In a few months, Fiat will own 46 percent of Chrysler, Fiat announced today in Turin. With another 5 percent milestone reached by the end of the year, Fiat will have the 51 percent majority in Chrysler. According to Germany’s Automobilwoche [sub], the 46 percent level will be reached after Chrysler has paid back the government loans. Payment of the loans is expected for the second quarter of 2011.

We recently asked our Best And Brightest to help Chevrolet look back through its past and find the designs that should inform the brand’s future design direction, an assignment that touched off a number of fascinating conversations. Now, with news of Alfa’s US launch being delayed at least in part due to problems with the design of its all-important D-segment sedan, we reckon it’s time to help Alfa navigate its current design crossroads. Only this time, it’s even more important. Though once-famous for its crackling V6s and flat-fours, Alfa’s have become increasingly dependent on their non-mechanical attributes: style, flair, and Italian-ness. And unlike Chevrolet, the brand has more recent design heritage to draw on as it approaches a US launch just as automotive designs are becoming increasingly emotive. But whereas Chevrolet lacks design identity, Alfa suffers from too much identity: though the 8C is a gorgeous car and a sublime halo, its design cues are becoming something of a crutch for Alfa’s designers.

And so we ask: if Alfa is looking for a new design direction to help launch it as a global premium/sporty brand, what past designs should it turn to? My personal top choice, the Alfetta GTV6, may not be the most beloved design amongst true Alfisti, but it’s a distinctive design at the crossroads between old- and new-school Italian brio. If Alfa is to succeed, it needs designs that reference both heritage and modernity, and to my eyes, the GTV does just that. But that still leaves nine more choices…

In a few weeks, Fiat will be handed another 5 percent of Chrysler as brownie points for meeting another milestone in its agreement with the U.S. and Canadian governments. Another milestone will be reached in the fourth quarter, Sergio Marchionne told Reuters today. That will bring Fiat’s ownership in Chrysler to 35 percent. But Fiat and Marchionne want more: Majority control, i.e. 51 percent. That needs a bigger milestone: Repay a $7 billion government debt. Marchionne thinks he can do it.

Italy’s financial police, the Guardia di Finanza, announced in Brescia last week the indictment of five individuals suspected of a 13 million euro (US $18 million) scheme involving tax fraud and rigged speed cameras. Diego Barosi, 60, the head of the Garda Segnale Srl photo enforcement firm would bid on municipal automated ticketing machine contracts against shell companies run by his co-conspirators. They would ensure that Garda ended up landing the lucrative deal.

Ford and Ferrari finally settled their differences over the alleged trademark infringement by Ferrari. In cases like these, one lawyer usually tells the other: “What does it take for this to go away?” In this case, Ford’s lawyer must have answered: “Lose the F, or lose the case.” And that’s what happened.

Ferdi Piech is trying his hand at instigating a velvet revolution. He is dangling huge sales increases at Alfa in front of workers and customers, hoping that they string up Marchionne and ask Volkswagen to take over Alfa. Or something along these lines. Anyway, Piech said in Geneva that Volkswagen could nearly quadruple the annual sales of Alfa Romeo, if Fiat would only do the right thing and sell Volkswagen the ailing Alfa brand.

Sergio Marchionne is a multitasker: He has been knighted in Italy in 2006, and is CEO of two carmakers, Fiat and Chrysler. Money-wise, he’s just getting by. A 300-page filing with the SEC revealed that his pay as CEO of Chrysler equals what he draws from his knighthood: Niente. Marchionne received no cash salary from the company. He didn’t work entirely for nothing though.

The owner of a family van was surprised to receive a ticket in the mail from police in the southern Italian town of Oria accusing him of driving 1230 km/h (764 MPH). The Lizzanello resident had been driving his Fiat Doblo on the SS7 in the province of Brindisi on November 6 and weeks later received a letter demanding that he pay 165 euros (US $223).

Italian tickets allow a five percent tolerance to account for the possibility of error. At 1230 km/h, the motorist exceeded the 90 km/h (56 MPH) speed limit with an adjusted velocity of 1078 km/h (669 MPH), according to the notice signed by two officers ( view ticket). Oria police insist that the camera managed by the private firm Sodi Scientifica SpA is perfectly accurate. Officials blamed the incident “clerical error” in a statement issued Thursday.

In the brouhaha over Ferrari’s alleged trademark violation, Ferrari did the smart thing and surrendered. Ferrari withdrew the “F150” name for its new Formula One race car. Ford had brought suit in federal court, alleging that “Ferrari has misappropriated the F-150 trademark in naming its new racing vehicle the ‘F150′ in order to capitalize on and profit from the substantial goodwill that Ford has developed in the F-150 trademark.”

Chrysler and Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has given Forbes’ Joann Muller what I believe to be one of his best interviews since arriving on the US scene. In it, Sergio dishes on everything from the bailout (“I risked everything – I got 35 percent of something that was worth nothing”), to Chrysler’s 2011 sales target (“a very, very tough uphill battle”), to its new product

I couldn’t have done more from a product standpoint than I’ve done. I mean you know, I tried every trick in the book that I knew and I invented some, but you know, 16 products in 12 months – at least that part of it was a record. The rest of it is to be proven.

But the strangest revelation from Sergio is that Alfa Romeo’s future success will be, in a manner of speaking, “Imported from Detroit.” Read the whole thing over at Forbes, or hit the jump for Sergio’s vision for his red-blooded Italian brand.

You think only China has a total disregard for intellectual property? Ford filed a trademark infringement suit on Wednesday against a foreign carmaker. The only thing this carmaker has in common with China is their love for the red color. Ford sued Ferrari for blatantly stealing the name of the world’s best selling vehicle, the F-150.

Let’s get something perfectly clear: if you’re spending good money to bring back a legendary Italian sports car brand like DeTomaso without aiming to capture the essence of the photograph above, you’re doing it wrong. Period. If, on the other hand, you’re bringing back the DeTomaso name in order to sell

a premium large crossover, dubbed SLC (sport luxury car) that would be a rival to cars such as the BMW 5-series GT and Lexus RX-450h,

you need to go rethink your entire perspective on life. Or at least find a new business. Tragically, this is exactly what former Fiat marketing executive Gian Mario Rossignolo is doing. DeTomaso. Crossover. DeTomaso. RX450h. DeTomaso. Luxury CUV. Haven’t lost your mind yet? Hit the jump for more claw-your-eyes-out details.

CEO Sergio Marchionne certainly suggested as much in a speech at the NADA convention over the weekend, in which he said

Who knows? In the next two or three years, we could be looking at one entity. It could be based here

From the perspective of the American taxpayer, this would certainly be the favorable outcome. After all, Fiat didn’t put a single Euro into the restructured Chrysler, and national bailouts don’t usually result in the expatriation of the bailed-out firm. But the US Treasury department isn’t the only master Fiat has to serve, and Marchionne’s suggestion that the Fiat-Chrysler alliance has touched off something of a “firestorm.” The Financial Times reports that

Pierluigi Bersani, leader of the [Italian] opposition Democratic party, demanding an explanation from Mr Marchionne said it was unacceptable for “Turin and the country to become a suburb of Detroit”.

Industry Minister Paolo Romani adds [via the Montreal Gazette]

The head of the carmaker must remain in Turin

And with Italian backlash against a possible Detroit headquartering of the Fiat-Chrysler alliance building, Marchionne is backpedaling furiously.

While America is glued to the flat screen, Fiat gets all the headlines. The other day, Sergio Marchionne had dropped a mention that the HQ of a merged Fiat & Chrysler could move to the U.S. Stateside, this didn’t make much waves. It was buried in shyster-gate. In Italy, all hell broke loose. Fiat emigrating la bella Italia for America? Porca miseria!

Germany’s auto motor und sport magazine caught Lamborghini’s Murcielago-successor Aventador in the wild, only covered by some artsy pasties on the paintjob. It should be available for viewing without the camouflage at the Geneva Auto Salon.

Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat SpA and Chrysler Group, announced plans to bring the hecho en Mexico Fiat 500 to China. According to Gasgoo, Marchionne told reporters during the Detroit Auto Show that half of the 120,000 units built in the Toluca factory is destined for North America. The other half will be exported to China and Brazil.

Fiat split its auto business from the rest of its industrial operations today, creating two new companies: Fiat and Fiat Industrial. Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne announced the move as a way for Fiat to unlock its share value and concentrate on its core business, telling the AP [via Newser]

This is a very important moment for Fiat, because it represents at the same time a point of arrival and a point of departure. Faced with the great transformations in place in the market, we could no longer continue to hold together sectors that had no economic or industrial characteristic in common.

But with Fiat Industrial taking care of the truck-and-tractor side of the business independently, Fiat SpA is focusing on the task at hand: Chrysler. With a 35 percent stake in the bailed-out American automaker in the bag, Fiat is aiming for a controlling stake when Chrysler’s IPO hits the markets later this year. And though the spin-off of FIat’s non-automotive business opens the door for a full merger of Fiat and Chrysler, Marchionne denies that a full merger will take place, saying only that

I don’t know whether it is likely, but it is possible that we’ll go over the 50 percent mark if Chrysler decides to go to the markets in 2011. It will be advantageous if that happens.

But don’t mind Sergio’s equivocation. Fiat will almost certainly snap up the remainder of a controlling stake by the end of this year. Here’s why…

With some 60k Italian jobs and a $20b investment at stake, Fiat’s “Fabbrica Italia” renovation of its home-country production plans are crucial to the integration of Fiat and Chrysler. And rather than negotiating a national labor agreement with Italy’s fractious unions, Fiat has been revamping its Italian plants on a case-by-case basis. This strategy has already backfired at the firm’s Naples-based Pomigliano plant, where the Italian metalworker’s union Fiom decried Fiat’s plans as “discriminatory.” Since then, Fiat has moved onto its Mirafiori plant in Turin, where Fiat wants to build the next-generation Compass/Patriot models for Chrysler and a derivative SUV for Alfa-Romeo on the firm’s new “Compact Wide” platform. And once again, Fiom is up to its old tricks. The WSJ reports that every other union has approved the new Mirafiori deal with Fiat, except Fiom, which has been banned from representing workers at the plant, pending a January vote by workers. However, Fiom represents some 22 percent of Mirafiori workers, and the union has announced an eight-hour strike for January 28.

According to Brazil’s Globo, Brazil’s baby darling, the new Uno, is outgrowing its baby shoes. Fiat must expand to keep up with the demand. The likely winner will be the northeastern state of Pernambuco. Fiat announced that it is in negotiations with that state’s government. Though the Italians denied that a factory was in the offing, what else should an automaker discuss with a state government? Police cars? It is a well known fact that Fiat needs more capacity. It is also well-known that Fiat and various state governments have been doing the habitual mating dance whenever a maker says it’s looking for a new place to call home. Next year will witness the beginning of operations at three new sites as Hyundai, Toyota and even Chinese Chery are busy building their new factories. The Big 4 (Fiat, VW, GM and Ford) in Brazil all have two factories, except for Fiat. Fiat only has one. Market conditions are now forcing the Italians to commit: Double-up or fold?

The relationship between automakers and automotive journalists can be extremely difficult, as automakers often hold access to cars hostage based on a journalist’s coverage of them. If, as an automotive journalist, you like every car you drive, the world is your oyster. Automakers invite you to every launch, PR guys gaze longingly into your eyes, and all is right with the world. If, on the other hand, you write negatively about a car, you can find yourself watching the gravy train pull out of the station without you… or, as it turns out, you could even be sued. At least in Italy.

Carscoop reports that Fiat is suing the Italian TV show AnnoZero for “defamatory” remarks about the Alfa Romeo MiTo Quadrifoglio, after the program asserted “the overall technical inferiority of the Alfa Romeo MiTo” in comparison to the MINI Cooper S and Citroen DS3 THP. The details of the case are sketchy, but you can find Fiat’s press release on the matter after the jump.

Last night, I was on the phone with one of my VC friends (that’s VC as in Venture Capital, not as in Vietcong, don’t get any ideas) and he decried the paucity of free cash: “From Joe Shmoe to billionaire investors, all are holding on to their money.” It can’t be all that bad if what Autoguide says is right, and if De Tomaso will be back from the dead. They say, there will be De Tomasos at the Geneva Autoshow.

Giorgetto Giugiaro sold out to the tedeschi at Volkswagen. Bertone is teaching budding Chinese car designers in brutally cold Changchun. And now, the last vestige of inspired Italian car design is on the auction block: Pininfarina . Actually, they had hired the Italian investment bank Banca Leonardo in August 2009, but they took their time. Now, the bidding is getting serious. And guess who wants to take Pininfarina home.

The rescue of Chrysler is making great strides. Sergio Marchionne today presented union officials an audacious plan. Powered by an investment of $1.3b, Chrysler and Fiat will build Alfa Romeos and Jeeps under one huge roof. The roof is in Mirafiori, Italy. Also known as the Fiat factory in Torino. And who will pay for all that? Fiat will pay 60 percent. Chrysler will pay 40 percent.

Luca di Montezemolo testing the New Stratos from New Stratos on Vimeo.

Ferrari Chariman Luca Di Montezomolo recently got a spin in Michael Stoschek’s homage to the Lancia Stratos, possibly one of the rarest treats in the car game just now. And even though it’s neither a Lancia nor a Stratos, anyone would be thrilled to drive one before they’re all locked into some climate-controlled bunker somewhere. But that’s not all Luca has to be thankful for: with a disastrous 2010 F1 season behind it, Ferrari is the center of speculation that Fiat will sell it off as it moves towards closer ties with Chrysler Group. Freedom from Fiat might mean an end to Lancia-branded one-offs based on Ferrari platforms, but given the depth of Fiat’s gamble on Chrysler, Ferrari would probably prefer to watch from a distance anyway. In fact, the only thing Luca probably isn’t thankful for this week is direct competition from the McLaren MP4-12C, which is launching at almost the exact same price as the 458 Italia.

Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, via its investment vehicle AMubadala Development Co, has sold back its 5 per cent stake in Ferrari to Fiat. It’s not that the sheiks were tired of Ferrari. Fiat wanted their shares back. Fiat had an option that gave it the right to buy back the stake that Mubadala had acquired in 2005 from Mediobanca, Italy’s largest investment bank for €114 million, domain-b reports.

Fiat paid €122m ($167m) to buy back the stock. Now their holdings climbed from 85 percent to 90 percent. Why would you want 90 percent in a small sports car maker if you already have 85 percent, and you need every penny of cash?

When Fiat started to get a grip on Chrysler, there was very little chance of success. But to be fair, they are making a go of it. Sergio Marchionne is doing his best to integrate Fiat and Chrysler. Is he really?

The need to expand automotive brands while improving fuel economy is driving automakers to some interesting lengths of late. From GM future concepts that have more in common with a Segway than a Cruze, to Honda’s U-3X and Chrysler’s ill-fated PeaPod, automakers are sending strong hints that the future will be smaller and decidedly less car-like. And MINI and Smart recently took this trend to its logical conclusion, each announcing that they would build (or, more precisely, re-brand) scooters… or as they call them, “alternative mobility concepts.” Which raises the question: what’s a scooter brand to do? Well, Piaggio, maker of the Vespa and other scooter-based “alternative mobility concepts” isn’t going to just drone off into that good night, and it’s fighting back by creating an “alternative” to its core scooter products: a four wheeled car-like “mobility concept.”

Even though Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne’s disparaging comments about its over-reliance on Italian manufacturing have opened the door for more US manufacturing opportunities, United Auto Workers boss Bob King wants to make it clear that he won’t be taking advantage of Fiat’s rift with its Italian unions. Fiat tells Automotive News [sub] that failure to secure Italian union agreement with its new manufacturing plan could send increased production to Serbia, Poland and even the United States. King’s response [via Michigan Public Radio]:

They (automakers) won’t be pitting one worker in one country against another. We’re going to be part of working with our global partners in other unions and building a global middle class – and rebuild the American middle class, really.

Yes, in the brutally competitive international labor market, there is a way for everyone to win… really.

Fiat could do more if it could cut off Italy

Having been handed a bankruptcy-rinsed Chrysler by the American government, Fiat’s Canadian-born CEO Sergio Marchionne is beginning to see Italy as nothing more than aging, uncompetitive factories and troublesome unions. And now he’s not just telling the Italian media that not only would Fiat be better off without the country that birthed it. According to Reuters

The CEO added that not a single euro of the 2 billion euros ($2.8 billion) of trading profit that Fiat is targeting for 2010 will come from Italy, where all Fiat car passenger plants are loss-making.

The funny part: Chrysler still holds a value of precisely zero dollars on Fiat’s balance book. And with the Fiat and Alfa-Romeo brands headed to the US, Italian-ness is still an important element of Fiat’s identity. But until Marchionne’s Chrysler revival and Italian invasion take hold stateside, and as long as mother Italia is a drain on its resources, Fiat might be best described as a Brazilian company.

Italian speakers can enjoy Marhionne’s interview here.

It’s easy to see why Sergio is feeling mighty pleased with himself. Fiat is predicted to turn a €400 million profit this year (that’s about $556m) and Fiat is expanding in Brazil, a huge car market. So can some of this good fortune rub off onto Chrysler? Possibly 35 percent of it can, if Sergio has his way.

The Freep reports that Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat and Chrysler, has told analysts that Fiat is planning to raise its stake in Chrysler from 20 percent to 35 percent by the end of next year “barring unforeseen circumstances”. A big vote of confidence, indeed. When Fiat took its initial stake in Chrysler, it was given the option to increase its stake by 5 percent tranches, provided it could meet certain goals.

China isn’t the only big economy coming to play (sorry to burst your bubble, Herr Schmitt). [ED:No bubble. India is 10-15 years behind China, but they will definitely be next. China and India added will be a monster.] Just across the border, India is rising up and quickly, too. Car makers are desperately scrambling to get a foothold in the Indian market. And like the Chinese market, everyone is enjoying record growth in India. Well, almost everybody.

New car registrations in Italy fell 18.9 percent in September to 154,429 vehicles. Of course that means major pain for Fiat, which holds about 30 percent of the market. Actually, more than major pain: Fiat’s sales in their home market cratered by 26.3 percent to just 44,161 vehicles in September. That according to Transport Ministry data, published by Reuters. And what did Sergio Marchionne have to say to that disaster?

A few weeks ago, one of our overabundance of resident Germans wrote about how Volkswagen wanted to marry the Italian bride, Signorina Alfa Romeo. The project was colloquially called “Italian dressing” (Those Germans and their crazy sense of humor(!)). But it was soon dismissed as a throwaway comment from a company hell-bent by taking over ze vorld. Well, now Piech himself is getting involved, and if Piech wants something …

Did you know that Champagne, as we know it, wasn’t invented by the French? It was invented by the British. Christopher Merret documented the addition of sugar and molasses to a finished wine to create the bubbles in Champagne. This was six years before Dom Perignon (the supposed creator of Champagne) went to the Abbey of Hautvillers. And 40 years before Benedictine supposedly created Champagne. Merret presented his paper to the Royal Society which detailed the process now known as méthode Champenoise in 1662. Did that surprise you? Now check this out…

Ferrari is sending engineers all around to the world to investigate “thermal incidents”. Now what’s a “thermal incident” you might ask? It ain’t a mistake that happens in your long johns, that’s for sure.

It’s corporate speak for “that supercar which you lashed loads of money on may catch fire in a big way.”

„I’ve said Alfa is not for sale“ grouched Fiat’s Sergio Marchionne at journos who badgered him about Alfa possibly going to Volkswagen. While he was at it, Sergio told Automobilwoche [sub] that business is so good that he probably will raise year-end guidance in the third quarter.

Automobilwoche [sub] picked up strong signals that Volkswagen is interested in adding Alfa Romeo to their growing roster of brands. Last December, Marchionne had put Alfa on strategic review, and gave the brand, as Ed Niedermeyer put it so delicately, “a year to get its proverbial shit together.” They popped some Imodium, and in April, Marchionne was “determined” to build the brand into a “full-line premium carmaker.” Nevertheless, here and there whispers had popped up that Alfa could be sold if the right buyer would show.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how Sergio Marchionne was successful in getting the majority of the unions at his Naples plant to sign a new work agreement. This was supposed to herald in a new era in Italian work practices and pacem in terris. Well, it seems that Fiat wants to press the issue home to the unions. Reuters reports that Fiat is so determined to teach Italian unions at their Pomigliano plant that their working practices are not sustainable, that they are now going to some extreme lengths. Fiat is now going to set up a new company to manage the plant near Naples. Doesn’t sound extreme, right? Well, there’s more.

Two robots are retracing the tracks of Marco Polo and are on their way from Italy to China. The two heavily modified driverless Piaggio Porter Electric vans started last week in front of of the Milan Cathedral. By end of October they are expected to arrive in Shanghai after having driven 8,000 miles, all the way through Siberia and the Gobi Desert, all by themselves, untouched by human hands.

Well, kind of.

Fiat is determined to drag their Italian operations into the 21st century, says The New York Times. Lacksadaisical attitudes produced some novel ways of shirking work. Some examples include calling sick at Fiat (remember, you get paid in full even if you call sick) and using that time to work another job or faking a doctor’s note. The latter is particularly used when a local football team is playing. Well, no more, according to Marchionne. He wants to impose foreign style work standards to encourage more pride in Italian workers’ jobs and improve the competitiveness of Italian factories. Some have an opposite view.

Auto Express reports that Fiat is mating their ultra-efficient TwinAir, two-cylinder 900cc engine with a hybrid powertrain. Destination: A Fiat 500 that could get 100+mpg and an emission rate of 70g/km. The plan is to put a small 5kW (8bhp) electric motor into the gearbox casing. The TwinAir engine is so small, there will be space under the hood for the battery.

Fiat retreated from U.S. shores in 1983, but that doesn’t stop die-hard Fiat fans from keeping their Fix-it-again-Tonys alive, and from congregating once a year. This weekend, the annual convention of the Club Fiat-Lancia Unlimited was held at the Biltmore in Asheville, NC. At their closing dinner, Laura Soave, Head of Fiat North America, made Fiat fans an offer they can hardly refuse:

Many of you don’t know this, but during my days at university, I supplemented my meager grant money (in the days when European governments gave grant money to students) by gambling said grant. The extra money came in useful for text books, science equipment, drinking lager till my head span, etc. The fruit machines and betting on horses was fun enough, but where I really excelled was poker. Texas Hold ’em, to be more accurate. I learnt many of life’s lessons that way, but the one which stuck in my mind the most was this little nugget: “When you play a bluff, be prepared to have that bluff called.” Words which certain Italian unions should have heeded.

Where would the automotive world be without China. From Daimler to Volkswagen, all send daily prayers east, in the general direction of the Middle Kingdom. (No much aiming precision is needed. It’s a big country.) Even Lamborghini has high expectations. This year, they will sell record numbers of Lambos to China.

Sergio Marchionne’s turnaround of Fiat was a weird one. He turned around a company, which most people thought had died already. Sergio’s turnaround was helped by GM’s unwitting “ re-capitalization” of Fiat, too. Recently, worker relations in Italy have been strained, to say the least. If you thought the situation with the UAW in the United States was bad enough, in Italy, things are spicier than Mamma’s Arrabbiata sauce. The Financial Times UK reports that Sergio Marchionne has finally lost patience with unionized Italian workers and has threatened them to change their mindsets or else be out of a job. The end of September is their deadline. Mr Marchionne wants Italy to help drag Fiat (and Chrysler) into one of the top five car companies in the world. But to do that, he needs concessions from his Italian workers. Big ones.

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?)

Last Friday, Chrysler celebrated the first anniversary of its miraculous emergence from bankruptcy. What did the employees get in observance of this occasion? A watch? A bonus?

Not suitably impressed by the recent 446,000 mile Neon? How about a 1980 Fiat Brava with a half-million miles, on its original engine no less! It just goes to show that anything can be kept going forever, with the right attitude, perseverance and a (full time?) dedicated mechanic. 818now.com has the full story on Gil Cormaci (is chauvinism at work here?) and his stereotype defying Fiat that recently rolled over its odometer for the fifth time.

Ultimate Factories – Ferrari

Bloomberg reports that Ferrari workers walked off the job for four hours yesterday, in protest of planned job cuts and production idling. Ferrari has announced that it plans to eliminate 120 office jobs and 150 production jobs, or nearly ten percent of its workforce. The Italian sportscar firm has also said it will put 600 workers on a week-long furlough next week, as it idles production of engines for its sister brand Maserati at a Maranello plant. Last year, Ferrari built about 4,500 engines for Maserati, about half of the 2008 number, as sales of the brand fell.

Fiat has released photos of its new super-mini Uno, which will initially be produced in Brazil, and may, or may not, eventually be sold in Europe as well. The emphasis is on room and a “crossover look”, not unlike Toyota’s Urban Cruiser (Scion xD). It certainly isn’t on the handsome good looks Fiats were once known for. Times change.