[unioneserry]

I'm all for it.

[TheReallyBest]

^ Figured you would be.

[JulieSmithdccd]

BTW: You will be pleased to know that today, Fiat's reliability and quality is of world class standard.

I hope this isn't sarcasm.

I remember inside door handles.



I could see myself in an Alfa 8C

[sarasmid]

If only a Mustang now could cost $2368.

[StivRichardOff]

The Quattroporte Sedan. Isn't this what Buicks should look like?

I think they already do.

Unresolved lines.

A better question: Is this what Maseratis should look like?



The Topolino is nice.

[VonErmad4]

A classic.

BTW: You will be pleased to know that today, Fiat's reliability and quality is of world class standard.

Do you have a quote on that?

I've seen at least one survey (of drivers, relating specific fixes on their own cars) placing Fiats way below average and certainly not in the same planet as the Japanese producers.

[pouslytut]

Zippy: The detachable door handles were standard equipment on Fiats up until about 7 or 8 years ago.

Luca: I don't know how sales figures will be for 2008 but Fiat 's 2007 sales in Europe are a huge success. You can't do that with bad reliability.

Some figures:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_7433426.htm
http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsAr...llCars/235315/

Fiat Panda reliability:
http://www.topgear.com/content/carsu...ures/01/1.html

I contend that the 500 will have an even better showing.
http://www.channel4.com/4car/rt/fiat/500/2162/3
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/au.../fiat_500.html
http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/review...el=1662&page=4

Oh, by the way, while we're at it: how's the British car industry doing these days?

------

Ablarc: That Maserati design is by now about 6 or 7 years old, IMHO it still looks great. Certainly the big new sedans from Germany top it, but IMHO the Maserati has an allure that they can't match. IMHO it's even nicer than the Bentley:

[obHQNsY2]

[click for BIG image]

Carrozzeria Touring Maserati Quattroporte Bellagio Fastback



The Carrozzeria Touring was founded in the 1920’s and was known over the next forty years for its innovative designs, they worked with Ferrari, Aston Martin, Lamborghini and Maserati amongst others, the company was recently revived and their first car is the Maserati Quattroporte Bellagio Fastback. The Carrozzeria Touring Maserati Quattroporte Bellagio Fastback is named after the village on the shores of lake Como and is based on the Maserati Quattroporte. The entire rear end of the vehicle has been remade to give it a fastback design giving it both a sleeker more sport like profile and more space in the trunk. The car is only available by special order directly from Carrozzeria Touring in Milan.




[click for BIG image]







Time to trade in the Outback...

[MoreEndotte]

Zippy: The detachable door handles were standard equipment on Fiats up until about 7 or 8 years ago.

The car was technologically advanced and refined for its time, a cut above the primary US competition - MGB.

It had features unheard of in entry level sports cars: double overhead cam aluminum crossflow cylinder head, four wheel disc brakes, first production engine with rubber timing belts.

For some reason, the interior door handles were chromed plastic. You couldn't tell, until they cracked. The parts network sucked; in Brooklyn it was a Datsun dealership. Took like 2 weeks to get parts. It happened twice. The second time I ordered two. Mocking me, it never broke again.



There's one Alfa 8C in the US.

[Indian Butt Magic]

I'm still caught between my love of Hot Wheels & Matchbox Cars.

[Lån-Penge]

Maserati Sport GT... Maserati sales are up:


One of the world's most beautiful production cars:


GT interior

I don't know whether I'd spend a lifetime with the new GT or a day with this old thing...

Maserati A6 GCS/53 Pinin Farina Berlinetta








That was the last design Pininfarina worked on with Maserati before being instrumental in their resurgence. After designing the Quattroporte in 2003 Pininfarina developed the 2005 Pininfarina Maserati Birdcage 75th Concept which has informed the GT.The GranTurismo is a singular blend of the heritage of the Tridente, of Pininfarina’s great design tradition and a modern look. “It evokes the modern themes explored in the Birdcage 75th concept, which was a futuristic extension of the Maserati marque, continuing its great tradition of advanced technology wrapped in sporty elegance”, stresses Lowie Vermeersch, Pininfarina Chief Designer.




Pininfarina Birdcage 75th, sensual fluidity
by Silvia Baruffaldi

“To celebrate our 75th anniversary our intention was to make a strong, clearly focused statement: to create a dream-evoking car that would recover a role that has always been a foundation stone of a company like ours.” This remark by Andrea Pininfarina contains all the spirit of the Birdcage 75th, a concept car that is avantgarde in its advanced technological content, but at the same time is faithful to the bodyworking traditions of yesteryear. An exciting project that was terminated in just a few months, as Ken Okuyama, creative head of the Turin firm, tells us: “The first concepts go back to July last year. We immediately moved on to virtual modelling without doing the physical models, a technique we had already experimented with on the Nido”.

The design of the car is based on the composition of two typical aerodynamic forms, the wing and the drop, in a balanced ensemble of great visual impact. “We wanted to keep the overall volume as low as possible,” explains Lowie Vermeersch, chief designer of the project, “so we started with the chassis of the Maserati MC12, eliminating roof and pillars but strengthening the sills, which create the high access point.

The Birdcage 75th is a dream car in its pristine state, “but it hints at some of the graphical features that are basic to upcoming Maserati’s”, says Okuyama. The exterior derives from a proposal by the designer Jason Castriota, while the interior was defined by Lowie Vermeersch himself and by Giuseppe Randazzo, with help from Pininfarina Extra for the Motorola-supplied technological content, in particular the product portfolio with iDEN (integrated Digital Enhanced Network) technology: digital cell phones with wireless Internet access, two-way radio communication and text pager.

(Full article in Auto & Design no. 152 p. 21)

[Adamdjeffe]

Luca: I don't know how sales figures will be for 2008 but Fiat's 2007 sales in Europe are a huge success. You can't do that with bad reliability.

…

Fiat Panda reliability:
http://www.topgear.com/content/carsurvey/2006/features/01/1.html

Sales depend on many things, as you well know, including marketing, pricing, etc. When Mercedes suffered a massive drop in reliability and build quality a few years back, their sales fell but nothing close to proportionally, what they should have.

I think Marchionne’s done a fantastic job at Fiat with what he had. If we’re being realistic, however, the only auto makers that can BOAST about reliability would be Honda and Toyota, in relative terms. In absolute terms, most major brands are very reliable, these days.

Note that the survey you refer to, while praising the Panda also recognizes that Fiat’s overall result is 31 out of 35, which is pretty dismal.

How’s the British car industry doing these days?

They don’t really have an independent car industry, just local manufacture of foreign marques (and fairly efficient manufacture at that). It’s a choice they made that you can disagree or agree with but it says nothing good or bad about Fiat.

By the way, on the ‘coolness’ aspect: If, say, Ramada Inn buys a cool boutique hotel mini-chain, are Ramadas ‘cool’? If Fiat buys Ferrari, are Fiats cool? I don’t think so,

Me, I like the 500 (though I wish modern safety rules had allowed for an even closer imitation of the original aesthetics).

What I wonder about 500s and Minis and Smarts is how people can justify spending that money where they could get an equal or better and larger car for less money…

“I am what I buy”. Very aspirational.

[mensforyouthis]

You can tell me all you want about how Honda and Toyota can boast about quality: but people choose to buy certain cars for many reasons.... quality is only one of those reasons... otherwise one would read the judgement of ConsumerReports and be done with it: but not everyone buys a car as if they are buying a toaster oven.

The Lexus often comes out as the best luxury car in comparitive tests, but plenty of Mercedes, BMW and Audi drivers would never consider trading in their cars for one. Style is an important reason.

Fiat has had an impressive turn around because of gains in quality and a dedication to good styling. And Ferrari and Maserati DO give Fiat a glow... and adds to their engineering and styling know-how. At one time GM regularly built dream cars: Fiat builds them in-house and puts them into production with Ferrari or things like the Alfa 8C.
GM and Ford once raced: Fiat still does with Ferrari and Maserati and it produces engineering benefits. Ferrari and Maserati create what Cadillac (the Standard of the World) and Lincoln (the Car of Presidents) once did for Ford and GM... or what the Corvette once did for Chevy... or the Thunderbird for Fords.


TopGear's review of the Fiat Grande Punto:

"The Punto is strangely cool, not only because it has that nod to Maserati in its styling, but also because it's not the default small car choice that is the Mini. Small hatchbacks, just like scooters, are always cool if they're Italian."

"You'd hardly dare expect it, but the Punto seems oddly sturdy. For an Italian hatch that undercuts the competition, this is nothing short of miraculous. Another string to what's become a surprisingly tempting bow."

http://www.topgear.com/uk/fiat/grande-punto

---

And personally I'd take a Smart, Mini, Punto, 500... over THIS anyday:

http://www.newstreet.it/foto/gallery...vic-01_640.jpg

--

[tefraxKedWere]

what could ever top this gull-winged puppy for coolness?

i mean come on --- you can time travel in it!

[gambleingsites]

And personally I'd take a Smart, Mini, Punto, 500... over THIS anyday:

http://www.newstreet.it/foto/gallery...vic-01_640.jpg

You might --but someone else might say that particular Honda is strangely cool, with its neatly-integrated lines. Too bad that version isn't available in the U.S.; guess they judged it was too small.

[blohannaserri]

That honda looks a bit too smushed.....

Maybe it is the clam-shell looking compact (as in make-up case) build, but I think a car like that, with a bit more flesh (maybe slightly larger tires) would have more personality.

I hope they start to realize it is not just eco-gurus that want some efficient cars these days.

[rsdefwgxvcfdts]

See here.

[avdddcxnelkaxz]

^
Fix-It-Again-Tony + Mostly-Old-Parts-And-Rust = F#cked-Over-Reconditioned-Dodge

[Stappipsy]

From what I understand of this: Fiat gets 35% of Chrysler for free.... 35% of a company that is getting bailout money from the US gov.!

[IoninnyHaro]

Vive fascismo!