FIAT India Sales

@prabhjot, @vista7155 more than essential, if they (Suzuki) are feeding or maintaining a complete R&D division that is capable of designing a nimble, frugal diesel tech, then why not? And will it affect their bottom-lines? you bet! In an ever increasing competitive market it is a question of survival and technological prowess which is something many buyers will look at before making a buying decision. Toyota does it, Honda does it, and Suzuki will also dream, aspire and do the same. We have seen Suzuki tech flourish in abundance in India, so they do definitely live up to expectations of many-a-ordinary Indian buyers. Not that people had many choices and neither did they mind it so much so as to revolt and vote it out of their buying list; like they did to Fiat

What remains a mystery to me is the Isuzu management of things; which simply never realized the potential of passenger diesel market in India and rest of the world..

 

New ford Fiesta is the most sold car in U.K for third year in a row.
Some three lakh vehicles last year.
They also have a compact sedan testing in India, so competition getting hotter.
Ford rose from ashes in India with current figo and Ecosport.
Its not difficult to capture the imagination of people and hence sales with just couple of models.
I would be very surprised if its not repeated with up coming figo twins.
The big question is does Fiat have in its veins such courage?

 

@prabhjot
If that was the case TATA would have never gone for Revroton for petrol and if TATA is serious partner and Fiat was interested to supply the engine then they would have given them Fire with Turbo associated.
Fire with Turbo is doable from Fiat in short period of time but TATA invested the 2 years time frame in coming up with the engine and made it success(still reliability not proved) inturn Fiat would have used the same engines to EVO/Avv for excise benefits and made profit on both car sales and engine sales.
Everybody knows better what is Fiat strategy of doing the business in India.
If TATA(Partner) is moving out for engine then Suzuki will follow it sooner or later and this should be a alarm to wake up IMHO.

 

A lot rides on the FCA head-honcho Sergio who of course is busy restructuring an entire global plan on an ongoing basis. It might just come to us as short bursts of surprises in a year or two. Changing just a regional CEO might not be enough, something that resembles restructuring of management at Chrysler will be needed at Fiat India.

OT: On a random note the DMS system at dealerships I think is being worked upon and improved slowly, steadily and surely.

 

The Revotron turbo was a low-cost engine, a small evolution, with lots of help from outside vendors, NOTHING like developing a world-class diesel from scratch.

Tata HAS confirmed they're moving by 2017 to the 2litre mjd, locally made at Ranjangaon. Suzuki has confirmed they'll be using the mjd(s) in their current cars AND their upcoming cars through 2016. Suzuki and Tata both will in short order be buying lakh upon lakh of Fiat/MM amt-units.

I ONLY see evidence of increasing synergies between Fiat and these 2 firms, for at least the next 5-6 years AT LEAST. And, as I've posted a number of times, we need to keep watching the Suzuki-FCA relationship at a global level: BIG possibilities exist of a merger/equity-swap/major strategic alliance! Soon enough.

Now, the use of the Revotron on Fiats begs the question: is the 1.4 Fire engine at all bad, or expensive relative to the competition, and so at all responsible for the whole 'aiyyo, Fiats sales are poor' issue.

 

If Tjet and Multiair are iterations of FIRE/Super-FIRE/Starjet, they might just need to re-tune those. The multiair (variant) however must be introduced very soon.

 

@Mabams1826

A couple of points that bear attention.

It is not at all clear Ford has 'risen from the ashes' in India: they still have thousands of crores of accumulated losses on their indian investments. IF they've made any money here, net, it is surely without a doubt because of exports of the Ecosport and the Figo, same for these new cars.

Moreover, Ford's 'ashes' was/is not even analogous to Fiat 'ashen state' in the wider public perception.

An export centric strategy is the ONLY one that makes ANY sense for ANY non-MS/HY/H car marque in India, because these firms have a kabzaa on 70-80% of the sales numbers.

Fiat India will be doing just that for the 2016/17 Jeep C-SUV (and hopefully to be followed by the Renegade): India as export base first and foremost, followed distantly by India-as-a-retail-market.
Fiat, unlike all these other export-dependent firms, is profitable from the domestic market, via Tata and Maruti.

Other than Jeep in the future and just vague-possibly the 500X, there is no Fiat model, current or new, that would make sense as a big-number export model out of India. The Indian Punto Evo and Linea and Avventura do not have meaningful right-hand-drive market demand in say Japan, the UK, or Australia, etc.

That then is another reason why Fiat is not launching an all-new car here: as Ford (and Renault-Nissan and VW) has shown it ONLY makes sense to launch all-new cars here IF your main business case is exports, else the vast probability is that you're on a highway to epic financial losses in India, like Chevy.

Given the geography of emerging-markets Fiat operates in, and given FCA's great collection of premium brands, Fiat India as an export base for low-cost cars to the big right-hand-drive markets makes no sense.

Which is why, I think, they're planning on Jeep exports from India, not Fiats, and which is one major reason why they're not launching an all-new say Linea or the promised b-suv (Duster-fighter) before 2016/17.

Or so I figure! I know a lot but how much of it is true or even valid....?

 

The primary reason for "aiyyo,sales are poor " is bad/no marketing/advertising.

And yes the fire engine is also a reason
coz Fire gives 14.4 kmpl arai
whereas the VW polo brothers return 18
and the swift gives 20(this guy is light though)
but still all of them show enough performance atleast way more than fiat's fire engines... An engine which gives 20 kmpl petrol is very much required.. May that be a locally manufactured 1.0 multiair turbo

 

And another reason for "aiyyo, sales are poor" is can my corner-shop mechanic or gulli-mechanic fix my car psyche? Cause he is so good that he claims he can fix an Audi-Merc or Accord, but not "The Fiat", the outcast, the untouchable ; although a VW can easily, equally, more than make him sweat and fret, even more than a Fiat.

And also who claimed that he got a 20kmpl just yesterday on his 1.4FIRE, was it @RaviHegde ? Your inputs please..

 

Let me say again, the only chance Fiat has is the Renault/Nissan territory. Especially Nissan. Another brand whose stakeholder I am, with an excellent product (in its class), but virtually zero future potential as an overall entity, barring the reliance on a horrendous strategy called Datsun. Man, seriously, what does Nissan think of India as ? I would like to have all the top bosses of Nissan sit in this atrocity called Datsun Go+, with Carlos Ghosn sitting in the third row, and have them driven at high speed on any of our state highways (not expressways) , where cycles, scooters, tractors with haystacks, Tata 407s and buffalos rule the roost- in both directions.
@prabhjot - I am surprised that you do not have an opinion (atleast stated one) on Datsun. This is not even Korean/Jap kitsch. It is downright racist kitsch, if I can ever use the term. It makes the Tata Nano feel like an upmarket chic car. I said before, that I normally do not subscribe to excess criticism, but Datsun is really pushing it.