Management control of Fiat’s commercial and distribution activities will be handed over to a separate Fiat Group owned company, to further develop the Fiat brand in India. Currently Tata Motors has been managing the distribution responsibility of the Fiat branded products in India through joint Tata-Fiat dealerships. As part of the growth plans and in order to provide greater focus on the Fiat brand, Tata Motors will hand over the distribution and service responsibility for Fiat cars in India to a Fiat Group owned company being formed for this purpose.
So finally Fiat and Tata joined forces by sharing dealerships which sold and serviced both Tata and Fiat cars. Here in lay another problem. Both car makers had very similar cars in the Indica and the Indigo and the Palio and the Petra (as the Siena later came to be called) and when Fiat brought in the Linea and the Punto on the opposite side of the showroom were the Vista and the Manza. Interestingly enough the Vista and the Punto shared engines from Fiat while the Linea shared its engines with the Manza. Now comes the clincher. The Tata cars were more spacious and cost significantly less than the Linea and the Punto, making the Fiat’s look like not value for money cars.
Quoted from : Perspective > There is a case for making Fiat-Tata cars, so why don’t they?
Well, that that puts to death our hopes of seeing a jointly branded car from Tata and Fiat. If rumours are to be believed, the all new Fiat might bring in the spunky Fiat Panda to try and change its luck.
Have you read our elaborate design story of the Fiat Panda?