Fiat held a glitzy launch for the convertible version of its super hot supermini at the Whisky Mist in London the other night and swimsuit supermodel Elle Macpherson was the first in the UK to go topless, getting her very own 500C. We're told the Australian-born model and actress received the keys to the latest iteration of the Italian-built model outside her Notting Hill home and was soon overheard telling a friend how cool and sexy she thought it was. Of course, Elle knows all about cool and sexy Fiat 500s, having previously owned the original hard top version.

Other convertible-celebrating celebrities up in da club with Edoardo Agnelli, the nephew of Fiat's co-founder, included Tesla Roadster buyer and Black-Eyed Peas guy will.I.am and Sugababes' Amelle. Feel free to check out the gallery below of Elle's famous friends posing with her new ride. Americans lusting after a topless model for themselves may have to wait until 2011 before they are able to satisfy their desire. Hit the jump for a couple bonus vids of the 500C in action and the official UK launch press release.



[Source: MS&L London]

For European and South American markets, Fiat rolled out several versions of its Strada pickup last year. Now, the Italian company introduces a "dual cab" version with two extra back seats – but without two extra doors. Called the Cabine Dupla or Doble Cabina, it's almost as if our long-departed Subaru Brat lives on with a secret Italian identity... and without its four-wheel-drive. The Cabine Dupla has an electronic diff that ought to be passable when things get a little dirty. Our question is: Could this be a future Dodge?





[Source: Autoblog Spanish]

We've seen some pretty cool advertising in our time, but a new European marketing campaign from Fiat is surely one of the more memorable efforts from an automaker in recent memory. In an effort to underscore the safety of its diminutive 500 – both to its occupants and the animals we share our planet with – the Italian automaker has unleashed a new series of images depicting the retro hatchback in various crash test scenarios.

The interesting part comes from the car's occupants, which includes a panda bear, a walrus (goo goo g'joob) and a couple of penguins. Equally as clever is the tagline, "Engineered for a lower impact on the environment," after which the ad reminds the viewer that Fiat – with 133.7 grams of C02 per kilometer on average – is the brand with the lowest carbon emissions in all of Europe.



[Source: Fubiz.net via Jalopnik]

Four 500s by 2011. That is the latest word out of Italy concerning the adorable Fiat 500. While the Chrysler/Fiat merger chugs along, the tiny 500 is the only model that has been officially greenlighted for American consumption under the Fiat banner. To make up for that dearth of models, Fiat will apparently offer the 500 in four different flavors when it reaches these shores: hatchback, convertible, station wagon and sporty hatchback. There's also an outside chance of a micro-CUV according to this Automotive News piece.

The "sporty hatchback" will be the Abarth, Europe's 2008 Car of the Year. Chrysler/Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne calls it "our iPod." Wonder if it's too late for some co-branding. While it might seem that a sporty wagon and sporty drop-top would be fairly easy to slot into the mix (Abarth Giardiniera SS Corsa, FTW!), we'll have to make due with those four iterations for the time being. The 500 family should be in U.S. dealerships by the first half of 2011. The American-market cars will likely be produced at a Chrysler plant in the United States or in Toluca, Mexico, but there's no official word on U.S. pricing yet.



[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne, watching the travails of GM, Opel and Magna from his comfy Italian perch, has sent word that his previous offer for Opel is still on the table if anyone is interested. That offer, though, can't be sweetened because he doesn't "believe we could improve Fiat's offer. It's the most rational one we can put forward from an industrial viewpoint."

It doesn't appear as though anyone's listening. The German government wants to save German jobs, Opel workers are determined to vote down anyone who tries to take them away, and GM wants the most money and the least competition. Fiat's offer doesn't exactly fit that template.

GM and Magna & Co. will dance for a while longer, and if that doesn't work out, then GM will begin again with RHJ and Beijing Automotive. In the meantime, someone's going to have to pay to keep Opel running. Could it be that the most reasonable offer will be left unanswered while the other parties look for more expedient solutions?

[Source: Auto News, sub req'd]

With the rampant acquisition streak Fiat's embarked on, the Italian automaker has clearly emerged as a power-broker in the global automotive industry. The auto group has always been strongest in its home market, but with the ink on the Chrysler deal still wet and more mergers and acquisitions looming on the horizon, Fiat has reached a new milestone: for the first time in the company's history, it's sold more of one model outside of Italy than within.

The model in question, it should come as no great surprise, is the 500, with 54% of sales currently take place outside its home market. The retro hatchback has been selling like hotcakes in every locale it's been introduced, and is slated to come Stateside within a couple of years.

The announcement of the 500's international sales success came at the market introduction of its convertible version, the 500 C, which goes on sale next month in Italy, France and the UK, with more markets to follow. We've loaded a whole new crop of high-resolution images into the gallery below, and posted a video after the jump to satiate all your quaint Italian cabrio fantasies, so enjoy.

Alfa Romeo has been toying with the idea of returning to America for years, but now that Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne is working from Auburn Hills, the time seems more ripe than ever as details emerge on Fiat/Chrysler's strategy vis-a-vis the North American market. While Marchionne implements management restructuring designed to reduce Chrysler's executive hierarchy and separate its divisions into more independent units, a product strategy is rapidly being put into place to make up for lost time during the bankruptcy procedure and get the company back on track.

With Maserati and Ferrari already present in North America and Lancia offering little to entice North American buyers, the Italian side of the partnership looks poised to enter the market with Fiat and Alfa Romeo models. However, while future Chryslers, Dodges and Jeeps will share underpinnings with their Fiat and Alfa Romeo counterparts – including an Alfa GTX to be based on the new Jeep Grand Cherokee – the Fiat brand itself will have a very limited presence in the North American market, offering only the 500 retro hatchback as a stand-alone model... not unlike BMW's Mini brand. Other Fiat models will carry Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep badges, while Alfa Romeo will take the higher profile on this side of the Atlantic, offering cars under the stoic marque to compete with other European luxury brands. As the Freep points out, Chrysler and Alfa had collaborated in the early '90s to bring Alfas Stateside with limited success, but Marchionne evidently thinks it'll have better luck this time around.

[Source: Detroit Free Press]

Setting the Challenger and 300 aside, what Chrysler needs now most of all is a C/D segment car that moves more metal than the pitiful performance of its current offerings. According to Automotive News, Chrysler shifted just 133,626 of its Sebring and Dodge Avenger platform-mates, a number that pales in comparison to class leaders like the Toyota Camry (436,617) and Honda Accord (372,789). The constant clamor to put the 200C concept into production in some form has got Chrysler looking for ways to make that car a reality, but finding a platform that will play on Main Street is a thorny little chestnut.

Replacing the universally jeered Sebring and Dodge Avenger (and their Mitsubishi platform) by going rear-wheel drive is a possibility. The 200C show car sat on a shortened version of the LX platform, in theory inviting both rear-wheel and all-wheel drive configurations. Fiat's D-Evo platform, debuting with the replacement for Alfa Romeo's 159, is another possibility, but there are concerns it may not be flexible enough to grow to the size the 200C needs. Fiat's bid for General Motors' Opel unit brought with it speculation that the 200C could snag the Epsilon platform, but that's since fallen off the radar.

While a rear-drive Chrysler midsizer sporting the sharp exterior and interior design of the 200C and priced like a Fusion would be something distinctive, the sales case for such a departure from the class-norm of FWD remains yet to be convincingly argued. Tuned properly, such a vehicle could give much higher-zoot iron a run for its money, and performance enthusiasts likely would embrace such a model; though they may not actually buy one. Chrysler needs to close sales, not set internet chatrooms abuzz, so regardless of how it comes to market, the 200C must be more fully realized than the current Chrysler midsizers.



[Source: Automotive News (subs req)]

According to automotive consulting firm IHS Global Insight, the Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep lineups are going to look drastically different over the next few years under Fiat control. No surprises there, but the report goes on the forecast which current Chrysler vehicles will be dropped and which ones will be transferred to new platforms. We've already heard that the next Alfa Romeo 169 sedan will be built atop Chrysler's LX platform in Ontario, Canada and that the Fiat 500 will be built ASAP in Toluca, Mexico, but that's only the beginning.

If IHS is right, joining the 500 in Toluca will be the Jeep Panda, which, as you may have guessed, will be a version of the Fiat Panda wearing Jeep's trademark seven-slot grille. Furthermore, Alfa Romeo may get two new SUVs that would be built in Jeep factories in Jefferson, Michigan and Toledo, Ohio – one midsize 'ute called the GTX that's based on the WL platform that underpins the Jeep Grand Cherokee and a smaller one built on Fiat's C-EVO platform, which will also underpin the next Jeep Liberty. That leaves the unloved Jeep Compass and its somewhat more likable brother, the Patriot, to die slow and inglorious death.

Fiat's C-EVO platform will also spawn the next-gen Dodge Journey, Chrysler Sebring (and presumably the Dodge Avenger if it survives past its current form), and Dodge Caliber. Moving downward in size a notch will (finally) be the Dodge Hornet, which will forgo Bad Chrysler's old deal with Nissan in order to share its Fiat 199 platform with the Alfa Romeo MiTo, both of which will be assembled in Belvidere, Illinois sometime in 2011. Thanks for the tip, Dad!



[Source: Global Insight]

Lee Iacocca loves him some Chrysler. He cared enough about the Pentastar to rescue the automaker from bankruptcy back in 1979, and now in retirement as the honorary chairman of the National Chrysler Retirement Association, he's offering his support for his former employer post-bankruptcy. Iacocca, along with 19,000 Chrysler retirees, took out a full page ad in the Detroit News offering any means of support necessary to help the new Chrysler succeed. The ad offered help in "any way capacity you might require," and added, "just put us to work." It also showed the retirees' approval for the Fiat alliance; something that didn't come as easily when Daimler became Chrysler's overlord.

The heart-felt advert may have had an ulterior agenda, though. The open letter said that it hoped there were "some exceptions that we hope will be reevaluated," which is likely a reference to the axing of executive retirement packages. For many current and former Chrysler employees, Iacocca is an icon for what Chrysler can do if it gets its priorities straight. We're hoping Fiat takes him up on his offer, because if you can find a better executive willing to work for free, take him.

[Source: The Detroit News | Image: Paul Hawthorne/Getty]