China's "you wanna do business here you gotta hire my nephew" policy towards foreign automakers is inadvertently bringing Chrysler and Fiat into close proximity. Forbes informs us that Fiat has just signed a letter of intent with China's Chery to build cars in [Homer Simpson's favorite Chinese town] Wuhu by 2009. In its normatively optimistic press release, Fiat claims the factory will produce 175k units in the first year, and double that the next. The deal follows Chrysler arrangement with Chery to produce a small car for the U.S. market. All of which takes us back to '88, when Fiat was going to sell Chrysler minivans in Europe and Chrysler was going to sell Alfa Romeos in America. Could the Chinese hook-up mean Fiat's long-awaited return stateside could come via a Chinese-made Alfa sports car sold through Chrysler dealerships? Now there's a thought.
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So what does “Cinquecento” translate to in Chinese?
Cinquecento = 五百, or “Wu Bai”. Wu Bai a Chinese Fiat? Wu Bai is a Chinese Fiat!
Who buy Chinese Fiat? Hu buy Chinese Fiat! Hu Buy Wu Bai!
ok sorry I’m done.
LOL, and litteraly, Wu Bai is 500 (five hundred) in chinese…
Didn’t Americans used to complain about Fiat/Alpha reliability & build quality? And now they’re wanting the Chinese to assemble them? For America? That sounds like such a bad idea, I really don’t think they’ll go for it.
This fits into the theory that Chrysler is on it’s way to being a white-collar only employer with manufacturing outsourced to whoever. Such a business arrangement would then let Chrysler become the distribution arm for any number of suppliers, Fiat and Alfa included. In a way I like this idea because it could bring some really interesting vehicles onto the US market which we don’t see now. Why not a few select Citroen and Peugeot models as well?
Hmmm a Chinese made FIAT badged as a Dodge / Plymouth (redux) / Chrysler / Jeep. Yikes.
Does anybody else remember the last FIATs sold in the US 25 or so years ago? The Ritmo (“Rhythm”) – no catholic jokes now please…
Wow was that car worse than a Neon, or what?! “Yes” and “OMG how is that POSSIBLE?!”
A perfect POS of a car could not be more imagined than a Chinese made FIAT. My mind absolutely boggles. (Needless to say, everything Chinese I ever buy ends up drek within months instead of years – so my opinion of Chinese stuff is not high!)
Of course, it matters little to me on a personal basis – simply because after my Neon commuter car (hecho in Mexico) I swore off “American Brand” cars for life.
My wife’s Hyundai is made in Alabama, ironically. So far, so good.
OK Chryslerberus, you can send me a check. I’ve done your work for you… all you have to do is put new grills and badges on these vehicles and away you go….. (after setting up production in China on FIAT group designs I mean)
FIAT = resurrected Plymouth
Alfa Romeo = Dodge (cars)
Lancia = Chrysler
http://www.globalautoindex.com/maker.plt?no=56&g=Fiat
http://www.globalautoindex.com/maker.plt?no=7&g=Alfa%20Romeo
http://www.globalautoindex.com/maker.plt?no=2096&g=Lancia
Agreed jthorner. Chrysler will become an Engineering and Marketing firm and farm-out to Contract Manufactures with possible final assembly in the NAFTA/CAFTA (FTAA?) regions.
Nardelli’s appointment as CEO is the tell-tail as he was a top Exec at GE (A GREAT company I might add).
jthorner has hit the piston TDC!
Nardelli morphs the PentaStar into the autoappliance biz!
Not everybody is a gearhead; there is money to be made there.
It could play out like this….
1. Chrysler dumps all manufacturing.
2. They then shop around the world looking for desperate/hungry small auto manufacturers looking to break into the US. They sign supply agreements with said companies.
3. Cerberus buys CarMax, creating a parallel sales channel to bypass the “official” Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep system.
4. Chryslerberus becomes the “Home Depot” of auto sales, offering sundry and various wheels at low, low, non-negotiable prices. (I’ll take 1 Fiat, 2 Mahindra & Mahindra’s and a WuHu…Oh, can you throw in an order of fries with that????)
5. The old line Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep dealers are left to rot on the vine, getting only *1* vehicle per model year to sell (or whatever the state mandated minimum is). After a few years, the old line dealer channel collapses.
6. Chryslerberus is seen as a visionary!