Fiat announces "Fiat First" - A Customer Care program

[Rehaan]

This afternoon in Mumbai, Fiat's CEO Rajeev Kapoor announced a multi-faceted customer care program which they are referring to as "Fiat First".

With Diwali right around the corner and Tata's recent launch of the aggressively priced Manza (link) - Fiat needed to give prospective customers a little something extra. In addition to that, they are also trying to re-assure customers' frequent doubts of the company's longevity in India.


"Fiat First" is an umbrella term that refers to :

- New 50-month Warranty on the Punto and Linea only.
- New Roadside assistance program for all Fiat owners.
- 15,000km service interval for Punto and Linea (Smart service reminder built into the cars).
- Tata-Fiat Dealer network (nothing new here).
- Competitively priced spare parts (Thanks to high localization - though they admit their prices aren't industry leading).




Rajeev Kapoor along with Vikram Sinha (National Head – Sales & Servicing - Tata Motors) and Ravi Bhatia (Vice-President - Commercial - Fiat India) who answered a few questions and provided additional details and pricing mentioned below.


50-month extended warranty :

• The warranty is available only on the Linea and Grande Punto.
• The 50-month / 150,000 km warranty is inclusive of the 2year manufacturer and additional 3rd party warranties. In other words, a total of 50 months from purchase.
• Pricing for Linea : Rs. 5,350/-
• Pricing fro Grande Punto : Rs. 5,000/-
• Existing Punto and Linea owners can contact a Fiat dealership regarding this extended warranty.

Road Side Assistance (RSA) :

• 24x7 roadside assistance at a toll-free number : 1800-209-FIAT.
• Car must be within a 100km radius of a dealership or service station.
• Services offered: Parts replacement/repair, Tyre change assistance, Extra fuel (5L), Battery jump, Onward journey assistance for an additional 50kms.
• RSA 50 months coverage for a new Grande Punto or Linea to cost Rs. 3000.
• It will also be offered on a charge basis for 80,000+ existing Fiat customers (Roughly Rs. 375/- per call)
• Obviously, will not be offered to Tata cars owners.

Lets wait and see if this adds any extra sparkle to Fiat India's Diwali sales numbers!

cya
R

[anachronix]

Really good stuff! I beleive Fiat India is going in the right direction of building the trust in the customer's mind.

[clevermax]

Good news.... Is this available for the cars which are recently sold or for the new ones which will get sold from now on?

[FERRO]

Will only support them if they care a dime for my siena problems. my siena spares are rare and costs heaven. if Fiat cannot give proper care and support for old Fiat cars why you expect them to give proper support for newer models.

let them FIRST give proper service and support for customers having uno, palios, sienas.

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by clevermax

Good news.... Is this available for the cars which are recently sold or for the new ones which will get sold from now on?

Yes. Existing Punto and Linea owners can avail of this extended warranty (as well as the RSA on a per-call basis).


Please note : Apologies, as i had wrongly typed "5-yr" instead of "50-month" for the warranty. Corrected now.

cya
R

[iceman7]

The RSA initiative from FIAT is really refreshing and assuring for existing and prospective customers.

I presume my Palio (pre-NV) is covered under this?

[beejay]

Hope the prices for the GTX spares go down too?
RSA was already there, wasn't it?

Also, Why this bias? I understand new Palios are not selling these days. However they should have extended the same to atleast 2008 and 2009 Palio owners.

[aaggoswami]

1) Does this mean that they are setting up their own Service network ?

2) Does this mean that the spare part wait will not be there ?

If the answer to 1) is NO, then there is no point in that extended warranty. The problem is Tata-Fiat dealerships and nothing else. Fiat is also unhappy about the suppliers inherited from Tata, so is this issue addressed ?

At the end of the day, what Fiat needs is :
1) Their own network
2) Indian people at higher management for Fiat India operations.

Everything is else will not give them sufficient output ( IMHO ).

[CarsPG]

Fiat already offered a 4 year (48 month) warranty so I guess they have increased it by 2 months. Also My TVS provides RSA for Tata vehicles. While taking delivery I was told that I have a 4 year coverage from My TVS. In fact the sticker they provided me with the helpline number also says the same.

[ravikn]

Good to hear that FIAT has plans to have a proper customer care. However, I have suffered a lot to get a single spare part for the Palio everytime there is a need for one. They should really think of supporting Retro palio/petra/siennas so that it starts attracting the customer base and also re-sale value will be high. This would ensure that even more people get attracted to buy the new cars from the FIAT. Hope some one from FIAT is listening to this

[JVH]

AFAIK, TATA people service FIATs in the regular servicing. So, will these same guys go for roadside assistance to take care of FIAT cars? I mean TATA personnel

Am a little confused specially when you said it is only for FIAT and not TATA.

[ACM]

Rates are good, but 50 months is just 2 months more than the 48 months warranty that they already offer, also this is less than a recent hyundai inititive to provide 60 months warranty on select cars.

A positive move to build confidence.

[finneyp]

Nice intiative by Fiat India!
It will build confidence for the present & prospective Fiat owners!

Hope they will continue to provide support with the same vigour for the past models like Sienna, Palio & Adventure.

[GTO]

Nothing more than a marketing move in Fiat's efforts to gain customer confidence. Smart "Fiat first" branding, and they had to make it a little different than what was already offered. Hence, the 2 month additional.

A huge positive though is the cost of extended coverage. 5,000 bucks is nothing. Most manufacturers charge anywhere between 4,000 - 5,000 per year of extended coverage. It's sheer value and only reaffirms my faith in extended warranties.

@ Rehaan : Yup, well timed with the Manza launch + Diwali weekend.

And no, I still don't agree with 15,000 km service intervals. Our driving conditions simply don't permit this, heck, we even recommend synthetic oil change intervals of 7,500 km. Fiat owners would do well in simply changing the engine oil only (at their own cost) at 7,500 kms.

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by iceman7

...I presume my Palio (pre-NV) is covered under this?

As mentioned, RSA will be available on a per call basis for all existing fiat customers.

Originally Posted by beejay

Hope the prices for the GTX spares go down too?

Originally Posted by ravikn

....I have suffered a lot to get a single spare part for the Palio everytime there is a need for one....

A reporter raised a question regarding the availability and increasing costs of palio parts. The answer from the CEO was "I do not think there is any shortage of spares for the palio" -- and as far as the costs, (with the eg. of a filter going from Rs 80 to Rs 125), the answer was inflation.

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

1) Does this mean that they are setting up their own Service network ?

There was no mention of any such intentions today.

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

2) Does this mean that the spare part wait will not be there ?

No mentioned change/improvement here either.

Originally Posted by JVH

Am a little confused specially when you said it is only for FIAT and not TATA.

The RSA features will not be available to TATA car owners, even though it is probably the same technicians tending to the calls.


Eddy also raised a point asking about the Kms duration covered in the 50-month warranty. Good question, not sure how it was overlooked. I will try to get the answer on that.


cya
R