Fiat says Tata, all set to launch brand stores

[carboy]

Originally Posted by ACM

4) Buyers coming to these showroom would not be tempted by the TATA value proposition with the same engines and features in a different packaging.

Which of the Tata & Fiat cars share engines?

[EssYouWe]

^ Vista, Manza.

Agreeably a step in the right direction. Maybe launching dedicated (manned by highly trained service personnel) service stations and sticking with Tata for the dealer network would make more sense.

[ACM]

Originally Posted by rameshnanda

As a fan of Fiat, I see this as a welcome initiative by Fiat to treat its customers better. I have visited the Tata dealerships when Fiat launched the Punto and the Linea. The experience I had there wasn't worthy. Definitely not to the standards. Even the sales guys don't know about the cars they are selling. I feel with this initiative by Fiat, they may slowly move towards separate service stations too.

I don't think separate service centers would be a good move for FIAT. It is especially in that having the TATA network helps them. They can expect their own centers to be as good or bad as the TATA ones, The Dealers for TATA are about as good or bad as it gets, for example TATA has WASAN who is also a Ford, and Toyota dealer, so how would it help if they had a separate FIAT outlet.

The Spares depot from which the Dealers procures parts is of FIAT, as also the the two share the same manufacturing facility - impacting and implying quality being equally on or off par for the course.

TATA's network is extensive across India and the relief this gives a FIAT customer is immense. Earlier FIAT had a minuscule network and these closed down based on FIAT sales numbers in that region. The TATA network is far from closure and the FIAT buyers know that and hence feel reassured.

Yes lead times and work accuracy can be approved, but then both TATA and FIAT stand for the same VFM virtues globally. So they are a big match in that sense. It's only Maruti that has got a bigger network.

The Marketing initiative to have separate showrooms is good, but separate service centers would spell disaster.

[ACM]

Missed this one and have a browser compatibility issue so a separate post - or would have definitely used multiquote.

Originally Posted by carboy

Which of the Tata & Fiat cars share engines?

ALL of TATA Vista and Manza engines are FIAT Engines (including the 1.3 MJD, and 1.2 and 1.4 Sapphire) it's just one model of basic turbo diesel now available only in Terra trip in VISTA that comes from their own lineup.

Since you do mention it, the Swift, Dzire and Ritz, Diesel are also under license from FIAT.

[neoonwheels]

According to the news, FIAT is not behind opening new dealerships. May be the Factory own boutiques showcasing FIAT as a company, its capabilities, their cars in India and the strength. This is highly required as most of the time dealer staff is unaware about the features and not very enthusiastic about the brand.

This boutique will at least attract people to the brand and will get to know technical details and other brand related things. This will turn out good if the outlets thoroughly follows customers and their interactions with the dealers once they are routed to them. This will make sure, dealers are remained just to facilitate the sales and service. To some extent this could minimize the negative impression about the brand. But, the boutique staff must be well educated about the product thoroughly. The customer should feel them to be the extended staff of the factory and well educated to take care of their cars.

[hemanth.anand]

looks like Fiat is leaving no stone unturned to improve its sales

IMO This will help fiat owners to get mechandised items easily. It also acts as feeder channels to the dealerships.

Emphasis on A.S.S is more important at the moment. Only because of this reason, for example, my friends have bought swifts and i20s even though their liking was for a punto.

I'll go and purchase all the merchandised items when it comes up in Bengaluru. I'm getting none of there mechandised items in the tata-fiat dealerships here.

I'll just wish fiat all the best and hope that their efforts pays off.

[PAVAN KADAM]

With such Good cars and such a stonker of engines that run most of the hatchbacks in India, I feel its certainly a good move by FIAT.

Atleast, they can sell better with focused showrooms, rather than having their cars displayed at some tiny corner in TATA showrooms.

[wildon]

Welcome change, but first please look into your vendors list and ask them to improve the quality of the parts or else it will look like Chinese goods selling in UB City Mall.

[swathyd]

They should sell parts through this new venture . It will then really make the difference . Sourcing of parts through tata was a nightmare , I can tell that from my personnel experience . Will be elaborating in long term review of my 'adventure' .

[myavu]

With the official launch of Ferrari in coming months Ferrari to Enter India by End of 2010 | Indian Car Blog - Carazoo.com Ferrari Eyes India Entry In 2011, this will be right move. A boutique with Linea and Punto alongside Ferrari
WOW!

Cheers!

Vinu

[zaks]

Yea, yea, the right moves indeed. But IMO too little too late. I just cannot imagine the stupidity of the top management at Fiat. Every fiat owner here knows and every other friend of a fiat owner knows whats the problem with Fiat but those high flying MBAs don't, what a pity. The problems facing them is staring in the face but they are glad to shell out a few million $ to Accenture to tell them what's wrong.

No, they still don't get it.

[carboy]

Originally Posted by zaks

Yea, yea, the right moves indeed. But IMO too little too late. I just cannot imagine the stupidity of the top management at Fiat. Every fiat owner here knows and every other friend of a fiat owner knows whats the problem with Fiat but those high flying MBAs don't, what a pity. The problems facing them is staring in the face but they are glad to shell out a few million $ to Accenture to tell them what's wrong.

The consultants will come back & tell them that their A.S.S has a bad reputation in the market and will suggest major advertising to rectify the bad image (rather than improving the A.S.S itself).

So Fiat will spend their money on ways of improving their image without actually improving what caused the image in the first place.
Fiat is an old known brand, otherwise one could have predicted that the consultants would have recommended a name change & new branding to improve the image.

[bottle]

Pointless, instead of improving A.S.S, they are using typical methods to entice a customer and then treat him like a doormat once he hands over the cheque

[Rahulkool]

Originally Posted by bottle

Pointless, instead of improving A.S.S, they are using typical methods to entice a customer and then treat him like a doormat once he hands over the cheque

Exactly, rather than working on real issues they are trying to entice new customers to buy. What they don't understand that the existing customers can influence others a lot and i havent seen anyone who is happy with FIAT after sales service.

[samyakmodi]

the initiative is good to boost the brand image in the market, but the problem still remains about the after sales service.
what's the point of treating the customer like a king, and then handing him over to a TATA dealership only to bring his expectations crashing down?!?
and if at all the customer is still ends up buying the car, he would end up feeling like a fool each time he sends his car for a service OR god forbid if his car develops a problem.

when i got to know about the boutique showrooms opening few months back, i was expecting they would not just sell the vehicles from these outlets, but would also have atleast a couple of service bays for the current customers to come and get their car's problems rectified while they are enjoying the experience in the boutique showroom.