Mopar gives the 2012 Fiat 500 an American Tune with "Stinger" Package

The second Mopar tuned model on its way to the 2012 Chicago Auto Show, which takes place during the second week of February, is the 2012 Fiat 500 Stinger. Mopar's American take on the Italian city car integrates two stage kits along with a special Giallo (yellow) exterior paint.

The first package begins with black racing decals on the Fiat 500's profile and roof graphics in black checker followed by a set of larger 17-inch Abarth Hyper Black alloy wheels with wider 205/40 R17 performance tires, tinted lights and a new exhaust tailpipe.

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New Details Emerge on Fiat's 500L Wagon that will Debut in Geneva and go on Sale in the U.S. in 2013

We had heard earlier this month that Fiat was preparing a new five-door variant of its 500 city car but we didn't know much else about the Italian firm's plans.

Today, Autonews has the inside scoop on the new model reporting that it will allegedly be called 500L with its world premiere to take place at the Geneva Salon in March.

We also learn that while it will keep the 500s familiar face and styling cues, it will be based on the same architecture as the larger Punto to improve passenger and luggage space.

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Fiat-Chrysler Alliance wants to Produce Jeep Models in China

Chinese officials may be withdrawing their support for investments made by foreign automakers, but the Fiat-Chrysler Alliance is still looking for ways to increase its presence in the country.

A new report from the Detroit News says that Fiat and Chrysler are currently in "intense negotiations" with the Guangzhou Automobile Group to produce Jeep models for the local market.

The Italian automaker has already forged a joint venture with Guangzhou for the manufacturing of a new compact sedan based on the 2013 Dodge Dart, which will most likely be introduced in China at the upcoming Beijing motor show in April.

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Fiat to Launch New Strada Small Pickup Truck in its Home Market

Starting from next week, Fiat will offer its new Strada pickup truck in its home market of Italy. The Strada is Fiat's second best-selling commercial vehicle after the Ducato with 127,800 units sold worldwide in 2011. It is built at the company's FIASA plant in Betim, Brazil.

The revised light commercial model comes in three flavors named Working, Trekking and Adventure plus three body styles, including short cab, long cab and the four-seater crew cab for a total of six different variants.

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Scoop: Fiat Prepares 4x4 Edition of its New Panda City Car

Since the first generation of the Panda, Fiat has always offered four-wheel drive versions of its popular city car and this is not going to change with the newest iteration of the model that was unveiled at last year's Frankfurt Motor Show.

Spied here during cold weather testing in Europe, is a prototype of the third generation Panda 4x4, which is expected to join the range towards the end of the year or in early 2013.

The new Panda 4x4 will use a similar all-wheel drive setup with its predecessor featuring a hydraulic clutch in front of the rear differential. Engine choices are believed to include both diesel and petrol units.

Aside from the all-wheel drive system, Fiat's engineers will make changes to the suspension that will be strengthened and raised appropriately, as well as to the steering system.

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New Fiat Panda Ad Lifts a Page from Chrysler's "Imported from Detroit" Campaign Book

Fiat has aired a new commercial for its third generation Panda city car in its home market titled "This is the Italy we like", which uses a similar (but not identical) theme to the super successful and ongoing "Imported in Detroit" campaign from its Chrysler partner.

Only this time, the promo film focuses on the Italian origins of the Panda, the latest version of which is produced at the Fiat Group's renewed Pomigliano d'Arco Plant, near Naples, and also calls upon Italians to change the views imposed by others and show the world who they are and what they are capable of creating.

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Is the 2013 Dodge Dart Sedan Using an Automatic Transmission Supplied from Hyundai?

It's no secret that, aside from the Fiat Group-sourced 168bhp 1.4-liter turbocharged MultiAir engine, the new 2013 Dodge Dart compact sedan continues to use two powerplants from Chrysler's past.

You see, while the Detroit maker is marketing its 2.0-liter and 2.4-liter four-cylinder units under the new "Tigershark" moniker, both have their roots in the Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance (GEMA) family of engines.

To explain, GEMA was a joint venture of the Chrysler Group, Mitsubishi Motors, and Hyundai Motor Company for the development of a line of shared four-cylinder gasoline engines. In 2009, Chrysler bought out the shares of Mitsubishi and Hyundai and continued GEMA on its own.

And here's where Hyundai comes into the picture. Citing unnamed sources, Car&Driver is reporting that the 2013 Dodge Dart's Tigershark engines are fitted with a Hyundai-supplied 6-speed automatic transmission.

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Suzuki Moves Ahead without VW and Signs New Diesel Engine Deal with Fiat

Regular readers will no doubt remember the clash between the Volkswagen Group and Suzuki Motors with the Germans refusing to let go of their 19.9 percent equity stake in the Japanese company and Suzuki taking the matter to the international court.

While the issue remains unresolved, Suzuki has already moved on and today, the company announced that it is further expanding its business relationship with the Fiat Group, which also owns Chrysler.

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Fiat Rumored to Extend 500 Range With Mini-Rivaling Five-Door “Wagon”

On paper, Fiat’s return to the North American market after a 30-year absence was well planned. The first product introduced by the Italian maker was the 500 city car, which had already proven to be a hit in Europe, selling 770,000 units since 2007. Things looked promising in the U.S. as well.

While the 500’s mission was to rival BMW’s Mini, its 2011 sales of 26,000 units were almost half of original forecasts. Delays in the launch and the dealer network certainly played a role while Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne also thinks that the company’s strategy was to blame.

“We thought we were going to show up and, just because of the fact people like gelato and pasta, people will buy it”, he told reporters last week. “This is nonsense”.

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Fiat Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari All Chromed Up

The limited run Fiat Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari special may come with its own bespoke Scuderia Red finish with contrasting grey racing stripes (among other unique features) but that hasn't stopped Japanese tuner Office-K from giving it a new shade – fortunately, not permanent.

The tuning firm covered the Ferrari-branded Abarth model's body in a flashy chrome vinyl wrap with racing stripes in the colors of the Italian flag.

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New Fiat 500 Abarth Priced from $22,000* in the U.S., or about as Much as a 305HP Ford Mustang…

Just because it's tiny and made from Europe's equivalent of Chevrolet, doesn't mean that the new 160-horsepower 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth comes in cheap.

In fact, it's US$22,000 price tag (*not including destination and handling charges) is sure to raise some eyebrows.

And this not only because it costs $6,500 more than the standard 101-horsepower 500, but also because it brings it in the same price range as sports cars like the 210HP 2012 Hyundai Genesis Coupe ($22,250) and even the 305HP 2012 Ford Mustang V6 ($22,310)!

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Fiat-Chrysler "Willing" to Form an Alliance with Opel, GM Says it's Not Interested

In 2000, General Motors and Fiat formed an alliance in which the American company gained 20 percent of the Italian manufacturer’s shares in exchange for 5.1 percent of its own stock. Among other projects, the two companies jointly developed the Gamma platform for B-segment cars that underpinned the 2005 Fiat Punto and the 2007 Opel Corsa.

Fiat’s partnership with GM was short-lived though, and was eventually dissolved – but not before the Italians got US$2 billion dollars as part of the original agreement.

Well, we don’t know how to say “if at first you don’t succeed, try again” in Italian, but Sergio Marchionne surely does – and despite the earlier failure, commented during the Detroit Motor Show that Fiat and Chrysler would be “willing participants” if General Motors wanted to discuss Opel tying up with another manufacturer.

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Dodge Dart gets "Unadjusted" 40 MPG Combined, Fiat Automatically Increases its Chrysler Stake by 5%

Chrysler announced that Fiat S.p.A.’s ownership interest in the company has increased from 53.3 to 58.5 percent, in accordance to the June 10, 2009 Operating Agreement.

As stipulated by the agreement, Chrysler issued a letter to the U.S. Department of Treasury stating that the company “has irrevocably committed” to begin assembly of a mass-production vehicle with a combined fuel economy of at least 40 mpg in a plant located in the United States.

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Marchionne’s 6 Million Sales Target for Fiat-Chrysler Deemed "Unrealistic" by Analysts

To say that Fiat is in a crisis would probably be the understatement of the (last) year. Just a couple of weeks ago, the Italian group lowered its sales target for 2012 by half a million units, from 2.7 to 2.2 million. Even its CEO, Sergio Marchionne, has admitted that the European car market will drop in 2012.

Yet, the man who masterminded Chrysler’s acquisition during the 2009 bailout and merged the two groups into one entity wants them to sell more than six million vehicles a year by 2014. By doing so, he might have set the bar too high.

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Fiat Rumored to Unveil Idea-Replacing Ellezero Mini MPV at the Geneva Motor Show

Eight years is quite a long life-cycle for a model yet Fiat has left is mini MPV, the Idea, which had also spawned the Lancia Musa, virtually unchanged since 2003, save for a minor facelift in 2006.

Now, according to a report from British magazine Autocar, the Italian carmaker will unveil its replacement at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show in March, with sales scheduled to begin in 2013.

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Chevy Volt and Fiat 500 Amongst Worst Product Flops of 2011, Says Report

A report on the seven worst product flops in the U.S. from 24/7 Wall Street that was re-posted on Yahoo Finance includes two vehicle introductions, the Chevrolet Volt and the Fiat 500.

According to the author of the report, Chevrolet's extended range electric vehicle made it on the list because it underperformed in sales while the fact that it is under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for fires related to the car's lithium-ion batteries is also mentioned.

As for the 500, the article says that while the Italians expected to sell some 50,000 cars during its first year in the States, Fiat sold fewer than 12,000 from January through July, and that the company ousted its chief Laura Soave this past November. For the record, Fiat sold 15,826 examples of the coupe and the 500C through October.

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The Year that Was: The Chrysler Group Rewinds 2011

The Chrysler Group has put together a video that highlights all the important events that took place in the year.

These include several important product introductions such as the new Chrysler 300 and 200, the redesigned Dodge Charger and new Durango, and the presentation of the Abarth 500, plus the early repayment of US$7.6 billion in loans to the U.S. and Canadian governments six years before the loans came due.

You can watch Chrysler's video for yourself right after the jump.

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Fiat Group Lowers 2012 Sales Estimate by Half a Million Units

A funny t-shirt slogan reads “aim low, achieve your targets, avoid disappointment”. But it would probably be best if you didn’t give it as a Christmas present to Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne.

The reason is that the Italian group has lowered its 2012 sales forecast of 2.7 million units by a substantial amount; the new target for next year is 2.2 million, 500,000 units short of the original estimate presented in the group's 5-year plan.

The good news is that its partner, Chrysler, is expected to hit its 2.4-million sales target. Adding up the numbers brings the Fiat-Chrysler combined sales projection for 2012 to 4.6 million units.

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Fiat Group Signs Deal with Italian Union on Labor Pact

With Fiat shares losing 30% of their value in the first nine months of the year, the company's sales hitting a 20-year low point in Italy, its European market share shrinking from 8.2% to 7.3% and all of its domestic plants recording losses, CEO Sergio Marchionne has been pushing for an increase in productivity.

The workers’ unions, though, have been resisting changes, threatening with strikes and legal action against the Italian automotive group. This, along with the Italian crisis and the fact that Chrysler is the one keeping the group afloat, has led analysts to predict that Fiat may go as far as to partially abandon its home market.

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2012 Fiat Panda: New Mega Gallery with 171 Photos

We have already seen the 2012 Fiat Panda at its world premiere at the Frankfurt Motor Show this past September, but the Italian brand has just dropped a massive gallery comprising of more than 170 high-resolution photos, some of which are quite picturesque.

To refresh your memory, this is just the third iteration of the Panda in the model's 31-year history. It's predecessor were extremely successful and popular throughout Europe having sold some 6.5 million units over the past three decades.

Fiat hopes to build on the success of the Panda's predecessors with the new model, which is available exclusively with five doors and comes with a slightly larger body that measures 3,650 mm long, 1,640 mm wide and 1,550 mm tall for improved passenger space.

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