This Old Blog

We went to the Fiat dealership to test drive a Fiat 500C as we begin to get Real Serious about trading in the old 2002 Kia van. But after waiting for a salesman to let us drive one, and never getting the chance, it looks like the Fiat 500C is out of the running. We tried really hard (my wife tried really really hard) to keep liking the car. But my wife kept looking at the rear and mumbling about a pair of Labs and luggage, and when she had me climb into the shotgun position of a model she'd taken a particular shine to I found myself having to go through a bit of contortion just to get in. Once inside it was quite comfortable, but the getting in and out was a bit more work than it is with our other cars. At 6ft-4inches I have to be careful what kind of vehicle I purchase (or rent on travel, for that mater). In this particular case what had happened was the selection of a car with "special seating". It was all the  special stuff added to the shotgun side seat that mad...

Found In A Trashcan Fix It Another Time Failure in Italian Automotive Technology And a whole lot more I'm sure. Fiat stands for Fabrica Italiana Automobili Torino (Italian Car Factory of Turin). But to too many baby boomers (of which I am a member), Fiat became the punchline for bad Italian-made automobiles. Fiat actually started manufacturing cars in the U.S. in 1908, but it was the two decade period spanning the 1970s and 1980s that destroyed Fiat in America. Many owners during that period complained about rust, inconsistent build quality (very little good going from bad to worse) and odd design. Many owners loved to drive their Fiats, but hated the fact that after the new wore off (and it did rather quickly), the Fiats became garage queens. Fiat quality and reputation because so tarnished in the U.S. that Fiat left the U.S. market in 1983. Fiat stayed primarily in Europe, building cars for that market but loosing market share until they were a bit over 5% of the European...