2013 Fiat 500 Abarth 5speed Heated Leather Alloys 3k Mi Texas Direct Auto on 2040-cars

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Fiat's Marchionne ponders Chrysler going public again

Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne says there's a real possibility that its majority-owned Chrysler Group may eventually return to the ranks of publicly traded companies. According to Bloomberg, the Fiat and Chrysler CEO gives that a "50 percent chance" of happening, but he doesn't appear to favor that scenario: "My preference is to be one single company... we belong together."
Marchionne has seemingly been operating under the assumption that Fiat will eventually own all of Chrysler, working to buy up the shares it doesn't own and looking to buy out the retiree trust fund that it shares Chrysler ownership with. Certainly, Chrysler going independent again would be increasingly difficult, as the companies continue to blend products, technologies, facilities and staffing, a trend started immediately after the Italian automaker became custodian of the brand following Chrysler's bankruptcy in 2009.
Marchionne's remarks to the media came at Chrysler's Kokomo, Indiana plant, where he was on hand to announce a major investment at four facilities in the state to build eight- and nine-speed automatic transmissions.

2024 Fiat 500e First Drive Review: Reborn EV packs style, plays music out its bumper

MIAMI – It's been hard times for Fiat fans. The brand discontinued its 500 model line after 2019, leaving only the four-door crossover-ized 500X on sale, and while it planned to introduce the replacement for its 500e electric city car around that time, a little pandemic threw a wrench in the works. Now, in 2024, the folks from Turin are finally ready to let Americans taste the Dolce Vita offered by that new 500e. Has the wait been worth it? I went to Miami to find out. As you'd expect, the 2024 Fiat 500e is once again a fully electric city car. Unlike its predecessor (2013-2019), this 500e feels like a more complete EV package than a "compliance car" meant to satisfy regulations in states like California. The "New Fiat 500" has been on sale in Europe since 2020, so while this is a new model for the United States, it's by now a well-established platform. Like the old 500e, the 2024 500e features a front-wheel-drive layout, with a permanent magnet motor providing a whopping 117 horsepower and 162 pound-feet of torque. That motor is paired with a 42-kilowatt-hour battery (around 38 of which is usable, per Fiat engineers) for an EPA-estimated range of 141 with all-season tires. That doesn't sound like a lot – and it isn't – but this isn't a vehicle designed for long road trips or super-commuters. Fiat claims a 0-60 time of 8.5 seconds and a top speed of 94 mph, but I suspect that driving at that speed would be trouser-browningly sketchy. Not that the 500e feels unstable around town (Fiat didn't include any highway driving during my brief stint with the car). It offers the kind of quick, accurate steering and subcompact agility that made the original 500e so much more fun to drive than it needed to be. The steering is light but not overly so and offers a very tight turning circle of just 31.5 feet, making the "Oh wait, there's a parking spot! Get it!" maneuver much easier than it would be in a larger vehicle. While the steering is awesome, the 500e's ride isn't as pleasant. It's not unladen-full-size-truck brutal by any means, but calling it busy over broken city streets feels like a charitable way of putting it. This isn't an expensive car with sophisticated suspension, and, again, given its intended use case, I wouldn't count the ride as a huge point against it. One of the biggest leaps forward from the old 500e to this new version is the addition of DC fast charging capability.

Is your new-car warranty good at the race track?

We've all heard the horror stories. Your buddy knows a girl that was dating a guy whose best friend's brother once broke his brand-new, recently purchased performance car while making runs at a drag strip or laps at a track day, and the manufacturer wouldn't cover the repair under warranty. True story? Urban legend? Complete crap? Yes, no, maybe. One thing's for sure: Automotive warranties have always come with caveats. In 1908, an ad in the Trenton Evening Times clearly stated: "All Ford Cars Guaranteed for One Year." Although it changed over time, by 1925 the Ford New Car Guarantee only covered 90 days on material and 30 days on labor, and it clearly stated that that there was "No guarantee whatever on Fan Belts, Glass, Bulbs, Wiring, Transmission, Bands, Hose Connections, Commutator Shells, Rollers, Spark Plugs or Gaskets." Whether or not Ol' Henry would pay to fix your Model T if you broke it shaving a tenth off your lap time at the local board track seems to be lost to history. We're guessing no. But what about today? Do new-car warranties in 2017 cover cars when they are driven on race tracks? We researched the warranties of 14 auto brands to find out, and the answer is yes, no, maybe, depending on the brand, in some cases the model, and whether or not your car is modified from stock. Acura has been out of the high-performance car game for a number of years, but jumps back into the party in 2017 with its hybrid-powered $173,000 NSX supercar. And Acura's warranty, as well as Honda's, clearly states that it does not cover "the use of the vehicle in competition or racing events." View 33 Photos So we asked Sage Marie, Senior Manager of Public Relations for Honda and Acura. "If the car is stock, the warranty covers it on a track just as it does on the street. No question," he told us. "However, if the car is modified, say with slick tires or other components that would put higher stresses on the vehicle's parts and systems, then we would have to investigate the circumstances further." Marie went on to say the same would be true for any Acura model or Honda vehicle, including the new 2017 Honda Civic Si. This became a common theme. Chevrolet actually started this practice with the fifth-generation Camaro on the high-performance ZL1 and Z/28 models.