[eq24]

Ok Fiat, I am going to give you some advise, considering the mess you are in, I strongly feel you should take it.

Stop dilly dallying around and buck up, get that house of yours in order and get rid of any and all weak/incompetent staff/dealerships. Good point that you got rid of Tata, those guys have lost the plot themselves, forget helping others.

Now bring in your international brands and by that I mean Chrysler, one brand you own which people still find acceptable.

Dodge - Indians don't know it and with the current market I doubt they will want to learn what it means, also petrol is our enemy so none of that hemi stuff will work here.

Jeep - Almost all Indian's save a few think Jeep is that war time chugger made by Mahindra. Even the few who know Jeep as a brand know of its reliability problems and that will not bode well for you. So jeep is also out.

So as I was saying, you bring in Chrysler and start for Heavens sake with a top down strategy, look at Honda and Toyota even Skoda, it works. A bottom up will take time and is a risky affair.

Also start rumors that Chrysler was a part of Mercedes once, its true so you won't get beaten down. People in India love the Mercedes name, exploit it.

These are the cars you should bring

Chrysler 300



Target this car against the Superb, Passat, Accord, Camry; well you get the picture give an affordable petrol for the numbers and a decent diesel, you have one I know drove it in the UK. Give decent fittings and an auto box. Don't price to expensive and don't get Shah rukh or Ranbir or any of those guys, at this segment no one cares who is the ambassador just advertise the heck out of it. Take care of this properly and dont half *** it.

Ok next car should be a SUV, so your options are and all of these should be in Chrysler branding and you pit it against the fortuner, Pajero, Endeavour etc etc.

The grand Cherokee


The jeep Liberty



The dodge Durango



Well the above should be just fine, now you should also target the very new XUV500, duster, Yeti segment coz. well lets face it, that is where the money is.

The contenders for that segment should be

The jeep compass



The dodge Caliber



So the cars are said and done, next two bits of very important advise.

Do not become greedy at the get go, be patient and the rewards will come.

Do screen with extra effort your future dealers, do take people who are committed rather than who have existing set up's. Take care in this aspect as this will be the corner stone of your relative success or failure in India.

And forget about the hatch back and sedan market, you do not want to waste time in a market so competitive and so overly saturated.

Good luck and if you want some further help, you just need ask OK!!!

Mods- If the tone of this post is unpleasing please delete.

[MHG]

I guess Fiat is one of the most underdeveloped brands in India, when you look its global portfolio and value. There are several untapped areas Fiat can latch onto, the biggest being that they could well become the only European small car manufacturer (small car excludes BMW, Mercedes, etc) to be customer friendly. Volkswagen and Skoda are full of customer service horror stories and Renault dealers seem very indifferent to their customers because of their limited number. Fiat has not had any kind of similar negative publicity in the recent years.

Another area that has been mostly untapped in India is making cars known for safety (Hyundai is the only company that does it). It doesn't take much to offer variants with XL-sized safety options in addition to what is already available. Bring those ABS + EBD + TC + ESP + Hill Hold + 6 Airbags already that has a 5-Star NCAP rating. Add the vault like build and the driver oriented nature, you have a winner that has no competition.

Fiat cars have excellent build quality and the company also has excellent diesel engines in its international portfolio (the 1.3L MJD being the only one available in India). Engines like the 1.6L MJD and the 1.9L MJD would be amazing on the Linea. They have diesels producing from 75 to 192 BHP. No other company has this luxury of having several proven (and good-enough-for-the-market) diesel engines that can fit brilliantly in a diesel starved market.

Fiat is non-existent in the A or B segments where it could launch a small car with the 1L 3-cylinder MJD.

Maybe I'm just ranting here but there is a LOT they can do to improve from where they are currently and I see strong potential in the company.

[invidious]

I did drive the Chrysler Concorde for about a month in the early 2000s when I was provided the car by an insurance company in lieu of my Honda Civic. I really loved it. Gas was pretty cheap then - about a $1.20 a gallon if I remember correctly and while American cars were not a patch on the Japanese cars when it came to fuel efficiency - nobody really cared. The American cars were as big and comfortable as personal yachts. I had driven a bunch of American cars over the years and the Buicks and Chryslers remained my favorite. I had decided that if I continue to live on in USA, I would definitely buy a Chrysler. I would definitely consider buying one year - provided it is affordable of course.

[rambo1o1]

Originally Posted by eq24

Ok Fiat, I am going to give you some advise, considering the mess you are in, I strongly feel you should take it.

Jeep - Almost all Indian's save a few think Jeep is that war time chugger made by Mahindra. Even the few who know Jeep as a brand know of its reliability problems and that will not bode well for you. So jeep is also out.

The jeep brand is synonymous with SUVs, should be sold here under the same brand because we love SUVsThe name jeep will have trouble at first but with good advertising/marketing it will succeed.The newer jeeps have far better reliability ratings than the previous generation.

Originally Posted by eq24

Chrysler 300

Target this car against the Superb, Passat, Accord, Camry; well you get the picture give an affordable petrol for the numbers and a decent diesel, you have one I know drove it in the UK. Take care of this properly and dont half *** it.

The 300c is a C class competitor so to speak, so dont expect any Camry/superb pricing. This car sells at a higher price bracket than the Camry in the US.

Originally Posted by eq24

Ok next car should be a SUV, so your options are and all of these should be in Chrysler branding and you pit it against the fortuner, Pajero, Endeavour etc etc.

The grand Cherokee
The jeep Liberty
The dodge Durango

Well if only your wishes come true but the grand Cherokee/durango are based on the M class platform, so expecting a price of 20 lakh is way too much!
I think if this is launched at all(ckd), will be priced near the freelander ,X3 territory!

Originally Posted by eq24

Well the above should be just fine, now you should also target the very new XUV500, duster, Yeti segment coz. well lets face it, that is where the money is.
The contenders for that segment should be

The jeep compass
The dodge Caliber

This can happen with very high localization but i feel the jeep patriot may suit this price range of 12 to 15 lakhs.

Originally Posted by eq24

So the cars are said and done, next two bits of very important advise.

Do not become greedy at the get go, be patient and the rewards will come.
Do screen with extra effort your future dealers, do take people who are committed rather than who have existing set up's. Take care in this aspect as this will be the corner stone of your relative success or failure in India.

And forget about the hatch back and sedan market, you do not want to waste time in a market so competitive and so overly saturated.
Good luck and if you want some further help, you just need ask OK!!!

If only our wishes were true... i think you gave a situation based on wishful thinking, no harm in doing that since we all love to think in the same way(me too!!!).

All fiat needs to do is drop the brand fiat.Get doge as it main brand with re badged fiat hatchs and the usual doge small cars(if any) like the dart etc since the brand fiat has taken a royal beating due to Fiat managements utter neglect all these years. Do a top down approach as you have rightly said and simultaneously launch your chrysler,jeep brands so that you have all segments covered.Bring the latest engines,features for all your vehicles etc, redo your entire dealer network/A.S.S and most importantly price the car well. the rest , will be taken care of

[thoma]

Amrita Television is running a malayalam program being sponsored by Jeep, Ente Varta every Sunday 10.30 pm! May be they are targeting the gulf malayalis or else Jeep has begun popularizing the brand name even before setting up shop.

[Arkesh]

FIAT has to be very careful this time with new launches.
If anything goes wrong they could possibly sink yet another brand in India. Because its not just about FIAT this time which already has its 3 mistakes in India. They were planning to launch a small car in 2013. Has anyone got any news in this regard?

[volkman10]

Fiat Chrysler India to launch nine models in 3 years.

Four models would come from the Fiat stable, while another four Chrysler models would be launched and one sports performance vehicle (SPV) Abarth would be launched.
The company's focus at the moment would be on product launches, brand building and establishing the infrastructure network.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...w/22761818.cms

[k_ajay]

FIAT has been making such press bytes for enough time now. They should stop with the talking and just start executing their plans and bring the new models, along with service centre infrastructure soon.

The FIAT's India Strategy revealed thread came up on 6th December 2012 but not a single new car launch since then (8 months). Hyundai without much noise already launched the Grand i10 quickly. That's how one should be in the growing market.

How are other brand buyers going to be lured with just 2 cars?? From a FIAT car fan 5 years ago today I care less what they're doing here in India. Because their current product offerings don't enthuse me (and from their state, hardly the market either). They better be fast rather than be sorry, because FIAT are not the only brand in the world with good drivers cars, other brands also exist and many are coming to India too, in the very near future.