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[quote=Mac_Muz;15673289] Asked me why i didn't stop and I told her thar's no point. FIAT means Fix it Again Today and Fix It Again Tomorrow.
That car made MGA, MGB, and every Triumph there was look great.[/uote]
Did you see the one I posted? Third one I owned. Reliable, beautiful, fun.
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I have 0 interest is seeing any new Fiat, unless some bean counter got it right, and for that the proof will have to be in the pudding. I never owned one, but I serviced hundreds of them.
Are you this ignorant in real life, or do you just play an ignorant tosser on the internet? Fiats have been selling well in Europe for years and haveg a great reputation these days. The 500 has been great, the Panda and others have been great, as well.
I have a REAL problem with this retarded "I was a mechanic and saw many of them" attitude. As a mechanic, you'll not ever SEE the reliable ones, as no one needs to fix one that isn't broke. So by default, you'll ONLY see broken examples. How many in total did you see? How many in total were made? You really think your experience covers even a small minority of them?
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Never let so much as a tennis ball hit one as that will dent if for sure. Don't lean on it that will make a really big dent. In fact if anyone buys one, and it actually makes it home, park it forever more to just look at. Call it green.
Not true. Sorry, gonna call you out on this absolute stupidity. They actually didn't dent easy at all. Neither do the new ones.
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on edit: And don't tell me you bought one, because i will laugh at you!
And I'll call you a moron if you do.
Why is it such a valuable goal to be a closed minded twit about cars? Sorry, HATE that attitude. It's far beyond simply having a preference for something else (which is fine), and well into the automotive version of ignorant racism.
So I take it that no-one contributing to this thread has actually tried out a Fiat 500.
Well I have and I ordered one for Mrs J last week. I don't suffer from the prejudices demonstrated by others on this thread. They are well built and quite desirable, as the sales figures in Europe have shown. The latest versions ride far better than the ones that first came out with the 2008 launch.
Apart from the same name and a passing resemblance to the original 500 there's no comparison, as shown in this short video, which also demonstrates the new TwinAir engined version which I have ordered.
Fiat 500 meets its ancestor video - Autocar.co.uk (http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-video/fiat-500-vs-fiat-500-video-comparison/ - broken link)
You are a gambler. The Fiat 500 may be an impressive small car. But it is unproven.
Do you think Fiat withdrew from the US market decades ago because of prejudice? No. They withdrew because sales dropped. Fiat owners grew tired of broken timing chains on their 124/128 sedans. They got tired of calling a tow truck to bring their X 1/9 home. They got tired of engines that ran poorly when emission controls were added to the engines.
I assume Fiats today are much better than the cars of 30 years ago. But at a broad brush level Italian made cars have not done well in the US in spite of their sometimes great design and rich personality. That includes Ferrari and other exotics.
I hope the new 500 is a good car. I don't care that it is made in Mexico. I have somewhat more confidence in Mexican labor than I do in Italian labor.
But I wouldn't buy one in the first production year.
The number one reason the 500 will be built in Mexico?
It's a small car.
Small cars have small profits (if they have a profit at all, many don't).
Chrysler can earn (profit) up to about $5000 making and selling a full size RAM pickup or larger SUV's like the Grand Cherokee. So they can be made wherever, even with far more expensive union labor. The US auto makers can only make a profit of a few hundred dollars on a small car. So by building it in Mexico they can try to preserve this margin. Even with non-union Mexican labor they will be lucky to profit a few hundred per car.
Its entirely the profit margin per unit driving where Chrysler (and all automakers) is going to build something.
It's also the reason for some of the really lousy little cars that have come from the Big 3 in the last couple of decades. Low profit margin so low interest.
Isn't its engine built in US and then transported to Mexico for assembly?
Funny to read those "Dey took our jewbs" comments. You want globalization, free market and competition when it favours you. But when it works against you, suddenly people become overly protectionist and anti-free market. How it's called, a hypocrisy?
So I take it that no-one contributing to this thread has actually tried out a Fiat 500.
Well I have and I ordered one for Mrs J last week. I don't suffer from the prejudices demonstrated by others on this thread. They are well built and quite desirable, as the sales figures in Europe have shown. The latest versions ride far better than the ones that first came out with the 2008
Actually, I have ridden in a 2006 FIAT 500 imported by a collector. A lot of my friends own Fiat 500s and other microcars.
I think that the vehicle is going to be a real bust. A decently loaded up FIAT 500 will be priced at or around $18k. And they will require PREMIUM fuel.
Personally, I would take both the Nissan Versa or a Toyota Yaris. When I buy a small car, I am looking for two things - reliability and fuel economy.
Nice to see our tax dollars go towards stimulating the Mexican economy.
Chrysler pledges $550M to build Fiat 500 in Mexico - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100208/ap_on_bi_ge/lt_mexico_chrysler - broken link)
This really sucks. I really had wanted this car to succeed here (and I still think it has a decent shot), but now that I've read this I sincerely hope the thing flops.
Yes I am taking a bit of a gamble that the TwinAir engine behaves itself, but I love to live life on the ragged edge!
I tried the four cylinder engine and it did what it's supposed to do in a way that normal four cylinder engines do their job. The TwinAir, as has been mentioned in every roadtest and customer feedback, puts a smile on your face and is a very pleasant match to the car especially with the smooth and peppy power delivery. Sometimes you need to do something other than the safe bet- we already have one Toyota among our three.
People are quick to point out the problens with Fiats all those years ago, and I would suggest that they were not alone in these matters, and car reliability has generally moved on in that time.
I hope that the Mexican built Fiats do justice to the car and that if this kind of car fits into your lifestyle then give it a go.
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