A Fiat 500B (Little Mouse) was featured in "Roman Holiday" (1953) |
Sometimes American consumers are smarter than they appear to be. Take Italian imports. They buy Italian clothing and fashion accessories by the container ship load, consume oceans of Italian pasta and dream of owning an Italian Ferrari or Maserati. But when it comes to the Fiat, they turn up their noses even if they think they're the cutest thing on four wheels in movies starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck.
Fiat is finding out yet again that Americans just don't like their crapmobiles, sales of the 500 series of this pezzo di spazzatura (piece of junk) are predictably tanking, and not even a desperation bid to peddle the 500X, which is a 500L on steroids, has pulled the Italian marque out of its slump.
The latest slap on Fiat's viso is it's ranking in the 2017 Consumer Reports' brand ranking: Dead last.
1 comment:
Thanks for stirring some pleasant memories. I worked for Royal Imports when they were the Fiat dealer in Delaware back in the late 60s and can assure you the models out at that time were world class junk.
Cuteness was the only selling point, but it worked well with the young ladies who worked in the offices and banks in Wilmington. They flocked to buy 850 Spiders because they were cute and easy to park. The guys in the shop and parts department got to be very well acquainted with said young ladies because they were in the shop almost every week like clockwork.
Good times were had by all, except for that pesky bit about the girls having pieces of junk with a loan attached.
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