14 Fiat 500l Lounge 13k 1 Owner Beats By Dre Navigation Pdc Rear Cam Pano Alloys on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Just 45% of Fiat dealers are profitable, and they're angry about it

<
On average, Fiat dealers have only been selling about 17 cars a month.
We've been wondering for some time how Fiat dealers in North America have been getting along with just one model range in their showrooms up until recently. Franchisees spent millions building, stocking and manning sleek new 'studio' showrooms, only to have but a single model to sell, the cherubic 500. And even with its many derivatives, the Cinquecento is still an inexpensive model with its attendant lower margins. Perhaps it should come as no surprise then, that just 45 percent of US Fiat dealers are said to be profitable.

Junkyard Gem: 2012 Fiat 500 Sport

Fiat left the United States after selling its last Stradas, 124 Sport Spiders and X1/9s as 1982 models, taking Lancia with it. Malcolm Bricklin continued importing the 124 Sport Spider and X1/9 (with Pininfarina and Bertone badging) for a few more years, but it just wasn't the same for American fans of the venerable Italian manufacturer. Fast-forward to Chrysler's Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009 and Fiat's investment in the company and it wasn't long before the announcement came that Fiat was returning to our shores. The first Fabbrica Italiana Automobil di Torino product to hit our streets as part of that deal was the 500, which debuted as a 2012 model. That's serious automotive history, which is what this series is all about, so I have documented this first-year 500 in a Denver car graveyard. I've written about many, many discarded Fiats over the years, including some respectably old cars, but the Nuova Cinquecento never sold very well here, and the surviving examples tend to be too valuable to end up in a Ewe Pullet. That car was built from 1957 through 1975 and was a huge success in Europe, with nearly 4 million units sold, and its name reminded Europeans of its just-as-beloved 500 Topolino predecessor. A retro-styled modern 500 made a great deal of sense, and Polish-built 500s hit European showrooms beginning in 2007. While the 500 name didn't conjure up happy childhood memories with American car shoppers, so what? The car looked adorable and those old enough to have unpleasant memories of the temperamental Fiats of the 1970s probably weren't going to care what old Fiat model it looked like. I am old enough to remember those 1970s Fiats (my parents bought a pair of new Fiat 128s when I was in the first grade), but I was excited about Fiat's return in 2011 and reviewed a 500 Sport in April of that year. It wasn't a great fit with the tastes of mainstream American vehicle shoppers, sadly, and it got the axe here after 2019. A new electron-fueled 500e should be available any minute now, so the American Fiat 500 story is nowhere near finished. This car has the Sport trim level, so its MSRP was $17,500 (about $23,959 in 2024 dollars). It has the optional six-speed automatic transmission, which added $1,000 to the price ($1,369 after inflation). The engine is a 1.4-liter MultiAir straight-four rated at 101 horsepower and 98 pound-feet. Members of this engine family have powered everything from the Alfa Romeo Giulietta to the Jeep Renegade.

China own a Detroit automaker? Would the U.S. let that happen?

The news that several Chinese automakers want to buy Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and that one has even made an offer, elicits some mixed feelings. On one hand, as some have pointed out, it could be a win-win both for China and for FCA's American workers, ensuring the company's survival and opening new markets. On the other hand, this is China, whose trade relationship with the U.S. is the source of considerable scrutiny from the Trump administration — and whose not-a-friend, not-an-enemy status is particularly difficult to gauge right now during heightened tensions with its client state North Korea. So would such a deal pass regulatory muster? One reason that springs to mind for blocking any sale has to do with national security. Chrysler's role as a military supplier dates back to Dodge trucks used by Gen. Blackjack Pershing to chase Pancho Villa in Mexico, and shortly thereafter by American forces in World War I. The Detroit Three automakers were, of course, mainstays of the Arsenal of Democracy of World War II. Even before U.S. entry into the war in December 1941, America's industrial machinery went into overdrive, and Chrysler was one of the biggest cogs. It engineered and built the M3, Sherman and Pershing tanks and trucks for Gen. George Patton's Redball Express. It helped develop a radar-guided antiaircraft gun that knocked German bombers and V1 rockets out of the sky — on one day, shooting down 97 of 101 V1s headed for London. On D-Day, the radar system helped thwart Luftwaffe counterattacks on the beaches of Normandy, and it later helped Allied forces break out at the Battle of the Bulge. Chrysler redesigned the Wright Cyclone engines used by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, the plane that firebombed Tokyo and dropped the atomic bombs that ended the war. Chrysler even played a secret role refining uranium in Oak Ridge, Tenn., that was used in the Hiroshima bomb and in the ensuing Cold War arms race. It worked on military missiles and was NASA's prime contractor for the Saturn V rocket that put men on the moon. More recently, Chrysler produced the M1 Abrams tank. And of course Chrysler is the keeper of the flame for Jeep, a 75-plus-years military legacy handed down from Bantam and Willys to Kaiser to AMC to Chrysler. The point of this history lesson is to note that in times of war or national emergency, America's industrial might has been called to serve, and may well be called on again.