YOU MAKE THE DAMN MOVE, FIAT!

‘Make the move my friend, make the move’ is the new ad campaign launched recently by Italian car giant Fiat and it has left me in splits.

More than 15 years in the Indian car market and several car launches later, Fiat, the Italian car manufacturer is still lying at the bottom of the sales chart with the lowest market share of 0.19 percent. 

Just two models, Linea and Punto on offer since as long as you can remember. The Grande Punto was launched way back in 2009 and since then no fresh bread has come out of Fiats' oven.  

It's startling to see such lackluster attitude from a major car company in a country like India where brands like Renault have launched half a dozen models in a year's time.  

And still, Fiat wants the customer to 'make the move'. I am forced to say that the ad campaign, as per me is a bit audacious.

And then there are the venerable issues like poor service network, expensive after sales service, and pathetic resale value of the cars and still Fiat wants Indians to 'make the move' towards the brand. Hope you are in splits now as well.

Fiat, over the last decade has made several attempts to somehow increase their market share in the country, sometimes with new car models or by offering discounts or new ‘limited’ edition variants of the existing model.

However, the company is not taking the bull by its horns. The Indian market is very unforgiving and it does not give you many chances. However, Fiat is lucky that it does make good, solid cars and more important, it had some die-hard, loyal fans.

Look at the 1.3 multi jet engine that it developed in collaboration with General Motors. It is popularly known as the ‘national engine’ of India owing to the fact that so many cars under different brands have the 1.3 under their hoods.

It is because of this reason that cars like Uno, Palio and Punto, each of which were launched at a gap of about 5-7 years sold well initially but then costumers were forced to move away due to the above written reasons. This shows that Indians still trust Fiat.

Look at brands like Nissan, Renault, Volkswagen who came to India recently and have become popular brands.

Its ok if Fiat is planning to bring in Chrysler and Jeep marques to the country but what about brand Fiat. It has been chugging along like an old steam engine, huffed and puffed.

Put some coal in the furnace and fire it up Fiat.

Launch at least three to four new models must be added to their portfolio within the next one year including new variants of Punto and Linea.

Get a small hatchback and a mini SUV with diesel hearts and price them below the competition because these two segments are the hottest in the country right now.

And finally, work hard, very hard on the after sales service and bringing down the cost of spare parts.

It will take a lot of effort to get things back on track but mind you, Fiat. Don’t screw it this time or you will keep lying at the bottom of the barrel like you have been for years now.

Take some concrete steps and only then ask us to ‘Make the move’.