[sajo]

Printing mistake! I am sure Fiat's press release meant 10,000 , even though it said 1,00,000.
Or they can hire someone like BVR Subbu, if they really mean it.

[roms]

Originally Posted by DCEite

ROFLMAOWTIME - Rolling On the Floor Laughing My *** Off With Tears In My Eye

I agree with tsk. This should be in the jokes section.

Statements like these will only help this thread getting locked eventually, just like the other anti-fiat campaigns on this forum.Please act rationally.FIAT has got its act together in Europe and has gone from zero to hero.So why cant they repeat the same success here?

Guess no one read this :-
"He, however, declined to comment on exact timeframe as to when the company would meet its sales target".

So,it could be 2,3 or even 4 years before they achieve that target.The good thing is they are positive.And that is good for India.Because, we will be at a loss without their products if they ever decide to pack up.Its a fact,believe it or not.

[Zappo]

Originally Posted by GeekSrik

eyeing 1 lakh of sales is not an issue personally speaking. eyeing does not mean selling!

yeah... like guys like to eye all girls. It does not mean they intend to marry them all. Or dogs chase so many cars on the road. That does not mean they intend to drive them...

On a more serious note, I think you can not issue statements like those when you are trying to rebuild your credibilty. One day you say you are targetting 3000 cars annually and the next day you say 1 lac cars eventually... with a rider "if the market develops in the right direction". Why limit to 1lac in that case? If the market develops still right'er' you may even manage to sell a million cars as well. I think there needs to be some restraint on issuing such forward looking statements.

Originally Posted by Whenasked

There was not comparable A.S.S long time..now its there...with TATA.

Agreed, the tie-up with Tata has given them a higher visibility in terms of more number of showrooms than they ever managed to put up but how that translates into good A.S.S. still remains to be seen. Last time I checked they had a dedicated guy from Fiat who looks after the servicing part in most Tata showroom. This does not help the cause. If they want to leverage on these service centers they need to ensure that it is seamless. Any mech at the S.S. should be able to handle these cars, which means that they need to be trained parallely on both Fiat and Tata cars. Otherwise it gives an idea that they are just sharing a roof but nothing more.

I think everyone would eventually like Fiat to grow to some strength and put up a credible competition. No one has anything personal against them... I do not think so. However there goof ups over the years and lackaidasical attittude towards their customers has made people sarcastic towards their sound bytes. So naturally the reactions sound more vitriollic as well.

I just hope they do not go the Avis (rent-a-car) way with all their jingoism.

[Whenasked]

Originally Posted by spindoc

While we're on the subject of the Stile commercials, I just found it too romantic and glossy.. Dont know what message they want to convey... At least I didn't get it.

May be you can refer to

India media news marketing India advertising Indian brands tv media newspapers

Fiat’s new Palio Stile commercial has tried to reflect the old merging with the new. The campaign has tried to remix the old world trust of the Fiat brand with the modern day advances of technology. The campaign in print and television, which was created by advertising agency Orchard, has taken the remix route with the evergreen Hindi song ‘Mere sapnon ki rani’ from the film ‘Aradhana’.

Hope you can get the feeling of it now.

But I agree it is nothing infront of HYUNDAI ads like People who buy HYUNDAI are born intelligent

There is a saying in US..when you buy BMW you get a HYUNDAI FREE

[finneyp]

Originally Posted by Whenasked

We had a time when FIAT was about to shut down worldwide.

That time also..there were numerous threads in our same team-bhp which were blasting FIAT left & right for their lethargic attitude..yes..that was understandable at that time.

Then they took some tough steps coupled with a good leader at top & money from GM... made PUNTO.....now FIAT has done a real comeback..atleast worldwide..which will enable them to look at INDIA as other car manufactuer does now like HYUNDAI & SUZUKI.

So I do not get why all this sarcasm when FIAT intends to sell more cars in India now. Is that a bad thing for India?

Come on guys let us be optimistic....shift gears from pessimistic mode to optimistic mode.

There was not a FIAT India site for long time..now its there...

There was not comparable A.S.S long time..now its there...with TATA.

Its all coming...there is light at the end of tunnel.

Well said buddy!
When Fiat Worldwide can do a turnaround, thanks to the resurgent Management and superior Cars like Grande Punto, it should be very much possible in India too!

[finneyp]

Originally Posted by Zappo

One day you say you are targetting 3000 cars annually and the next day you say 1 lac cars eventually... with a rider "if the market develops in the right direction". Why limit to 1lac in that case? If the market develops still right'er' you may even manage to sell a million cars as well. I think there needs to be some restraint on issuing such forward looking statements.

For your kind info, 3000 cars target was for Palio Stile models and 1 lacs Cars target is for Linea + Grande Punto put together!
And it is very much possible!!!

[sajo]

Originally Posted by finneyp

3000 cars target was for Palio Stile models and 1 lacs Cars target is for Linea + Grande Punto put together!
And it is very much possible!!!

Nothing against Fiat, but if the normal car buyer is unwilling to put his money down on a 4.5L product, how can they expect him to do the same with 6L-9L products ?

[typeOnegative]

The point is - shoot for the stars, you may get to the moon. So I think there is much ado about nothing. Can this thread be locked before it devolves into another round of e-barrages for and against Fiat?

[greatDrive]

Originally Posted by typeOnegative

Can this thread be locked before it devolves into another round of e-barrages for and against Fiat?

You don't have to request for this.. It will anyway happen like any other fiat thread. keep waiting

[cartech]

I think 1L target is difficult in next 2-3 years. I think 30k-40K is achievable. As I mentioned on some other thread, if FIAT/TATA can get latest JTD in Palio by OCT/DEC 2007, they can give good fight to SWIFT VDi. The price diff between 1.1 SLX and Palio with JTD cannot be more than 50K( Swift it is 70K ex-showroom Mumbai. FIAT does not have to pay royalty). That will make PALIO topend with JTD @ 5L OTR in Mumbai. Throw in ABS at 20K additional and you have SWIFT killer. As of now Maruti is having trouble in meeting demand. So there is opportunity for FIAT and they can achieve 30-40K target within couple of years. Ranjangaon plant has engine/xmission capacity > 1L per annum, so meeting demand is no problem.

[GTO]

That time also..there were numerous threads in our same team-bhp which were blasting FIAT left & right for their lethargic attitude..yes..that was understandable at that time.

Then they took some tough steps coupled with a good leader at top & money from GM... made PUNTO.....now FIAT has done a real comeback..atleast worldwide..which will enable them to look at INDIA as other car manufactuer does now like HYUNDAI & SUZUKI.

Ummm, I started the thread "When will Fiat India shut down"? It surely was understandable then; but what really has changed at Fiat India since?

1. They tie-up with Tata, but we all will agree that Fiat got the shorter end of the stick.

2. They launch an "all-new" Palio which is slower than the previous car. In fact it is one of the slowest hatchbacks around. Some had expected the FE to match the smaller hatches butttttttttttttttt it doesnt. Its only marginally better than previous.

3. Cant think of any third action. Yeah, maybe they relaunched the website also. Big deal.

Dont get me wrong, I would probably pick a Palio 1.6 over the Swift. But I hate incompetence and the Indian marketplace today has place only for the best.

[himanshugoswami]

I have just one observation here- Define ANNUAL- I think fiat is using some diifferent time scale here (Maybe Italian for 10 years is "Annual" )

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by GTO

Ummm, I started the thread "When will Fiat India shut down"? It surely was understandable then; but what really has changed at Fiat India since?

1. They tie-up with Tata, but we all will agree that Fiat got the shorter end of the stick.

This tie-up thing confuses me. Right now it appears that Fiat rented out showroom space from Tata. There is no actual collaboration showing between those two. We don't see Fiat engines in Tata or vice a versa. Infact I would say, looking at swift diesel, Fiat has a more involved tie up with Suzuki rather than Tata.

2. They launch an "all-new" Palio which is slower than the previous car. In fact it is one of the slowest hatchbacks around. Some had expected the FE to match the smaller hatches butttttttttttttttt it doesnt. Its only marginally better than previous.

It shows lack of initiative and vision. Apart from A.S.S issues a major factor which went against the Palio was the perceived low FE. I don't think many of the people here are aware(and that includes Fiat fans) that the original Palio had this low FE image due to wrong speedo calibration. Fiat fitted high profile tyres for ride, but failed to upgrade the speedo. So when the car travelled 100kms, the speedo will show 95. World over all cars have speedo error the other way(including fiat). When you travel 100kms, the speedo will show 105. These kind of silly mistakes show thorough incompetence.

3. Cant think of any third action. Yeah, maybe they relaunched the website also. Big deal.

Every tom dick and harry has a webside today or a blog. I can show you individual websites by people who are not web designers which are much more sophisticated etc., Its like saying "gee, look that company opened a new showroom".

Dont get me wrong, I would probably pick a Palio 1.6 over the Swift. But I hate incompetence and the Indian marketplace today has place only for the best.

Many people would. Many people want to but are scared. When you tarnish a brand's reputation, you have to work hard to rebuild it. If anything they should have learnt from their mates, the Tata's. Indica had reputation of such poor quality that only if somebody could not afford any other diesel car they bought a Tata. Slowly and steadily they won back customer confidence. Don't see any such dedication from them. They discontinued the Petra, narrowed their product portfolio and detuned a good hatch they had. You don't go backwards, you go forwards, which Fiat is not doing.
In today's market the competition is cut throat, you can't make the slightest mistake. Fiats mistakes globally also got them shut down. If they havent learnt till yet when will they. Fiat may be going gung ho globally but that level of commitment is not being seen here. I doubt even Fiat fans will disagree that the way Fiat is behaving globally is very different form the soup they are in India.

That said, even the market leaders are hard pressed to sell 1L cars a year in that segment, what Fiat is effectively saying is "Nobody is buying our cars now, but soon you will see people will stop buying City/Verna/Fiesta and half the cars in that segment will be Fiat!" If this is not a joke than what is?
If today Tata launches a 10L car and says they will sell 50,000 units a year, I will call that a joke too.

Originally Posted by himanshugoswami

I have just one observation here- Define ANNUAL- I think fiat is using some diifferent time scale here (Maybe Italian for 10 years is "Annual" )

himu do you have a good life insurance policy

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by Whenasked

So I do not get why all this sarcasm when FIAT intends to sell more cars in India now. Is that a bad thing for India?

Lets not bury our heads in the ground and pretend there is no reason for the sarcasm.

There is no holy cow around here - every car gets its share of brickbats on this forum. Why is it that hackles are raised whenever Fiat is mentioned in any bad light? God knows they've done enough to deserve it.

At THIS point in time, people are not wrong to laugh their heads off when they unveil plans to sell 100,000 per year - if you believed that sincerely there's something wrong with your judgement.

Its not like other manufacturers are sitting around doing nothing while Fiat makes their long-drawn-out plans - manufacturers that make more and better cars than Fiat elsewhere. Why should they feel charitable enough to let a small player like Fiat grab a large-ish share of the market ?

Lets stop getting so worked up about the plans of what is merely a marginal player in the world today.

[srishiva]

FIAT should bring in Grand Punto and Linea ASAP. Why did they have to refresh the Palio. Just look where the Indian market has gone in the last 2 years. They seem to be satisfied competing against their own older models here rather than the competition. Linea might be under trouble already with SX4 arriving soon. Haven't we heard about Grande Punto and Linea before SX4 ?
I was looking forward to Linea and now I don't have to. SX4 is here and I can see the competition doing something on similar terms. FIAT is thinking too much and losing out