General 500 USA launch branded a failure

[johnda]

You are SO right about Jay leno. I visit his "garage" online and he had great things to say about the 500, which he uses on a daily basis! Now THERE is a spokesman Fiat should tap.:worship:

 

[loveshandbags]

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.
-Alex

Manufacturers take 2 approaches in car design - Revolutionary or evolutionary. Thinking of the E36 series in the BMW at the later end of its life it has some small changes to the grill, etc so it was evolutionary - I had one of those. That might have been referred to as a 'facelift'. The E46 was a revolutionary change. The MINI I and MINI II is IMHO in the evolutionary cycle and will probably remain the same given it 'Retro design routes'. Expect the 500 to be in the category and not change much.

There have been 'debates' about the MINI I & II as to which is better looking & the earlier might have the 'edge' to the trained eye. Have noticed lately that they are looking a lot different but for the life of me I don't know why.

The 'new' US Fiat 500 will have pluses with better rear suspension travel, stronger shell but heavier. It will be an interesting test when these cars are 'housed' with a 1.2 engine. So the 'old' 500 might be the more desired car since power to weight is an important factor in 'Eco' cars.

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

The European A500C has the dualogic (no loss of power compared to the Automatic on the US F500) and looking at URL below it appears there might be one 'on the cards' for the U.S for next year. 'C' model here was released with the 'auto' option only initially.
http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/...port-abarth-convertible-confirmed-for-us.html
I suspect that the drop in power means that they will be 'lining up' the TCT in the Alfa range for this model. Again looks like the US will get the new technology before the European market. At the moment TCT (Dual clutch is limited to 135-145bhp) is not available in the higher powered QV models.

 

[loveshandbags]

Manufacturers take 2 approaches in car design - Revolutionary or evolutionary. Thinking of the E36 series in the BMW at the later end of its life it has some small changes to the grill, etc so it was evolutionary - I had one of those. That might have been referred to as a 'facelift'. The E46 was a revolutionary change...

Double checked the above and it looks like I was 'talking' a whole load of horse s***.
Chief designer of the 3 series refers to the E46 as evolutionary coming from the E36. (Click here) The next generation (the 5th) the E90 was revolutionary and the follow on the F30 (current day - 6th generation) is perceived to be evolutionary.

Facelift was much simpler.

 

[SniperX]

, I live on Long Island and when I tap in my zip code I get only one dealer within 33 miles of my home.

Where do you live, the hamptons?

Theres browns in patchogue, westbury fiat in westbury, one supposedbly in queens, and in manhattan.

 

[johnda]

I'm on the north fork,Southold. Brown's is the closest Fiat dealership, in Patchogue, about 33 miles from here, but my Chrysler, Jeep dealership is Mullen Motors, only about a mile away. They are a great bunch of folks. I'm driving a 2008 Jeep Patriot, which has been great, but if Mullen started handling Fiat, I'd be able to perhaps get one to drive so my wife could try it out.

 

[DDart1]

Jlo doing the commercial for the 500 means absolutely nothing to me. My problem is a bit greater -- distance wise. The closest Fiat dealer to me is at least 200 miles away. How would I have any warranty work completed on the car if it was engine or transmission related. I really like the 500 idea. If a Fiat dealer opened up in my city, I'd be considering the 500 equally along with the new 2013 Dodge Dart.

 

[zonker]

It seems that the word "failure" is not being used to represent Fiat 500 sales anymore. The last 2 months they have sold around 4000 units a month.

That is close to on being on par with their original over-optimistic projection of 50,000 units the first year.

Seems like the tide is turning for Fiat.

 

[zonker]

Update: Fiat sales are up 136 percent compared to last year, and it looks like they have a reasonable shot to hit 50,000 sold for CY 2012.

 

[Funky Spike]

I think they've sold most of those in Austin TX, there was lots of 500 promo at and around the F1 Grand Prix but there were plenty of 500's to be seen out on the roads.

Spike

 

[fiat500prestopresto]

In the US, JLo has no credibility of appeal outside of the hispanic market - and they cannot afford the price of a new Fiat. Also, the dealers here are all Chrysler dealers and have the "This is the price take it or leave it.", attitude. The dealers also trick up the car with add on items such as custom wheels, window tint, stripes and other phony items such as body glaze - some of them are more arrogant that a Mercedes dealer. It is a good car for around 15 to 16 K for the Pop, but getting into the 25 to 26 K arena for a Gucci is absurd. The Abarth will probably not sell well here because it is way over priced for small city-car; the styling, aerodynamics and handling are OK for a Fiat 500 econo-boxer but not a "performance car".

In 2013 Fiat is going to try to get Britney Spears or Miley Cyrus as their ad spokesperson - you know, to add some real class to their ads!!! lol lmao

 

[Fiat500USA]

In the US, JLo has no credibility of appeal outside of the hispanic market

Fiat hasn't used a JLo ad since the beginning of the year.

- and they cannot afford the price of a new Fiat.

Can't believe I just read that....

... but getting into the 25 to 26 K arena for a Gucci is absurd.

The Gucci model is sold out.

The Abarth will probably not sell well here because it is way over priced for small city-car; the styling, aerodynamics and handling are OK for a Fiat 500 econo-boxer but not a "performance car".

Really? Abarth models sold out within 2 months.

Fiat 500 Sales Archives

 

[T14086]

Fair points

My point is this however, JHO is a marmite celebrity, you either love her or you hate her. Fiat should have chosen someone with more of a universal appeal

Absolutely, look at the stir Ford have created by using Hawkwinds - Master of the universe, good marketing

Jlo

 

[Fiat500USA]

With the huge spike in awareness, I'm not so certain the JLo chapter can be considered a total disaster. She bought a lot of awareness to people in the US that have never heard of Fiat before. Plus, she did it within a few weeks time. Some may argue it was bad publicity, but that is mainly heard from people who already own Fiats. Let's face it, Fiat already had us. They need new blood. In any case, the JLo chapter was over in the beginning of the year, it is old news. Just like the branding of the Fiat launch as a failure. Fiat is going strong this year, even after what the so called experts said.