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Old 30th January 2005, 17:28   #1
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What should FIAT do to reverse its downfall?Give your opinions..

Guys.Give your opinions about what Fiat should do to come back in the indian car scene.Perhaps they can get some tips from Bhpians with master plans.

my view??

According to me fiat is done in India.They have build such a bad reputation that it will take years for them to improve it.I think they should not launch any new model under the Fiat name.They will have the same fate as the very good Palio and Petra had.Instead they should bring their company LANCIA into india.They have only one choice.You cannot bring Masteri and Ferrari or Alfa Romeo with small cars.Then they should launch the fiat IDEA,Panda and rebaged as Lancia.it will not cost them anything to rebadge them.the fiat cars are not bad as we know the name is bad.Then they can bring the LANCIA Lybra etc as midzise cars and Fiat Ulysee and Lancia Phedra as MPV.They have no choice with their condition as bad as it is today.

Then launch Alfa Romeo as CBU and earn good profit on highend cars to recover the losses as Merc did...


The thing however is they should not make the mistake of launching the palio
petra and uno as Lancia or they are both doomed.sell them as fiat and as time progreses the company can then concentrate on increasing thair sale and launching cars under fiat name like Fiat Stilo,Multipla,Albea etc .

what say bhpians?

Last edited by merve_extreme : 30th January 2005 at 17:29.
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Old 30th January 2005, 22:02   #2
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hey,

there was never anything wrong with Fiat's cars be it the Uno ,palio or the petra.i think the management is to be blamed.
the Uno caused a big embarrasement as inspite of getting such huge bookings they could not deliver the cars on time.as a result many bookings were cancelled.
inspite of being the car of the year for about 3 years in the early 80's,Fiat could not do well here.
infact if fiat had fared well with the Uno,the story of the palio and the siena would have been different.
there were also a lot of quality issues with the Uno .
the siena was launched when Fiat had problems with the Kurla plant workers and their image had taken a beating.
our indian mindset of FE rather than safety features ,caused the siena to fail as there were others giving more FE.the 1.9D was such a superb machine and the siena 1.6 was the best machine on this side of the old City.
then came the palio,which inspite of being such a solid car ,initially sold well only on its looks.but then Fiats poor service ,its low FE rumours and Fiats past history only acclerated its fall.
Fiats blunder of giving palio with a wrong speedo and odo ,contributed to it's FE rumours.

i think for Fiat to improve,first of all it has to chuck the entire management and maybe poach people from Maruti,Hyundai......,improve their service centers.
also,they could give a free extended warranty on all its cars so that the buyers will still have their trust .
and lastly hope for its rivals to goof up .
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Old 30th January 2005, 23:36   #3
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i never said fiat cars are bad i even wrote in my opinion that they are good.i own one.what i said is if they bring anything else they will also sell badly because of the company's image hence bring them under a new brandname.i never said to replace anything in Fiat's model.Giving free warranty will add to their woes and push them futher into a debt trap.
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Old 31st January 2005, 00:30   #4
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Just change the leadership. Thats all that Fiat India needs. The current management couldnt even sell beer in a hot desert.

GTO
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Old 31st January 2005, 11:01   #5
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My solution....

Quote:
Originally Posted by merve_extreme
Instead they should bring their company LANCIA into india.They have only one choice.You cannot bring Masteri and Ferrari or Alfa Romeo with small cars.Then they should launch the fiat IDEA,Panda and rebaged as Lancia.it will not cost them anything to rebadge them.the fiat cars are not bad as we know the name is bad.Then they can bring the LANCIA Lybra etc as midzise cars and Fiat Ulysee and Lancia Phedra as MPV.They have no choice with their condition as bad as it is today.
Hey Merve you stole my idea which I was going to sell to Fiat for millions of dollars!!

My prescription would be :

1. Use their leverage with GM to get GM dealerships to sell and service Fiat cars. Change the existing Opel + Chevrolet signs to Opel + Lancia + Chevrolet
2. Once this is done, close ALL existing Fiat dealerships (except maybe the one or two with top customer satisfaction ratings).
3. Launch the new Palio (but don't call it Palio) and the Panda (including the 1.3L JTD) in India as LANCIA's. Start with a high level of indigenisation to get the price right.
4. Also launch the Idea MPV and the next-gen Punto (this will share the platform of the next-gen Opel Corsa) if the pricing can be made competitive for the Indian market.
5. Sack most of the management of Fiat India and bring in new COMPETENT management (poach top and middle management from the Indian offices of Ford, Hyundai, Honda, Maruti, Skoda etc). Pay them well and make them revamp the operations of Fiat India so that they wold be more efficient, streamlined and customer oriented.
6. Launch a new marketing campaign to promote the new product line.
7. Start selling high end vehicles (Alfa 166, Maserati's, Ferrari's) as CBUs. Use the same dealership network mentioned in step (1). Having these high-end machines in the dealerships would be a marketing goal for BOTH Fiat and GM.
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Old 31st January 2005, 11:09   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by johnjacob
7. Start selling high end vehicles (Alfa 166, Maserati's, Ferrari's) as CBUs. Use the same dealership network mentioned in step (1). Having these high-end machines in the dealerships would be a marketing goal for BOTH Fiat and GM.

hahah johnjacob,
do you think that a company which could not do well with the Uno,the palio and the petra ,would do any justice to technologically advanced cars like the alfa romeo,maserati,ferrari.
and who will buy cars from Fiat.
when they cannot sell or service a small car in India,they cannot do anything anywhere and like GTO said they will not be able to sell water forget beer in a desert.

i think the present palio can be renamed as the POLIO
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Old 31st January 2005, 13:26   #7
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Just Revamp the Mangement Team . The current Team is not able to sell 20000 Units per year ( considering that they have products like Palio and Petra) Revamp their Dealerships and may be can start with one dealer per City (keep strict Tabs on them) and in the Metros they can have Fiat owned Dealerships.

Fiats Fortunes can be re bulit , they need a good leader Its a painfull process still I belive that it is possible.

They need to sell 20000 cars per year and its easily achiveable , they just need to sell 1500 cars per month and the festive season should take care of the gap.

The dealers in the Metros should be able to easily do 180~220 Cars per month and Cities like Bangalore ( chuck the Sundaram there) Hyderabad Pune should be able to 80 to 100 and the rest of the India they can sell 400 Cars per month. It is a real shame they cant achieve this
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Old 31st January 2005, 13:26   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by speedsatya
hahah johnjacob,
do you think that a company which could not do well with the Uno,the palio and the petra ,would do any justice to technologically advanced cars like the alfa romeo,maserati,ferrari.
and who will buy cars from Fiat.
when they cannot sell or service a small car in India,they cannot do anything anywhere and like GTO said they will not be able to sell water forget beer in a desert.

i think the present palio can be renamed as the POLIO
Hey Speedsatya,

Well of course Fiat cannot sell and service their own cars! That's why my first point was to make GM take over that burden. I think GM is doing an Ok job selling and servicing their cars, so why can't they do the same for Fiat?
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Old 31st January 2005, 14:25   #9
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man u guys are good
i have a plan for fiat india but feeling to lazy to write it but right now they should launch the palio 1.6 in GTX and ELX form for people like us
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Old 31st January 2005, 14:37   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lamborghini
man u guys are good
i have a plan for fiat india but feeling to lazy to write it but right now they should launch the palio 1.6 in GTX and ELX form for people like us
and sell it for the price of 1.2 sport. they should discontinue 1.2 sport. (how can a 72 bhp engine be called sport?)
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Old 31st January 2005, 14:41   #11
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no maybe 10k more then the sport for the elx and 5 k cheaper then the petra for the GTX
and maybe give the palioD a turbo and launch the new look palio with a JTD engine
and the new look petra with new look interiors and give the petrol a spory variant with a stiff suspension and all
lots to say but when i have the time
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Old 31st January 2005, 15:44   #12
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Last heard in the PUG ( Palio Users Group) that Fiat is indeed launching the 1.6 at the 1.2 Sport Version price .
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Old 31st January 2005, 15:57   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DOHC
Last heard in the PUG ( Palio Users Group) that Fiat is indeed launching the 1.6 at the 1.2 Sport Version price .
I'd heard something similar from the PUG, but there is nothing to confirm that statement.
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Old 31st January 2005, 17:06   #14
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Gentlemen,

It DOES not get any worse than this. Type in www.fiat-india.com in your broswer address and you're likely to see this message:

"The Fiat-India site is currently Non-Functional due to Non-Payment since more than 1 Year."

I am at a loss for words...
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Old 31st January 2005, 19:24   #15
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We all have see that website.The thing is if Fiat bring Alfa Romeo and Stuff to india immediately they need to have Alfa Romeo Dealers and special parts and executive from alfa romeo which will cost the company.So i think they should bring in lancia and sell Cars like the Panda,Punto etc as Lancia cars.so that they dont need exlusive technecians and dealerships.They could have bought the Fiat Stilo and that can murder the Swift,Getz etc in Cold blood.But then Fiat has a name to rebuild.


Speedsatya

To tell u even if u dont offer service for Ferrari cars people will still buy them.Dont expect Fiat to service Ferrari and Alfa Romeo.They will have their own men.The profit they earn will help the parent Fiat.

I am stressing on Lancia because it is the only volume manufacturer they have and also it is relatively unknow in india and boast a good history in rally etc.Fiat can chang e the management but it wont change their fortune as rapidly as they will have to.

i want Fiat to stay in India because the really make good family cars and leaving India will really hurt them(they wont come back for 10 years as Peugoet has done).
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