The Fiat years
Few international companies have had such a tortuous history in India as Fiat. It had been among the first to import cars to India in 1904 and had been one of the first to start production in India with the little Fiat 500 in 1948 in a joint venture with the Doshis of Premier Automobiles. Then followed the iconic 1100 that later became the Premier Padmini. Fiat then re-entered India with a major direct investment and began producing the petrol and diesel Palio hatchbacks and Siena saloons. They were good cars and did very well initially until customers became dissatisfied with poor service and spare parts support.
Fiat then decided to shift out of Mumbai where they had the handicaps of higher taxes and labour costs to a brand new Greenfield plant at Ranjangaon near Pune where they began producing the Palio followed by Punto hatchback and Linea saloon. Though these were good cars the competition had grown furiously and customers were still troubled by Fiat’s reputation and poor resale values. Fiat then went into 50:50 joint venture with Tata Motors and to occupy a large production capacity of 100,000 cars started producing the Indica Vista and the bigger Manza saloon for Tata Motors.
Fiat has a very long footprint in India. It, in collaboration with Premier Automobiles, was among the first cars to be made in India and began the assembly of the little Fiat 500 in 1948. This was followed by manufacture of the iconic Fiat 1100, or Millicento, that was one of the main passenger cars in India till the plant stopped production at the end of 1999. Fiat, the international company, then reentered India and began producing the petrol and diesel Palio hatchbacks and Siena saloons.
Fiat began production in 1899 and is today the eleventh largest car company in the world with a production of nearly two million cars from plants in Italy, Europe, South America, Turkey and India. The Fiat group also makes the Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Ferrari and Mesarati cars as well as aircraft, locomotives and other engineering products.
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