Fiat vying with Maruti, Tata Motors to replace Ambassador cabs in Kolkata

My humble request to FIAT would be to keep off the Taxi segment. They are sure to damage their reputation even more with this initiative. It is not the initial cost that makes or breaks a taxi segment. It is the total cost of ownership and I am sure the likes of fiats and Vokswagens are a misfit in this segment. There is so much of technology and sophistication built int these cars that none other than the ASS will be able to handle.

Usage and care of us Fiatians will be very different to the usage of Taxi guys. They cant afford many days in the ASS for want of spares or complication. They would like to service on their own and we have seen the way the spares are controlled. Recent example being 99rpm.

I have been having the Punto for the last 5 years and have been very satisfied with the cost of ownership and ASS, but recently I went in with a minor issue, they goofed up or some complication showed up so much that it has ballooned. I am using the car in a compromised condition now. Exactly what happened I can share only a week later. I need to duck

For taxi, the ideal candidates are Maruti and TATA. They know India well and know what is needed to succeed. Attitudes need to change and compromises need to be made and ego has to be shelved and reality need to be factored in. Unless these happen, nothing will move forward


Abdul

For cars to be sold as taxi first the spear parts should be easily available not at dealer but in local shops too. For Fiat it is still a far away to go. A taxi can not be stopped for longer days at dealers also they required immediate resolution which is again not possible by looking at Fiat's overall statistics.
Better Fiat should stay away from this segment & concentrate to improve in service & spare regions. IMO

I still see NO reason why spares availibility and ASS are an issue, given that we're talking about a relatively small localized operation NOT inter-state long distance taxis.

We greatly overestimate this cut-price mentality of taxi-wallahs. Nowadays, image, comfort etc count for a lot more than in the days of the Mumbai kaali-peeli or the Amby yellow cabs. eg., the Santro is replacing the padmini in Mumbai as a cab, even though taxi guys HATE its exorbitant spares cost, and cost of repairs. Why? Because apparently a majority of clients seem to prefer it over the older cabs.

Fiat has an amazingly low cost base for what they offer on the Linea which is great engineering, and great reliability and durability (by now), and the lowest average cost of spares as per the recent Autocar survey. I just do not see why they cannot try to make a go of Taxi sales, even if the majority of cab purchases will be of Marutis, Tatas (in Calcutta, BOTH with fiat diesel engines! Fiat ALREADY makes good money off the cab business!) and Toyotas.

Spares & ASS are not an issue but a taxi user can not visit ass for normal or any issue except accidental maintenance.
In any other ASS you will not find Taxi's are waiting for servicing or waiting for the warranty claims also.

Folks might be surprised but I saw a Linea used as a Taxi in guwahati this March when I was in Guwahati. That was the first experience of a new gen Fiat for me and my wife and we were both floored by the comfortable ride.
(My parents had an old premier padmini) as their first car.
At the cost of sounding like a broken road - folks in the north-east already bloody like Fiat cars. Get some out in the North-East and do it fast.

Today, on the way back to Pune saw Linea classic used by OLA cab. Looks like premium cab statement

Say a linea taxi in Kolkata -

Fiat is marketing aggressively to Taxi segment. They are giving special offers to UBER cabs as well( 30,999 as down payment). In Pune it is now common to see Punto and Linea classics as Taxi's.

If they fix the 1.3 MJD heart to the linea shell and with out much electronics in the car connected to the ECM except the fuel system that can make a sucess in the Taxi segment.

There are linea commercial cars in Kolkata