2014 Fiat 500l Trekking on 2040-cars

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Fiat builds 1 millionth 500, still a ways to go before passing original

There are now 1.1 million examples of the new Fiat 500 cruising the roads of 83 countries, one million of them made at the Fiat's Tychy plant in Poland, the rest in the Fiat plant in Toluca, Mexico. It's taken 69 months since the car's 2007 launch to reach the milestone, the capstone hatchback being an Abarth 500.
Where does that fit into the historical context? We'll never know, since you can't really compare. But if we played with the numbers, according to Automania, Fiat built 3,893,294 of the original 500 (and variants) from its inception in 1957 to the last model being sent off in 1975. If we average the output over time, and assume an even 18-year production run, the total production divided by 216 months is about 18,025 cars per month, which would make for 1,243,725 cars in 69 months.
On the other hand, the first two generations of the early 500 didn't equate to a million units in eight years, so congratulations Fiat. There's a brief press release below with a few more details on the achievement.

Fiat 500 facelift found

Following a tumultuous few years on the US market (not to mention the several years it was sold in Europe before crossing the pond) Fiat is preparing a moderate refresh of its bread-and-butter 500 hatchback. As you can tell by the Hannibal Lecter look of this particular prototype, the focus of these updates will be on the front and rear clips. Sadly, it's virtually impossible to pick up any of the details due to the rather obtrusive camouflage. Although they're typically part of a mid-cycle update, it looks like Fiat will be leaving the headlights and taillights of the city car alone for the next model year. Beyond that, though, this is quite light as far as updates go. As for when we could see the freshened 500, it's open for debate. Geneva is certainly a possibility, as is April's New York Auto Show. Be sure to keep your eyes open then.

FCA explains, updates sales reporting in wake of investigation

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) is currently under investigation by the Department of Justice (DoJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for possible misappropriation of monthly sales. Not only that but a dealer group filed a lawsuit against the auto company for allegedly bribing dealers to falsify sales reports. In the wake of these mounting pressures, FCA released a report explaining their old sales reporting methods, as well as introducing the method they will use now. The report explains that sales will break down into three main categories. The first category is simply sales made by dealers in the United States that were purchased by your typical consumer. The second group is fleet sales that were purchased directly from FCA. The final group is a mix of various sales including sales by Puerto Rican dealers, cars used for marketing, and vehicles delivered to FCA employees and retirees. The original method of recording these sales relied mainly on the New Vehicle Delivery Report (NVDR). This system allowed dealers to report new car sales at the time of sale. These sales were used to create and report a total at the end of each month. Dealers also had the ability to "unwind" sales. What this means is that a dealer could cancel the sale of a car that was reported as sold in the event that a customer couldn't purchase the car or wanted a different vehicle. This would also return factory incentives to Chrysler and end the warranty period. Fleet and other sales were not recorded through this system, and were rather included in a separate "reserve" of vehicles. FCA explained that it did not know why this was the case, but the company speculated the reason may have been to avoid reporting vehicles that hadn't made it to road use yet. FCA also emphasized that their retail sales reports do not reflect quarterly earnings. The company explained that those earnings are based on vehicles purchased from FCA, which includes sales like the cars dealers buy for their local inventories. The new method also shows FCA's long run of sales increases wasn't as long as first thought. FCA has adopted a new system for calculating sales in light of concerns and confusion. This system retains the categories listed above, but changes how it counts them. The dealer reported numbers will now only include sold vehicles and will deduct sales of unwound vehicles that month.