Better late than never: Fiat is betting big on their comeback in China. All eyes on their Changsha-based (read middle of nowhere) joint venture with Guangzhou Automobile Group Co (GAC). They are about to be open for business. Gasgoo says there will be three Fiat models, the first a newly designed mid-class sedan, codenamed C-Medium (any guesses?) If local media has it right, two Jeep-brand SUVs will also be produced in the new joint venture. Their codenames are SUV-3 and SUV-4 (any guesses?)

Both Fiat and Chrysler need to get rid of a baggage of bad memories in China.

Despite having been first to China (through AMC,) Chrysler made a royal mess out of the Chinese market and stopped building cars here a while ago.

Fiat had an ill-fated joint venture with Nanjing Automobile. It didn’t make much of an impression on the Chinese market and fizzled when Nanjing was sold to SAIC and Fiat pulled out in 2007.