[Rtech]

I personally don't think that reply from Fiat is very reassuring. I also think the tone of his reply is a bit confrontational, which coming from a company to a loyal customer who is giving valuable advice, is inexcusable.

Or maybe I am not reading it correctly (or reading too much into it??)!

[typeOnegative]

I too thought it was a bit confrontational. And yes, the way the management has been behaving reeks of some kind of arrogance. The closest analogy I can think of is the 'Zamindars'. They would lose their land and still think they were better than the others. Hmmmm .... does not bode well. But hey, I love their cars.

[merve_extreme]

i dont feel it is conforntiational but on a firmer note that Fiat is here to stay.what the person meant was that big companies having their sites down and not comparing Ac with cars.see the difference.Companies generally dont follow customers advice they have People for that(dumb in Fiats case).speculations will continue,they can't be stopped,only time can tell if Fiat can stay in India.

from my point of View:Fiat will definately stay in India.

[typeOnegative]

I too believe that Fiat is here to stay. However, there was no need for the comparison. It just sends out negative vibes as in - Fiat is willing to make excuses and not actually own up to a mistake and accept its faults.

[simran]

Fiat might stay, but the tone of the mail is more like blaming the circumstances and 'we did what we could, but luck was not with us'. What i'd have liked to see was a more upbeat mood and 'we are doing it' attitude with some practical examples of how they are revamping thrown in.

Typically, these companies are taken over and then 'unbundled' and sold. I hope ICICI, if it gets in, won't do that since the product of Fiat is good, and it'll also mean competition going down.

[typeOnegative]

Originally Posted by simran

Typically, these companies are taken over and then 'unbundled' and sold. I hope ICICI, if it gets in, won't do that since the product of Fiat is good, and it'll also mean competition going down.

Fiat cant be unbundled and sold. The products still have potential.

P.S. Offtopic, but are you a fan of LOTR?

[simran]

Yeah, I guess since its a product company, unbundling would be difficult. I am not aware of a precedent. Power generation companies are unbundled ... I guess they can unbundle the downstream operations like servicing and sales to someone like Leyland, and retain the product specs with them.

You can compare this to the Rover thread that started some time ago. I am speculating on the unbundling of the Fiat India Ops so that Fiat retains what it thinks would be money churner (product) while outsourcing other parts where they are poor to better (?) players since it would make sense to stay on in a growing market like India.

Yeah, I like LOTR. Have read the novel 2 times, and parts of it 3-4 times.

[satish_appasani]

From the first news prints that I read about Ashok leyland and Fiat, it is only service and sales of Fiat that Ashok leyland may get in to. Later everything was cooked up by the media.

[typeOnegative]

Originally Posted by simran

Yeah, I guess since its a product company, unbundling would be difficult. I am not aware of a precedent. Power generation companies are unbundled ... .....
Yeah, I like LOTR. Have read the novel 2 times, and parts of it 3-4 times.

Hmmm ...good points. From your post, if you may permit the digression, you seem to be an MBA/Eco grad.

Regarding LOTR, I have been reading it nearly once every year (the whole deal) from the past 12 years. LOL

Satish, yeah I read something to the same effect. But as Ms Desai from FIAL puts it, we should believe the 'powerful media'.

[RX135]

Though I love Fiat cars and strong advocate of them, I do not see much new information in Nikki's answer. The excuses given by him are not professional, especially of website going down.

If you have interacted with corporate sales/marketing folks, you'll easily understand that it is more of sales/marketing pitch and less of substance. I was hoping for more concrete information like when exactly the website will be up, what is action plan for near future. Common, every corporate has a short-term, mid-term and long-term goals and associated roadmap. None of this reflects from Nikki's answers, so I would rather ignore it as standard marketing talk.

[Deeps]

Originally Posted by deepakhon

\worlds largest car manufacturer which also has a model rather marque in
India of German origin. The web site of this company is also down since
last
6 months. And the world's largest Air conditioning company which also
operates in India has their site down since more than 9 months! Are
they all
pulling out. No they are well established players especially the latter
being a leader in their industry. So please do not gauge / evaluate a
company by it having a web site or it being down for some time.

================================================== ======================

Its obvious that the former brand being referred to is GM. The guy is making silly excuses and comparisons. And also i agree with Rtech that the general tone of the letter is slightly aggresive...kind of saying that 'we are the company and we know what is best.'

[Deeps]

One thing i find hard to believe is that Fiat India has no control over their own website. i think the guy is not telling the truth when he says that the look, content etc. of the website is decided by the parent company.

[ajmat]

I think it is time to lock this thread - discussion goes no where