Sunday, September 8, 2019

You Got Change For a 500?

I sort of figured this was going to happen.  Fiat is discontinuing its small, cute 500 retro car in North America after nearly a decade.
You might expect that I, as a fan of extremely small cars, am saddened by this news.  Actually, not at all.  Because while it's easy to assume that the discontinuation of the 500 in America is the result of cheap gasoline and a preference for large wagons, that, while partially correct, is hardly the whole story.  The truth of the matter is that the 500, for all its charm, was an unreliable car that consistently rated at the bottom of consumer-satisfaction surveys.  It only reminded Americans old enough to remember when the Fiat brand, which returned to the U.S. in 2011 after a 27-year hiatus, was last available here what lousy pieces of crap Fiats really are.  Also, a new generation of consumers now know how bad they are.
And get this - the 500 was actually Fiat's bestseller in this country!
When Italy's Fiat and the U.S. firm Chrysler merged in 2009, I had such high hopes for the new company.  The Chrysler Group would get new, sophisticated cars much nicer that what was in its Chrysler and Dodge lineups.  Fiat would return to America and get the chance to show how it had learned from its mistakes and was able to produce a quality car.  Also, Fiat's premium Alfa Romeo brand was coming back.  The return of Alfa Romeo turned out to be the only positive thing that resulted from Fiat and Chrysler joining forces.  Fiat-based Dodge and Chrysler models, like the Dodge Dart, flopped in the ten-day sales reports.  The company focused more on Jeeps and the newly created Ram light-truck brand as gas prices dropped and gas-guzzler sales rose.  And Fiat itself, rather than bringing to the States a full lineup of affordable family cars like Volkswagen or Toyota, only gave us the 500, silly crossover derivatives of the 500 and a 124 roadster that's actually a Mazda Miata.  Mainstream Fiats like the Panda and the Tipo never made it to these shores.  Not that their reliability would have been all that much better.
Rather, Fiat centered its U.S. lineup around the 500 and its spinoffs in an attempt to be the Italian equivalent of Mini, whose Mini Cooper model has been a fantastic success in the United States and has spun off a whole slew of derivatives like the Clubman and the Countryman.  Mini thrives because, contrary to popular wisdom, Americans will buy a small car if it is unique, well-appointed, and fashionable.  But it also has to be good, and Fiat's 500 never caught on like the superior Mini Cooper, which, despite some early reliability issues, has been continuously improved and remains a desirable, sporty little car.  With the similarly small 500, Fiat had the chance to make Americans fall in love with its own idea of a little retro vehicle, but the firm blew it.
I can't see Fiat lasting in the United States much longer the second time around.  When your bestselling vehicle is too unpopular to continue offering, it doesn't make sense to go on.  Its cars are so bad that even if gas prices hadn't come down after the Great Recession was over, the 500 still would have ultimately flopped and Fiat still would have regained its reputation as a joke of a car brand.  And the joke is this: The name Fiat officially stands for "Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili Torino," which means, "Italian Factory of Turin Automobiles."  What Fiat really stands for is, "Fix It Again, Tony!"

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