[RSR]

Originally Posted by Geo_Ipe

Could someone please explain how 14" wheels instead of 15" ones are gonna help FIAT here? They save on the amount spent on the extra steel required to make a 15" wheel??

Cost is one reason, sure. Fiat can get both the 14" steel wheels (& wheelcaps too ) as well as the 175/70R14 tyres at better (i.e. lower) bulk OEM prices from the respective manufacturers, when compared to fatter tyres on 15" wheels.

Another reason is that the engine (Multijet FGT) is now down on power, and would be aided by the lower rolling resistance from the thinner and smaller tyres. And the ARAI fuel efficiency figure (maybe real world FE too) would be a bit lower if they had put in fatter tyres.

But yes, the car does look awkward on those small wheels and thin tyres. I'm glad they have not reduced the superb ground clearance on the Linea Classic. An aftermarket wheel and tyre upgrade would surely improve the looks significantly.

This is an interesting experiment from Fiat to improve their market share, but only time will tell if this move is going to be successful. One good thing is that the new management at Fiat India, after "making the move" away from Tata, are actually putting in serious effort to become a successful mainstream manufacturer. I wish them all success, increased competition can only benefit the consumers!

[chittybang]

FIAT is getting out of inertia and that is something to cheer about. Sometimes change happens when we are pushed to the edge and FIAT surely has been tap dancing on the edge of all edges when it comes to sales. Its interesting to note that they are not going down the usual path of sub 4m sedans. Instead they are marketing the classic at the other end of the spectrum in the same price range.
Now time will tell if this works but it surely is not a long term strategy. I believe FIAT is bidding its time until all their planned outlets and service centres are up and running to their satisfaction. Once that is achieved we may see more genuine launches. Also the Jeep Launch and its hopeful success might speed things up a bit. One thing is clear, Moving away from TATA hasnt harmed FIAT in anyway. Infact I believe their sales have improved, albeit marginally. The after sales surely has improved from personal experience but then again it was easy to be better than TATA after sales. The challenge is to sustain whatever little momentum they have gained and hope one of their future launches turns out to be a big winner.

[bejoy]

Only time will tell, if this move will be a success. Anyway the monthly sales have been moving north for many months now and this will create more buzz at the showroom.

Could find a good comparison table even on the Fiat website (its there, but tough to compare), so made one:



Taken from http://www.fiat-india.com/specifications/?vehicle=Linea

[sanstorm]

Could find a good comparison table even on the Fiat website (its there, but tough to compare), so made one:

Thanks Bejoy, your job is lot better than the original. Assuming you have the s/s ready already, is it possible to break into two tables -

1. punto and Linea (P)
2. Punto and Linea (D)

Punto is seeing a steady increase in sales over last few months, am sure the introduction of Classic will result into cannibalization of Punto to an extent. The fear may come true real quick.

To my naked eyes, the 5,27,00 on Punto (P-Dynamic) as well as Punto(P-Emotional) 6,81,000 vis-a-vis Linea Classic @ 5,99,000, surely tilts the balance in favor of Linea.

So whats next Fiat? Linea classic 1.2 :(

In my opinion the measures are only short term and test only, remember the way Absolute versions were brought in, promoted and subsequently killed
Agree that Emotion has been loaded to the brim, but sedan is always different

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Geo_Ipe

Could someone please explain how 14" wheels instead of 15" ones are gonna help FIAT here? They save on the amount spent on the extra steel required to make a 15" wheel??

Originally Posted by RSR

Cost is one reason, sure.

Cost is hardly the reason. Manufacturers buy such tyres for 400 - 500 bucks a piece. You can imagine how slim the difference would be between 14" & 15" sizes.

Primary reason is differentiation. This is just one of the ways that manufacturers distinguish between the cheaper / expensive models.

[puchoo]

Maybe a bit selfish but i for one am glad there is some differentiation between all the models.

Small video snapshot of the launch in Delhi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iaVUzyMiuwM

Originally Posted by GTO

Primary reason is differentiation. This is just one of the ways that manufacturers distinguish between the cheaper / expensive models.

[King_K]

Originally Posted by rahul4321

.... as now they'll see those cut-price Linea's everywhere...

Boy, won't Fiat love to see that happen! Cut-price or cut-margin, they had to do something to get the stocks moving.

I think Fiat did the right thing by cutting Linea's price to the already discounted levels. Expect to see a cut in Punto's price as well. Fiat crossed 1000 numbers after a very long time in August 2013, only due to the aggressive discounting.

I know dealers who were still holding 2012 stock as late as Aug'13, so anything to get back in the news helps everyone.

[noopster]

Originally Posted by 1100D

Actually Ford did follow the same route, when they launched the present Fiesta, they rechristened the older car "Fiesta Classic". Its only after a few months that the older car lost its name. Now we know how the present Fiesta is faring.

But this isn't a like-to-like comparison. Ford launched a new generation of the Fiesta, i.e. a completely new car, before renaming the previous-gen as simply "Classic". I think that's fair- it doesn't confuse the seller- but in this case everyone sees the same car (for all practical purposes) but shorn of features and at a lower price point. When Fiat does eventually launch teh next-generation Linea they will definitely have to contend with the very real issue that their brand's value has degraded.

As it is, with all their sales and service shenanigans, Fiats hardly sell. This isn't helping!

Edit: Forgot to mention, the new Fiesta failed for several reasons: poor looks, ordinary engine, cheap interiors and too high pricing. Blaming the Fiesta Classic for it would be silly.

[pmbdcoe]

Originally Posted by vasanthn21

This was the point that caught my eye too!

I understand that FIAT has struck a deal with a cab service provider for about 1000 classics to be sold to them. It defintiely is a good replacement for Logan/Verito as long as FIAT is able to provide good service.

This is the strategy that baffles me always. I might be wrong, but anybody and everybody i at least know will prefer a high end I20 or swift or polo, instead of paying the same money and going for a dezire, or etios or verito. Bottomline is if these cars are meant for the middle class people, then even the middle class people look some value in the car and not just a car with a trunk attached to it. Eventually all such cars end up as cabs with the various radio taxi companies. And from the conversation above it looks like even linea has decided to join the bandwagon. Somewhere this tarnishes the image of the car as well for the truly personal vehicle owner. He would not want to be owning a car that also runs as a taxi. So what is the whole point of vehicle companies launching such vahicles for personal users.

[puchoo]

This is how they are conveying the length/space aspect on Facebook , would not be too surprised if they end up taking something like this to mainstream ads as well

[needforspeed88]

Fiat has finally woken up from its slumber. Linea is a fanatastic looking car with clean lines. As long as they are willing to go the extra mile and back the excellent pricing with good after sales and service they can sell the car in healthy numbers in my honest opinion. The biggest plus for Linea in the segment along with its pricing is that it is not associated with a ''cheap car'' image. It looks good, is well put together, is fuel efficient and is a full sedan.

[lifebuoy]

Originally Posted by 1967'stang

This car simply looks the same from outside. But the inside somehow looks cheaper than the maruti 800. I know it looks tantalisingly big from the outside. There is one big advantage however- You can tell your friends it is a big car.

Toyota did the reverse with the Etios. They are now trying hard (the result is well known though) to place it as a premuim sedan from the features inside, the outside remainig the same as the taxi on the road. One has to understand that to reduce the sticker price, cost cutting has to occur. BTW, nothing can compare with the plastics of the Maruti 800, even the Indica of 2002 had better quality than that. Have you actually seen them and felt them ?

Originally Posted by nskumar

Classic and classic plus features :
All variants come with power steering, power windows, tilt steering, manual AC, follow me home headlamps, rear armrest and multi-information display as standard.

That's good, no maruti variant or the verito have the follow me home headamps. The MID is also not present in base variants as also the rear armrest in most other brands. All 4 power windows in a base variant at that cost is appreciable.

Originally Posted by djay99

Today on my way to office spotted a white Linea Classic without wheel caps(black steel wheel). In a second was able to identify that this is not a regular linea. It looked ugly with tyres looking very small and huge gap above wheels.

It's probably because we have gotten used to seeing cars with wheel caps or alloys, therefore a black steel wheel looks out of place / catches the eye. Have Fiat reduced the rim size to 14 inch ?

[quadbike]

Its great VFM in my opinion. Buy that and put 15 Inch Alloys & Tyres, may be a Race Dynamics/Petes ECU. If Fiat cleans up its A.S.S and makes parts available on time/reduced price, its going to be excellent for the Taxi segment with its huge boot.

[coolkurt]

The Ad is very smart marketing imo. People in our country lust after a sedan, snob value. That was the reason for companies to bring in compact sedans in the first place. Hopefully it'll sell really well.

[djay99]

Originally Posted by lifebuoy

It's probably because we have gotten used to seeing cars with wheel caps or alloys, therefore a black steel wheel looks out of place / catches the eye. Have Fiat reduced the rim size to 14 inch ?

Its not just because of puny 14" tyres but because of empty space in wheel well. There is lot of empty space above tyres and this make it look a bit ugly IMO.
Classic variant comes with 14" wheels.