If you’ve been lurking around Weird Car Twitter lately, you might have caught the banter about an interesting statistic that paints Fiat in a sad yet hilarious light. The brand isn’t exactly hitting home runs right now in one particular market, with its sales figures leaving much to be desired. Specifically: there are more Fiat dealerships in the U.S. than the number of cars it sold last quarter.
Do the math, and you’ll realize that means a great proportion of Fiat dealerships actually failed to sell a single car in three whole months. The numbers are stark. There are 359 Fiat dealerships across the country, but the brand sold just 145 vehicles for the whole of Q3.
Let’s put that number into context. Fiat sold a full 50 cars in its best month this year. By contrast, Ford has sold an average of 78 F-Series trucks per hour in 2023. Chevrolet sold an average of 51 Silverados per hour, just topping Fiat’s best month. Even the Toyota RAV4 is selling around 1,000 examples a day, which is more than Fiat has sold all year. And that’s just one model for each of these automakers, to say nothing of the rest of their range.
It bears noting that the picture wasn’t much rosier a year ago. Fiat sold just 209 cars in Q3 last year. The last quarter Fiat sold more cars than its current number of dealerships was Q3 2021, when it sold a total of 400 vehicles. The last month in which it sold more cars than that figure was September 2020, with 372 cars sold.
Obviously, the number of active dealerships has waxed and waned over that time; Automotive News noted the brand had 377 active dealers in 2019. It should be said that the vast majority of Fiat dealerships are combined with other brands; at that time, 281 were tied to Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram dealers and 90 were joint dealers with Alfa Romeo. Just six were standalone stores. Regardless, it’s an interesting way to ballpark the figures.
The Italian brand’s fortunes have seen a slow and steady decline in the United States. Once upon a time, Fiat set lofty targets. It wanted to hit 50,000 sales in 2011, and 78,000 by 2013. Sadly, those numbers were never to be. It reached 46,999 in 2012, and stayed above the 40,000 mark until 2015. A 20% drop off in 2016 saw it drop to just 33,777 units sold, and it’s been all downhill since there.
Much of that likely comes down to Fiat’s threadbare model lineup. Indeed, the Fiat 500X stands today as the brand’s only car on sale. The 2020 model year saw the loss of the regular Fiat 500, 500e, and the raunchy 500 Abarth. The 124 Spider and 500L were then discontinued for 2021, leaving the 500X as the sole survivor. Fiat has seen fit to give the 500X regular updates over the years, but there’s only so much that can be done with a vehicle that’s been on sale here since the 2016 model year.
The story is drastically different on the global stage, however. Outside the U.S., Fiat made a banner start to 2023, chalking up 645,000 sales globally in the first half of the year. Those figures made it the best performing brand in the broader Stellantis group. It kicked goals across the globe, becoming the market leader in Brazil, Italy and Turkey. The Fiat New 500 has been a particular star, and was the best-selling battery electric vehicle in the Stellantis stable.
Fiat isn’t tapping out just yet, though. The new 500e is coming in the first quarter of 2024, and the brand surely hopes this fresh, new compact EV could reignite some sales and get things going again. Genuinely, though, that’s about the extent of Fiat’s immediate future plans for the U.S. market. If it’s a hit, and Fiat can bring it stateside in serious numbers, it could see the brand reverse its current slump. Those are big hopes to pin on a single new model, though, and for now at least, it doesn’t look like Fiat has much else in the pipeline for America.
It’s interesting to contrast Fiat’s great performance overseas versus its near-non-existent sales in the U.S. market. It’s clear the brand is finding ways to connect with customers elsewhere, with compelling product that people want to buy. With Fiat making bank elsewhere, Stellantis can probably afford to keep the U.S. arm afloat for the time being. However, it’s going to need to shift a lot more than 50 cars a month to justify Fiat’s continued presence in America. Here’s hoping it can find a way.
Image credits: Fiat
I have no idea what Fiat is thinking. They don’t seem to be sure of what they want to be in the US.
First it was a less-expensive alternative to the Mini Cooper for young urban dwellers. Then they added the 500L and the 500X which seemed logical enough as funky fun larger step-ups from the 500. But then came the 124 Spider, which didn’t fit with the US branding at all, and then they killed the OG 500 and left the X to hold the fort with no advertising at all. Brand and product awareness is almost non-existent.
Now they’re bringing the new 500e which is a very good car, but will be a hard sell in the US, where small cars struggle, and it will be expensive for its size and limited range. So, destined to be a very niche boutique item, and sell in very small numbers.
They could /should bring the new 600 CUV, the replacement for the 500X , which is available in ICE and EV versions, and the Strada mini-pickup that is so successful in South America. Sell Fiat as a fun inexpensive brand of small characterful cars, which is what they’ve always been good at. They would have limited competition.
Fiat, if you want to sell more, bring back a gas powered 500 and sell it for $10-15k….20k for thr Abarth version.
“Fiat’s U.S. model lineup consists of one model in two trims. The “All Vehicles” button on its U.S. website is, currently, kind of pointless.”
Ha ha, yeah completely pointless…one model=one model just like Mono=One and Rail=Rail (Simpsons, obviously)
Wow, these are horrible sales…
I’ve never been a fan of Fiat, just love the joke “Fix It Again Tony!”
Since the US market is dominated by trucks, I don’t understand why Fiat will insist on the 500, even though it’ll be an ev, instead of using the trucks they already have. Here in Brazil and I believe in Mexico as well under the RAM name, alongside the Strada we also have the Toro, a small truck built on a car platform, much like the Ford Maverick in concept and size. They’ll need to spend some cash on R&D to make it comply with safety regulations over there but given the demand of just general trucks in any shape or form, I can’t see why they haven’t at least considered this move.
Imagine if they beat the Maverick to market and you could actually get a Strada in a decent period of time.
They can’t bring the Strada or any baby pickup to the US without it being incomplete and having to final assemble it here becase of the “chicken tax” thanks LBJ. So at that point they would likely label it a Ram for the US market like they did with the little commercial vans and the promaster.
chicken tax
Fiat sells almost nothing. Chrysler only offers, what, two cars? Why does Stellantis keep these brands here?
The last 300 is about to roll off the line and then it’ll be one car.
Lol