In the new J.D. Power 2015 U.S. Initial Quality Study, during the first 90 days of ownership, people who bought Fiats had 161 problems per 100 vehicles. The average among all name plates was 112. Survey leader Porsche had 80.
The pace of Fiat sales for the first five months of the year were barely better than in May. Sales of the name plate during that period were 18,669, down 9%. Another sign of how rough Fiat’s position in the U.S. market is its “days to turn”, which is a measure of how long it takes dealers to sell units of a specific brand. The Fiat figure was 115 days last month, compared to an industry average of 66.
Among Fiat’s other challenges is that its sells all its models in one of the most competitive sectors of the car industry. Its MSRP prices begin at $16,485 and run to $31,800. Each is a light 4-cylinder or hybrid vehicle which gets high gas mileage. Some of the best selling cars in America are in the same sector and have been mainstays of the U.S. car market for years. At the top of this list are the Honda (NYSE: HMC) Accord, and Toyota (NYSE: TM) Corolla, which each sells over 30,000 units per month.
Fiat’s situation in the U.S. is bad enough that Fiat Chrysler ought to withdraw the brand from the market. The manufacturer would save millions of dollars in marketing investment, dealer and shipping costs, and, most of all, the humiliation of building and selling Fiats which are, by almost any measure, the worst cars on the American market.
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