I have not owned a Fiat for many, many years, and have not really kept up with their models in any depth. But it has always been my observation that Fiat was not really a leader in high-tech. Am I wrong about this? Have they really become a high tech company in the last two decades?
Sure, their cars get better milage than US cars, but they used to, like most European cars, get that milage by being smaller and lighter. Smaller and lighter isn't really high tech in my book.
Yet, the "merger" of Chrysler with Fiat was said to be for allowing Chrysler's access to Fiat high tech.
I know a woman who lives in England, she drives a Fiat Punto car.She lives near the Rolls Royce Goodwood factory.I haven't heard her gripeing about her Fiat Punto car.Way back many, many years ago, there was a Fiat factory in New York.Also, a Mercedes Benz factory in New York.There was a Rolls Royce car factory in Massachusetts too.What it was, Rolls Royce quit because they said they weren't selling enough American Rolls Royce cars in America.What it Really was, American built Rolls Royce cars were better than British built Rolls Royce cars.
None of the car companies today are high tech. That is, none of them are technology-driven, and none of them are putting money into actual technology research (as opposed to product development).
There are some high-tech automotive companies out there, which are selling products to the car makers. But the real technology push is on the part of those smaller companies and not from the top down.
Smaller and lighter is a great idea, though.
I think it has more to do with Chrysler's access to Fiat money, but I don't think Chrysler wants to say so on nationwide TV.
I had a Fiat years ago. IMHO, Fiat and high tech were/are mutually exclusive terms. By the time they add on all the US required safety and emissions hardware, they may display some of the same undesireable traits as current domestic vehicles as the weight and engine efficiency advantages are edged out.
Don Stauffer wrote in news:4a01952f$0$1334$ snipped-for-privacy@news.qwest.net:
That's like saying that GM doesn't make sports cars because they make Saturns and Chevrolet does because they make Corvettes. Fiat owns Ferrari and Alpha Romeo.
I just bought a Prius and I am pretty impressed with the technology. I spent my career doing technology development in the aerospace industry, so I some appreciation for technology development. Sure, probably most of the high tech stuff was from subcontractors, but most large companies have an onboard tech staff to evaluate subcontractor technology and recommend whether to use it or not.
Fiat has an engine with solenoid controlled fuel and air valving to each cylinder. Don't know how "high-tech" it is or practical it is or whether it's in production. Think it is. There's something out there you can find googling "fiat technology." Includes a vid/animation of engine operation. When I saw the CPU board that runs the show I lost interest. I'm sticking to pushrods for a while longer.
Not from what I've read. The quality was fine until the US factory deviated from English ways, but quality was not the issue. The depression killed RR in the US. Ben
Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino = FIAT. Back in the 1950s, I read that in one of my Popular Mechanics magazines.Or maybe is was Popular Science or Science And Mechanics or Mechanix Illustrated magazine.FIAT builds other things than just cars, cars/trucks.Aircraft and or whatever.I have never owned a FIAT vehicle before.
I have many hard back books here about American and Foreign cars and trucks, some books about Motorcycles too. The American Rolls Royce factory, they started installing American made rear end assemblies and American made wiring harneses, etc.That resulted in better quality Rolls Royce cars than the British made Rolls Royce cars. cuhulin
I think they built it under license, instead of buying from GM. Seeing as the THM400 has been out of production for quite a few years I doubt they are using it anymore. I suspect, but have nothing at all to back this up other than a hunch, that they may now be buying from ZF.
The recent Fiat 500 is a nice model for someone young, single, who cares about aesthetics (and want to spend less than in a Mini).
The also recent Grande Punto is a nice small car (maybe too small for the US market, but 4 normal persons fit there).
The Bravo (the next bigger model) is also nice, but in Europe its career has the problem of the previous models having been failures. And also, at its price range people start to look at the german brands (VW Golf, Opel Astra, Ford Focus).
All these models have very nice looks (as they should: Italy has, (or had, there have been financial problems), the 3 best car designers in the world: Pininfarina, Bertone, Giugaro. And a couple less known ones like Zagato).
The bigger models (Croma, Multipla, Ulysse) have not been very sucessful in Europe.
Alfa Romeo has also a line of very beautiful cars (Pininfarina and Bertone for most of them) that should be saleable in the US. Their main problem is that, at their price, they compete with Audis and BMWs but their quality reputation is not at the same level.
Lancia has been the victim of a stupid marketing positioning. After creating a sport image for more than 20 years (Fulvia, Stratus,
037 Rally, Delta S4, Delta Integrale) someone decided: "Alfa Romeo is sporting. Lancia will be luxury" and to pursue that they started to make ugly cars. I blame cocaine.
Anyway they decided to make a last try, and relaunched the Delta (a more expensive version of the Fia Bravo, a bit like the Audi A3 is a more expensive version of the VW Golf). They also have the Ypsilon, a nice city car.
Fiat Automobiles is also Lancia and Alfa Romeo. And the whole group is owned by another holding (Fiat Group) which also owns Ferrari, which owns Maserati. (You can no doubt find the details in Wikipedia).
Fiat as the cheap brand of the whole group is of course not where new technologies first appear. But the group as a whole has pioneered several technologies. The ones I remember:
- F1-type gearboxes (Alfa Romeo before Ferrari, IIRC)
- common rail diesel. According to their marketing they invented it, but decided to license the patent to Bosch and buy the systems from them instead of producing in-house.
- variable distribution (phase variation only, not variable lift or variable profil, like VTEC). But this was a long time ago (80's) and I am not sure if at the time Alfa Romeo was still independent.
- Lancia for a while was a leader in high-performance 4WD cars but they threw that away.
One of the interesting things Fiat currently has is their 1.3l 90 HP diesel. Curiously it is shared with GM (Opel). For the USA market, that one might not work until diesel is more accessible (price, availability). In gasoline engines they have an interesting 1.4l turbo with 155 HP (180 with a kit instaled at the dealer) for the Abarth versions.
Better aerodynamics (not in the 70's: ridiculous boxes), more efficient engines.
With Euro NCAP 5-stars safety ratings european cars are no longer light. They might still be lighter than American cars (or not).
There are reasons and there are the real reasons: Chrysler is broke so they can't afford to develop new models and Fiat can supply ready made platforms (cheaply. They are going to take stock, not money). Don't expect money, though. Fiat has been almost broke several times (including recently). The Grande Punto was their last opportunity and luckily it worked. And Fiat gets a distribution channel for their models in the US.
I guess the next few Chryslers will be slightly changed versions of Fiat models.
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