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Investors want answers about Marchionne’s final days

The mystery of Sergio Marchionne's surprise death last week continues, with investors now questioning the timeliness of disclosures by the company and family. Bloomberg reports that Italy's market regulator is making a routine check into how Fiat Chrysler handled communications regarding his illness. Fiat Chrysler's stock is down 12 percent in both Italy and on the New York Stock Exchange since the announcement of Marchionne's death. University Hospital Zurich last week issued a statement saying that Marchionne, who died July 25 while recovering from an unspecified should surgery, had been treated for more than a year for a serious illness that it didn't define. Marchionne's family told Reuters the companies hadn't been aware of his health conditions. The Italian business website Lettera 43 reported July 5, and FCA later confirmed, that Marchionne had undergone shoulder surgery in a Swiss hospital. But the company later denied a July 20 report by the website that Fiat Chairman John Elkann planned to meet with company leaders to divide Marchionne's responsibilities. Yet the FCA board indeed met on July 21 and chose Mike Manley, who had formerly overseen the Jeep and Ram brands, to succeed Marchionne as CEO. The company on July 25 published a brief statement acknowledging the former CEO's death. "Unfortunately, what we feared has come to pass. Sergio Marchionne, man and friend, is gone," Elkann said in the statement. Marchionne told no one outside his inner circle — reportedly not even Elkann — that he was seriously ill. His partner, Manuela Battezzato, who works in Fiat's press department, told Bloomberg that Marchionne's family didn't tell the company about his health condition. The famously hard-working CEO, who had quit smoking about a year ago, had also reportedly stopped responding to messages and calls from some advisors since the end of June. People close to him told Bloomberg that Marchionne died from complications following the shoulder surgery, including two cardiac arrests. Image Credit: Ferrari flags hang at half-staff at the Hungarian Grand Prix / Getty Chrysler Fiat Sergio Marchionne

2017 Fiat 124 Spider priced below most Miatas

The Fiat 124 Spider and Mazda MX-5 Miata might be siblings, but all that means is the rivalry between the two cars will be unusually intense. Pricing for the reborn 124 has been released and is added proof of that fact – aside from the very base trim, the turbocharged Italian is cheaper than its Zoom-Zoomy brother. Fiat's base model, the 124 Spider Classica, starts at $25,990. The MX-5 Sport isn't much cheaper, at $25,735. Both cars get 16-inch alloy wheels, black cloth seats, LED taillights, but the Mazda will throw in LED headlights. It's also interesting to note that the two cars have differing destination charges – $995 for the Fiat and $820 for the Mazda. Move up to the mid-range Fiat, and you'll start to see the "Italian" car eke out a pricing advantage. The Lusso, Italian for luxury, rings up at $28,490 compared to the MX-5 Grand Touring's $30,885. Yes, we're comparing the middle-tier 124 to the range-topping Mazda, because the mid-range, enthusiast-oriented Club is more analogous to the 124's Abarth model. The Lusso matches the MX-5 GT with 17-inch alloys, heated leather seats, a 7.0-inch touchscreen with navigation, and dual-zone automatic climate control. The Mazda does come with a bevy of safety features as standard – blind-spot monitoring, lane-departure warning, and automatic high-beam control – which look to be optional on the Fiat, so take that into consideration if you're thinking about buying one of the two. We enthusiasts are most interested in the matchup between the 124 Spider Abarth and the MX-5 Club. The scorpion-badged 124 starts at $29,190 and the Club at $29,420. You'll get more power – 10 additional ponies according to FCA – as well as all the performance goodies from the Club. There are Bilstein-tuned shocks, a mechanical limited-slip diff, and a front strut bar, plus a very imposing exhaust note. Recaro seats will be an optional extra, as will Brembo brakes (the MX-5 bundles them with BBS wheels). Finally, there's the 124 Spider Prima Edizione Lusso. The limited-edition wears Azzurro Italia (translation: pretty blue) paint and rings in at $35,995, which gets you a bunch of swag on top of the normal Lusso stuff. Oh, and if you choose the automatic transmission, you'll be punished with a $1,350 charge, regardless of which Fiata you go for. That's less than the premium Mazda charges for an automatic on an MX-5 Club or GT, but more than the $1,480 extra it charges for a two-pedal Sport.

Fiat Chrysler, GM are trying 7-year 0% loans, online buying to lift plunging sales

With auto showrooms shut during the coronavirus pandemic, Fiat Chrysler and General Motors moved to reboot demand with seven-year, no-interest loans and programs allowing customers to buy vehicles online. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' new "Drive Forward" marketing program includes online shopping tools that will for the first time allow U.S. customers to complete the purchase of a vehicle through an FCA dealer without setting foot in a dealership, a company spokesman said. The move toward online sales and home delivery breaks with a long U.S. auto sector tradition of manufacturers giving franchised dealers control of sales to consumers. Dealers have fought Tesla 's efforts to sell vehicles directly to consumers through its website. GM and Fiat Chrysler's promotions of extended, no-interest loans — made less costly by the Federal Reserve's recent interest rate cuts — echo the "Keep America Rolling" sales push GM launched to jump start a paralyzed consumer market after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But the pandemic has been pulling auto retailing into the digital age, with dealerships shuttered across the country and sales likely to take a further beating in April as social distancing guidelines remain in place.   Related: Auto sales drop in March as coronavirus hits demand, output   FCA shares were down 4.9% to $6.84 in afternoon trading in New York after the company posted a 10% drop in first-quarter U.S. auto sales, as the pandemic hurt demand and halted production from mid-March. The company, however, did not break out sales by month. General Motors reported its first-quarter sales fell 7% because of significant declines in March, and said customers can use its existing "Shop.Click.Drive." program to find, purchase and arrange for home delivery of a vehicle. A GM spokeswoman said across the Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac brands the automaker has seen two to four times greater online site visits and sales leads than before the pandemic. Hyundai said earlier that its U.S. sales fell 43% in March due to the pandemic. "It goes without saying that the entire world is facing a tremendous challenge that is having a significant impact on business and our normal way of life," Randy Parker, vice president for sales at Hyundai Motor America, said in a statement. Toyota said its sales were down nearly 37% in March and 8.8% for the quarter. Nissan reported a 27% drop in first-quarter sales.