Last year we had revealed Fiat India’s plans to aggressively market the 500. The company had planned to launch a new version along with re-positioning the cute little car. However there has been no news since then and Fiat has all of a sudden gone into hibernation. We went to a Fiat dealer asking to purchase a 500 and he told us the car cannot be sold in 11 cities as it does not meet the new emission norms. Further he told us that Fiat will launch a BS4 complaint 500 soon, with the engine being manufactured locally. Does this mean Fiat will move to CKD from CBU. This will help the company to price the 500 more aggressively. By the time the new 2011 Fiat 500 hits the road in India, Volkswagen would have launched the 2012 Beetle. Its competition yet again in the retro segment and this time Fiat should have a significant price advantage.
