November 17

[Fiat500USA]

November 17th is the big day. Prices, specs, etc. Stay tuned...

[Jim McKenzie]

Can't wait.   Would love to know if we get a dealership in the Tampa, Florida area soon too :)

[Fiat500USA]

I know prices and specs are Nov 17, not sure about dealer announcement. Hoping we'll hear that also.

[Mike S]

It would be nice to know what some of the dealer options will be, like floor mats, luggage racks and other stuff.

Dealers have to make a profit to make this worth getting involved in.

[txdesign]

Good news. So the Abarth is a year out, correct?

[Fidgell]

Only want to hear one thing.... When is the Abarth coming to Canada! Ive paid my deposit and am VERY impatient.

[txdesign]

This is what I want:

[Fidgell]

txdesign.... THAT is the one! All we can do is wait!!!! (and hope for 180bhp)

[Fiat500USA]

Last I heard about the Abarth is that it will follow about a year later than the 500 sedan, so roughly 4th Quarter 2011, first part of 2012.

Fiat is concentrating on the launch of the 500, next the 500C, THEN the Abarth.

My feeling is they don't want to steal the thunder from the 500 and 500C with news about the Abarth.

One thing about how Marchionne runs the company is he holds his cards very close to the vest. It's a little frustrating for fans, but it makes sense not to give away too much info to the competition.

[Mike S]

I think the delays will only reduce market share.

Even those of us that have already placed an order hear nothing and have no way to communicate with FIAT. We (the first 500) and current FIAT owners in the U.S. could be the cheerleaders pumping up FIAT but there is little to pump us up.

[West of House]

I really hope the Prima Edizione 500s are good...

[Rob]

Very good point. I have Prima Edizione #49 on order and am perplexed about the complete lack of information flowing from Fiat. They should be doing something with the www.ciaofiat.com site - like providing a registry. They should also reach out to their fans and early adopters as we can help them sell more cars. No communication is kind of odd marketing.  

[Paul woodworth]

Looks like the 16th is the big day....just got the invite

[Fiat500USA]

It is frustrating, no doubt, but here is the time-line to get a perspective of where we are in this thing:

Nov 17 intro.

Late Dec/Jan cars start slowly getting to dealers that are ready.

Feb 28th Dealers should be up and running with more cars starting to show up.

March full scale advertising and away we go.*

Cars are still pre-production and there could even be changes. You can't spend millions advertising the Euro car because the US car is different and you can't advertise the US car yet because it is not even in series production.

I'd say go with the flow and soak up all you can about the Euro car now, then on Nov 17-18, there will be plenty to read about the US car.

This reminds me of waiting for Christmas or the Holidays. You want it to come and then when the day finally arrives, it's over in a flash.

I'm trying to soak it all up and enjoy the anticipation.

Best regards, Chris
   
* This time-line is compiled from various sources, it is subject to change, but I believe it gives a good idea of the time these events should happen, give or take.

[sketch]

There's a reason the $500 deposit is fully refundable.  I kind of like the anticipation, honestly.  We'll know everything in a week or so, anyway.

A registry would be really cool, though.

[Fiat500USA]

sketch wrote

There's a reason the $500 deposit is fully refundable.  I kind of like the anticipation, honestly.  We'll know everything in a week or so, anyway.

A registry would be really cool, though.

I have a registry that will be up soon, once the cars and dealers are in position. It will be a separate page on my blog.

The registry will be based on actual delivered cars, right now we only have reserved our cars.

I'll have more on this on my home page, but we'll be able to safeguard the authenticity of the cars and document the history of them. There will also be interesting information that can be recorded about each car.

[ophidia31]

Even though I badly want the Abarth version, Im going to be changing the wheels, brakes and suspension out anyways. Want to make it my own so I dont want to spend the money for the abarth name when Im going to be changing alot of it out. So Ill settle for the non-turbo version and wait for an add on s/c like they have concept in europe or an add on turbo w/ a few psi. I have an inside source with a Unitronic tuner and word is theyre going to be working to get possible tunes for the 500 as well so thered be a couple extra hp/tq to be had for the n/a guys.

[Rob]

Now that the Nov 17 event has passed, I would still agree that Fiat has amazingly missed a rare and incredible marketing opportunity. They should be feeding the Prima purchasers information, creating a registry, having us be part of their marketing plan, etc. I'm not a marketeer, but I work directly with several, and they'd never have missed to opportunity to work very closely with such an enthusiastic group of early adopters. It really worries me that Fiat just doesn't seem to get it.