Quote:
Originally Posted by Xist
I consider those black bumpers going up into the fenders to be ugly.
The ugliness is not the point, though. They may sell attractive ones elsewhere. They may one day sell nice-looking ones here, but they are claiming it only makes sense to sell small cars under the Fiat name, so will they just rebadge them?
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Jeep has it's distinct following. RAM has it's defined niche. Dodge has it's muscular image. Fiat has those cute little cars. Yes , they are cute. Don't tell my wife otherwise. She's small and fierce like her Fiat Abarth 500c.
The Fiat Chrysler pairing seems to be a better match in many ways than the partnership with Mercedes even though Mercedes did bring great improvements to the sedan line up of Chrysler, they did not bring a small car expertise with them other than the woefully inadequate for the North American market, Smart Car.
It is unfortunate FCA sees fit to end the 200 sedan and Dart2. I've looked at both. The 200 is really a nice sedan. The Dart needs some work but the drive-train shows some promise even though the car is much heavier than I feel it should be. Both vehicles have major platform components that reside in other vehicle lines thus the design and production capabilities are not lost in that regard if the need arises to produce a mid-size sedan and compact. However, it may mean they see a shift in the market that will see a long term move to the cross-over and it's ilk as the mainstay of the market. FCA's move to put hybrid drives in the mini-van line means you can get the economy of a small sedan and the roomy capability of a van/wagon/SUV.
The introduction of the Fiat 500L hints at Fiat taking care of the smaller segments.