This is the way the Fiat 124 ends. Not with a bang but with a whimper.
Hiding in the press release that announces pricing for the 2021 Fiat 500X is a subsection labeled “2021 Fiat Lineup,” which ends with the following sentence: “The Fiat 124 Spider and the Fiat 500L will be discontinued after the 2020 model year.” Just like …
Wow. That's a bit of a shock. How in the heck are Fiat dealers going to stay open selling only one vehicle? And not a desirable one at that. I know they are typically paired with the Alfa brand, but they aren't big sellers either. Thank goodness Fiat's money was helpful in developing the ND Miata. Crazy times.
I'll bet that the remaining Fiat 500x, suv is only sold to fleet as in rental cars. This will be an attempt to keep The Jeep Renegade from suffer from low resale prices.
Dump cheap Fiat 500x onto the market without dragging down the Jeep Renegade in the process.
Fleet only models are popular. GM does a lot of this like keeping the old body Malibu and Impala around for another year while simultaneously selling the new body at dealerships.
The Chevy Captiva was a rebranded Saturn Vue sold for many years only to fleets. It could be argued that 2019 & 2020 Grand Caravans were only kept around for fleets. The last year (2007) of the long running Taurus was only offered to fleets.
I gotta believe that the biggest customer of the Fiat 500L has always been fleets/rental.
As for Fiat dealers and their survival, my guess is there is no intention to keep the brand around and the dealers separate.
Watch out Alfa!
With the new merger with Peugeot, there are going to be a lot of models and brands disappear.
I just went to the Avis sales site. Within 1000 miles of my house (the farthest it will let me search) , Avis has 457 Jeep Compass listed for sale out of 999 total Jeep brand vehicles. Again, another model that is probably sold mostly only to fleets. Strangely, no Fiats listed for sale via Avis, currently.
Does the Compass continue on to next year? Replaced with Fiat 500x as fleet leader?
History repeating itself again.
Fiat tried selling two models from 1981-1982 (Spider 2000 and X1/9). That worked so well for them.
It may have been David E. Davis that wrote, "The French and the Italians have never figured out the American market." Now Fiat and Peugeot are going to combine? Yeah, that will work.
Fiat has focused so heavily on Europe and Asia for so long, I kinda saw this writing on the walls. Never seemed like they got the recipe right for American palettes. It doesn't help that Fiat seems to just re-badge other cars for the American market.
They should probably not spend so much money engineering for the American market in the future, since they are proven to be so bad at it. What would make sense would be to rehash an old model, to minimize the upfront losses. The US market is slim for compact cars right now, so a good idea would be to crank out some 106 Rallyes for the US market.
I am totally thinking of their economic future in the US and in no way just wanting a new 106 Rallye for myself.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Which, again, is a re-badged Peugeot.
Knowing Fiat, they'll bring a 106 to the states, but it will be a Mazda Demio... which is also a Ford Festiva. So they'll have a Fiat re-badge of a Peugeot model based on a Mazda which was a rebadge of a Ford.
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
well, it's a Peugeot-badged Peugeot.
Basically I want a 100hp 1.3l 1900lb car.
The Ford Festiva was not a Ford. It was a Kia-built Mazda 121.
John Welsh said:I just went to the Avis sales site. Within 1000 miles of my house (the farthest it will let me search) , Avis has 457 Jeep Compass listed for sale out of 999 total Jeep brand vehicles. Again, another model that is probably sold mostly only to fleets. Strangely, no Fiats listed for sale via Avis, currently.
Does the Compass continue on to next year? Replaced with Fiat 500x as fleet leader?
The Compass sells like gangbusters, the only way the Compass goes away is if they are going to replace it with a new model.
About a year ago, my local Fiat franchise closed & a Dodge dealer out in Xenia became a Fiat dealer. I took the Abarth for an oil change & they ended up spending almost an hour chasing a phantom CEL code that had never lit up. Then they told me this one hose and fitting needed replacing, when I asked what it was called to (maybe) schedule it later, their "Fiat Master Tech" had no idea.
Tried another oil change this summer, they screwed up & put it on the calendar a week prior, had no idea why I showed up that day. We're done here. I think Bob Ross dealer group saw the writing on the wall some time ago. SWMBO still goes there with her 500X occasionally.
... why are people talking about the 106 Rallye in this thread, unless they mean to talk about a car from 1991? I mean, that car always seemed cool from a distance, I get that.
I don't see Stellanis (ugh) trying to sell more Fiat's and Peugots in America just because of this merger. Maybe we get one or two rebadged models here as a Dodge or Chrysler but that seems about it. What probably makes more sense is a Dodge designed mostly here using an electric powertrain from a similarly sized Fiat or Peugot.
IIRC the only FCA brands that sell well in the US are Jeep and RAM. I wouldn't be surprised if they axe the rest. Dodge sells what? 4 vehicles?, Chrysler sells 2?, Fiat now only selling 1?, Does Alfa sell well at all?
Jerry said:I think Bob Ross dealer group saw the writing on the wall some time ago. SWMBO still goes there with her 500X occasionally.
I bet they have some cool artwork hanging in the showroom!
Sorry, couldn't resist
I am not surprised. The Local VW/Jeep/Chrysler/Fiat Dealer has not had a fiat in stock in over a year. To be honest with the 124, I have only ever seen a couple of new Miatas, so roadsters are just not selling in my area.
The looks of the rebranded Miata were polarizing at best. I have only ever seen one of them and pointed it out to my son and his comment was why would anyone take a Miata and ruin it like that. Made me chuckle.
It's fine, the local dealers have brand new 2019s and 2020s if you really must have one :)
For 2022 they will offer no models.
MrChaos said:IIRC the only FCA brands that sell well in the US are Jeep and RAM. I wouldn't be surprised if they axe the rest. Dodge sells what? 4 vehicles?, Chrysler sells 2?, Fiat now only selling 1?, Does Alfa sell well at all?
Fiat only bought Chrysler for the Jeep name.
Jeep is a blessing and a curse. The name will put asses in seats because it has about the same brand recognition as Harley-Davidson in the US. But the curse is it seems destined that it will be passed around like a cheap ham radio. Every automaker that bought Jeep ended up being bought and absorbed by another company. Willys? then Nash then AMC then Renault, who dumped the hot potato onto Chrysler, who was bought by (sorry, "merged with") Daimler, and now Fiat. And I'm probably forgetting a few.
Thirty years ago there were real engineering and production reasons that made them imperfect options in the American market (though I think plenty of us here agree these weren't necessarily deal-breakers, just reasons they might not have been the most practical options).
Today, from a marketing, engineering, and corporate philosophy (or the lack of-/homogeneity of- philosophy) standpoints, it's hard to see why any global manufacturer should be so unable to do business here. I'd still love a 500 Abarth, but there's no denying that in four tries, the 124 is the closest thing to "not just kinda weird" they tried to sell this time.
Should they have just brought us a Punto? Would the Tipo or Qubo have done any better than trading on cute rounded shapes with interior cues from a faux-'50s-diner tabletop radio? The Qubo seems like it'd slot into the Soul/Xb/Cube/etc niche, unless Fiat needed to do a more successful "different" in order to shake off just providing an option that everybody's grumpy elder family member would just harrumph at and mumble something about Tony and rust...
In reply to Jesse Ransom (FFS) :
Look at the mechanicals of a Dart, or a 200, or Jeeps that don't rhyme with Spangler. Those have so much Fiat DNA it's crazy. They might not say Fiat on the front but Fiats are being marketed in the US.
Jeep Cherokees, incidentally, have wheel bolts now 
Jesse Ransom (FFS) said:Thirty years ago there were real engineering and production reasons that made them imperfect options in the American market (though I think plenty of us here agree these weren't necessarily deal-breakers, just reasons they might not have been the most practical options).
Today, from a marketing, engineering, and corporate philosophy (or the lack of-/homogeneity of- philosophy) standpoints, it's hard to see why any global manufacturer should be so unable to do business here. I'd still love a 500 Abarth, but there's no denying that in four tries, the 124 is the closest thing to "not just kinda weird" they tried to sell this time.
Should they have just brought us a Punto? Would the Tipo or Qubo have done any better than trading on cute rounded shapes with interior cues from a faux-'50s-diner tabletop radio? The Qubo seems like it'd slot into the Soul/Xb/Cube/etc niche, unless Fiat needed to do a more successful "different" in order to shake off just providing an option that everybody's grumpy elder family member would just harrumph at and mumble something about Tony and rust...
I never understood why we did not get some of the more interesting models that fiat has. Instead we got stuck with the 500 and it's weird sisters all based on the outdated punto chassis. Do not get me wrong, I love my Abarth, but I would love to get a Dodge Promaster City and add the fiat badging, bumpers, and lights to turn it back into a Doblo
If Fiat wants to sell cars here they need to do like Alfa and make an SUV. Or full-size pickup.....that's basically what people buy.
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