Fiat 500 wagon to be unveiled in Geneva: bound for US market

Fiat 500 Coupe Zagato concept live in Geneva - 01.03.2011

After a break that lasted 30 years, the Fiat brand returned to the United States but sales figures from the Italian brand have been disappointing in its first year. The Fiat 500 was launched to battle against BMW's MINI, but sales figures were less than 26,000 units which was half the number originally forecast by the company.

To rescue the brand from a new failure in one of the world's biggest car markets, Fiat is planning to launch a wagon variant of their subcompact 500. Olivier Francois, head of the Fiat brand has confirmed the news and that we will see it unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in just a couple of months. Francois also confirmed that sales will begin in the US next year, following its introduction to European markets.

The Fiat 500 wagon will also be joined in the US market by the high performance Abarth derivative of the model.

Source: freep

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VWWerke

Introduce a WAGON version of a Microcar that has already bombed in a very discerning market that has a well known history of flatly refusing to buy Microcars and recently.....WAGONS? So Mr Meltifaceoni thinks by hybridising these two epically failed market segments into one dogs dinner of a mongrel he will somehow end up with a product that magically becomes greater than the sum of it's parts! Brilliant CEOesque infantile thinking, just like what would be expected from the mind of the jumped up sales-rep they usually are. Alas, yet another bungling self-referencing Mr CEO of the Auto World gets it right once again.....NOT! Hellooooooooooo!

January 17, 2012 5:25 am

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NCFrederick

HAHAHA Meltiface.

January 17, 2012 8:29 pm

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dcinbc

Um, not sure what you mean, VWWerke. Sergio Marchionne is the guy you're referring to, and from what I read on Wikipedia, he's smarter than most of us. As far as the discernment of the U.S. market, are you talking about the same people who prefer hybrids to diesels, SUV's to wagons, cross-overs to minivans and pickup trucks to, well, most things I guess. Truth is, the States isn't one market but 50 or more (60 if you add Canada), but California dominates, hence it's quirkiness to everyone else in the world. As to the 'failure' of the Fiat 500, it was introduced in between two very large financial crises and Fiat didn't get a separate dealer network together first in the same way BMW did with the Mini brand. That`s coming. As to a general dislike of microcars, it depends where you live. Out here on the West Coast, the Smart brand has been around for some years, and there are plenty of small Japanese imports, including RHD import micro trucks and minivans. It all depends where you live. I hope the 500 does well - it looks great, appears to be bolted together well and I`d like my better half to get one so we can keep the Land Rover as the gas prices keep spiralling ever upward. Then again, I`m really interested to see what VW puts into our market in the next while. There`s a company that can be individualistic when they choose to be.

January 17, 2012 8:03 am

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VWWerke

Good points DCinBC, I fully agree with you about the US being a complex multi-faceted market that spans across a very wide spectrum of car buying habits. Unfortunately, it appears that the majority of US customers are not convinced enough to take that plunge regarding the Microcar. As you once again correctly highlighted about California and the West Coast, I actually perceive California to be by far the most cosmopolitan and forward thinking state in the US, at least where automotive solutions are concerned, a state blessed with a demographic that relishes taking on fresh and intelligent alternatives to the Status Quo, hence the well-known early/high adoption rates of Green vehicles there. I personally love Fiat, especially after I first drove a 1st generation Punto to be exact, all the more amazing vehicle for the fact that the ditzy owner had been driving it without oil for a long time without the engine skipping a beat, proving that the claim from Fiat about it's then new FIRE engine could run for 100 miles without oil was true, I drove that car back in 1998 and its still working perfectly today! I actually was on the verge of buying the gorgeous 500 back in 2006 when it first came out, but decided to wait and see what VW was going to do with the Beetle.....then they went and screwed that up! VW's lineup have been rather lacklustre and rewarmed whurst-like recently but I do hope they bring out the 'Bully' as is or, going very far beyond reality here, the astonishing XL1, I'll be in there like a shot. Anyway, the 500 is, by a country mile, far better built than any other Fiat you care to remember, and it appears to be very reliable too! If I was in the market for one now I'd go for the Twin Air model.....amazing engineering and much closer to the original in spirit and charm. As for Melifaceoni being smarter than most of us, well..... http://www.autoblog.com/2012/01/17/marchionne-admits-50-000-unit-sales-goal-for-fiat-500-incredibl/

January 18, 2012 4:19 am

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