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Has Fiat Laid Yet Another Egg In The U.S.?
With the exception of exotics like Ferraris and Maseratis, the U.S. has been a cold harbor for Italian cars.
The last Alfa Romeos and Fiats were sold here over 30 years ago and neither brand, while popular elsewhere, was able to make inroads for obvious reasons: While Alfas were cute (think of Benjamim Braddock zipping around in his Spider in The Graduate), they were quirky and unreliable. Fiats weren’t even cute and there was no market for mini-cars, while the dealer networks for both marques were thin and parts were sometimes hard to come by.
But Fiat, which bailed out Chrysler last year after Daimler Benz asked for and got a divorce, is trying again in the form of the Fiat 500, a mini whose closest competitor is BMW Group’s Mini Cooper.
If early sales are any indication, Fiat has laid yet another egg.
Automotive News reports that through Octobe, fewer than 16,000 units of the 500 had been sold, significantly behind Fiat’s 50,000-unit full-year goal. Meanwhile, 47,050 Mini Coopers were snapped up through the first 10 months of the year.
Yet again, the biggest reason is that while the under-the-skin mechanicals of the 500 are up to date, the design is long-in-tooth, so long that it’s easy to imagine Sophia Loren driving around Rome in one in some 1960s-era movie.
Making matters worse, not unlike the government of the mother country, FIAT USA is in flux. It has been slow to assemble a dealer network and recently replaced the head of its stateside operations with someone “who will bring a fresh perspective,” according to a Fiat press release.
Translation: We’re blowing it.
8 Responses to “Has Fiat Laid Yet Another Egg In The U.S.?”
FIAT= Fix It Again Tony
Ford also has a similar slight.
FORD = Found On Road Dead
Fix it Again Tony? Clever!
Right, that’s the degree of thought that goes into most reviews. The opinion of anyone who has never so much as driven a new 500 is near worthless. I have 19k on mine and I love it. Too soon to call it a success or failure, with less than 1 year on the market. We will see.
Market for small cars that are used for short trips around town and to and from work is limited. Right now the mini has captured much of that market as it has more functionality than the 500. Right now the market is nowhere near what it is for family sized cars that allows for multiple uses like vacation trips for 4.
runout east:
Glad you like your 500. Since Fiat is selling them through Chrysler network dealers, they presumably will tough it out even if sales continue to tank. Getting replacement parts will be another matter.
The mini already has a strong brand and a place in pop culture. Current sales numbers may not be a good measure of the 500′s future. They’ll need strong reliability records to ever make it into the US market.
Personally, I’d never buy a Fiat.
maybe for 5 bucks…
More FUD about Fiat.
I’ve owned several Fiats over the years, and continue to have a vintage Fiat in the garage. For all the “you’ll never find parts” fears, I have more problems getting parts for my 6 year old Subaru than I’ve ever had for any of the Fiats (131, Brava, Spyder, X1/9) that I’ve owned, and can easily find parts for my 32 year-old X1/9.
Fiats of that era did deserve the rust bucket reputation they had, but not the poor reliability reputation they also had. A large number of the “reliability” issues could be traced back to mechanics raised on Fords and Chevys trying to service a Fiat the same way, never imagining that a different brand of car may require different servicing techniques. Most had never seen a belt-driven overhead cam engine so they just knew that there was something wrong with the engine. Now it is one of the most common engine layouts used. My old Fiats had other strange things like fuel injection, 4 wheel disc brakes, and MacPherson strut suspension, all again common today. Fiat certainly didn’t invent these devices, but they didn’t hesitate to use them. Unlike the domestic auto makes.
Will the 500 make it and bring more Fiat models into the US market is an open question, but I wouldn’t bet against it.
For God’s Sake, stop with the Fix-it-Again-Tony crap. Cars are just better now than they were 30+ years ago, across *all* manufacturers.
I have a FIAT 500 and it’s an absolute blast to drive. It’s a very solid little machine that gets great gas mileage. In fact, we’re getting an Abarth edition as soon as they come out.
I could write you a screed about the Chrysler-Daimler-Cerebus-FIAT saga, but really don’t have the time right now. Suffice it to say, I know more about this than you EVER will. And Chrysler has a real partner in FIAT. They’ve been upfront, generous with their management and resources and the company’s trajectory is in the right direction.