Ken Gratton•5 Aug 2013
NEWS
Fiat's upward path in Australia
Lower prices, enhanced product and expanded dealer network point to aggressive sales crusadeThe Fiat brand is going through a rebirth in Australia, helped by a new position within the market that could be summed up as having your Italian Cake and washing it down with Korean pricing.
In essence, and without the importer saying as much, the Fiat image – for good or bad – was hampering efforts in Australia to build the brand. By extension, the pricing of the local-spec product range wasn’t helping. Shifting the position of the brand downmarket has had an immediate effect on sales.
According to VFACTS, Fiat has sold 518 units of the 500 this year. Of those, 182 were sold in June alone. That’s over one third of the total sales for the year so far, in just the one month. June was the first reporting month after Fiat dropped the starting price for the car back to $14,000 driveaway.
Not only did year-to-date sales of the 500 lift by over 54 per cent in June alone, the monthly sales figure was four times better than for the same month a year earlier. And June 2012 should have been a good month for Fiat, following on as it did from the ‘black-out’ reporting period in May when VFACTS registered no Fiat sales during the handover from Ateco to Fiat Chrysler. Any sales made during May last year were tacked onto June’s aggregate.
Fiat is now hoping it can maintain (and even increase) sales momentum with the newly arrived (and facelifted) Punto and the Panda (pictured), which is due here in the fourth quarter. According to Karla Leach, Director of Corporate Affairs for Fiat Alfa Romeo Australia, the highly regarded Panda is most likely to be launched here in November.
But the importer is no closer to a decision on the 500L, which Leach describes as “still under evaluation.”
Since the factory assumed local distribution from Ateco last year, Fiat has explored different marketing tactics to raise the brand’s profile and increase sales volume.
“Two fleet managers have been appointed,” Leach told motoring.com.au at the launch of the facelifted Punto. Getting the Punto on rental fleets is apparently the principal aim of the company’s fleet managers, but Fiat has also delivered 20 units of the 500 to a Budget franchise – holding out the chance that the tiny retro hatch will be sampled by prospective buyers at their leisure, thus avoiding the hard-stress environment of a car dealership.
But should a buyer wish to lay down cash for a new 500, there are plenty of dealers on hand now to accept the order. The network, comprising 17 dealers during Ateco’s tenure, has grown now to 46. It means that Fiat buyers – particularly those living on the east coast – are likely to be within reasonable driving distance of a dealer that can provide service and support.
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Written byKen Gratton
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