Chrysler Group LLC will set up a separate dealership network to sell cars made by Italy’s Fiat Group SpA when they are reintroduced in the US later this year.
The Auburn Hills, Michigan-based automaker said existing Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram dealers will get a chance to apply to sell the Italian Fiats, but they must be able to operate separate facilities with different sales and service teams in order to win a franchise.
Fiat, which last sold cars in the US in the 1980s, will return to the country in December with the debut of the Fiat 500, a highly efficient, very European-looking small car. Other Fiat models are likely for the US, but the company has not made announcements beyond the 500, known in Italy as the Cinquecento.
Fiat was given control of Chrysler by the US government when the automaker emerged from bankruptcy on June 10 last year. The company would have run out of cash and been sold off in pieces without roughly US$15 billion in aid from the US and Canadian governments.
While noting that the company still has a long road ahead to recovery, CEO Sergio Marchionne last month touted Chrysler’s first-quarter operating profit, two straight months of sales gains and plans for 16 new or updated vehicles by the end of this year.
The Fiat dealerships will be located in roughly 125 US metropolitan areas that Chrysler has found to have high small-car registration and high potential for growth in selling smaller cars, spokesman Ralph Kisiel said. The company expects to have 200 Fiat dealers in 41 states.
Letters were to go out yesterday to Chrysler Group’s roughly 2,300 dealers nationwide giving them general guidelines for applying to become Fiat dealers. More specific requirements will come in application packets for interested dealers.
“Dealers are going to have to demonstrate how they will market, sell and service Fiat vehicles with a new customer service model,” Kisiel said.
He would not say if dealers would have to pay to buy a Fiat franchise. Generally, interested dealers must be in the 125 designated markets, meet customer satisfaction and minimum sales requirements, and show that they have the financial resources to support the brand, Chrysler said in a statement.
Dealers outside the 125 identified markets will be considered for Fiat franchises provided they meet all the performance standards and financial requirements, Kisiel said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique