Where have all the Fiats gone and other car buying dilemas

With the wife having been confined to a wheelchair in her mother's apartment for a while she's had plenty of time to search for a new car.  Top of the list is another 500.  She loved Joy the Fiat more than any sane person should like a stripped down economy car and in the 135,000 miles leading to it's untimely meeting with a Suburban it had needed nothing but regular maintenance and wear bits like struts and wheel bearings.  A search of the interweb and stopping at a couple local dealers turns up nothing.  Zilch, zip, nada.  There looks to be two, yes two new 500s withing 150 miles of me both in blah, boring colors.  Next one her list are a few cute utes, the 500X, Jeep Renegade, and Ford Ecosport.  We found a smattering of them but none close by, and the only dealer with fun colors, something besides black, white, or silver is 100 miles away.  The search for Renegades turned up a few more but again none in the bright fun colors that she would want.  The Ecosports seem to be too new to find any variety but again the dealers seem to love white and silver.  A few Jeep and Ford dealer sites will show them in blue or red or orange but then the fine print for the ad will have such fine print as "*actual vehicles in stock available in silver, argent, steel, and other shades of sadness".  Why doesn't anyone stock a single cute vehicle in a happy color?

The dealer sites themselves also seem to have all been designed by the same imbicile.  Every price has fine print regarding it only being valid with certain credit scores, ridiculous loan lengths, moon phases, etc and a bubble keeps poping up asking me to chat with Chad, Jen, or Zach about any questions I have.. We've tried the chat a few times and it always ended with the same non-answer I could get in the ad.  I'm dreading the day we have to start schlepping about trying to find a car that makes her happy.

Here's a yellow one near me. My family and I are planning to come to NYC the weekend of 7/20, we could absolutely deliver to you if you'd like.

https://www.fiatusa.com/new-inventory/vehicle-details.html?modelYearCode=IUX201701&vin=3C3CFFKR7HT699737&dealerCode=69017&radius=50&matchType=P&statusCode=KZX&variation=Abarth&drive=Hatch

That’s not that bad an idea. Right now she’s looking at a retro model she found in I think Ohio.  

She told me today one of the selling points on the Ecosport is an adorable little tailgate mounted spare tire.  God i hope she’s not knitting a giant doily in her spare time. 

Rumor is Fiat is pulling sales out of the USA

get 'em while ya can

In reply to fasted58 :

Already?

In reply to Nick Comstock :

to be announced 6/1 as I heard

we'll see

That’s not good. She was really looking forward to another one.

In reply to fasted58 :

Might be the end of Chrysler too.

In reply to iceracer :

Chrysler to be US sales only

Interesting observation...

I went and search and within 150 miles of me there are 63 Fiat 500c available.  They are all 2017 models.  Seems there are no 2018 for the 500c.   However, the 500x and 500L offers both a 2017 and 2018 model.  

I don't think I have ever seen a 500L that was not a rental car.  I'm not sure who is buying the 500L.  

For the 500L, within 150 miles of me there are 13 2017 units available and 11 2018 units.  Those are some small numbers.  

For the 500x within 150 miles of me there are 73 2017 units and 102 2018 units

In reply to John Welsh :

The only person I’ve seen happy to ride in one was the Pope.

I was not aware.  Turns out it's true.  

Part of my job is to monitor street closings so we can reroute buses.  The weekend he was in NY I had to more or less follow him around.  This was when he arrived. 66th St was blocked off for his motorcade to get to and from the highway,  It's a one way street but they close it and use it in both directions. the morning he left it was early and I was standing there with a handful of people waiting for the street to close.  As he passed by this woman started having a fit because they were going down a one way street the wrong way. 

I saw a Renegade in Hyper Green the other day.

It was brighter in person 

Apparently some of them are in Cary NC. Fun colors too! Linky

Let me know if you want me to check any of these out for you. 

This is the reason...the Kia Soul is so good that the competition is just giving up.  They are available in fun colors, they are cheeky to look at, they are fun to drive, they are practical and they have a great interior.  They are reliable, frugal and have a great warranty.  The Soul killed off all the FWD competitors (500L, the Nissan Cube, the Scion Xb, etc) and is now taking out the AWD CUVs...despite being FWD and having a lack of fake body cladding.  I'd recommend taking a look.  And if you have to have AWD, the Subaru Crosstrek is basically doing the same to CUVs despite being an uncool wagon. 

I'd recommend a Yaris, except that the new one's look like they are about to cry, and that's just depressing.  (And means you couldn't name it Joy II)

So all of this could mean cheeper Abarths?  Interesting.

In reply to pinchvalve :

It’s no Rondo.  I asked the wife about a Soul and she gave it a definite no. She knows several Soul owners and says they’re all bitter divorcées that have too many cats. Being very allergic to cats this could become a problem.  

In reply to Wally :

According to Kia, your wife is misinformed.  Kia's are the preferred ride of hamsters, not cats. Conclusive proof, from the advertising materials, which also imply it's super sporty and/or fun.

Wally said:

...  A few Jeep and Ford dealer sites will show them in blue or red or orange but then the fine print for the ad will have such fine print as "*actual vehicles in stock available in silver, argent, steel, and other shades of sadness".  Why doesn't anyone stock a single cute vehicle in a happy color?

Sadly, I feel that way about the available ND Miata colors too.  No good blues? Metallic green or BRG? Yellow? 

Why not get a boring color that you expect will hold its value, then get a professional vehicle wrap with the color of her choice? Two benefits - you get exactly the color you want, and the factory paint is protected. 

Just a thought.....

In reply to Greg Smith :

I hadn't thought about getting it wrapped.  That could work.  

Wally said:

That’s not that bad an idea. Right now she’s looking at a retro model she found in I think Ohio.  

She told me today one of the selling points on the Ecosport is an adorable little tailgate mounted spare tire.  God i hope she’s not knitting a giant doily in her spare time. 

There’s a fiat dealer (strongsville ohio) nearby if you need any assistance 

In reply to Patrick :

Thanks. It’s going to be a few weeks until we are going to be seriously looking but right now she’s looked at one out that way, and an Abarth in Charlotte.  I’m hoping she finds something closer before she’s able to drive again but we never like to make things easy.

I love my Abarth, SWMBO loves her 500X she bought a year ago.  I saw a mutual friend on Facebook today make a cryptic post about bad news/mistake by Fiat.  Didn't elaborate.  Hmm probably wouldn't make my Fiat an orphan car, just a lost American.  (Sort-of...the window sticker says it's a mongrel of Italian-American-Mexican descent.)

My Fiat dealer is in Dayton/Centerville, sales was great, service is run by an idiot.  (Not Tony.)