MINI to Sell Fiats in North America?

For many years word in the street was that GM was going to import and sell Alfas on their Cadillac dealer network. I guess since GM is at the brink of bankruptcy those plans will be carried out by BMW.

Great news-day today!

Could you imagine a new 8C sitting next to a JCW in the same showroom?

Snowballs chance in H, E double-hockey-sticks of seeing a FIAT next to a MINI on showroom floors. Especially since MINI’s big push has been to differenciate itself from BMW by establishing seprate dealerships with independant sales and service. The new MINI dealerships will sell MINIs and MINIs alone.

Read the other way… BMW is interested in buying controlling interests in US FIAT sales purely in order to ensure the brand remains DOA in North America. Happens all the time in the tech world. Buy out the competition and let it die on the vine.

Where will FIATS be sold in the US? Nowhere is BMW/MINI gets their paws into things.

FIAT 500 and MINI – like Peanut butter and jelly… both designed by Frank Stephenson. Success stories both. Will Frank head the USA team?

This is really interesting since Alfa’s are in the line of BMW competition. A Fiat (entry-level, FWD) in the USA would be different than an Alfa (near-luxury, FWD/AWD), especially in contrast to the MINI (premium, FWD). So I don’t imagaine Fiats coming to our shores- the only possibility being the 500. I could see BMW helping the Alfa brand in the USA through MINI dealers (all FWD, increase cost-effectiveness of stand alone MINI franchises), but I don’t quite understand what that would do for Alfa vs BMW…. seems like a conflict of interests.

All this said, I do agree that many MINI dealers are not separate from the BMW dealer- same lot, often same service bay. I do notice the difference of stand alone MINI dealers and prefer them since the MINI seems less of a “shoved in the corner” brand.

Additionally, the major critism for Alfa and Fiat in the UK right now centers around terrible dealer and service support. Italian quality is much improved from when they left our shores. MINI does this well and would help Alfa establish itself here.

Keep up the news… what a great day!

Hey did any one see the new Top Gear with the cheap alfa challenge? That was a sweet episode! I guess we can do the same thing on Top Gear: USA now… even though with Adam Carolla– it will suck.

i don’t car how they do it, i just want my alfa romeo here

There is a lot of product overlap in those lines. Maybe their planning on cherry picking some of the larger cars? But then that would compete with BMW on price?

Maybe the MPV’s then?

Fiat 500 looks “fun”, and 6″ smaller than the MINI. But like Top Gear said when test driving it, the MINI drives brilliantly… implied not so for the Fiat, then later describing the excessive lean as “adding to the charm” of it. …lol. Maybe I’d consider a Fiat 500 S, JCW… ;^p

Am I the only one that thinks Fiat is being lazy for not just opening a Fiat delaership over here instead of leeching into BMW? I understand everything that BMW/MINI is trying to accomplish here, but at the same time, it’s just extremely weird for me to see a 500 and an MCS next to one another, kind of takes away some of the MINI-ness of it all.

I’d like to state for the record that I’m a huge fan of the 500, I think it rocks.

Cool. I can now buy an Alfa GT!!! Oh wait… and a 500!!!

Going to a Toyota service place is like going to the proctologist? When MINI charges over $300 for an oil change, I know who it is who is getting in the rear, and it is not the Camry driver. Fortunately I think I’ll be able to sit down again just in time for my Inspection II – what??

I think it’s an interesting strategic move by BMW. If you travel to South America, Asia, Europe or Africa, you’ll see that a larger percentage of the vehicles on the road are small cars. For example in Brasil, the Fiat hatchbacks reign supreme along with the Ford Ka. Here in Africa, Renault, Citroen, Nissan March’s, etc. are all over the place.

My guess is that the large car companies are looking at the forecast of high fuel prices for at least the next 10-20 years and are forecasting a long term shift to smaller more fuel efficient cars in the American market.

We’ve seen the Toyota Yaris and the Honda Fit compete against the MINI in this market, in terms of the size of the car (not necessarily the quality of the drive) and fuel economy. The big 3 (or is it two now?) keep talking about how they’re playing catch up in the fuel efficient cars department, but I think that’s just their lobbying ploy; they’re already producing and selling small, fuel efficient Opels and Ford Ka’s and Ford Focus’s overseas. All they have to do is bring them home to the U.S., tweak the designs slightly to adjust for U.S. aesthetics and introduce them as “new” designs.

So I think BMW’s looking at this as a way to expand their marketing of the higher end luxury/performance sector of mid-budget small cars. Yes, you can buy a C30 or a 135i or a GTI. But my feeling is that BMW’s looking at a future where the small car market is going to become even more congested, and the MINI will soon not be the smallest car out there (I’m ignoring the Smart, obviously, as I think that will eventually fade owing to its poor quality). Hooking up with Fiat, which has a great new re-modeled small car in the 500, seems to be a great move in shoring up a strong presence in this sector of the U.S. car market.

@ paul – if you are paying $300 for an oil change you are really getting taken. The going rate at our dealership is $95.00, and that’s up here in Canada.