U.S. arrival of Fiat 500 expected to make things harder for MINI and Smart
By Andrew, 21 Nov, 2010. 0 Comments
2011 Fiat 500
The U.S. subcompact segment would surely heat up with the arrival of the Fiat 500 from Italy! Chrysler Group LLC, Fiat SpA's alliance partner, will begin producing the Fiat 500 next month and this car will be driven to showrooms in January 2011 with a starting price of $15.500. At the Los Angeles Auto Show, head of Mini's U.S. operations Jim McDowell says a lot of people come looking at small cars when there's a new entrant.
According to their respective websites, Daimler AG's 2010 Smart For Two Pure Coupe starts at $11,900 and BMW AG's 2011 Mini Cooper has a starting manufacturer's suggested retail price of $20,100. Researcher HIS Automotive says the subcompact and specialty small-car markets are expected to grow to 1.4 million in 2015 from about 515,500 in 2010.
Jesse Toprak who is an analyst with TrueCar.com says the market is poised for growth. McDowell says increasing gasoline prices and an improving industry should drive new sales of small and subcompact cars. [via autonews - sub. required]
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