Comments on: Fiat to Announce U.S. 500 Factory

By: derm81

derm81 — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:05:08 +0000

My guess is that they’ll move the Journey to Sterling Heights so that plant has something to do besides twiddle its thumbs with the failures that are the Sebring and the Avenger, and Fiat is going to move on into Toluca.

That is the talk round here as I am only a few miles from both Sterling Stamping and Sterling Assembly. Chrysler did put a lot of $$ into Sterling Assembly so I can it happening. Sterling Stamping…..SH cops always have to go here and bust drug dealers.

This weekend Chrysler LLC covered up those ugly Daimler signs with even uglier tarps that say somethign about “world-class manufacturing”

By: CommanderFish

CommanderFish — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:07:31 +0000

bluecon

You boys like Mexico?!

Chrysler’s Toluca plant is currently producing the PT Cruiser and the Dodge Journey. The PT is getting canned, the Journey could be made in Belvidere (with the Caliber/Compass/Patriot) or Sterling Heights (with the Sebring/Avenger) as well.

By: Matt51

Matt51 — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:27:13 +0000

If the price is right! – I just might buy one.

By: San Giuseppe

San Giuseppe — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:17:42 +0000

I’m guessing the Toledo Jeep plant is a finalist; its a newer highly flexible facility that has capacity potential with Liberty sales down.

By: shaker

shaker — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 12:42:58 +0000

I’d love to see the Alfa Brera in “the flesh”.

Front:
http://www.italiancar.net/site/features/TestDriveGTvsBrera/lg/alfaBrera_6.jpg
Rear:
http://www.italiancar.net/site/features/TestDriveGTvsBrera/lg/alfaBrera_7.jpg

It’s a bit out of my price range, but the streets of America are getting pretty boring these days; perhaps some well-to-do chaps will give us something nice to look at…

By: Theodore

Theodore — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 12:13:39 +0000

I can’t say that I really care for the looks of any of the current crop of Fiat/Alfa/Lancia vehicles. The 500, like most of the rest of the cars in its class, is just a road-going blob, and about the best I can say for the Alfa lineup is that those triangular noses certainly are distinctive.

By: Buckshot

Buckshot — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 09:55:25 +0000

“jkumpire :
June 27th, 2009 at 10:00 pm

What an ugly piece of trash, it looks like a Hershey’s Kiss without the foil wrapper on it and paper on it. And they want 15K for it? Do they give an axillary set of bike pedals for it?

I would buy a rusted out Plymouth Duster, or even a Dodge Caliber, before I bought that piece of junk.”
Say what???
http://www.sweatyguineapig.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/hershey_kisses.jpg
You have a very odd taste.
The common view is that the Fiat 500 is no.1 on “the small cars beauty list”.

By: PeteMoran

PeteMoran — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 03:59:05 +0000

Build ‘em and rack ‘em. As they’re small it shouldn’t be as expensive to store the unsold inventory in vast Fiatsco car wastelands.

You can probably store double the amount of 500s compared to Sebrings, I guess….

By: psarhjinian

psarhjinian — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 03:48:45 +0000

As far as I know, Ford still has 500 trademarked. And Paul, your examples don’t work because every single one of those models has a letter attached to it.

Well, they could make a point of referring to it, in spoken communication, as the Cinquecento.

The other issue is that Ford uses the 500/Panda platform for the current European Ka, so getting testy about it in North America is iffy.

By: Robbie

Robbie — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 03:00:59 +0000

In the seventies my poor father tried to keep one of these running for a while longer by filling the rust holes with polyester. The picture must have been taken before the 500 dealt with its first rainfall…

By: BuzzDog

BuzzDog — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:37:47 +0000

bluecon: The Detroit 3 have only the Arlington GM plant left in the South.

Not entirely true. At least for now, GM still has a plant in Shreveport, Louisiana that produces the Chevrolet Colorado and the GMC Canyon, and for a limited time, the Hummer H3. However, it was announced this week that this plant will close by 2012.

By: Droid800

Droid800 — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:18:53 +0000

As far as I know, Ford still has 500 trademarked. And Paul, your examples don’t work because every single one of those models has a letter attached to it.

By: jkumpire

jkumpire — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:00:47 +0000

I am not up on all the latest in cars, so I googled a picture of of the Fiat 500 and took a look.

What an ugly piece of trash, it looks like a Hershey’s Kiss without the foil wrapper on it and paper on it. And they want 15K for it? Do they give an axillary set of bike pedals for it?

I would buy a rusted out Plymouth Duster, or even a Dodge Caliber, before I bought that piece of junk. Who in the US will buy that other than maybe an Obama fan?

By: ravenchris

ravenchris — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 01:52:51 +0000

This kind of plan trumps the plan of no plan.

By: derm81

derm81 — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:56:20 +0000

I thought this was going to be the Toluca plant?

By: mattstairs

mattstairs — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:46:15 +0000

Thanks for the replies on the trademark use of alphanumerics versus names. Makes sense now.

At least Alfa Romeo is coming back to the US. Although an Alfa CUV makes about as much sense as a Saab SUV.

BuzzDog +1

Not sure what those folks are doing in that field.

By: ihatetrees

ihatetrees — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:16:44 +0000

GS650G :
This is rich. FIAT building cars in Chrysler factories. Almost reads like a story from the Onion.

18 months ago, Fiatsler would have been too weird for The Onion.

bluecon:
And you can bet this plant will go up North in one of the blue states.

+1.

But imagine… If Marchionne DID decide to open in a right-to-work state (with non-UAW labor?!?) — the hand wringing, bleating, wadded panties and overall political train wreck on Capitol Hill would be priceless to watch.

By: Davekaybsc

Davekaybsc — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 22:47:40 +0000

Infiniti also lost the fight to stop Audi from using the “Q” names. Germans 2, Infiniti 0.

By: Banned User

Banned User — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 22:34:06 +0000

And you can bet this plant will go up North in one of the blue states.

The Detroit 3 have only the Arlington GM plant left in the South.

Should be a big boost for Toyonda.

By: lutonmoore

lutonmoore — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 21:28:00 +0000

Boy those “cars” will sell well here in Weeksville, North Carolina. Where could you even find a shotgun rack to fit this thing?

By: BuzzDog

BuzzDog — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:30:35 +0000

Man, I love that photo.

Makes me want to go out to the backyard and chop down a few trees, and then park the cars nearby so the whole family can get dressed to the nines and gather around some unknown instrument in a leather-bound box.

By: Paul Niedermeyer

Paul Niedermeyer — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:30:21 +0000

Mattstairs,

Mercedes 500; Dodge Polara 500; Numbers can’t be tied up like names.

By: kaleun

kaleun — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:29:16 +0000

I f i had trademarked all numbers I’d be rich. Or the alphabet. didn’t Mercedes once fight with Volvo about the “S”?
I don’t think Apple would have the right to own the word “pod”since it existed before, but someone “owning”the alphabet or all numbers is just ridiculous. (unless i would own it and everyone would have to pay me :-)

By: GS650G

GS650G — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:27:38 +0000

This is rich. FIAT building cars in Chrysler factories. Almost reads like a story from the Onion.

By: Bimmer

Bimmer — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:23:52 +0000

new caledonia,

Porsche 911 was originally to be named 901. But Peugeot had already trademarked zero in the middle, so Porsche had to go with 911. Same with Volvo, originally they wanted to call model S4, but Audi had that trademark, so Volvo went with S40. Also in Canada (at least) BMW won court battle against Infiniti. Infiniti was using M6 for marketing G35 Coupe with 6-speed manual transmission. http://www.autoblog.com/2007/03/20/bmw-beats-infiniti-in-battle-over-m/
On the other hand there was BMW 323 and Mazda 323 and nobody complained.