The recent attacks on Mumbai have hurt buyer sentiments as well. Mumbai is India’s largest car market and the city still remains shocked with the terror attacks. Fiat and Mahindra and Mahindra have their head offices in Mumbai. Both the companies had planned to launch their upcoming vehicles Fiat Linea and Mahindra Xylo in the month of December.
The companies are now mulling over the launch dates of their models. The upheaval in Mumbai coupled with the slowdown in market demand has made them to push the launch dates of their models to January 2009. Thus, Fiat Linea and the MUV from Mahindra, Mahindra Xylo will now be launched in January 2009.
An executive from M&M said, "The sentiments were already down, but due to the terror attacks in Mumbai, we have decided to shift the launch date of the Xylo from this month to next month."
A spokesperson for FIAL said, "We have decided to move the launch date of Linea due to the prevailing conditions in Mumbai. Our earlier launch date was December 16. We will take a call on the rescheduled date on Monday."
Since the respective models are very important to both the companies, they are taking every possible measure to make the launch a successful one. Mahindra is banking upon its latest models for lifting sales. Fiat is also planning an image makeover in India and plans to roll out Linea from its Ranjangaon plant in Maharashtra.
