I want one too. This is good news as newer Chrysler products were the worst ever. Except the Viper
There seems to be the general consensus that FIAT's reputation of poor quality (Fix It Again Tony) will prevent FIATs, that is any car with the badge FIAT, of ever being sold in this country, at least in the near future. The 500 will be shipped in parts to Chrysler factories and assembled with Chrysler badges. If sales are good, perhaps in the years to come, when everyone knows it's really a FIAT not Chrysler, FIAT dealerships will appear. So, i ask you my fellow italian car country men, is it still a FIAT if it says Chrysler? Can WE still get as excited about this truly exciting car without the Italian label?
Short answer: YES. BUT, I am already thinking how to de badge and get the cheesy rams off the cars and install Fiat logos! Image Unavailable, Please Login
I find this hard to believe. Do you have any sources for this information? The Fiat 500 is a cult vehicle and will sell for that reason, regarless of any current image Fiat's may have. Style, history and image sells and the Fiat 500 has that in bags. I can believe that other Fiat products may end up with Chrysler badging but rebadging the 500 with 50 years of image marketing behind it makes no sense.
This is coming form the same people who tried to sell Alfa's as grocery shopping cars in the 1990's via Chrysler. It didn't work then and this marketing team won't work now. The Italian's for some reason think Chrysler knows how to market and sell Italian cars in the USA. I have not figured out why. The other item, do you really think Daimler Benz didn't have the ability to build a small car as good as FIAT ever did when they ran Chrysler. I dont know what kind of small car technology the government is thinking they will "give" Chrysler. TT
Tom, good point, but this time will there be any "Chrysler" people left in Chrysler? I'm guessing it will be Fiat people running the show and the marketing. Daimler Chrysler did build a small car, the Smart.
Fiat DOES have small car tech MB doesn't. The 500 is 10x better than the "Smart" car...from all I have read, it is awful.
I don't know about it being awful. The Smart was very succesful here in europe, I've no idea how it went down in the USA with it's limited(?) imports. Perhaps it depends on the right environment, small european cities rather than the wide open spaces of the USA. But I agree, I also believe that Fiat build a better small car than MB.
I hope they are able to get American to buy smaller cars. So far only around 3-4 months during 2008 did that happen. By percent Americans are buying SUV/trucks again more than small cars. If the government does like Europe and puts a huge tax on fuel, that would drive the use of "green" small cars. On the marketing, FIAT and Alfa never figured out how to market themselves in the US, that being the reason Alfa turned to Chrysler(along with the dealer network) back in the 1980's and 1990's. In order to sell FIAT's and Alfa's in the US under their own name FIAT will have to build confidence for the buyers. The huge loss in value that Italian cars incur (even Maserati's) needs to be slowed somehow(something they have never fixed even in Europe). They will also have to do like companies such as Hundai and increase warranty packages so that new buyers will take a chance on their products. TT
I like the idea of taxing SUV's - why not double tax Hummers. It works in Europe. That's why so much effort and passion went into making small cars like the FIAT 600 and 500, with an equal emphasis of performance, style and affordability. But for FIAT, It's really more than marketing the right way this time. I was talking with a Maserati dealer who owned a FIAT back in the 80's. From experience, he said the main reason FIAT and Alfa failed was service. At that time, if you lived in the NY/ NJ/ CT area, there was one guy in the Bronx who serviced FIAT. (Maybe his name was Tony). You didn't have a choice where to service the car unlike other brands. This was a real inconvenience for most owners who didn't buy FIAT for the performance/ design aspect, but just needed transportation. So, why not buy a Japanese car? For FIAT to sell FIATs badged as FIAT, they would have to start from the ground up and require a huge amount of cash to establish a substantial dealer network to rival the Germans or Japanese. It's far easier to take smaller steps and utilize the manufacturing and retail resources of Chrysler. Then, hopefully, spin off from that. And, can you imagine going to a Chrysler dealer to buy a FIAT? Kind of takes the romance out of it. I'm with sjmst on this: hopefully there will be a massive demand for aftermarket items such as badges and other items to turn that Chrysler into what it really is - a FIAT. This also paves the way for Alfa. Personally, i think FIAT already screwed up on this one. But that's another story...
I think another part of the reason Alfa/Fiat failed -- and this is coming from a former Alfa owner -- was the difference in what driving means in Europe and here. Alfas and Fiats simply weren't built to drone along the highway with occupants nicely insulated inside their beachballs. Here, that was more the norm. So when people got a car that would do highways, but at higher RPM & with more noise, they didn't quite know what to do with 'em. Add to that the fact that they weren't great 'from here to the supermarket cars' (never got warmed up) and, well... they never caught on. Add to that their reputation (real or perceived) for breaking, and you've the makings of a great failure.
When do you think Fiat is going to remake a Chrsyler TC by Maserati? Isn't the circle of life amazing?
