The weak dollar is driving yet another automaker to the States. On the heels of the announcement earlier this month that BMW will increase production in the U.S, Fiat is considering moving production of both Alfa Romeo cars, and Iveco trucks, to manufacturing plants on our shores. We first broke the news in December, but now it appears Fiat is actively involved in talks with U.S. automakers to build partnerships and share manufacturing facilities with a goal of starting production by 2011 or 2012. This is positive news for consumers as Alfa prepares to once again enter the N.A. marketplace, and great news for the local economies who will benefit from additional jobs and tax revenue.
[Source: Reuters]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
tuna @ Mar 25th 2008 1:33PM
More jobs for Americans. More cars for car-loving Americans.
Eduardo @ Mar 25th 2008 8:41PM
Agreed, and also quality will be significantly improved to meet America's standarts
Nicko @ Mar 25th 2008 1:37PM
How 'bout moving availability of the Fiat 500 to the states?
LDMAN @ Mar 25th 2008 5:31PM
With Penske asking for 15,000 more Smart for Two, and reading Fiat's CEO comments I would say it is on the cards. It would be expensive though. The car will have to be redesigned to meet US regulations and with the Euro being high agains the US$ this car will be a luxo niche item.
The perplexing thing is that with the US$ being so low jobs are leaving ...... Mexico and moving into the US. I never thought I would see the day. Strange.
DJ @ Mar 25th 2008 1:43PM
Given the condition of the US dollar. Fiat, Alfa, BMW and others need to build cars in the US to have any competitive price abilities. It is definitely a win-win all around. Whoever thought the US would become the source of cheap, high-quality labor for manufacturing?
Mr. Oak @ Mar 25th 2008 2:26PM
You can thank your esteemed President for his deft stewardship. He suceeded in turning the US into a 3rd world country.
ello @ Mar 25th 2008 3:42PM
Mr. Oak, as much as I dislike the current president and as much as it hurts me to exchange $100 to Euro (and get almost nothing for it) everytime I am in Europe, I think that the return of manufacturing to US soil is great, we can't just depend on service economy, and we can't depend on manufacturing from China (with their communist regime, government control, and artificially deflated currency making competing economically with them basically impossible considering an average standard of life in US vs China).
Anyway, Bush is the worst president of my lifetime and the war in Iraq was totally uncalled for BUT manufacturing returning to US is good. Now if only we could find a way to not be as dependent on foreign oil and we will be just fine. But I think we are also getting there, energy efficient homes (I have read several articles about modern/smart/efficient US housing and $0 utility bills), plus the electric/hydrogen cars and dependence on oil will start to decrease.
Richard @ Mar 25th 2008 3:42PM
+1 on what DJ said.
Unfortunately, our next president will likely be one of those two so determined to take the rest of our now highly devalued expendable income from us. That bodes not well for any automaker, regardless of which currency their annual report uses.
Perhaps the bicycle industry will get a boost.
Richard @ Mar 25th 2008 3:49PM
ello,
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
But, we have an oil-based economy. That is, our economy depends on petroleum to run. That is, not having oil is highly inflationary.
Since most of our oil comes from the middle-east, we probably need to be there providing some civility and working to ensure that oil keeps flowing to the USA.
And yes, we need alternate energy sources. If we start now, we'll have them in 10 years.
DKB_SATX @ Mar 25th 2008 4:01PM
Richard: Actually, per the Energy Information Administration (www.eia.doe.gov) 76% of our imported crude comes from sources OTHER than the middle east, in fact 52% of it comes from other countries in the Americas (using Dec. '07 numbers). I don't mean to diminish your suggestion that we actually make an effort to have civil relationships with other countries, a point completely lost on the Chimp in Chief and his handlers, but our biggest single oil-supplying country is Canada.
HotRodzNKustoms @ Mar 25th 2008 1:51PM
That is like having your cake and eating it too.
lalaland @ Mar 25th 2008 1:51PM
It's not "breaking the news" if you aggregate the story from a competing web site's original reporting.
Mattias @ Mar 25th 2008 2:19PM
I am sure the IVECO Daily is an interesting alternative to Econovans and Sprinters. The Daily is about as economic as the Sprinter but available in a wider range of body styles and with diesel, CNG and LPG engines. A 4x4 is in the works and rising oil prices make those european vans more attractive. It makes sense for FIAT to start with those befofe bringing relative high priced cars to the US.
michael.r.felkins @ Mar 25th 2008 2:32PM
The Ford plant in Saint Paul is closeing soon. What a great way to keep it open. They build Ford Rangers now, so building trucks is what they do.
tifosiotaku @ Mar 25th 2008 3:42PM
Having Fiat buy out the St. Paul Ford plant sounds good. Ford gets some needed cash, jobs will likely be saved, Fiat inches towards their goals... I'd forward this idea to Mulally if I were you.
tanooki2003 @ Mar 25th 2008 3:39PM
This is awesome. I used to own an Alfa Romeo 164 back in 91 as a family car and I loved it. I loved how it sounded. It had a unique sound like no other V6 power mill. Granted it was not the fastest car in the world, however it gave me the most pleasurable driving experience over ANY vehicle in this class. Even vehicles today cannot give the same driving pleasure as the 164 did. I think my most strongest attachment to a car would have been the 164 I owned and still miss. I hated to give it up but it was creeping at around 350,000 miles and true Alfa Romeo mechanics and people who knew how to change the oil in my 164 were getting harder and harder to find, forcing me to do all work myself. It was my first foreign car experience and it was truly reliable.
Anyways I definitely welcome them back with open arms. GM, Ford and Chrysler keep your grubby merger mitts off of Alfa Romeo because I want them to be reliable and fun to drive like how I remembered them.
Dennis @ Apr 4th 2008 9:57AM
Yes, you're right. Alfa Romeo is a fantastic and artful driving experience that many people don't know about. True Alfa fans here in the United States have been after Alfa
for some time now to bring their cars back to the States. I have a 91, 164 that I truly enjoy driving and keeping in good shape. It's a fascinating car, indeed!
tanooki2003 @ Mar 25th 2008 3:41PM
By the way I finally gave up my Alfa Romeo in late 2002
SPG @ Mar 25th 2008 4:04PM
I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking it.
Build em in Detroit.
It would be ironic that the motor city is building Italian cars but still, that city needs to get motoring before there's nothing left.
ello @ Mar 25th 2008 4:18PM
Richard, I know that US is an oil-dependent economy (but then again which modern economy doesn't depend on oil) but last time I checked Canada wasn't a part of OPEC (Canada is our largest oil supplier), plus not a lot of people realize but US currently is the 3rd largest oil producing nation in the world ( http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0922041.html ) and we do not run at full capacity, no where near full capacity, as our environmentalist groups won't allow to drill in Alaska and other oil rich areas. Several independent scientific reports concluded that US and Canada sit on one of the largest if not the largest oil deposits on this planet. But that doesn't change the fact that we will need to look for other cleaner/more efficient forms of energy mainly natural solar/wind power.