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Old 13th January 2006, 18:12   #46
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[SIZE=2]Thats great news for two reason.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]1. Fiat will be back.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]2. Tata cars wont be limited to diesel, i think there is going to be Tata Indica GTX[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]And now many cars will have same engines:-[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]Palio,Petra,Indica,Indigo, Marina, Swift, Esteem, Zen, Wagon R etc all with 1.3 JTD[/SIZE]
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Old 14th January 2006, 01:06   #47
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Grande Punto & Alfa Romeo on sale from March?!

Is this true?

Business Standard reports that Fiat Grande Punto and Alfa Romeo cars will be avaliable at select TATA Motors showrooms from March 2006!!!!
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Old 14th January 2006, 04:18   #48
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March 06 is less than 2 months away. How are they going to pull it off?
If they bring it in as a CBU, its gonna cost an arm and a leg, whose gonna buy a CBU hatchback?
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Old 14th January 2006, 04:22   #49
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OK, so TATA dealers are going to sell both products. What about FIAT dealers? what are they going to do?
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Old 14th January 2006, 05:29   #50
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OK, so TATA dealers are going to sell both products. What about FIAT dealers? what are they going to do?
MPower, details of the Fiat-TATA alliance are very sketchy. I am guessing the media isn't giving too much of importance to this developement because I guess no one considers Fiat as a serious competition to the koreans and Japs anymore. But I am sure Fiat will retain it's dealers and the TATA dealers will add to Fiat's sales & service network in the country. This will also give Fiat the chance to fire some of it's idiotic dealers.

I think the guys at Business Standard have gone overboard in their enthusiasm. Alfa may come in as CBU but there is no way that the Punto is going to come in via that route.
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Old 14th January 2006, 05:33   #51
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holy cow...would someone confirm that announcement ...or is that top-of-the-line news to have hit the rafters ...great news..fiat in safe hands...n indian consumers per se a new lease of luxury..
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Old 14th January 2006, 05:40   #52
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now v'd have two unassuming giants sharing the platform to ur greatest of delights...tata selling palios n petras n much touted grande punto and alfa romeos is a piece of news which wud set the ball rollin'...too good to be true! hehehhe..
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Old 14th January 2006, 06:26   #53
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didnt the punto compete with the CityRover ? Ironic, if true...
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Old 14th January 2006, 08:03   #54
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Some more information on the Fiat-TATA deal from Rediff.com. Fiat Ceo clearly saying that no new Fiat car will be launched this year, which makes perfect sense unlike business standard's over enthusiastic report. Also, each Fiat dealer will be assessed, now that Fiat, in one magic stroke increased the number of it's dealerships. I guess it's time lethargic Fiat dealers pulled up their socks.

P.S. I like the title of that rediff article.
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Old 14th January 2006, 17:57   #55
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i heard the new Palio was to come by this year...? the pics that Autocar showed some time back, it looked real neat and nice! taht wud be a nice smallcar!
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Old 14th January 2006, 19:03   #56
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I smell a good strategy in this...they've moved the Indica Petrol (Xeta) downwards to compete with the Santros and Wagon Rs, reducing the power (and price) and increasing torque.

Perhaps the Palio will be re-launched to take on the Swift (which has taken a small chunk of the Indica market with it) and the Getz? The Indica takes the lower end and the Palio should be capable of taking on the upper end.

Win-Win ????
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Old 15th January 2006, 03:19   #57
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this is what I gather from the steam and the cooking pot of tata-fiat alliance.

fiat and tata dealers will be merged all over India and hence I guess their dealer network will be bigger than hyundai and comparable to maruti.

same goes for dealerships in Italy.

Fiat will now sell as a lifestyle segment car with better quality service.

my impression:- palio1.6 was always the best hatch in India. It will now attain what it was here for. The sales nirvana.LOL
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Old 15th January 2006, 05:26   #58
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Fiat should have their website along with tata's. This way more people will check out their cars and maybe they may end up with some sales. Why am I talking about this? In true Fiat tradition, their website, fiat-india.com is silent on the TATA-Fiat deal. Let TATA handle and maintain the website too. If they can sell and service Palio, Petra's and in the future Alfa Romeo's then they can easily maintain a measly website too.
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Old 15th January 2006, 07:06   #59
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Even though FIAT ASS problems appear to be fixed, the product still has a major flaw. The 1.6 is too thirsty and although the 1.2 is less thirsty it is neither perky nor as FE as rivals.

Fiat is straddled with offering 2 petrol engines where rivals are selling 10 times more cars with just 1 engine option. The Answer, launch a engine between 1.6 and 1.2 that will hit the bullseye w.r.t customer expectations.
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Old 15th January 2006, 07:25   #60
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Quote:
The 1.6 is too thirsty
I don't know where this theory came from. I have owned a 1.6 Palio for over 2 years and I never found the engine to be thirsty. I don't know why 9-10 kmpl from a Ford Ikon 1.6 or a Hyundai Accent 1.5 is acceptable but the same mileage from a Fiat Palio 1.6 is not. Mind you, we are talking about a DOHC 16 valve engine thats shamelessly designed for driving pleasure. I have heard many people say the mileage of Accent/Ikon is okay because they are sedans (badi gaadi or dikiwali gadi) and therefore their mileage is perfectly normal for a car of this size? (Should'nt it be engine of this size?)

I can't comment on the 1.2 since I have never driven it extensively but one of my friends had a 1.2 ELX for a few years. He was a new driver. In fact, when he got delivery of the car, he asked me to come with him and drive the car to his house! Ironically, that guy said he always got about 11-13kmpl driving from Chembur to Andheri East everyday. Palio was his first car and he actually polished his driving skills on that very car.

Anyway, one way fiat can improve the mileage by reducing the weight of the car!

Put the 1.2 FIRE engine in a Santro and then check the mileage. Similarly, put the Santro's 1.1L engine into the Palio and then check the mileage provided you can actually make the Palio move with that "xing erlx" engine.

Last edited by amit : 15th January 2006 at 07:30.
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