alfa in america

FIAT is really screwing up not bringing the current hotrod version Mito and Giulietta over now. By the time these new cars are ready, no doubt with the manditory 1 to 2 year Italian delay it may already be over for many of the FIAT dealers. They also need to add a 100,000 mile warranty like the Koreans did back in the 1990's. Alot of people don't trust
Italian cars, even if it is unfounded. They need an insurance policy to get them to buy.

FIAT probabably won't do 100,000 miles, so they already have 2 mistakes. If the Euro credit problem gets any worse I could see them dropping alot of these big plans.

My other prediction, the Euro Union breaks up by 2015 with only the larger countries staying in.

 

You make it sound like Italy is going to have to compete on the global market? LOL

 

They can't. They do not conform to US rules, and would need significant re-engineering to be adapted. The US-spec 500, while looking almost exactly the same as the Euro-spec one, has been almost completely reworked (and the expense to do so was quite high, I might add).

The replacements will be US-ready. The Giulietta might come sooner than that, since it will benefit from the work being done on the "Dodge Hornet" sedan, which is based on it.

 

Part of that has to do with FIAT trying to make it more American friendly(Loaded with power and electronic crap). To bring the Giulietta over would not be very hard at all. Don't believe all the FIAT B.S. as you can federalise a Giulietta on your own and sell them(except FIAT would sue you to stop it). They should have that car for sale on North American soil next year. If they don't they screwed up. Engineering new high production cars in Italy takes way to long and always has. The Asians can have the replacement model for a car they copied done by the time the Italians get the first one done. I love Italian car, but in the real world this does not work anymore. We can all see what they did with Maserati, being years behind on sales projections and years behind on the model lineup to the point of hurting dealers. This is the Italian way. By the way, I do not buy Asian cars so I have no interest in them other than when I see them kill European and American car sales. If Japan was a true free market I would not mind, but since they are not it is a concern.

Tom Tanner/Ferrari Expo 2012- Chicago March 2012

 

Isn't that what car companies do re engineer and build cars? The US market is huge and worthy of any cost/ modification needed.

 

The US-spec 500 doesn't have many US-specific "power and electronic crap", as you call it. Almost everything has been available from the beginning on the Euro-spec car. Heavy engineering work has been done on the chassis, setup, and mechanicals (vehicle integration of the already existing 1.4 NA Multiair, and the automatic transmission, which is about the only thing that the US car has that the Euro one hasn't).

Nope. Doesn't conform to NHTSA standards, mostly in the safety department. It's nowhere as easy as putting side markers on, swapping some lights, and adopting different instrument cluster.

While that used to be true, Fiat is now one of the fastest in the industry, taking as little as 15 to 18 months from design freeze to model launch.

Regarding the MiTo, they feel that such an expensive task isn't worth it at this point of the car's life cycle. As I previously wrote, the Giulietta may come sooner, benefiting from the work being done on the Dodge sedan which is under development.

 

On the Giuietta, they would have to slightly modify and crash test again. As not as big a deal as FIAT would have you believe. On the 18 month turn around, thats after they make the decision. It takes them atleast 2 years to decide what they want to do. What you say and what is happening are 2 different things. Ask any Maserati dealer and now FIAT dealer how the Italian's say one thing and end up doing another or alot less, 3 to 5 years behind schedule. FIAT better also give a great warranty package or they will fail again in the USA. The Italian's can't even beat the Asian manufactures in Italy anymore. I don't think FIAT understands timing is everything. They also don't realize they have very little chance of success with FIAT in the USA. I bet within 5 years FIAT branded cars stop selling in N.A. and FIAT rebadges everything with Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep for the N.A market. I hold out little hope for much from Alfa in N.A. We will see a few, but sales will be thousands lower that FIAT expected so they will also pull out. It hurts me to say that as I get so tired of streets filled with boring Japanese cars that all look the same. By the way, more than just safety and transmission mods were done on the FIAT 500 for the North American market. They tried to make it softer/more quiet and bland. They also overpriced the base model because they loaded it up with to much crap. FIAT is an Italian Chevy, so no status price should be applied to it. It's not even imported from outside N.A. You can buy a VW Jetta also made in Mexico just over the mountains by Mexico City for the same as a FIAT 500.

Tom Tanner/Ferrari Expo 2012-Chicago March 2012