Originally Posted by ntrack

In North India, Fiat is a brand!

Dont know what you mean by the " " but in Shimla the closest Fiat-Tata dealership is in Solan "50km away" that also a few months old, the service station is also there.

Fiat as a brand is considered better than likes of Tata or Hyundai but not as good as Honda/Nissan/Mitsubishi/Skoda or even Maruti.

People do respond to the appealing designs that newer Fiat cars "Punto and Linea" have but dont really respond to the design sense of Palio.

[architect]

As per Hindustan Times today, the Linea T-Jet is to be launched on 08 Oct 2010 and has a 0-100 kph timings of 9.2 seconds .

Never trusted HT on technical facts, though!

[ntrack]

Originally Posted by ajai_dev

Dont know what you mean by the " " but in Shimla the closest Fiat-Tata dealership is in Solan "50km away" that also a few months old, the service station is also there.

Fiat as a brand is considered better than likes of Tata or Hyundai but not as good as Honda/Nissan/Mitsubishi/Skoda or even Maruti.

People do respond to the appealing designs that newer Fiat cars "Punto and Linea" have but dont really respond to the design sense of Palio.

It means that when someone buys a Fiat in North, people respond in an astonished way, as if he committed a crime.

Many whom I've met think Fiat is an Indian co. that went bust a few years back (I'm talking of well educated professionals)

[sunnyside]

Let the countdown Begin 3 more days to go 3-2-1.

Keeping my fingers crossed for Killer prices now. (Below 8 lacs and surely i'll crack a coconut in the temple!!)

[diabloo]

Its really pity that Indians doesn't know that information. They must brush up their IQ. Also, PAL must bring out ads and prove they don't have connection with Fiat.

Originally Posted by ntrack

Many whom I've met think Fiat is an Indian co. that went bust a few years back (I'm talking of well educated professionals)

Originally Posted by diabloo

Fiat should re christen itself, drop that bland logo - complete image makeover to make an impact in India (Logo change eg, Canara Bank, Videocon, et al).

I am sure Fiat will price J-Jet rightly. I wish Fiat away with normal 1.4 and have J-Jet as standard with no or nominal price change.

[ntrack]

Originally Posted by sunnyside

Let the countdown Begin 3 more days to go 3-2-1.

Keeping my fingers crossed for Killer prices now. (Below 8 lacs and surely i'll crack a coconut in the temple!!)

Below 8 lacs seems impossible. The engine, they say is imported. Also with the add-ons the price would be 9 lacs plus.

If Honda can price the City at 10 lacs, then the T-jet at a similar (or slightly lower) price, with so much more equipment, is a steal .

[Speed Pujari]

Originally Posted by sunnyside

Let the countdown Begin 3 more days to go 3-2-1.

Keeping my fingers crossed for Killer prices now. (Below 8 lacs and surely i'll crack a coconut in the temple!!)

Then one coconut is going to be saved LOL!.. Fiat has understood the typical indian mentality. The pricing has to be right or it can blow another impact on the brand if the overly loaded car is under priced. Certainly over pricing like Honda's is not going to yield any fruit either.

I think anything between 9 to 10 lakhs OTR Bangalore should be an optimised pricing. Below and above is under and over kill respectively.

I think with Fiat people will expect 120% perfection (they can live with 70-80% perfection with maruti, 75% perfection with hyundai and 45% perfection with Honda) ..

If there is a small knicky-knacky issue then the number of people ever thinking to go ahead with fiat will start dwindling. That will be a good news anyway since every second car on road should not be the car you own (I pity the swift, city owners).
I will give extra attention while polishing the T-Jet badge if that happens.

[ghost_rider]

From what i heard, the Tjet will be available in 2 variants. "Tjet" and "Tjet Plus".
The Plus gets goodies like Leather seats, alloys etc.

[MihirC]

That makes so much more sense ghost rider. This way the enthusiast can get the tjet for premium of around 50k over the current epack than it would be awesome. The plus version can retail around a lakh more.

[Minardi]

Evenif the T-jet sells 300-350 a month, it would mean increasing the Linea sales by 50%! Small bases have their benefits!

[architect]

I wonder if the T-Jet will be as much of a miracle as so many of us here are thinking and hoping.

Besides the better engine, 16" alloys and leather upholstery, what is the tangible difference between the existing emotion pack petrol and this one? Will the engine and leather upholstery be enough to draw somebody who has rejected the Linea based on earlier experience? Will the promise of better showroom behaviour bring those who have been rebuffed once?

By having a powerful engine and (hopefully) finally properly sorted out gear ratios, is the product good enough to set the sales charts afire?

Since early 2008, this cycle has happened many times. First, with the Palio M-Jet, then Linea, then Punto and then Punto 90HP. A huge weight of expectations and then excuses like "it's an enthusiaist's car, so it won't sell more than X number of units".

When will Tata-Fiat learn that there is something fundamentally wrong with their marketing strategy?

When will they figure out that a Manza standing next to the Linea and a Vista standing next to the GP will kill the Fiats?

When wil they learn that every TD customer will not chuck the TD car through corners at 100kph to realise why the Tatas are faster and much cheaper but not necessarily better in every respect?

When will they learn that if they only depend upon the customer who already knows the difference between a cheaper Tata and a costlier Fiat, they will only sell these 500 units a month?

When will they learn that Tata and Fiat probably have some of the lowest customer retention ratios (private cars, not cabs) as opposed to Hyundai, Maruti or Toyota?

When will they realise that standing in queue in a TASC chock-a-block with yellow-plated Indicas for service is not every customer's idea of good service, even though there may be umpteen follow-up calls from Pune?

P.S. I am not trying to go off-topic. All I am trying to say is that until Fiat (and Tata) realise that there is something fundamentally wrong with their showroom behaviour and customer relations, any number of new launches might not help to push the sales. The T-Jet might suffer from this very phenomenon.

P. P. S. As some of you may know, I own a Fiat Palio M-Jet. Please don't think this is some sort of frustration release. . I happen to be getting excellent support from the rare Tata-Fiat service centre that is Fiat-focussed and somewhat customer-centric. But this support is limited to the extent the company allows the dealer to go. This is a rare case of company screwing up a dealer's image at times.

[autogeek]

Rightly said. Also, customers now have the benefit of knowing before hand about an engine that will be plonked on to a Tata car. So everytime, you are unhappy with the performance of a new engine from FIAT, wait for few months and you should get the same engine rightly tuned in a Tata.

May be a Manza T-Jet in the near future....

[sidindica]

Originally Posted by architect

I wonder if the T-Jet will be as much of a miracle as so many of us here are thinking and hoping.

Besides the better engine, 16" alloys and leather upholstery, what is the tangible difference between the existing emotion pack petrol and this one? Will the engine and leather upholstery be enough to draw somebody who has rejected the Linea based on earlier experience? Will the promise of better showroom behaviour bring those who have been rebuffed once?

By having a powerful engine and (hopefully) finally properly sorted out gear ratios, is the product good enough to set the sales charts afire?....

very correct. Imagine a customer walking in and he has to choose between 10 linea variants, 10 punto variants, 13 vista variants and 8 manza variants. (inclusing the t-jet, t-jet plus and vista 1.4 safire 90 ps).

Total confusion, chaos and huge product overlap. And many variants hardly sell. This is just marketing at its worst. Adding more variants to increase sales is not really the best thing to do. It only adds to pressure and confusion and some dealers have limited showroom space to sell allthe products. So you know...and also, does fiat realise that tata is hell bent on killing its product line? That the vista 1.4 will kill the already killed punto 1.4?

And 31 pages of hoopla aside, I am waiting for tbhp test drive. But sales? The less said the better.

[An1]

Originally Posted by UKR

Adding a little more to the off topic discussion, totally agree to your observation. Infact I felt there is a combination of thoughts. When peoples' eye catch a Fiat initially(without realizing it is a Fiat), they think 'wow man what a beauty, must be an imported car, hmm must be a really rich guy'. Then as soon as they spot the Fiat emblem, the above thought turns to 'aww not that beautiful after all, in fact not good at all, brand X is far better looking!!' and then all the negative ones you had listed . Purely my thoughts thoughtrying to read their facial expressions.



That is an interesting observation. Would you mind telling what all you have found Linea owners doing to show they are having a VGT? One method I can think of is rolling down the window, honking and shouting 'HEEEY look I own a VGT!!'. Any other innovative ideas you have come across a Linea owner doing? No offense meant friend, just to lighten things up a bit.

I had almost a similar experience recently.
I own a Fiat Linea Emotion (White) MJD, bought on the 15th August 2010.

One of my German friend and colleague from my earlier company came visiting. Took him around in Linea..& he kept checking around the car.
By the way he drives a BMW (Earlier model with Squarish lights) in Germany.

We got off at Select City Walk, Saket.

My friend: "That's a very Nice car.. Is it Imported?"

& boy.. was I feeling good.
I had a look at the car again..admired her looks..

Me: "No, it's made in India."

My friend: "Must be a very Expensive Car"..!!

Me: "Not Quite."

I was grinning from ear to ear.. From his expression I could make out he was not believing me....

In a way, my friend earned his Dinner & Drinks that night..

[samyakmodi]

@architect

very valid points bro. but most of the people who even test drive the linea petrol, have just one grouse. the car feels very sluggish. if the T-Jet is a whiplash, then I am sure people would give it a try atleast. no matter how unaware a person is about a car, the way the car moves tells a lot to the driver/prospective buyer.

if you get pushed back in your seat (a-la jet) no-one would ever think of interior quality or gizmos or whatever. there would be a wide grin on the person's face which will make him think a million times before negating the car completely.

i know i probably am expecting a bit too much from the car. but i can shamelessly say this - i love FIAT cars. be it the boxy uno (had 2), or the palio (had one for a while), or the punto (have a few friends who bought it), or the linea (sex on wheels!!)