How Soon Will Fiat Disappear in the US?
Among the few embarrassments highly successful car company Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCAU) has posted since it was created by a merger is its attempt at another launch of the Fiat brand into the United States. That such a well-managed car company should suffer such a humiliating failure is a signal that it should quit the experiment.
Fiat Chrysler sold 25,003 Fiat vehicles in the first seven months of the year, down 13% from the same period in 2014. That is fewer units than its Dodge division sold of its minivan Durango. The Durango will not be available next year. The Fiat should not be either.
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The Fiat is not an embarrassment because its sales have done so poorly. Fiat sits at or near the bottom of most car brand quality surveys, most recently from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) and the J.D. Power 2015 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study. Fiat Chrysler's other brands also do poorly in these studies. It would be a good idea to jettison the Fiat brand and focus on the quality of the others.
Among Fiat's other problems is that it only offers one model, with six variations. With such a limited lineup, it cannot hope to compete with other brands that have a number of high-mileage, low-weight cars. All these competing brands also have cars priced in the same range as the Fiat, from $17,000 to $32,000.
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The PR tagline Fiat Chrysler uses is "Our Italian Family. Growing in America." Better to say, "We can barely sell a Fiat, so we are going back home where we are wanted."
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