FIAT India Sales

FIAT INDIA surely spoiled the Grande Punto with the Indianized design EVO. I was sure from the very beginning that this EVO won't attract any customers.
As an ardent FIAT fan, whenever I see a Punto EVO i feel pissed off.Instead of changing the interiors, gearbox, Engine tuning along
with international EVO external design, FIAT India chose to change the interiors and spoiled the exterior looks saying Indians love chrome. No changes done in gearbox and Engine tuning. It's a shocker...
Now, Punto just looks like any other hatch from Maruti and Hyundai.

Whoever approved this facelift should be shown the DOOR...

 

yes, one of my friends also got Linea Mjd in Feb 2015, believe me many people were asking him why Fiat ?
many have suggested Toyota etios/corolla for reliability and some have suggested city for brand H
some village mechanics asked him to stay away from Fiat as it has very high maintenance and gearbox problems.
bla bla from many others.
when fiat will succeed in converting these negativity in positive approach of all people to Fiat till then.
Enjoy with such numbers - REALITY check.

 

@dadasaheb - Not sure how such perception spreads that FIAT's were not reliable. The fact is just the opposite with my experience and with recent FIAT owners. The fact is, these village mechanics have no idea about FIAT and they just give a speech as if they know everything about various brands. Also, I seriously don't get the brand 'H' concept. Is brand 'H' equal to a Merc, Audi or BMW? Stupidity of Indian perception at it's best

 

These mechanics usually would have had Fiats coming into their garage for some work. As soon as they open the bonnet, I visualize the mechanics scratching their head. They are presented with the mature 110 + years of Italian engineering, They wont even have the Allen Key / Star Key to get cracking on with the disassembly. They are often unsuccessful in resolving the issue.

Right then they remember working on Maruti / honda with bare screwdrivers / spanners. Then And There it gets imprinted, That fiats are bad and japs are awesome.

 

@jackharrisw this is India and if you are in car bazzar with 10 L rupay to purchase a new car how many people will even consider Linea ?
I am not talking about the great TFIians here. even how many knows that Fiat sells a sedan in India ?
whatever are the perceptions and may be rumors - don't you think Fiat itself is responsible for that ?

 

@dadasaheb
Everyone knows FIAT sells cars in india,the problem everyone doesnt knows that FIAT is improving in service centres and service centre count across country.This information about service centre and spare parts is not known at rural areas.So lets think who's responsible for it,the fact is everyone knows the marketing dept should take the blame.The Feb sales figure is not surprise,rather decent performer with cheap advts.
Not a single advt in WC-2015.

 

I know they won't BUT Fiat should be considering shutting the brand down for good in India, while ensuring ASS and spares support via their financially viable FASS centres, Mahindra First Choice, maybe even back to Tata Motors?

This market is by now deaf and dumb to anything other than MS, HY, H and Toyota, and clearly the stigma of the Palio years and the Tata ones is intact towards Fiat.

I don't believe there are that many knowing and open minded people of good automotive taste who don't obsess over resale value etc left in the marketplace, to sustain a brand with historical legacy perception issues that refuse to reduce, like Fiat. All-new cars will not sell either.

In the language of the stock market: there is still too much 'negative sentiment' around the brand per se, irrespective of better ASS and of the cars themselves, which, all 3, remain class leading on SO many parameters, not least of which is PRICE+warranties.

I am afraid the market is saying something like: offer the Punto Evo at say 3 lakhs and the Linea at 5 lakhs and the Avventura at 3.5 lakhs, and only then will we even consider buying it, in fact not even then!

The market is discounting Fiats to THAT extent, correspondingly it is over valuing MS, HY, H and T to a similar degree. A market that mis-prices one of its 'stocks' to this degree can remain unreasonable like this for much longer than a brand/investor(car buyer) can remain 'solvent' in India.

FCA should stop trying with the Fiat brand (at all or at least for the mass market)....and go Jeep!

 

@prabhjot I think they should bring down the name plates of Fiat from all dealers and shops or others and put Chrysler over there.
and bring in some mass market brand new cars under Chrysler.
appoint the ad agency which done good Job for 'modi sarkar' during 2014 LS elections.

 

@dadasaheb

I am inclined to by-now agree with this excellent old suggestion of yours, except for the Chrysler bit.

Mefeels instead that they should leave the mass market entirely, and focus on local manufacture/assembly of Jeeps, supplemented by other niches (eg., ckd assembled 500, 500L, 500L 7 seater, 500X, upcoming 124 spider/roadster, Abarth Punto+500 etc).

They are as it is earning much more profit from the mass market via Tata and maruti than certainly even Ford, Honda, Toyota, Chevy, Nissan, VW, Skoda etc.

Motorbeam reports today from Zauba.com that FCA have just imported a Panda 4X4 for 'r&d purposes.'

Am not sure what that signifies, but if means that they're exploring the launch of the Panda, or that they feel the Panda 4x4 (the world's best SUV according to TopGear and others!) can be the b-suv to go up against the Duster/Terrano/XUV/ix25/S-Cross/Xalpha/Tata Nexon etc: they're wrong, IMO.

It won't sell in the mass market as long as it has a Fiat badge on it, and even if it is given a chance it, the world's best small car and also small SUV, will be ignored for being too small and too cute, underpowered, with poor resale, disrespectful of Indian needs and tastes, over-priced, etc. i.e., Just the fate that overtook the Avventura.

 

A small capable 4x4 might find more takers than Avventura. While there are mechanical improvements in Avventura over Punto still, it will be as competent as Punto in snow/slush/water wading. There's a segment of young urban travelers that loves to explore new places by travelling off the beaten track. Panda can't be and shouldn't be a mass-market offering. It should be positioned to the young enthusiasts as a vehicle that can tread on Sach-pass and Chandni Chowk with equal aplomb without costing a bomb.

With all due respect to NB (the previous head of Fiat India), I feel that Fiat India was led by a conservative leader when it should have been at its aggressive best. Thus, they couldn't achieve what they were capable of achieving. Hope that the new leader is more aggressive with his plans (and more importantly execution). There's no reason why Fiat can't turn things around. It isn't difficult to influence/manipulate the public perception in India. All they need is right people with the right intent.