Fiat Launch Behind Schedule In America
Published: February 25th, 2011
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Although Chrysler initially planned for an ambitious 165 dealer roll-out for their Fiat brand, so far only 12 dealers nationwide are operational, 8 more expected by the end of the week.
Fiat said in September, 2010 that it wanted to see their dealerships open by the end of February, but only 30 to 40 franchises will have their facilities open by mid-March. At this rate, 130 of the dealerships should be running by September, 2011. With that said, dealers are only expected to get their inventory sometime towards the end of March. Fiat USA head Laura Soave stated that Fiat was “…a tiny bit behind schedule”, and we applaud her diplomatic way of framing the issue.
[Source: Automotive News]
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I don`t get all this hype about FIAT 500 in the US. I see plenty of these cars where I live ( I mean in Tychy, Poland, near a European FIAT`s facilicty producing the 500 for the european market ). It`s small and cramped inside. It lacks room especially for driver`s knees. The fact that it looks cute doesn`t convince me. Such cars exists in the European Union only because of insane taxation levels ( which entails high fuel prices - hoovering aroun 8$ per gal. - and high car prices ).
It's like this Lukas, The Fiat 500s we are getting have been upgraded, enlarged and improved in many ways. Europe will get many of the upgrades in a year or two. And many of us here want to use less fuel too. It may be cheaper than Europe but when gas hit $4 a gallon in 2008 you couldn't give big trucks and SUVs away, so we feel your pain in a somewhat different way. Plus it's a very stylish, fun car to drive the way they are equipping them for sale in this country and - as was the case with the MINI - people are excited to own and drive this car. It's pretty simple, really