Interesting message from the Fullerton NJ Fiat Dealer

When I was recently looking for another Abarth, I contacted a few Fiat dealers who had them in stock including this dealer. I got a voicemail follow up yesterday, and the message was that Fiat is considering stopping all imports into the U.S. and that everyone wants to get an Abarth before they are gone. My first thought was they be getting desperate to sell cars to come up with that story, unless there is more to it. I must say I would not blame Fiat for leaving but I am not aware that this is even a consideration. Anyone else heard anything like this.

 

That sounds like a BS sales call.

 

That's my thought too, but if so it could be a two-edged sword- that tactic could scare off some prospective buyers who might fear buying a car that would soon have no dealer support.

 

True also. Which makes the call even more BS.

 

"considering"?????

Yah I believe that one.

The trends are DOWN but it's manly from a lack of new and upgraded product. The 500 arrived in 2011. The cross over SUV Fiat 500L is not selling anything like other SUV's in the market.

Here's the 500 numbers over the years. I do see more dealers interested in selling higher priced Alfa products over Fiat. Kinda hard to make money on a $99 a month 3 year lease.

From May 2012 to May 2018 you would say sales are pretty much a "disaster".

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With those numbers they don't need to think about stopping. The market will stop for them.

 

I know that they were feeding me a sales BS line (obviously they don't know me, no one needs to sell me anything). Those numbers, I did not think things were that bad, though when I went looking for the Abarth, not any of the local dealers had one. In fact most had only a few 500's in stock and the rest were the 124's. What surprised me was that almost everyone was an automatic including the Abarth 124's.

 

500 sales have been dropping hard since 2016. FCA appears not to care.

The 500 got off to a rocky start. Soon they fired the person in charge of marketing and went to the cooler "It's hip to be Italian" advertising and sales took off. Adding the Abarth also helped. But a lack of product and innovation over the years has hurt 500 sales. It's just "price, price, price" now.

 

More proof the auto is dead. People just don't want them anymore, even for Abarth's. I searched far and wide for a manual Mini S. Also like trying to find hens teeth. I found a few, but most were stripped down with few options. Almost no choice at all. When I found one the dealer was soooooooooooooooooo happy to sell it to me. He had it on his lot and was going to pass it off to some other dealer.

 

Fiat is so poorly managed. And has always been. They always rest on their laurels. Come up with one or two good products, sells well for a few years (panda and 500) and then **** it up by not doing anything new or good.

The 500x could have been interesting but it's too expensive for a small fiat SUV. A decent equipped one is $30k. You can get a nice Murano or Tiguan for that price.

Not sure how they will replace the 500, but they need something new asap or they will go back to just selling in Italy.

 

Wonder if they've stopped imports until the tariff fight is sorted?

 

All 500's come from Mexico so its part of NAFTA, not the EU "proposed" tariffs. The 124's come from Japan. I haven't heard anything about tariffs on cars from Japan. If anything they would be shipping like crazy now before any tariffs hit.

No, I think it's just weak sales and I think FCA sees more of a future in higher priced Alfa products at their existing "studios".

 

The Fiat brand is hurting in the US market. Years of neglect, a lack of promotion, and a lack of exciting product.

The Jeep Renegade sells great and it's a Fiat 500L with a different body. The sales difference is like 10-1. Granted its a lot better looking than the 500L but I think the Jeep is actually more expensive.

Like I said, I see Fiat dealers morphing more into Alfa dealers. There's more money there. Some Alfa dealers are also selling Maserati in the USA.

 

Renegade is the 500X, IMO 500X looks better than the Renegade but yes Renegade outsells 500X by a mile.

 

You are correct. But the Renegade is a huge Jeep success.

 

Thanks for that - I must look into where our stocks come from. The 500 was released here in 2007 and has been very popular, but its the only model available apart from the Abarth spider (which is also proving popular here). Marketing of Fiat here is almost non-existant...
500x should have had some other name - doesn't fit the 500 theme.

 

There hasn't been any marketing of Fiat in the USA in at least 2 years -- maybe more. I don't think there has been one change to the Fiat 500 since they brought in the Abarth.

 

Amazing... wonder what they know which we don't that they think these 2 markets aren't worth worrying about?

 

http://money.cnn.com/2018/07/03/news/companies/fiat-us-sales-future/index.html

Plunging Fiat sales leave its American future in doubt

 

I wonder how many people would even notice if they left at this point. The Abarth is a fun little car and is the only thing that Fiat has that ever interested me.

 

The other problem was there was a huge pent up demand for the 500 and mostly its Abarth version. Like 30 years! So all of us faithful mostly bought the 1 st yr model in 12.
Was waiting for more Abarth models like the Punto