[vrprabhu]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

Can we cut speedzak some slack here since (1) he is banned and cannot respond and (2) this is a 2-year old thread for God's sake.

+1 to that. Let us get back to what we really want to see if FIAT revives the Palio.

Originally Posted by pawan_pullarwar

You miss the dashboard part

p_p, if you go on adding to your wish list, you will add to the price too - even though 'blue & me', steering mounted controls and goodies on the dash will definitely add to the spice

But, I think what we are looking a "performance" hatch at an "affordable" price.

[.anshuman]

If the Autobild India magazine is to be believed Fiat is planning to launch the new Fiat Uno to fill replace the discontinued Fiat Palio stile which was not upgraded to meet BS-IV norms as the demand for this car was very low.

The Fiat Uno which they are talking about was just launched in Brazil. The new Uno seems loosely based on the Fiat Panda. This car is 3.77 meters long and 1.64 meters wide, its a size between Panda and Grande Punto. The 1litre version predicted to be sold in India will make 75bhp.

According to the AutoBild India the Indian version will be sold with body colored bumpers.








Pictures courtesy: Next-Generation Fiat Uno Debuts in Brazil

[coldice4u]

Such a move seems very very unlikely. May be just another page-filler article. Cant see where will such a car fit in the Indian Car Scene. Looks ugly. May be they should just get the 1ltr engine and plonk it onto the Punto 1.2. That will do them a whole lotta good.

[.anshuman]

^^ I agree on page filler article part.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by .anshuman

The Fiat Uno which they are talking about was just launched in Brazil.

The best and the worst looking cars will be from the same stable, in that case!

Originally Posted by coldice4u

Cant see where will such a car fit in the Indian Car Scene.

+ 1.

What sells is VFM, mileage, brand value and after sales service, looks. This uno might fall short in all these IMO. Unless they put in the multijet diesel, and price it well below the vista!

[ashutoshb]

Mr.practical. Should play the role of Fiat's bread and butter car well.

Official promo video below:

YouTube - Presentacion oficial Nuevo Fiat Uno 2011

[aaggoswami]

1) No chance of this car coming to India. The name Uno has a lot of negative image associated with it, and Fiat knows how difficult it is to erase that negative image. Uno deserved the hype it got earlier, but the hype was utilized by Santro ( that is another story ). Only fact is that this name carries a lot of baggage.

2) Palio was quite a good looking car when it came to India. Even today Palio looks good without doubt ( better than GP IMO, but looks are subjective here ). So it would be a wrong decision to replace Palio with this Uno. Baggage ( of uno nameplate ) plus not so good looking car are sure shot recipe for disaster in Indian market.

3) Overlap is possible, not as much as Maruti/Suzuki but still. Both, this Uno and GP might have similar space, ride, etc. Moreover, this car will be sold alongside Manza, Vista, Indica, GP and Linea. I am sure just by the looks alone, nobody will buy this Uno.

At the end of the day, I am sure this car is not coming to India.

[KiloAlpha]

I agree about the Uno badge carrying a massive amount of baggage in India. Although the car itself is probably good, Fiat might want to use the Panda badge if they want to release it here?
Looks are subjective. The pics suggest looks will be polarising a la Chevy Beat.
The biggest hurdle to Fiat sales in India? After Sales Service. They simply cannot be a volume player unless there is a Fiat authorised garage in every locality of every town.
I wish they do launch the Uno in India, and I sincerely hope they can sustain around 2K/month sales.
One can always hope!

[cuttingcrew]

Why will it not sell in India (apart from the Uno badge)? It looks like a utility hatch similar to Wagon-R.


ps. I kind of like the mini SUV kind of look !

[snan]

The last hot Red pic kind of masks the ugliness quite well. It might well sell reasonably well as long as it is not named Uno, is cheap / VFM (Max at Wagon R) with a great engine. Too many asks and that is the reason I dont think it has a place currently in Indian hatch market. But one never knows !

[swiftnfurious]

Absolutely -- It looks weird, but catchy! If the car comes with a good engine and a good level of equipment for a fair price, sales should not be an issue!

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

1) No chance of this car coming to India. The name Uno has a lot of negative image associated with it, and Fiat knows how difficult it is to erase that negative image. Uno deserved the hype it got earlier, but the hype was utilized by Santro ( that is another story ). Only fact is that this name carries a lot of baggage.

2) Palio was quite a good looking car when it came to India. Even today Palio looks good without doubt ( better than GP IMO, but looks are subjective here ). So it would be a wrong decision to replace Palio with this Uno. Baggage ( of uno nameplate ) plus not so good looking car are sure shot recipe for disaster in Indian market.

3) Overlap is possible, not as much as Maruti/Suzuki but still. Both, this Uno and GP might have similar space, ride, etc. Moreover, this car will be sold alongside Manza, Vista, Indica, GP and Linea. I am sure just by the looks alone, nobody will buy this Uno.

At the end of the day, I am sure this car is not coming to India.

Completely agree.

Further, I don't understand why Fiat would launch any new car at all in India. They already have two good cars (from engineering point of view) which are selling in very low volumes. From supply chain management and cost optimization point of view, it will be very difficult for Fiat to have one more model and manage three relatively low volume assembly/manufacturing lines. Such low volume manufacturing lines can only be sustainable for high margin products (expensive brands such as BMW, for example). For the low margin, low cost products that Fiat is having in India, it is not sustainable to have another manufacturing line.

I don't think Fiat can bring in any new model until either GP or Linea start selling in high enough numbers to fully utilize the existing manufacturing and supply chain resources (and provide Fiat enough revenues to deserve more capital investment), or they close down either one of these two models and free up some manufacturing/supply chain resources to enable introduction of new models without additional capital investment. Both of these scenarios are highly unlikely. Therefore, all Fiat can and will likely do is to keep introducing new variants of Linea and GP till either of the above two situations occur.

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by coldice4u

Such a move seems very very unlikely. May be just another page-filler article. Cant see where will such a car fit in the Indian Car Scene. Looks ugly. May be they should just get the 1ltr engine and plonk it onto the Punto 1.2. That will do them a whole lotta good.

Originally Posted by KiloAlpha

I agree about the Uno badge carrying a massive amount of baggage in India. Although the car itself is probably good, Fiat might want to use the Panda badge if they want to release it here?
Looks are subjective. The pics suggest looks will be polarising a la Chevy Beat.
The biggest hurdle to Fiat sales in India? After Sales Service. They simply cannot be a volume player unless there is a Fiat authorised garage in every locality of every town.
I wish they do launch the Uno in India, and I sincerely hope they can sustain around 2K/month sales.
One can always hope!

Originally Posted by cuttingcrew

Why will it not sell in India (apart from the Uno badge)? It looks like a utility hatch similar to Wagon-R.
ps. I kind of like the mini SUV kind of look !

1) Imagine this. Two cars, GP and this Uno ( under Panda or any name ), having the same 1.2l motor. Overlap will be there. For sure Fiat will not price the cars on similar lines, Uno will be a notch lower. And here we have Vista! Uno with 1.1/1.2 priced lower than Punto will have to compete with Vista. Vista will win hands down plus Vista is getting a better response from Indian public nowadays.

2) Imagine this Uno coming out with 1.25L diesel. Again Fiat will price this Uno lower than GP. Once more, this Uno will face Vista, a car that is getting more acquittance in car buying public and has a reasonably good image in the form of Indica brand name. Who will win ? Vista.

Fiat has to price this car lower than Vista with a smaller motor to compete in the market. Let assume that this Uno placed lower than Vista in the market gets good sales. Do they have facilities for servicing ? Or do they have sufficiently trained staff ? Also remember than Tata service centers will have to cope with additional load of Nano which will surely sell more.

3) The biggest hurdle for Fiat cars come in the sales part itself. They dont have exclusive sales network so their cars end up sharing showroom floor with VFM cars like Vista and Manza. So again this Uno has very slim chance of coming to India because Vista will kill it in the showroom itself. Vista has smaller motor petrol and two diesel units i.e. a broad range of options.

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

Completely agree.

Further, I don't understand why Fiat would launch any new car at all in India. They already have two good cars (from engineering point of view) which are selling in very low volumes. Therefore, all Fiat can and will likely do is to keep introducing new variants of Linea and GP till either of the above two situations occur.

Yes, agree with you. Fiat must bring in the 90 bhp Punto to the market, this will help it differentiate GP from similarly engined Vista. Then bring on the Linea T-Jet to take on Honda city and others. Rather than expanding the range, its better to come up with new options for the existing range that deserves more sales.

[theMAG]

This Uno and the current Punto seem to come from different stables if parked next to each other. But, then again, as Maruti and Hyundai have shown, give a car that's high on utility and mileage under Rs 4.5 lakhs, and it shall sell; looks be damned !

[clevermax]

Though the car doesn't look that good, I like the black bumper & black wheel arches version than the body colored version!

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

2) Imagine this Uno coming out with 1.25L diesel. Again Fiat will price this Uno lower than GP. Once more, this Uno will face Vista, a car that is getting more acquittance in car buying public and has a reasonably good image in the form of Indica brand name. Who will win ? Vista.

aaggoswami, Smaller Uno is not a car meant to compete with bigger Vista! If it still does comepete and lose, its okay. How did you get this idea in the first place, that Uno will assume a competition with Vista?

Originally Posted by theMAG

This Uno and the current Punto seem to come from different stables if parked next to each other. But, then again, as Maruti and Hyundai have shown, give a car that's high on utility and mileage under Rs 4.5 lakhs, and it shall sell; looks be damned !

Yea but only from Maruti and Hyundai can sell bad looking cars. Fiat is struggling to sell even the best looking cars.