Two of the worst cars I ever owned was a 1972 Fiat 128 and a 1986 Dodge 600 ES. Just needed to get that off my chest.

Fix it again Tony.

Absolutely incredible... Has Fiat been following the news? What do the Italians see in Chrysler that the rest of us are missing? This may actually lend new importance to the expression "Fix It Again Tony". I am dumbstruck.

Yay! I might finally be able to experience the horridness that is an Alfa Romeo! Woot.

Too late, FIAT. And too late for Chrysler too.

Our Grand Cherokee is great. Jeeps in general have great powerplants. If Chrysler survives, we'll replace it with another in a few years.

First we give Chrysler a bunch of fiat money, now they're getting a bunch of Fiat money?

/it's all worthless
//and i recycle my own jokes

Bring back the Mały! [en.wikipedia.org]

[upload.wikimedia.org]

Making a comeback?

Hm, so it looks like this?

1. Fiat and Chrysler power combine..
2. Chrysler starts making Fiats..
3. Profit! (or lots of people die)

Yes, I see fiat pandas and 500 lunchboxes roving our interstates and they're all rebranded to chrysler or dodge..

Fiat also owns Maserati, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo (as noted)... so, this is not necessarily a bad thing... Because of this connexion, the Maserati Quatroporte is equiped with an exquisite Ferrari engine.

@Sam Wille: Yes! America needs the mały Fiat.

@2wheelsor4: More Boxer Twin Deliciousness!: I am hoping the Fiat folks have learned a little more about salt applied to US roads during the wintertime otherwise we will again have cars with limited lifetimes...

Hopefully this won't collapse quite like Daimler-Chrysler did.

And better for Fiat to take over Chrysler than for them to fall apart altogether (and suck up even more taxpayer money).

This is like the two ugliest people in town marrying and expecting pretty babies...

I look forward to getting Chrysler engineering and Fiat reliability in one car.

The New York Times is reporting that this deal is official:

[www.nytimes.com]

Re-tool for Fiat? NOK. DE-tool for Fiat.

Car Talk on NPR this weekend should be a hoot.

That show is already a Fiat joke-fest, and those two guys love to rip Fiat apart every chance they get.

Check your local listings, as they say.

My mom has a 2002 Chrysler Sebring that she bought new. It has about 30k miles on it.

1. The CD player stopped working almost immediately.
2. Both door handles snapped off within a year of each other. $100 apiece to replace.
3. The paint on the spoiler and trunk peeled off.
4. The interior mirror actually melted. All of the buttons (like dim, etc), softened and melted to the mirror, and the mirror became foggy.
5. The leather cracked and peeled.

I mean...talk about cheap. I would NEVER buy a Chrysler.

@GreatWhiteNorth:

They see:

-a chance to get a bunch of plants way cheaper than it would cost to build them

-a dealer network that's already in place, instead of having to build one from scratch

-a few brands that still have a small amount of value, especially Jeep, which has a decent presence abroad.

@mtarget: The worst and first car I ever owned was a Fiat Strada.

@mtarget: A '70s Fiat is, first and foremost, a '70s car. The 1970s was an awful decade for cars, and Fiats in the US seemed that much worse because parts took forever and cost extra because they were "rare."

When I was living and working in Italy in 2000-2001 I bought a '92 Fiat Tipo Granturismo... about the size of a VW Golf. It was cheap because it has the "big" engine, a 2.0-litre. Italians all wanted the 1.4, so I got a steal for a relatively fancy car, with electric windows and automatic climate control. The climate control was the only major issue I had, it needed to be "rebooted" every once in a while on long drives.

Basing your opinion of Fiat on the quality (or lack thereof) of a 1972 model is not going to give you a good idea of what modern Fiats are like.

@gilamon: How much actual experience do you have with modern Fiats?

@Oranges w/ Cheese: Joke's on Italy. They get the PT Cruiser.

/disgruntled owner

@thesadtomato: I watched the video.

Twice.

Which one is the Maly?

@GreatWhiteNorth: Early this morning on BBC radio they acted like the number one objective for Fiat is to heavily market and manufacture their line of classier vehicles to the United States. They are apparently out to take some of the market share from Mercedes and BMW (I think), both of whom are currently manufacturing in the states.

It will be interesting to see how that scheme pans out.

I've been hoping for the return of Alfa Romeo to the US for years. The GM deal was the first real possibility, and GM paid Fiat a lot of money to opt out of that deal (which was a great outcome for Fiat, actually... GM might have driven them into the ground like Saab.)

There were rumors of the return for a while in more recent years, and one of the ideas bandied about was buying or leasing idle Chrysler facilities for manufacturing (or expanding a Case - New Holland plant that Fiat already owns.)

This deal seems to be the most certain hope yet... but comes at a time when the market overall is in the toilet. Ah, well, I have a good car. Hopefully in 5 years or so, something will have come of this deal, and an Alfa Sportwagon will be a real option for the next car.

Question: What's worse than buying a Chrysler?
Answer: Buying a fiat.

I'm just waiting for the Chrysiat to crash and burn. Fiasler? Chriat? Fiater? Fiatler?

@LloydHippopotamus: Yeah but these are horrendously expensive cars. Not really what America needs right now, no?

@gilamon: I'm wondering if Fiat is planning something interesting. Chrysler has an electric car branch, but they're mostly 25 MPH top speed things that look like golf carts. Otherwise, I can't think of anything too exciting, short of the brands some people like.

@Writer, TheNinjaReport: I'd take a recent Fiat over most anything Chrysler has produced in a decade. When was the last time you drove a Fiat, and what year was that Fiat built?

@Saboth: You think your mom's '02 Sebring is lousy... try the new one! I had one as a rental recently, and it was one of the worst newish cars I've ever driven. Its interior bits hadn't started to melt yet, but it was a wheezy, poor-handling ergonomic disaster. I've driven several previous-gen Sebrings (also as rentals) and none struck me as being nearly as bad as the current one.

@Saboth: I will never buy a BUICK for the same reasons. The last one we got was CRAP. I look at how happy all of my friends and family are with their Toyotas and I can't imagine buying American again.

@GearheadGeek: I concur - they have come a long way. Fiat haters should go check out the Punto and the Bravo, both are way more stylish than any US compacts

@Writer, TheNinjaReport: I had a Nova (Toyota/Chevrolet) once. I called it my Toyo-Let.

bring me the 500 now

@GearheadGeek: Modern Fiats are terrible. As are modern Chryslers. One does not need anecdotal evidence from 30 years ago to come to that conclusion.

@wee0x1B: How many modern Fiats have you driven or owned?

@scoosdad: Heh heh.

Caller: Hi Tom and Ray, long time listener, first time caller...

Tom: So what's the problem?

Caller: Well, I'm having a lot of trouble with my car.

Ray: What kind of Fiat do you own?

Tom: (Cackle and guffaw) Fix it again, Tony! (chortle)

@AdvocatesDevil: My dad always buys Fords, because he's old school and wants to "buy American". Well, my Toyota was made in California, by US workers receiving a living wage. The engine and transmission were made in Japan, but it was all built here.

His Ford was made in Canada in Mexico, from a smattering of US parts.

Put another way: my car is more "American" than his.

@GearheadGeek: Alfa has already made a deal with BMW to use the MINI lots to sell them. This should start late this year or next year. the 8c should already be available at Maserati dealerships.

@madanthony: It sounds like "way cheaper" should read "free". I'd take a 35% stake in Chrysler if someone offered to give it to me (in exchange for some of my prodigious knowledge about fuel-efficient cars).

FIAT =
Found In A Trashcan
Fantastic In A Tightspot
Finest Italian Automotive Technology
Futile Italian Attempt at Transportation (Sent in by a visitor)
Failure In Italian Automotive Technology
Fix It All the Time
Fix it again, Tony!
Fix It Another Time

Chrysler =
Company Has Rid Your Savings Legally: Electronic Robbery
Chrysler Has Raped Your Sanity Loser - Expect Repercussions

(see them all at [www.carbuyingtips.com])

@AdvocatesDevil: Watch out there. A toyota is most likely more american than an american branded car.

@wee0x1B: OTOH, the profits from the Ford stayed here and the profits from the Toyota went back to Japan.

It's a complicated issue.

@GearheadGeek: Given GM and Fiat's history, I think it's really ironic that Fiat's market cap is now *much* larger than GM's.

Now Chrysler is getting bought by the company that GM paid money to get rid of. Just savor that thought.

@GearheadGeek: About the same number as the modern Renaults, Citroens, and Pugeots you've driven or owned. Fiats aren't sold in the US because no one is interested in selling them. That's because almost no one is interested in buying them.

@perruptor: That's only part of it. U.S. crash standards and emissions standards are different from the EU's. That means it's expensive to certify a car here, especially since every engine and transmission combination must be EPA certified separately.

It's unlikely we'll see small cars like the Fiat 500, because the profit margins on them won't justify the work to certify them for U.S. sales. Like other European makes, they'll no doubt export mostly high-end cars that they can make a good profit on.

@perruptor: You actually miss my point completely. I'm well aware of the issues involved in bringing a new marque to the US (or in Fiat's case, issues with returning to the US where they had less-than-stellar performance in the past.) My point is that the flippant dismissal of modern Fiats as "terrible" (per wee0x1B above) is inaccurate, and my guess is that most people who write off Fiats as junk have never driven a modern one, or at best have seen only one that happens to have problems.

There's a good chance I've driven more Citroens produced in the last 20 years than has someone who dismisses modern Fiats as junk as well, and I've only driven 3 that I can think of.