Car Shopping...

[zooom]

50,000? That's ambitious to say the least. It will have to share the market, so it will have to be much cheaper than the mini. Plus it's an uglier car. I've never driven one so I have no idea how it handles. Is it comparable to the Golf?

more comparable to a Polo or perhaps a Chevy Aveo or Hyundai Accent.

weren't Fiat's historically unreliable?

yes...the reputation of Fiat from their previous sales jaunts in the US from 20+ years ago spurned such regular acronyms as F.I.A.T. = Fix It Again Tony and the Italian tune up of throttling it to the roof for a minute or few and giving it back to customer...their success here was only marginally better than that of Renault and Puegot...

[Randimus Maximus]

50,000? That's ambitious to say the least. It will have to share the market, so it will have to be much cheaper than the mini. Plus it's an uglier car. I've never driven one so I have no idea how it handles. Is it comparable to the Golf?

Very ambitious.

Particularly when small cars in general, although affordable and good on gas mileage, do not sell well in this country.

Add in a reborn marque and the skeletons in the closet of their reputation...tough road ahead.

I wish them well. 

Alfa Romeo has some great designs that we can't get here either.  Fiat is the door opening to that happening again.

[duccarlos]

I agree about Alfa's. They don't even have a good reputation in Europe, but they are dead sexy!! The other problem I see is that people would need to go into the Chrysler dealer.

[Randimus Maximus]

The other problem I see is that people would need to go into the Chrysler dealer.

Well, there is that too.

It will be interesting to see how they set up the dealer body.

I would have to assume it will be similar to Mini or Smart - separate showrooms for Fiat.  Perhaps something like the Scion concept. 

[zooom]

the problem with Fiat though for this whole thing is association...

with Mini, you think BMW and what is the hought association there? positive? for a Mini customer, you betcha...

with Smart, you are at a Benz dealer and what is that association? rather positive...

with a Scion...you are at a Toyota dealer and that association generally is more positive than not, even in light of recent misgivings with Toyota...

But for a Fiat customer to be walking into the range of a Chrysler showroom....it is going to take some hot sales pitching and ad's and work to get a customer past that general bad taste of the associated brand....

[duccarlos]

Ding ding ding!!

[cyrus buelton]

yes...the reputation of Fiat from their previous sales jaunts in the US from 20+ years ago spurned such regular acronyms as F.I.A.T. = Fix It Again Tony and the Italian tune up of throttling it to the roof for a minute or few and giving it back to customer...their success here was only marginally better than that of Renault and Puegot...

Renault and Puegot's are pretty much what everyone in europe drives (in my personal viewing experience, no concrete facts to support that. I know the britt's like honda's).

Did they import some shitty car when they sold them here or has the brand in general gotten more reliable?

[duccarlos]

Peugeot, not Puegot, generally look cool. I place my standards on what Top Gear reviews and I don't remember the last time they reviewed one. If they don't even waste their time on it, then I would probably not try it either.

[zooom]

Renault and Puegot's are pretty much what everyone in europe drives (in my personal viewing experience, no concrete facts to support that. I know the britt's like honda's).

Did they import some shitty car when they sold them here or has the brand in general gotten more reliable?

Renault LeCar's, Fuego's, and anything they brought here turned lemon and soured the American car buying market...and for Peugeot..it was similar with the cars they brought here....504,505, 205's all got a bad wrap...American's in the 80's were very finicky about buying these cars...and the manufacturers were slow to cater to parts and service supply for them....there are other greats that came here and failed too...Look at Merkur, Sterling and Alfa Romeo just to name a few...

[cyrus buelton]

I still don't know why people buy Range Rover's.

I know two people with them and I think they are in rental cars more than their ungodly expensive hunk of metal.

[ducatiz]

I keep hearing bad things about the VW's. Even from people that live in Europe. Funny how they prefer to drive Fords over there. Go figure. I can't really give you good advise when I have a thread myself asking for car advise. I am trying to narrow the list by doing test drives. I hate dealing with dealers, but they turn into their asshole selfs when I tell them I'm not looking at buying until next year. When I know what I'm buying, I'll be doing everything else online.

All the folks I know in Italy drive Fiats, Volvos and VWs.

VWs do very well, they are not luxury cars.  The Lupo is a great seller esp with 80 mpg.

[ducatiz]

Renault LeCar's, Fuego's, and anything they brought here turned lemon and soured the American car buying market...and for Peugeot..it was similar with the cars they brought here....504,505, 205's all got a bad wrap...American's in the 80's were very finicky about buying these cars...and the manufacturers were slow to cater to parts and service supply for them....there are other greats that came here and failed too...Look at Merkur, Sterling and Alfa Romeo just to name a few...

yeah, well the 1980s were not good years for American cars either...

[GAAN]

yeah, well the 1980s were not good years for American cars either...

I was just going to mention that you really can't put the 80's in perspective without a line or seven

then I saw your avatar

[ducatiz]

I was just going to mention that you really can't put the 80's in perspective without a line or seven

then I saw your avatar

for posterity:

[ducatiz]

I agree about Alfa's. They don't even have a good reputation in Europe, but they are dead sexy!! The other problem I see is that people would need to go into the Chrysler dealer.

Chrysler dealers are being given first option but there will be plenty of independent Alfa/Fiat dealers.