Timings everything... Now it looks like they're making excuses. They should have come out with the spot first. Anyway, this..... "Spot"..... Was better. They seem to be stumbling a lot. Not good for those of us that remember the last time Fiat was here. They need to come out firing on all 4 cylinders....
Definitely an improvement. I'm call me a skeptic, but I'm really doubtful J-Lo spends any time at all in those 'streets that inspire' her
In yet another blunder by the Chrysler / Fiat people... Fiat wanted a dealer in downtown LA so they built a flagship store. Pretty nifty until you stumble over the Cali Auto Franchise laws that say no company owned stores. Chrysler says My Bad and enters into a deal to sell the store to someone. Automotive News reports that the California Department of Motor Vehicles may still seek to fine Chrysler even after the automaker reached an agreement to sell its factory-owned Los Angeles dealership. Chrysler garnered the ire of the DMV by infringing on California franchise laws, though the automaker hoped to avoid any censure by selling its Motor Village of Los Angeles showroom. Now, CDMV is reportedly saying that the company made false statements regarding the dealership's ownership. If a settlement is reached, Chrysler could wind up paying restitution to private Chrysler dealerships within a 10-mile radius of the factory-owned store. These guys can't even buy a break...
So a company willing to spend and build something new, something that might help that local economy and even create jobs, is going to be punished by the government even after they complied with the regulations...... Maybe they should have gotten a government subsidy and everything would be hunky dory because some idiot politician could have taken credit for it. Yeah Kalifornia has all the answers. Priceless. PS: Why would you need such a regulation, would not the franchise agreements have covered this possibility?
There is more to this... The dealership in question here was one that Chrysler took away from it's original owner back when they were trimming sales outlets. Chrysler then took ownership and remodeled the store to be the flagship model of what a Fiat Studio should be like. This ran afoul of Cali franchise laws for auto dealers that prevent the manufacturers to own sales outlets. There are very few manufacturer owned dealers in the US. Both MB and BMW have flagship stores in Manhattan but thats about it in the US. While auto dealer franchise law varies from state to state one thing that is pretty common is that the manufacturers are pretty much not allowed to have company stores. To put it simply this is protect the dealers around them from having to compete directly with the manufacturer.
Again wouldn't this situation be covered in the franchise agreements? Shouldn't or wouldn't you before purchasing a franchise understand clearly the non compete section of that agreement. Then if the "company" violates said agreement by opening a store with in the agreed area, have legal course for compensation and/or action against that "company"? Or do we need a nanny government regulation to protect us from ourselves and our own lack of planning? Would it make good business sense to buy a KK doughnut franchise and not have in the agreement that KK could and would not sale another franchise, nor open another doughnut store within a specified distance from your store; and if this was not spelled out, would you or the "company" be the idiot if you went ahead and purchased the franchise anyway? I should add that I'm not saying everything they did was right, but they have made it right now and because of a nanny regulation they are going to be punished for investing in that economy.... But it's OK for the Government to piss away a half billion tax payer dollars on a company making overpriced solar cells.... Priceless.
You talk of nanny government regulations but I'm sure that it's the dealers themselves who pushed these laws through.
Well it happened five days ago... The local Chrysler dealer has the Fiat. SH**! And we still have no MINI dealer anywhere within 120 miles. Go Figure. What's worse is the potential for those damn wine burners to be everywhere in no time. I mean I like wine, hell I like all booze I guess. I just can't stand that car or the idea that they're being sold in my backyard. C'mon MINI USA, settle your differences with the local BMW folks or change your business approach in markets where the friction takes center stage over common sense and car sales and service. Sorry, just my opinion, I could be wrong.
That sucks...... Fiat did move into our local Chrysler dealership, but I have the privilege to having 2 MINI dealerships within a 1/2 hour from me. 2 more within an hour! Apparently PA is hogging them all! Our bad Saw some blond driving one the other day. Yep, it's gonna be a chick car for sure :lol:
They might be reaching a tipping point. There were two parked in my neighborhood this morning when I was walking the dogs. One in a reddish copper color looked good. Seeing the rear from a block away, I was wondering if it was a JCW in a color I hadn't seen before. It had some kind of bodykit.
I drove one last week. Nothing special. Actually much less fun to drive than a Mini, to the point it seemed just like any other car on the road with numb feedback.
Fiat is going to unveil the US version of the 500 Abarth at the LA Auto Show in November. The press release did not revel many details about the model. It was full of the history of Abarth, not much else.
Should be a nice little road toy. I wonder how it will differ from the plain vanilla 500 they sell here now. I'm hoping it has a bit more spice to it.
Saw my first one "in the wild" yesterday; perhaps an indicator that they are starting to filter into the rural corners of the U.S. It was the Sport model with Mocha Latte body color. The side view was not too bad. I actually liked the aluminum wheels and painted calipers. From the front, though, the visual was one of a tall, narrow, and far-from-bulldog stance, the headlights seemed unimaginative and undersized, and the simple grill fascia boring. To me, those features in combination shouted "econo-box." I'm trying to imagine how these things would be all that different in the Abarth. Maybe the aero body styling with bold body colors would help.
I think they did a good job with a modern interpretation while paying homage to the original Fiat 500. The problem is that the original was itself an econobox that had little sportiness to begin with.