Atanasio told reporters here

In the next 9-12 months, when we will have dedicated dealerships and service network, there will be no Fiat-Tata showrooms," he said.

Currently, Fiat has 166 joint showrooms with Tata Motors, besides 179 workshops across 126 locations.

Fiat eyes UV segment; Jeep, 500X models on radar for India - The Economic Times

[thoma]

This is an interesting space to watch out - Fiat's long term commitment in India. So I guess this is a good time to buy a Fiat with lot of offer and discounts on its models and Fiat's own service on it's way? By the time the car requires some serious service, can we expect it to be undertaken by Fiat themselves?

Or will Fiat strand the Indian customer mid-way? Going by the lukewarm approach on parting with Tata, am I to hold on to my reservations?

"The JV company will exist and it will manufacture all cars and engines. It will be a 100 per cent manufacturing set up. We will be one of the key clients of it," Atanasio said.

He said the new company will have about 70-80 exclusive Fiat showrooms across the country by mid-2013 as against just three at present. These will be opened by the existing Tata-Fiat joint dealerships or new ones.

[Rahulkool]

^^ With FIATs previous records and ethics i really doubt that, 2 year down the line they will decide on changing the service and abandon the current cars. And looking at the FIAT top management i highly doubt they have any interest what so ever in service, 9 out of 10 times becuase of FIAT management TATA service raise there hands and unless and untill you shout to the top level management nothing seems to move, they have no business sense IMO. look what they are doing with Tjets, how a owner who had purchased a tjet without any discounts feel now, i can understand companies do that to outdated models but Linea is there premium offering. And they have done it with each and every model from the days of palio.

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by Rahulkool

look what they are doing with Tjets, how a owner who had purchased a tjet without any discounts feel now, i can understand companies do that to outdated models but Linea is there premium offering. And they have done it with each and every model from the days of palio.

I guess they would feel the same way as guys who bought the Jazz, City and Fabia before their respective price-cuts (not discounts). My friend bought a VW Vento TDI Highline with a 40K cash discount. What do the other Vento owners feel about that?

[Rahulkool]

Originally Posted by StarrySky

I guess they would feel the same way as guys who bought the Jazz, City and Fabia before their respective price-cuts (not discounts). My friend bought a VW Vento TDI Highline with a 40K cash discount. What do the other Vento owners feel about that?

Well you are correct here but in case of Linea the price cuts were just unbelievable, 40k is ok and right now norm for petrol cars. Jazz and city were overpriced to begin with and many people have said that on this forum itself when the cars were launched, i dont remember anyone saying that about Tjet which was actually good VFM. also in FIATs case they were clearing the old stock and no one knew if they are going to continue with Tjet or not. It just bombs the resale value of the car. Already FIATs have bad resale value now these stunts by the company make it even worst. One of the reason people hesitate to buy FIAT apart from service. Also they have done it with all there models like original palio, palio stile even the diesel models where every other company is not able to make enough. There is something seriously wrong in their operations and management.

[Lalvaz]

Originally Posted by Rahulkool

Well you are correct here but in case of Linea the price cuts were just unbelievable, 40k is ok and right now norm for petrol cars. Jazz and city were overpriced to begin with and many people have said that on this forum itself when the cars were launched, i dont remember anyone saying that about Tjet which was actually good VFM. also in FIATs case they were clearing the old stock and no one knew if they are going to continue with Tjet or not. It just bombs the resale value of the car. Already FIATs have bad resale value now these stunts by the company make it even worst. One of the reason people hesitate to buy FIAT apart from service. Also they have done it with all there models like original palio, palio stile even the diesel models where every other company is not able to make enough. There is something seriously wrong in their operations and management.

Could'nt agree more with you! The management at Fiat just does'nt seem to get its act together. Been in the market to buy a car in 2005 and again in 2010, both times loved the fiat products, but never got the confidence in the management. Either it seemed that they did'nt care about the customers, or they did'nt know how to market their products. And to top it all the horror stories about their after sales, and spare part availability. What Fiat needs is to change the entire top management in India. Else just keep selling engines to other manufacturers.

[kailashnj]

Originally Posted by Lalvaz

Could'nt agree more with you! The management at Fiat just does'nt seem to get its act together. Been in the market to buy a car in 2005 and again in 2010, both times loved the fiat products, but never got the confidence in the management. Either it seemed that they did'nt care about the customers, or they did'nt know how to market their products. And to top it all the horror stories about their after sales, and spare part availability. What Fiat needs is to change the entire top management in India. Else just keep selling engines to other manufacturers.

Well I have a different story to that... FIAT Top management does care a lot for their products as well as their customers. I had a very good experience with my FIAT Punto MJD till date - purchased 29th Dec 2009. The car never gave me any issues till date and is running exceptionally.

As for caring for customers - had been to FIAT factory visit and got a chance to meet the CEO as well as other product managers. It was very informative and friendly sessions.

i am still in touch with one of the product manager and he has never ever shied away from helping. Even Mr Rajiv Kapoor is very much accessible. One of my friend faced an issue with his Linea due to not being used for 6 months and when brought it to the notice of Mr Rajiv Kapoor, he was very prompt to get things sorted.

Its just the perception that people carry, I never had any FIAT products before the Punto and always was a Maruti owner (family owned only maruti cars till 2007) but now I might not go back to Maruti.

[Sowmya]

Originally Posted by kailashnj

Its just the perception that people carry, I never had any FIAT products before the Punto and always was a Maruti owner (family owned only maruti cars till 2007) but now I might not go back to Maruti.

Probably this is the best comment on Maruti. No offends to Maruti owner. My first car was a fiat UNO 5 years back. I still miss that car though.

[Turbokick]

Instead of providing direct discount on the showroom price of the car why don't they plan something like 'resale value assurance' scheme where the costumer can directly sell the Fiat vehicle to the Fiat showroom itself with the value equivalent to what is provided by its competitors.

And ofcourse the service,spares and maintenance workout should have an online registry procedure leading to clean and systematic approach about the support from Fiat. Something similar to what Hyundai is planning.

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by Rahulkool

look what they are doing with Tjets, how a owner who had purchased a tjet without any discounts feel now, i can understand companies do that to outdated models but Linea is there premium offering. And they have done it with each and every model from the days of palio.

Originally Posted by Rahulkool

Well you are correct here but in case of Linea the price cuts were just unbelievable, 40k is ok and right now norm for petrol cars. Jazz and city were overpriced to begin with and many people have said that on this forum itself when the cars were launched, i dont remember anyone saying that about Tjet which was actually good VFM. also in FIATs case they were clearing the old stock and no one knew if they are going to continue with Tjet or not. It just bombs the resale value of the car.

well I actually have a slightly different viewpoint here . I bought the T-Jet+ at 11.1 OTR last year in June. I didn't get any freebies/offers apart from the usual corporate discount and exchange bonus. Am I happy that the same car is selling now for 8.5-9L OTR?? Not really. But we have to realize that the cars selling now have been lying unused, rotting in the Fiat stockyard for more than a year. The older owners like me bought a 1 month old (manufactured) car when it was in its prime in the market. Hence the premium.

Old stock of almost 1 year age will not fetch the same value of OTR price as a 1 month old car. I don't see anything untoward about that. At a local maruti dealership, some 1 year old swift was also going at a discount of 70-80k. It could be the previous gen model, but the old-model-unsold-and-going-cheap is not fiat-specific. Perhaps Fiat over-manufactured T-Jets due to wrong estimations of demand, and is paying the price now by offering clearance sales of sorts.

Of course, I do agree with your points on their mismanagement and lack of operations here. They have to become more aggressive in their marketing too, apart from creating their own dealerships and service centres. I seriously hope they do, for their own good. A lot of people I have met (laymen) shy away from Fiat brand because it is being serviced at Tata centres. Creating their own brand outlets will definitely help in strengthening their premium 'european' image. It may take time though, and will not be an overnight miracle. That said, I am extremely happy with the service quality offered by the current dealer here. I rate it even better than Hyundai and Maruti.

Why don't I ever see FIAT ads on mass media? Hardly anyone knows about these cars, or the heritage of the company. Most laymen seem to associate the Fiat brand with low mileage, Premier Padmini - like reliability (weird as that seems) and a Tata-like service quality, all of which bear no resemblance to the real picture today. Mention to any layman driving a Swift D that his engine is a Fiat creation, and chances are he will argue with you that it is not! The marketing department is one area where they are severely lagging behind in, and they need to work really aggressively on that.

[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by Rahulkool

Well you are correct here but in case of Linea the price cuts were just unbelievable, 40k is ok and right now norm for petrol cars. Jazz and city were overpriced to begin with and many people have said that on this forum itself when the cars were launched, i dont remember anyone saying that about Tjet which was actually good VFM.

The post you replied to refers to vento TDI, which is not a petrol car. There are no discounts on any other diesel car in the market in this segment as far as I know.

As for Jazz and city being overpriced, perhaps its true. but the only reasons this has been admitted is because Honda reduced prices due to non availability of a diesel mill. What about the Swift pricing, does any of us here think it warrants a price of near 8L OTR for the zdi? Isnt that overpriced?

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Creating their own brand outlets will definitely help in strengthening their premium 'european' image. It may take time though, and will not be an overnight miracle. That said, I am extremely happy with the service quality offered by the current dealer here. I rate it even better than Hyundai and Maruti.

Why don't I ever see FIAT ads on mass media? Hardly anyone knows about these cars, or the heritage of the company. Most laymen seem to associate the Fiat brand with low mileage, Premier Padmini - like reliability (weird as that seems) and a Tata-like service quality, all of which bear no resemblance to the real picture today. Mention to any layman driving a Swift D that his engine is a Fiat creation, and chances are he will argue with you that it is not! The marketing department is one area where they are severely lagging behind in, and they need to work really aggressively on that.

yes, I agree on this. I wonder who their marketing/ management consultants are. They position the products and try to sell as if they have no idea of the market or the product. Or even worse, both!
If somebody asked me, I would be happy to help
Petrolheads demanded a more powerful car, so Fiat brought the Tjet. which proves the management is listening. But when the tjet was being marketed, do we remember what the focus was on? its almost as if the intentions are there, but the implementation is either going haywire or lacks the precision. Its like the archer is being equipped with the relevant bows/ arrows but he is unable to see the target at all. Somebody needs to coach that archer to see well and shoot accordingly.

Of course Fiat will bring more arrows but the shooter is the same.

In terms of brand perception, Indians think of Skoda as a better brand than Fiat. could there be a worse situation to be in?
no offence to Skoda owners here.

[fiat_tarun]

Fiat eyes Indian utility vehicles segment; Jeep, 500X models on radar for India

With an eye on the fast growing Indian utility vehicles segment, Italian car major Fiat on Tuesday said it could bring brands from Fiat-Chrysler portfolio, including Jeep and 500X, to the country.

The company is currently in the process of registering its own entity in India to take care of commercial operations, such as sales and after sales business, after ending its distribution association with Tata Motors earlier this year.

"Lots of brands with sports utility vehicle (SUV) or SUV-like products are coming to India. The segment is growing.

The next probable brand from Fiat-Chrysler for the Indian market is Jeep," Fiat India Automobiles Ltd (FIAL) Senior Vice President (Commercial) Enrico Atanasio said.

Atanasio, who will be the Managing Director of the new Fiat group sales company in India, declined to share any further details such as the model and timing of launch.

"We are also considering 500X. This is also an opportunity for the Indian market. We are considering carefully the possibilities of all the brands," Atanasio said.

He, however, added that these new products would be considered for launch only after Fiat completes setting up about 70-80 exclusive showrooms by March next year.

Fiat's plans for the utility vehicle segment comes on a day when Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers revised the growth projection of the segment upward to 29-31 per cent in this fiscal from 10-12 per cent announced in April.

Talking about the new commercial entity, Atanasio said: "Fiat has decided to create a fully-owned company to take care of sales of cars and parts. Currently it is being incorporated and it is just a matter of days to finalise the name. I will be the MD of that firm."

In May, Fiat and Tata Motors had ended their distribution alliance formed in 2007 for sales and service of Italian firm's vehicles in India. The 50:50 joint venture at present has joint distribution network and back-end support, besides co-manufacturing of products at the Ranjangaon unit near Pune.

"The JV company will exist and it will manufacture all cars and engines. It will be a 100 per cent manufacturing set up. We will be one of the key clients of it," Atanasio said.

He said the new company will have about 70-80 exclusive Fiat showrooms across the country by mid-2013 as against just three at present. These will be opened by the existing Tata-Fiat joint dealerships or new ones.

"In the next 9-12 months, when we will have dedicated dealerships and service network, there will be no Fiat-Tata showrooms," he said.

Currently, Fiat has 166 joint showrooms with Tata Motors, besides 179 workshops across 126 locations.

Atanasio also said that Fiat might consider utilising the Indian plant for export to markets in Asia Pacific as well as other right hand drive countries in the world.

"There is an opportunity for us to expand our exports from India beyond the neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the Asia Pacific region. By the end of next year we may start this," he added.

When asked if Fiat India will consider expanding engine production capacity at the Ranjangaon plant, he said: "There has been an increasing interest in our diesel engines. At present we are utilising the full capacity and if demand continues to grow like this, we may consider increasing the capacity."

Good strategy there of launching new models only after setting up the service base first, even though coverage will be half of what it is today. There is another article I was reading that talked about Mr.Rajeev Kapoor being no more involved in any commercial operations. He will only be in charge of production at Ranjangaon.

This Enrico guy seems to have a proper plan and has come with a vision. I sincerly hope it is so !

[vroomsome]

Originally Posted by kailashnj

Well I have a different story to that... FIAT Top management does care a lot for their products as well as their customers. I had a very good experience with my FIAT Punto MJD till date - purchased 29th Dec 2009. The car never gave me any issues till date and is running exceptionally.

As for caring for customers - had been to FIAT factory visit and got a chance to meet the CEO as well as other product managers. It was very informative and friendly sessions.

i am still in touch with one of the product manager and he has never ever shied away from helping. Even Mr Rajiv Kapoor is very much accessible. One of my friend faced an issue with his Linea due to not being used for 6 months and when brought it to the notice of Mr Rajiv Kapoor, he was very prompt to get things sorted.

Its just the perception that people carry, I never had any FIAT products before the Punto and always was a Maruti owner (family owned only maruti cars till 2007) but now I might not go back to Maruti.

and I have the exact opposite experience with Fiat India management. They have not responded to my service requests in over two months after saying they would. my repeated requests have met with ' please bear with us'.

[Lalvaz]

Originally Posted by kailashnj

Well I have a different story to that... FIAT Top management does care a lot for their products as well as their customers. I had a very good experience with my FIAT Punto MJD till date - purchased 29th Dec 2009. The car never gave me any issues till date and is running exceptionally.

As for caring for customers - had been to FIAT factory visit and got a chance to meet the CEO as well as other product managers. It was very informative and friendly sessions.

i am still in touch with one of the product manager and he has never ever shied away from helping. Even Mr Rajiv Kapoor is very much accessible. One of my friend faced an issue with his Linea due to not being used for 6 months and when brought it to the notice of Mr Rajiv Kapoor, he was very prompt to get things sorted.

I agree that the Fiat products are excellent, which is why I wanted to buy it, but the management is not upto the mark. It is a sad state of affairs when routine service issues need to be escalated to a managing director for resolution. I believe that the process should be functioning well, rather than having to escalate to one particular individual.

I'm glad that you are happy with the service meted out to you. Hope they improve the service levels and spare part availability for their other customers as well. Read about some horror stories about those on Team BHP.