Did you know that Fiat had a factory in the US in the 90’s? They didn’t build cars, they made cylinder heads for all the US manufacturers and some overseas. They are the benchmark for aluminum casting. They are fanatics about quality.
BTW, I once owned a 1961 Fiat Cabriolet (later became the Spyder). Solid body and transmission but couldn’t keep the engine together. Rusty bodys with better engines came later.
What is interesting is that when Chrysler came out with the Torqueflyte automatic transmission in 1957, they also brought out the Virgil Exner styled tail finned monsters. The bodies on these cars were so poor that they almost rusted in the showroom. It always seemed to me that Chrysler products went from one extreme to the other–Chrysler products after WW II wee pretty stodgy through 1954, and then adopted really wild, and in my opinion, gaudy styling by 1957. The semi-automatic transmission available on Chrysler products through 1953 where one let up on the accelerator to shift the transmission, was really behind the times. After a two speed fully automatic PowerFlyte, the TorqueFlyte introduced in 1957 was state of the art. Chrysler cars were really sturdy through the 1952 models, then the quality slipped to hit an all-time low in 1957. By 1963, the quality was up to the point where Chrysler offered a 5 year/50,000 mile warranty–the best in the industry. Chrysler seems to go up and down like a yo-yo on both innovations and quality.
Fiat may have some descent cars for the US because the main priority here is to drastically lower fuel consumption. Americans must adapt to smaller engines (and I am talking SMALL, not 8 or 6 but 4 cylinder engines, preferably hybrid combinations or even electric motors) and Fiat has a range of fuel efficient cars. Would I buy a Fiat? No, its a cheap car. That pretty much says it. But I know that I am in a very lucky position to be able to afford a very fuel efficient car that also has great quality which in my case is an Audi A4 allroad Avant TDI clean turbodiesel. Its just a dream.
two crippled firms are being joined; each of them has enough problems of its own.