To allay concerns about reliability--Fiats still rank near the bottom of owner-satisfaction surveys in Europe, and "Fix It Again Tony" remains lodged in the memory of potential American buyers--Fiat has included a 50, 000-mile warranty on the 500 and free maintenance for three years.
So we are now at the point where Chrysler is supposed to report back to us in the next day or two about their plans for a potential merger with Fiat -- and the Fiat management has actually done a good job transforming their industry.
The good deed, along with a promise to share fuel-efficient small car technology, earned Fiat a 20 percent stake in Chrysler under a government-brokered bankruptcy reorganization.
Unless Fiat-Chrysler has a secret plan to power cars with giant, watch-like mainsprings, electrification (along the spectrum of hybrid, plug-in, and battery-electric vehicle designs) will be a growing part of the product story in the U.S. Why curse it?
WSJ: Fiat 500e Review: The Bosses Don't Love It, but You Will
Total Car Score compiled a list of 10 other vehicles that are going away in 2013, including the Hyundai Veracruz (replaced by a larger Santa Fe), the Mazda CX-7 (replaced by more fuel-efficient CX-5), and the Jeep Liberty (to be replaced next year by a Fiat-designed Jeep).
The cheapest models of four of the five top-selling cars, made by General Motors, Volkswagen and Fiat, received a one-star rating, out of five stars, while other top sellers also scored poorly.
Due to various agreements, Fiat must achieve certain milestones before expanding its ownership in the company, such as producing a 40-mile-per-gallon vehicle off a Fiat platform in the U.S. This would grant the Italian automaker an option to acquire an additional 5%, taking its total equity stake to 57% later this year.
FORBES: Fiat To Take Chrysler Stake To 57%, Plans To Buy 6% From Treasury
Now you can be greener and zippy in a tiny Fiat, bossy and emission-free in a Tesla Model S or moderately fuel conservative in the official cornerstone of hybrids, the Toyota Prius.
Was the shift driven by core business softness that precluded further investment, the personal fiat of a short-tenured CEO or a justifiable reaction to disappointing sales?
Marchionne has a reputation as a brilliant turnaround specialist for bringing Fiat back from near-death almost a decade ago and then doing it again at Chrysler more recently.
FORBES: Fiat's Marchionne Gets 'Hugs, But Not Kisses' And No Help From Rivals
If Fiat, with 4% of worldwide share, folded its tent, GM's European operations could go after those assets it really needs--like Fiat's diesel engine capability--at a bargain price.
The two higher-priced models feature nice add-ons like a USB port and Fiat's hands-free communications and entertainment system.
Fiat workers plan a 12-hour strike on Wednesday, the second in a week at the stricken carmaker.
Two years later Cerberus was about to give up and liquidate Chrysler when the two governments brought in Fiat and staged a last-minute rescue.
Sceptics believe that Chrysler has lost most of its product-development talent and question whether a small-car specialist like Fiat can give it the kind of vehicles it needs to win back market share in America, which accounts for 80% of its sales.
There was already a contract for Fiat to supply 20-30 thousand engines for the SX4, which would be assembled in a factory in Hungary.
FORBES: The VW-Suzuki Split and Japanese Corporate Globalization
Unfortunately, he did it by charging sky-high interest rates for borrowing fiat dollars, rather than by returning to a gold-defined dollar.
FORBES: The Mystery Of Income Inequality Broken Down To One Simple Chart
Her first assignment is to launch the pint-size Fiat 500 minicar to a nation of SUV drivers through a dealer network that does not yet exist.
The important thing is that people learn the meme that there is such a thing as a non-fiat based currency that has real value and works for them.
For years, it has raced ahead of the Premier Padmini, a roomier but relatively unwieldy and less fuel-efficient car modeled on a 1951 Fiat, and the Fiat Uno, which sold only 8, 500 units in the past year.
To understand the importance of the mix, says Max Warburton of Bernstein Research, compare the cost of producing a small car such as the popular Fiat 500 with that of making a hulking sport-utility vehicle such as the Audi Q7.
And as a student he had worked during the holidays in various factories belonging to the Fiat group: on a car-production line in Poland, in a dealership in France and in a component factory in the English Midlands, where he boarded with a very ordinary English family.
The Fiat was being driven by a 27-year-old woman, who the police said sustained minor injuries along with a female passenger.
Even if a Fiat alliance does result in some small, fuel-efficient European vehicles getting to the American market it will be a couple of years before the tie-up is running properly, developing the vehicles that Chrysler cannot afford to do alone.
By handing her the keys to Fiat's brand-new North American business, Marchionne entrusted Soave with a crucial element in the risky alliance between Fiat and Chrysler he hopes to turn into an automotive empire on the scale of Toyota, General Motors and Volkswagen.
Unlike Renault-Nissan Chief Carlos Ghosn or Chrysler-Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne, Winterkorn is a classic car guy.
Because GDP expansion is driven by long-term capital investment, a fiat dollar retards real economic growth.
FORBES: The Fiat Dollar: As Unreliable As My 1971 Fiat 124 Sedan
应用推荐