William Maley
Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com
January 17, 2012
You have to wonder what Sergio Marchionne was thinking when he set a goal of 50,000 500s to be sold for 2011. Marchionne said he was "incredibly naive" to pick that goal.
Fiat only sold 19,769 500s for 2011 (39.5% difference). So what was Marchionne thinking when he came up with that number. In a interview with CNN Money, Marchionne said the goal wasn’t based on anything but wanting to beat Mini, noting sales for the Mini brand totaled 45,644 vehicles.
“It was a number that we said would be in excess of what Mini was selling in the United States. It was that simple,” Marchionne said.
Critics point out that Fiat's first-year goal was ambitious to a fault and that Mini was able to reach their 40k+ vehicles sold thanks to the brand being sold in the U.S. for 10 years. Marchionne said "we set ourselves up for a fall," but insists that the future of Fiat in the U.S. is still very strong.
Source: CNN Money
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