On May 6, 9:29*am, "Eisboch" wrote:
"HK" wrote in message

m...



Money, property, and investments are no more valuable than life, liberty,
access to health care and a decent job. American workers have been getting
screwed for decades by the monied interests. Where's *their*
ownership/equity? Where? The monied interests destroyed it.

In this case, it really doesn't matter.

Other than the Jeep line, (which will probably be sold off as a whole
entity, either by the bankruptcy court or by Fiat if they prevail) *Chrysler
really doesn't have a product worth salvaging. * The soccer mom Caravan is
long in the tooth and due for a replacement.

Fiat is interested primarily in reestablishing a market in the USA. * They
have already announced plans to introduce the Fiat 500 to compete with other
fuel efficient vehicles. * They also are not putting up much (if any) money
to gain the 20 percent ownership of Chrysler. * The unions will control 55
percent and the US government the rest. * As the operational arm of
Chrysler, Fiat will basically restructure the entire company as a marketing
arm for their products. * They may eventually do some minor assembly of
their products here like Toyota and Honda, but there's no way the company
will survive as it now exists.

Obama's promise was to guaranty union pension benefits using taxpayer's
money.

Chrysler has been dead for years ... since before Mercedes tried to revive
it. * Didn't work. *No pulse.

Eisboch

They
have already announced plans to introduce the Fiat 500 to compete with
other
fuel efficient vehicles.

Have you seen the crash tests at 40 MPH....SCARY to say the least.
They better make it beefier than the Euro models.
After looking at the Smart for 2 crash into a heavy Mercedes ( drivers
side impact on both, head on ) , I'd trust a Smart before a Fiat 500.
If you want to see REAL scary crash tests...go look up the Chery
Amulet, a total DEATH-TRAP. The Russian junk fares no better.
There's an awesome crash simulation of the Smart (radio-controlled)
hitting an angled cement barrier at 70 MPH. The occupants would
survive. They could still open the passenger door.
I wonder if they'll try to resurect the Isetta. God help us.......

wrote in message
...

Have you seen the crash tests at 40 MPH....SCARY to say the least.
They better make it beefier than the Euro models.
After looking at the Smart for 2 crash into a heavy Mercedes ( drivers
side impact on both, head on ) , I'd trust a Smart before a Fiat 500.
If you want to see REAL scary crash tests...go look up the Chery
Amulet, a total DEATH-TRAP. The Russian junk fares no better.
There's an awesome crash simulation of the Smart (radio-controlled)
hitting an angled cement barrier at 70 MPH. The occupants would
survive. They could still open the passenger door.
I wonder if they'll try to resurect the Isetta. God help us.......

---------------------------------------

I've owned three Fiats, a 500, a 850 Spider and a 850 coupe. The first two
were in Italy and I couldn't ship them back to the US because they didn't
meet safety standards, even back in the 70's.
I bought the coupe in the US and kept it for a while. None were exactly
"quality" cars, but we survived by not crashing into anything.

The early Fiat 500s were basically disposable cars. I think they had 20 hp.
In Italy, back in the 60's, you could buy a brand new one for about $700 and
they were driven for about 30K miles then thrown away.

We used to get a big kick out of seeing three generations of an Italian
family, all cram-packed into a Fiat 500 heading off to the soccer stadium in
Naples. The one we had looked like this:

http://www.happyrent.com/hrincentive...l-fiat-500.htm

Eisboch