[veekreta]

Hi all,
I am posting this for the first time on Team BHP.

This is for all those who are buying a new FIAT PUNTO / LINEA in the Goan market.

We are currently residing at Ratnagiri. There was no showroom / dealer outlet till about July'10. We were looking to upgrade to a new car.

Have used the FIAT UNO for 8 years and hence the obvious choice was FIAT.

The nearest was KOLHAPUR and GOA.

We prefered GOA as we are natives. Both my sons went scouting the Goan (Panjim) market place for a Fiat dealer.

These guys came back and announced that there was a dealer very close to where we were putup.

All of us went there.

Only a sales girl managing the showroom that day (Being a Sunday). Totally indifferent attitude for Goans who are loveable affectionate and are too keen to help out.

My sons barged in the shop with a lot of excitement, but I was totally dismayed with the lackadaisical attitude. She was not having the brochures for the PUNTO / LINEA. I was promissed that the brochures would be delivered the next day.

We were busy with our routines and it slipped our minds. and we left the shores of Goa for Ratnagiri.

No semblance of a call from them for more than a month. On my next trip back to Goa (after a month), I decided that I will meet the guys and see where and when we can close the deal. But alas!!!!! this was not to be.
The same girl was very apologetic about the delay. but this was not evident from the body language. It was a take-it-or-leave-it attitude. She gave us the prices like a huge favour being done to us humbles. (as we dont have a dealership in our area.)

Now came the real fun.
Prices quoted had a component of logistic charges. When I enquired what are these she was fumbling for words and then I was told curtly it is the company policy. I refused to accept this. but was told that have to pay the same to buy the vehicle from them.

I refused to accept the same. and they refused to give me a price quote.
When I spoke to some locals I was told that I was making a mistake buying the car in GOA as there are major complaints about the TATA-FIAT dealership.

So then we decided not to buy the car from "AUTO INDUSTRIES GOA" and came back to Ratnagiri.

The very next day we went to the local TATA Motors dealer "BAFNA MOTORS" to try and request them if they can get the FIAT here to Ratnagiri from Kolhapur. And Surprise Surprise, the two beauties from the FIAT were standing in their showroom

Then we were very happy about the fact that the FIATs are available here and what was even more pleasing was that the LINEA was a good 20k cheaper. So we went forward with them and finalised the Linea with them (the second booked in 15 days with the dealership in a pretty small town) courtesy a very good and soft-spoken salesman SANDEEP who helped us all the way with the booking and my beauty will be home on the 22nd of this month.

PS: I suggest all the Fiat lovers in goa to rather buy the car from the dealership in Ratnagiri and register it in GOA than buying from guys who cheat and are least interested in selling.

[akhilesh51]

Hi Vik and welcome to Team-BHP!

It is indeed a pain when an auto-enthusiast, especially a fan of certain brand is met with lackadaisical attitude from sales staff at dealerships. Heart-breaking stuff!

But since you were met with your car of choice anyways, Congratulations!

You should still raise the issue with FIAT INDIA since you are based in Goa and would inadvertently be taking your italian beauty to the dealer in Goa for unforeseen situations and could end up being hassled again. Write to the authorities and request action.

[veekreta]

I definitely will not visit that dealership ever. These guys in Ratnagiri are too good to handle my Italian beauty.

Look forward to enjoy my driving..........

[aargee]

Probably, if you said you're looking for one from the Tata stable, they would've bought the car even to your home. There's a thread running here that Tata is not showing interest in selling Fiat cars & you're case is another classic example.

PS - You've 3 smiley in your post against the forums rules of 2 per post.

[richie4u]

^+1 to that.

I had gone to the same showroom as veekreta a couple of days back as I was interested to check out Fiat Linea.

The salesman knew me well cause I had bought a Safari VX almost a year back from them.When I told him that i had come to check out the Linea his reaction was " Why Linea Sir, try out the new Manza. It has blah blah.."
Why is Fiat given such a treatment?
Finally he gave me all the information I wanted and still calls to know if I want to TD the Linea.

[echo77]

Have visited their Verna showroom a number of times for TDs. The Fiat sales guy there, Sohan, is a pretty nice chap. He didn't force the Manza over the Linea, although they were placed side by side. Maybe he noticed that I didn't even glance at the Manza.

I think most showrooms are closed on Sundays.

[vsk2009]

I too had observed the take-it -or- leave attitude of Goa dealer(verna). I had gone there many times for my friends' car purchase. If you ask for a deal the first thing they do is to say, 'NO'. Got irritated many times. They once refused to provide a perfume to my friends car. They do not know how to do business. They even gave the car with full dirt on the delivery day. We had to call the service guys to clean it properly. It is the high time that Fiat should try to set up independent showrooms where the Tata service is bad.

[veekreta]

Hi everybody,

Been a while after this post.
Am now only driving the Linea and not the Astra anymore.
Astra is now with my son who enjoys it while i and my wife drive in the Linea sometimes with my kids.
in less than 3 months we have cruised more than 10.5 K kms in this italian beastly beauty.
no complaints so far.
changed the stock tyres to michelin 205-65-15 recently as per date but 4k kms prior.
some pics of my car are here...........
infact my four legged daughter now prefers a drive in the linea more than the astra. she can be seen in one of the pics......