Where to 50,000 Sales projected sales figure came from Sergio Marchionne, CEO of both Fiat and Chrysler Group, said that while he's pleased with the re-launch of the Fiat brand in North America last year, he was "incredibly naive" to think he'd sell 50,000 of the tiny cars in the U.S. in 2011. The company sold only 19,769 Fiat 500's in the U.S. last year. But Marchionne said the huge miss of the sales target was not a problem. He said he chose the original sales target hoping to beat the 45,644 cars sold of the popular Mini Cooper, sold in 2010. "It was a number that we said would be in excess of what Mini was selling in the United States. It was that simple," he said about the target. Plans to introduce other cars to the line by 2013 and to expand the dealer network remain on track, he said. "Let's be honest, we sold 2,009,000 cars in 2011," he said about Chrysler Group's global sales. In the grand scheme of things, he said the missed sales target for the Fiat 500 "is a rounding error." "We set ourselves up for a fall," he said about the miss. "The future of Fiat is exactly the same as when we launched it." He said the 2012 target for the 500 is between 25,000 and 35,000 in the United States and another 5,000 in Canada. Overall, the target for Chrysler Group's global sales is 2.4 million.
You miss your goal by more than 50% and it's merely "A rounding error"? He should run for Congress.....
And we wonder why the American manufacturers fail... Miss your sales goals by more than 50%? No biggie... It cannot possibly be because they design crap. Rounding error... WTF?
Is Sergio American? One would hope that they do much better at how many wheels they get bolted on correctly.....
I would still like to see that little car make a go of it. Get a few of these Urban Assault Vehicles (SUV) off the road. Jim
I look forward to sitting in one next week in Detroit. The more I see them on the road the more I like them, BUT my memory of the inside still makes me scratch my head when I see them. If the inside looks better I will tone down my dislike of them. All that said I want to know what other Fiat's are going to come to America. Their cars are all very intriguing in that they should be priced around Chevy money but they all have that odd Italian flair where they look different and will probably fall apart but for some reason you are drawn to them. Lastly France please follow Fiat and send some cars to the US. Renaut I am talking to you!!!!!!!!
Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Year US Deliveries Change from previous year Launch to date 2002 24,590 n/a 24,590 2003 36,010 46.4% 60,600 2004 36,032 0.1% 96,632 2005 40,820 13.0% 137,452 2006 39,171 -4.0% 176,623 2007 42,045 7.3% 218,668 2008 54,077 28.6% 272,745 2009 45,225 -16.4% 317,970 2010 45,644 0.9% 363,614 2011 57,511 26.0% 421,125
France did send some cars here last year.........they sold 9 Bugatti Veyrons in the USA last year............ :lol: Hmmm........wonder how many Fiat 500's that would be? :crazy:
9 at $1.5 million each gives you $13.5 million vs. 20,000 at $20,000 each for $400 million. 500 for the win!!! Or to answer your question 675 500's could have been purchased instead of the 9 Verons, so even if those buyers had been tempted away from their Verons Fiat would have still not sold half as many 500's as they wanted to
So FIAT, in their infinite wisdom, thought they could double the numbers of MINI in their first year? That is pretty laughable seeing as they are not nearly as well made, not nearly as sporty or good looking, and, as I am sure time will prove, not nearly as reliable. JLo may be hot, but nobody is THAT hot... :biggrin5:
But looking at it another way, they sold enough to get really close to the initial sales of the MINI. That's not to bad considering the car.
OK now divide how many Fiat dealers there were into total sales and how many Mini dealers there were the first year into their sales? I know there was only one BMW dealership that could sell Mini Coopers in NC, SC and VA combined the first year... It would also be interesting to see what each spent in advertising the first year, to get a advertising cost per unit sold figure?
I see something funny here. This thread is MINI owners finding nothing good about Fiat and there is another thread where MINI owners are blasting MINI's as being not worth the price. Go figure. :lol: Jim
This is why I want the French to bring some stuff here. If they sold this here for under 17K I would buy one: