brigguscoop
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I can't believe JLo would put people off the 500. Personally I never liked the Uma Thurman Giulietta ad but it wouldn't put me off the car. The Abarth ad brilliant though!
General 500 USA launch branded a failure
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General 500 USA launch branded a failure
Personally I buy a car on its usefulness to my needs not because of what some celebrity (whatever that is) says.
The amount of people that buy a car without even test driving it properly or at all makes me laugh.
The amount of people that buy a car without even test driving it properly or at all makes me laugh.
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Celeb adverts (in fact any car adverts) are not directed at the likes of people who are sufficiently interested in cars to be reading and contributing on car forums. They are directed at people who see cars as washing machines - intended to get the car into those people's consciousness in the first place.
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Yes, but would you use Hitler to advertise your product?
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You just don't like that woman do you Daniel?!
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I didn't say she was Hitler, I'm merely trying to make the point that you can't just use any celeb
If we go by the letter of your post, Hitler would be a great choice because everyone knows Hitler and it would get the car into everyone's consciousness
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It's my birthday - I refuse to argue with you.
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Happy Birthday.
And, happy birthday from me too!
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*wonders if RobinPJ posted what he did on purpose because he knew I'd disagree with him and therefore he could say it was his birthday*
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*wonders if RobinPJ posted what he did on purpose because he knew I'd disagree with him and therefore he could say it was his birthday*
Actually no. I tell everyone.
Happy Birthday Robin.
I guess you must have forgot to add it to your profile. As such it doesn't appear in the forum list, hence I didn't get a chance to get you a gift, lol.
However, talking of Birthdays, there is another very important one due very soon.
FIAT Forum is 10 Years old on Sunday 15th March 2012 @ 17:23 GMT. :worship:
I shall be raising a glass, (or two).
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I'm not suprised it's not selling well. Most americans Think they need all this space to carry stuff, and never use it. I can't even count how many people I see in SUV's with only a driver. they also have this Image that being in a SUV they're better off driving in adverse conditions, or in accidents, and being up higher is better for driving. Accidents are the only time I could see a SUV being better, although it depends on accident (I've seen plenty of accidents caused by SUV's weither or not directly the fault of the driver.) My fiat got rear ended and took little damage. Now it may seem like I'm attacking only SUV drivers, but them and truck drivers are the people I see most not using the vehicle for what it was designed for, and are wasting resources. You don't need an escalade to pick up your children, maybe station wagons arent cool enough or some crap like that, But most wagons have as much space as a SUV, with much better MPG's and handling. People over here are also much more likely to not keep a car for a length of time. I'd bet most cars I see on the road are leased, and nobody would want to lease a car as inexpensive as a 500.
Short story,
For the first time in my fathers life, He purchased a new car, I was trying to get him into a wagon, because he does a lot of gardening as a hobby, while discussing this, he reminded me he buys small trees and things time to time, so he'd need an SUV for height. We wound up buying a Honda element, because we've owned mostly Hondas, and becasue it's one of the few SUV's made where it wasn't american'd out (Leather, carpets, satnav, etc etc) as I call it, because of his hobbies he would ruin the interior in a month. So he got the rubber floor, scotch guarded interior, he can haul all his things for work and all the dirty crap he wants cause it's easy to clean out.
My point is, even if he uses that everyday for DD (and carries stuff to and from work) He is one of the few people I know that actually uses that SUV for what it was designed for.
My 500 sport is my first new car, and i purchased it over many other options because I transport things time to time, but nothing really nasty aside from car parts, so I can fold seats down for extra room, but I mostly commute. I can't deal with a trunk because I need the space. So the car gets great MPG's handles like a go-kart, I can carry 4 adults in it (and have already). I was going to purchase a Subaru Legacy gt SpecB, but ill never use the power on the roads, and the trunk wasnt big enough, so what's the point.
Now my opnion will be slightly biased, as I live in NY, on Long Island. I KNOW there is plenty of people that use the automobile of thier choice for what it was designed to do.
Point of my post is, Most people looking to buy a new car, have been driving for a few years. People need to look at the past and stop buying cars based on what they may do, and what they will actually do with it.
Short story,
For the first time in my fathers life, He purchased a new car, I was trying to get him into a wagon, because he does a lot of gardening as a hobby, while discussing this, he reminded me he buys small trees and things time to time, so he'd need an SUV for height. We wound up buying a Honda element, because we've owned mostly Hondas, and becasue it's one of the few SUV's made where it wasn't american'd out (Leather, carpets, satnav, etc etc) as I call it, because of his hobbies he would ruin the interior in a month. So he got the rubber floor, scotch guarded interior, he can haul all his things for work and all the dirty crap he wants cause it's easy to clean out.
My point is, even if he uses that everyday for DD (and carries stuff to and from work) He is one of the few people I know that actually uses that SUV for what it was designed for.
My 500 sport is my first new car, and i purchased it over many other options because I transport things time to time, but nothing really nasty aside from car parts, so I can fold seats down for extra room, but I mostly commute. I can't deal with a trunk because I need the space. So the car gets great MPG's handles like a go-kart, I can carry 4 adults in it (and have already). I was going to purchase a Subaru Legacy gt SpecB, but ill never use the power on the roads, and the trunk wasnt big enough, so what's the point.
Now my opnion will be slightly biased, as I live in NY, on Long Island. I KNOW there is plenty of people that use the automobile of thier choice for what it was designed to do.
Point of my post is, Most people looking to buy a new car, have been driving for a few years. People need to look at the past and stop buying cars based on what they may do, and what they will actually do with it.
Getting back to the main road of this thread, I feel that Fiat made a couple of mistakes in starting up their sales here in the USA. As far as I am concerned, I think they need to expand their dealer network. They started out with this exclusive "studio" concept, but this has kept the Fiat 500 line a bit too exclusive. For example, I live on Long Island and when I tap in my zip code I get only one dealer within 33 miles of my home. Oh there are other dealers in that radius, but they are across Long Island Sound in Connecticut! Two miles from my home is an excellent Chrysler/Jeep dealer that is the easternmost dealership. There are no more dealerships to the east and one dealership 33 miles to the west. Folks, if you want Fiat to do better, add more dealerships to your arsenal.
As much as I love the Abarth 500, I do wish Fiat could come up with an automatic clutch design for that model. That would allow me to possibly improve the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor). So far, the ONLY color Abarth I've seen available out here has been black. What's wrong with an Abarth car being in red??? My 1960 Abarth zagato was red, and that was the way God intended it to be!
Right now I'm hoping for my local dealership to become a Fiat outlet because they are a great dealership in addition to being next door. If they started handling Fiat, watch out!
As much as I love the Abarth 500, I do wish Fiat could come up with an automatic clutch design for that model. That would allow me to possibly improve the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor). So far, the ONLY color Abarth I've seen available out here has been black. What's wrong with an Abarth car being in red??? My 1960 Abarth zagato was red, and that was the way God intended it to be!
Right now I'm hoping for my local dealership to become a Fiat outlet because they are a great dealership in addition to being next door. If they started handling Fiat, watch out!
The latest Charlie Sheen Abarth ad seems like another impending nightmare - why choose another controversial 'marmite' celebrity... :bang:
All it needs is Jay Leno to extol the little car's virtues, or even have some jokes/skits made around it on the David Letterman show, something tasteful to get exposure...?
Look at Apple - they're good at selling new products and re-inventing a market niche, yet they don't have to pay for celebrities.
Where did you first learn about the iPod? I had to seek it out - there were no TV ads and no iPods in shops, I ordered it from overseas, and that was a third-gen iPod in 2003. Sales of the first, second, and third generation iPods were pitiful, but exponential growth kicked in after that even though there were always many competitors in the market (I bought my first MP3 player, a D'Music, in December 1999).
Therefore if the product is right, it sells itself to some people, the ones who are actually interested. I wonder if FIAT should try to get those people first (through the website), and everyone else will follow later. Seems to work for Apple.
I believe that people who are actually interested in something are more likely to be happy and excited about it, more likely to have a positive experience, and then more likely to spread the good word, and that's when the product takes off. So the first people to sell 500s to are ALL the FIAT enthusiasts (like us), the ex-pat Europeans - the people who somehow already know about the car. The 'brand ambassadors'. Their word-of-mouth advertising is worth more than TV ads. In that way I agree with jrkitching; spend the marketing budget on reducing the price and getting the dealers out there.
The majority of iPod buyers in later years never used a Macintosh - so the past doesn't have to define the future. They just went out and bought an iPod because it looked cool. Then when all those iPod owners became iPhone users, everyone was hooked to the point where Apple could launch a frankly duff product and have two tries getting it right, and STILL have a huge sales success on their hands.
If FIAT can do for small cars what Apple did for tablet computers (remember, there were Windows tablets six years ago...) then the US market could be their biggest.
A facelift 500 would de-value existing cars, which would give the first group of owners a bad experience in loss of residuals, and the second (new) group of owners will hardly notice the facelift anyway since there are few of the first cars around. Therefore I don't think a facelift is a good idea. A steady improvement in equipment and quality would be fine.
Meanwhile the horrendously-expensive Tributo Ferrari (about 4x the price of a USA 500) comes with automated clutch manual, like Dualogic, so that could easily be an option on Abarth models. Reliability? Well at least Dualogic has had years of improvement since 1998's Selespeed - FIAT doesn't seem to have shied away from introducing the MultiAir technology in the USA and that hasn't been around very long anywhere in the world...
-Alex
All it needs is Jay Leno to extol the little car's virtues, or even have some jokes/skits made around it on the David Letterman show, something tasteful to get exposure...?
Look at Apple - they're good at selling new products and re-inventing a market niche, yet they don't have to pay for celebrities.
Where did you first learn about the iPod? I had to seek it out - there were no TV ads and no iPods in shops, I ordered it from overseas, and that was a third-gen iPod in 2003. Sales of the first, second, and third generation iPods were pitiful, but exponential growth kicked in after that even though there were always many competitors in the market (I bought my first MP3 player, a D'Music, in December 1999).
Therefore if the product is right, it sells itself to some people, the ones who are actually interested. I wonder if FIAT should try to get those people first (through the website), and everyone else will follow later. Seems to work for Apple.
I believe that people who are actually interested in something are more likely to be happy and excited about it, more likely to have a positive experience, and then more likely to spread the good word, and that's when the product takes off. So the first people to sell 500s to are ALL the FIAT enthusiasts (like us), the ex-pat Europeans - the people who somehow already know about the car. The 'brand ambassadors'. Their word-of-mouth advertising is worth more than TV ads. In that way I agree with jrkitching; spend the marketing budget on reducing the price and getting the dealers out there.
The majority of iPod buyers in later years never used a Macintosh - so the past doesn't have to define the future. They just went out and bought an iPod because it looked cool. Then when all those iPod owners became iPhone users, everyone was hooked to the point where Apple could launch a frankly duff product and have two tries getting it right, and STILL have a huge sales success on their hands.
If FIAT can do for small cars what Apple did for tablet computers (remember, there were Windows tablets six years ago...) then the US market could be their biggest.
A facelift 500 would de-value existing cars, which would give the first group of owners a bad experience in loss of residuals, and the second (new) group of owners will hardly notice the facelift anyway since there are few of the first cars around. Therefore I don't think a facelift is a good idea. A steady improvement in equipment and quality would be fine.
Meanwhile the horrendously-expensive Tributo Ferrari (about 4x the price of a USA 500) comes with automated clutch manual, like Dualogic, so that could easily be an option on Abarth models. Reliability? Well at least Dualogic has had years of improvement since 1998's Selespeed - FIAT doesn't seem to have shied away from introducing the MultiAir technology in the USA and that hasn't been around very long anywhere in the world...
-Alex
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