Tell me about Fiat and Alfa Romeo

[gonzomax]

Their cars are not certified for sales in America. What is necessary for them to make the grade? What is the general impression of them in Europe?

[Sage Rat]

To be sold in the US, a car needs to go through full safety and emissions testing. Safety testing essentially means that they wreck a couple of cars.

[griffin1977]

Originally Posted by gonzomax

Their cars are not certified for sales in America. What is necessary for them to make the grade? What is the general impression of them in Europe?

FIAT (aka Fix It Again Tony) have a pretty bad reputation on the whole, particularly for reliability. Alfa's have a fairly good reputation for quite high performance, beautifully designed cars, that breakdown alot

[gonzomax]

How are they going to help Chrysler?

[Nava]

By putting money into it.

The idea is that they buy an established brand, rather than try and introduce their brands into the US market. They wouldn't be selling under the FIAT or Alfa brands for a while, if ever.

[Doug Bowe]

Long ago I knew two people who owned Fiats. The cars were noisy little things that broke down a lot.
Remember that the Yugo was based on the Fiat 128.

[Discipline]

Originally Posted by griffin1977

FIAT (aka Fix It Again Tony) have a pretty bad reputation on the whole, particularly for reliability. Alfa's have a fairly good reputation for quite high performance, beautifully designed cars, that breakdown alot

Keep repeating that, and it might become true.

[Discipline]

Originally Posted by Nava

By putting money into it.

The idea is that they buy an established brand, rather than try and introduce their brands into the US market. They wouldn't be selling under the FIAT or Alfa brands for a while, if ever.

Almost.

They buy a network of manufacturers and dealerships. For a while, I think the assumption was that Fiat/Alfa would return and be sold, at least initially, alongside Chrysler vehicles. With Chrysler eating shit so hard though, I wouldn't be shocked to see signs on the dealerships replaced.

This thread wasn't supposed to be about Chrysler though.

[gonzomax]

They already make small cars. There must be something they can help with in that field. Chrysler needs to get a lot better mileage but neither are forerunners of battery or alternative technologies. What does Fiat get out of this deal. They have to spend a lot to get certified. I suppose access to dealerships.

[Ximenean]

Although Fiats are much better than they used to be, they still tend to come towards the bottom in customer satisfaction polls. Here's the JD Power 2008 UK survey for manufacturers. The range of scores is not that wide, 87% to 77% . But it's Fiat who come last. I guess Alfa don't have enough sales to get on the list. In the list of models survey the Fiat Panda does OK, the Punto and Grande Punto not so well.

(as I accidentally first posted in the wrong thread )

[ralph124c]

FIAT has ome a long way. They are a major brand in Brazil (about 30% market share). As far as i can tell, they are as reliable as VW.
Of course,the standard engine size in Brazil is 1.1 liters, so their main market is small cars.
Alfa Romeo makes good cars; but as with all Italian makes, you MUST do the maintainece-they are not like American cars, in that respect.