Fiat has finally gotten the message, perhaps they read China Car Times (we have been speculating), or rather they realized that their poorly selling vehicle line up in China was to blame for the lack of sales (and maybe not Nanjing Automotive) Fiat just pulled out of the Nanjing Fiat joint venture.
An official from Chery announced today that Fiat and Chery will create a joint venture in 2008 that will see Chery and Fiat working together to produce the Fiat Linea, Bravo, and the Grand Punto for the Chinese market.
Chery and Fiat previously signed agreements to make the Alfa Romeo car in China, and supply engines to Fiat (yet Fiat seems to supply TATA with engines?)
Fiat sold a miserable 32,000 cars in 2006, but with new models, such as the Grand Punto, Fiat China expects to sell around 263,000 units in 2010 - a number which China Car Times believes could easily happen!
grand punto is a great looking car…
but it is still a Fiat, though…
And what is wrong with Fiat? Since their disasters in teh 70’s they’re now very good cars. Stylish, innovative (certainly the new 1.4 Turbo petrols engines are excellent), cheap, well built and safe (5 star Euro NCAP results). What more do you need?
poor construction quality
Well judging by the latest Grand Punto, Fiat 500, Panda and Bravo I’d say quality is there. The doors shut soundly, the dashboards use nice materials and the cars don’t initially feel poorly made. Obviously only time will tell. But then look at Skoda, the butt of all old jokes, but once people got past their prejudices we can see they are good cars.
go look at the new Fiats and give them a chance. If nothing else they’ll perform better in crash tests than the rubbish chinese cars shown here!
Colin G is italian ?
Well, let’s look at things from different sides, the age of those “rubbish” Chinese makers, the age of Fiat, the expertise.
well, i don’t know about colin g nationality. i agree that it’s not fair to say that chinese car are “rubbish”.
but i see that today on chinacartimes there are pics of crash test of 3 different chinese cars. and for 2 out of 3 the driver would be dead. all the latest fiat (grande punto, bravo, 500…) got 5 stars in euroncap crash test.
I don’t know about quality of Italian cars but I think their design is top notch.
yeah, they rock on design…
it’s a pity their cars are so disposable…
I know this sounds so much like simple prejudice, but since my family has owned a fiat and an alfa romeo before, I can pretty much say I will NEVER buy anything from there again…
unless it’s a Lambo… =)