Fiat India - Sales Thread

Agreed with the above! No way in this world would Fiat have made a comeback on its own and Tata was a good choice. But now its time to move a little further with this relationship:

1. Start opening dedicated service centers at the least in the metros.
2. Start dedicated regional spare centers (say for each state) which will provide for a faster pipeline / demand management.
3. Start opening up dedicated dealership showrooms at the least in key cities (and utilize tata dealer showrooms in other cases).

Vroom

 

There exactly lies the problem. Recently in an article I had read that the Maruti's service agents and dealers are the most profitable whereas that of Chevrolet and Fiat are not profitable because of the volumes. So it will be very very difficult to get service and spare parts dealers for Fiat. :confused

 

Fiat sales seem to be stuck like a punto in first gear. ::V

 

i think Fiat India shud look into these points.
1. Black beige interiors lift from Linea.
2. Chrome grill & also add more chrome in interiors( Indians love Chrome)
3. Change gear box. If possible opt for Indica's one. I feel Vista is peppy.
4. Standardize 90 MJD across variants. Punto 76 bhp shud be priced at the current Palio Stile MJD price.
5. Bring ABS as option in Dynamic variant( To attack Swift VDi ABS squarely)
6. Improve Fit & Finish by leaps & bounds.
7. Make the spare parts availablity in Queued format from Fiat India's HQ.
8. Market it very effectively. Rope in a Super Celebrity to Promote this.
9. Bring a Multi Air if Posssible TJet 1.2L Petrol
10. If possible, reduce Turning Radius.
11. This might sound funny, but still. Instead of getting money for giving MJD to Maruti, get K Series engine with Gear Box for every MJD sold to Maruti.

 

gr8to see sales chart growing north.

 

The Tata-Fiat partnership should be modelled on the lines of the VW-Audi one. Abroad, most of the dealers are VW-Audi dealers but either the showrooms are in separate buildings in the same compound or the building is one but enterences are separate. A customer can't walk into the Audi area from a VW area although staff can from 'behind the scenes'. Of course, for this Fiat needs to make it's cars feel premium compared to Tata ones. Even now Fiat's are more premium in build and interior design but the fit and finish and quality needs to be upped significiantly. Just like an Audi is cross shopped against a Merc or BMW and VW's are looked at by Honda / Acura buyer's, Fiat needs to benchmark it's cars against VW, Toyota , Honda small cars and not against Maruti & Hyundai's. Abroad, a VW is priced slightly higher then Honda's, the same way Fiat should price the Punto higher then i20 and Swift's. Let's face it, Fiat will never be able to take on the volumes of Hyundai and Maruti so might as well make cars that appeal to the 'discerning' customer. Of course, to do that and get away with it, they have to make their cars better equipped with better quality and more powerful engines with good driveablity compared to Maruti & Hyundai. Taking on Maruti is the easy part here. The way Hyundai is making strides in automobile's, Fiat needs to buck up if they want their cars to be looked at as a upgrade compared to Hyundai's. I know Fiat's have better steering & handling and what not but all that doesn't matter for most car buyer's. A normal Indian car buyer will happily pay Rs.50,000 more for leather seats but wouldn't pay Rs.15,000 more for ABS for the simple reason that leather seats are visible luxuries to him while ABS isn't. Therefore, Fiat has to get it's interiors quality and fit & finish spot on.

Also, they have to make sure that there is a more powerful Fiat for every comparative Tata one. What this means is that if there is a 90bhp Manza then there has to be a 95bhp Punto. Yes, let the 75bhp variant be here but there has to be a better variant avaliable against Tata's.

 

Fiat seems to be the sleeping automobile gaint of India. They seem to be satisfied with volumes they are getting now. There is a flood of suggestions but Fiat seems to be happy where they are. People are crying for a nice ad of Punto but still no result. There should be few dynamic people in Fiat India who want success.

NOTE: I have edited your post to remove sms language. Also, take a few moments to check for gramatical error's and puntuation's when you type. Please avoid using sms language for postings on the forum. It's far easier to read your post the way it is showing now.

 

HT carried an article yesterday stating how Ford Figo has zoomed off with its sales leaving Punto far far behind!!! Nuts!!

Vroom