Its ok that you have not met fiat owners with troubles and indeed great that you have not faced any issues with your Punto.
Please do not generalize that all fiat owners do not have issues. There are a lot of unlucky souls here.
You might have guessed by now that I am Linea owner who had his set of problems. This is not the thread for that so let us leave it at that.

As for the caffe, since there is a commitment for around 10more I seriously hope one comes up in my Kochi city.

+1. More than the Caffe, I hope that one of the proposed 22 independant Fiat dealerships in 2012 comes up in Kochi. Not because I'm having any issues with the current dealerships, but because they are simply too crowded.

I totally agree with your PRI2.
Fiat has always made one of the most desirable vehicles, but their JV with Tata was a big mistake that would ever have happened with the co.

I think they are doing fantastic job of opening the "Caffe" sites. I just hope that they bring in new technology / models to Indian market, which would really help them re-gain their lost ground.

Please don't generalise that all Fiats have issues since you has repeated troubles. I am more than happy with my 2 Fiat cars. The only trouble I got was a minor leak in the clutch pump which was rectified under warranty.

A Fiat showroom in Kochi will be nice since they sell quite a lot of cars in Kochi.

And the country's first Fiat Caffé is open! In Delhi!

Photo source.

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This cafe really looks very classy and upmarket, I sincerly wish FIAT best of luck for this new approach and attain the sales figures which FIAT cars actually deserve.
Being an owner of an GP90HP ,I have not faced a single issues in my car neither with respect to parts nor service. However whenever I discuss FIAT with aam junta I mostly come accross the following mindset of the people :-
1) The spare parts are not available easily.
2) High maintanance and TASS.
Now this is their best chance, FIAT Caffe will be visited by many atleast for once to just have a feel of the concept and check out the cars - now to keep the momentum of the footfalls and convert them into actual buyers I feel FIAT should show a video clip from one of their senior managers regarding their plans in India and assure people that there will not be any issues in owning FIAT cars and we are serious to the Indian market and customers.People still have not forgotten the toughtimes they faced when FIAT closed gates during Uno,Sienna and Palio era.

FIAT has to convince people to buy their cars and for FIAT its like OWN IT to FEEL IT and then all his history

That's actually a pretty good idea. Top-level communication can actually work wonders, along with videos of the plant in operation or new models to be launched, etc.

The caffe looks great from the picture and will surely create a lot of positive vibes for the company. I always felt that Fiat lost half of the battle when any customer who had to check the Fiat had to come to a showroom with Tata written everywhere. It instantly creates a feeling of disinterest and detachment from the brand and makes it an also ran car. But with this atleast people will get a chance to explore them. Where is the caffe located in Delhi by the way?

Just a question, whats the reasoning behind opening Fiat Caffe's in Delhi first and then Pune? Any specific reason for those cities? Is it that most Fiat cars sell there or is that people in these cities are most disillusioned about Fiat?

On a side note, I would have loved to buy a Punto 90HP (even with questionable after sales service) but unfortunately it was out of my budget.

@superutp:-Not only Delhi is the capital of country but also one of most populated city along with Mumbai,Kolkata and Chennai.So Fiat will open caffe in highly populated cities 1st and then move on to 2nd/3rd tier cities later.

When is the Mumbai Cafe opening? It should open a couple of caffe's in Mumbai!

OT: Reminds me of CCD's selling point - "A lot can happen over coffee"

Delhi is the country's biggest car market. It has more cars (and new car sales) than the next two *put together*.

That's why all new launches, the Auto Expo, are all in Delhi. Success here typically means success in the country.

Pune - I assume it's because of the proximity to Fiat.

Mumbai should be next but the cost of land is extremely high. Anyone would think twice before making substantial property investments. I know at least 4 multinational companies that set up base in Delhi to minimise infrastructure cost.

Frankly, I haven't faced many issues with the service as yet - kind of par for the course. Where I think they could do better is putting their cars together. When the same assembly line (or at least the same operator) is used for the Indicab and the T-Jet, you can eiter expect a cracking Indicab or a creaking T-Jet. Guess which one is more likely.

They can hear more foot falls if they sell Cappucino along with the two cars viz Punto and Linea. They have been around soo long and still can't figure out what the market expects from Fiat; it's definitely not a Fiat Cafe Coffee day.

I feel the only thing they lack is customer confidence in the brand. Otherwise the cars are well built, The after sales is ok if not the best, the cars are surely VFM and are very well kitted up in terms of gadgets. But still they don't sell. If the consumer has shunned Fiat cars for the niggles and after sales then I don't see any reason for many other car makers to be able to sell cars in three digits. For instance Tata, Mahindra etc are all at par with Fiat in terms of after sales but still the ugly looking Verito manages to outsell Linea and Punto combined.

These caffes will surely go a long way in establishing a brand value among the customers. I feel this is an excellent start by Fiat.

Some more photos of the Fiat Caffé!

Source.

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