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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50k was overly optimistic but 20k isn't bad at all considering the issues they had had between getting the dealer network going, supply, and a terrible advertising campaign.

It's a cute li'l puddle jumper. I've seen maybe half a dozen around my area, but never the interior in person.

That is very respectible sales for a car that didn't even get into the dealer networks in any volume till mid summer. Had the dealers been fully deployed and fully stocked Jan 1, 2011, I bet they could have done double that.

I agree with the above posts: the volume isn't that bad... Question is, does 19K include a bunch of 1st yr impulse sales that won't show up for yr 2?

really not bad at all but yeah the target was optimistic...despite the gaffes that did well all things considered.

Which reminds me, I need to get one as a press car at some point and have albert model it.

Having only seen 2 so far, the fact that they sold almost 20k is a surprise to me.

For instance there are NO dealers -excuse me STUDIOS- in my state at all. I LIKE the cars, but I will not buy something that I cannot have serviced in less than a day's drive. This IS the 21st century after all, not the late 1800's...

Having only seen 2 so far, the fact that they sold almost 20k is a surprise to me.

I agree. I only saw two and both were in juxapostion to a Chrysler dealership that is apparently selling FIATs,,,

Saw my third yday I just thought it was a local depressed market thing?

Update... the 500 is starting to become much more popular in Brooklyn/NYC. I think I've seen about 8 in the last couple days. Brings my total to 11. The yellow one really popped. Still looking for an Abarth.

i've only seen 1 in my area.