Fiat-Tata part ways at dealership level; Fiat to set up independent dealerships!

Fiat Grande Punto EVO

It had to happen sooner than later with Fiat car sales declining faster than the Indian cricket team’s fortunes. Here’s some news that will delight Fiat enthusiasts and prospective Fiat owners. Fiat India has finally decided to dump Tata and will now go it alone in the Indian market. Team ICB has been the forefront of highlighting the step motherly treatment that prospective Fiat car buyers face when they go to Tata-Fiat dealerships to buy Fiat cars, and this move from Fiat is only a reaffirmation of what we had been saying all along, of that of the Tata-Fiat joint venture doing Fiat India more harm than good.

Fiat India will set up dealerships in 20 Indian cities over the next 12-18 months and will eventually move out of Tata dealerships completely. However, this move appears to be only on the dealership level as there has been no word about Fiat heading out of the overall alliance with Tata which amongst other things, also involves engine and technology sharing. We see no reason why Fiat would want to exit the alliance fully as supplying engines and technology to Tata will anyhow be resulting in increased revenues for Fiat India.

Tata-Fiat Joint Venture

So, this move seems to primarily be one in which Fiat India will start selling its cars through independent Fiat dealerships. In the times to come, we expect sales of Fiat cars to go up if Fiat India does manage to get its act together on the independent Fiat dealership front. Most Fiat owners, while having shown disappointment with the dealership experience while buying a Fiat car have not really complained about the after sales service doled out by Tata-Fiat workshops. Therefore, it remains to be seen whether Fiat India will also exit the Tata-Fiat service center alliance.

We have a strong inkling that Fiat India would also exit the after sales service alliance with Tata Motors and go it alone at all places where it establishes independent Fiat dealerships. This, as the after sales service business are bigger profit spinners for dealerships than sales outlets and hence dealers will be unwilling to hand over the after sales service to another vendor. All in all, a welcome move by Fiat India, that has the potential of changing Fiat’s fortunes in the world’s fifth largest car market. Meanwhile, here’s a blurb from Fiat India president, Mr Rajeev Kapoor, confirming this development.

Fiat cars will now be sold separately and independently. Also, we are opening two Fiat cafes, one each in Delhi and Pune, for promoting the brand by bringing ‘Italian-ness’.

Via TheEconomicTimes

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September 6, 2011 | By Jay Prashanth · Tags:

Comments

7 Responses to “Fiat-Tata part ways at dealership level; Fiat to set up independent dealerships!”

charan on September 6th, 2011 4:58 pm

Hello
This is really very good News for FIAT!! fANS!!
FIAT!! Has very good Diesel engines and they can Manufacturer and sell the cars separately.
Now Market aggressively and They should open the dealerships in like 6 months rather 12-18 months.
Three things FIAT should do to boom the sales!!
1)Introduce and Entry level hatchback(3.5-5 lakh) with 1 litre diesel and 1 litre petrol Engine
2)Introduce the New Punto and Market the 1.3 litre Diesel Engine very Aggressively(Petrol sells less)
and price it lower than the new SWIFT and make it value for Money
3)Redesign Linea and see that passenger space is same is VW Vento with 1.6 litre DIESEL Engine and price it same as present 1.3 litre MJD Linea

Fiat will Definitely capture Good Amount of Market
PERIOD!!
Akhil on September 6th, 2011 5:39 pm

Finally !
Jay Prashanth on September 6th, 2011 5:48 pm

Yeah, finally!

Cheers,

Jay
George on September 6th, 2011 7:01 pm

Fiat is a gloabal car manufacturer and they are tieing the brand in Tata’s shop who only knows how to make cars which can be towed to junkyards after 2 yrs of life. You look on the road on a day with downpour chances are you will see at least few tata cars broke down on the road, It’s time for Fiat to raise the bar and look at rollouts like Renault. Fiat- It’s now or never!
ColdGold on September 6th, 2011 10:42 pm

Great news. I am overjoyed. I hope FIAT launches the evo soon with all the features that they provide in europe and UK. I would gladly upgrade my Punto to the evo.
Yila on September 7th, 2011 12:13 am

Welcome move by FIAT, even though it is too late! Anyhow, Congratulations FIAT!
Anuj on September 7th, 2011 9:00 am

Great decision indeed…..has definitely put hell lot of smiles on faces willing to buy a Fiat, but afraid of TATA treatments coming with it. I would surely go for one….if Fiat makes it a reality in coming 1 year. I would suggest they should even part their ways wid TATA’s for after sales services, as couple of my friends who own Fiats are not at all happy wid d way TATA’s pamper their babies. They are currently getting it serviced locally. Great going FIAT….now indeed you guys have a BRIGHT future. Make your fan base ALIVE again in India :-)) :-))