G. David Felt

There is a tuffness that UniBody cannot compete with when it comes to Body on Frame. Unibody CUV's do not seem to last like a Body on Frame SUV. At the same time, we could see Nissan come out with an amazing Body on Frame Hybrid using small Turbo Diesel that can and does handle the off road life and people would flock to it.

I will give them Kudos if they pull this off. I have always felt auto makers had way to many filters in place. I have felt that all A class cars for multiple brands should be built on the same underlying platform. As long as the design language stays the same for a family of cars, like the caddilac. It should be a reduced cost to build all A class cars for Caddilac, Buick and Chevy on the same platform with just different sheetmetal, engines and interiors. This is the future of auto making. Having the set of standards for connection points will allow makers to reduce costs and increase profits for better growth.

Balthazar, In seattle over the weekend, the sparks are flying off the lots. It is amazing how many I have seen on the roads here. They just seem to be all over and look way better in person than in pictures. The 500 still does not seem to sell, Have not seen a one on the road and the dealership I drove by on Saturday had another truck unloading more 500's and yet their online stock keeps going up. It is amazing, I wonder just what kinds of kick backs Fiat is doing to get a dealership to load up. I Figure 120+ in stock is a bit extreme for a dealership.But will have to wait and see. The Spark is really selling here and the IQ seems to be an asian crowd selling appliance also.

First thing that really bugs me is idiot reviewers who keep talking about base models for 22K and everything base this and that while also talking about the top of the line Performance model when it is supposed to be a review about the Abarth Performance model.Second issue with this review is they only mention that this model starts at $27K once. So they are affraid that if they talk about the Abarth model starting at $27K it will turn people off? Focus on this model and this model only.Kudos to the 2nd guy for being honest about if your over 6'3" tall you will not fit as he barly fits at that size.Kudos to Abarth for at least getting a turbo 4 to sound decent compared to Ricer cars with a tin can sound.Over all, it is a nice looking interior, Ugly exterior IMO and with a terrible History of quality in this country, I will take a wait and see approach to if these cars can hold up past the warranty period.

Some great options, my son just bought a 2012 Patriot and loves it. He looked at the compass and liked the nose but hated the rest of the body. Reminded him of an old persons auto and too girly. They need to keep some of the jeeps butch if they want the rugged guys to buy them.

Not a fan of these stupid Nanny Controls. This just goes to show gov overkill on trying to control you, what you do and where you do it. If they just went to testing everyone 40 and below every 5 years, 41 to 60 every 4 years and 61 and older every 2 years, they could keep those that should not be driving off the roads. This will open up bigger business for those companies who can offer a computers system that allows total over ride of the nanny controls in a car.

This should be very interesting, I am excited to see this new SUV.

Smart approach to keep long term customers by making sure you keep quality. Toyota used to do this and has lost their quality due to wanting to be the biggest in the world.

WOW, Goodbye friend, guess that means the end of the life for Escalade EXT another loverly ride. Wonder what Caddilac will replace it with? Chevy will miss not having this type of truck.

They might have reported a portion of the news right, but why not make it clear that A123 also does the ugly Toyota Hybrid Battery packs. If your going to throw GM and Nissan under the bus, then pack the rest of them in with it. But probably some moron at Fox News is on the board or has a large investment in Toyota so like Biased Consumer Reports will not point it out.

PBJ Sandwiches.

WOW, Glad no one got killed and hope the one kept overnight goes home soon. GM, Jump in there with a rebuild team to get it back online ASAP, gotta keep it going.

wow, Thanks for the link. Great read, Love the layout and pictures are sweet. Also loved the alternate link for coverage in detail on the new Viper. This was very exciting to see. Kudo's to the people who brought this together. Keep up the awesome Journalism.

Jeers, if your going to do a rat rode, then do it right or not at all. I hate half ass projects like this.

Please you must have your head in a vice grip to not see the squeezed tall head of an ugly small car that will tip over easily in a high wind. Yet, as they say, Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Enjoy your love of the car as I think there are far better sub compacts than this ugly basterd of a car. You do release that those trucks and SUVs you love so much have a much higher center of gravity than any car does and therefore are much more prone to rollover right? The Abarth has a top speed of 131 mph which is nothing to sneeze at. Styling is subjective but as far as small cars go I think its great looking and full of personality. Much more so than the Spark. It's also selling quite well for a new brand to America with a comparatively small dealer network and in spite of poor advertising. True, Trucks and Suv's do have a much higher center of gravity unless you have tuned them to be better performance handling. My Suburban is a perfect example which has had the suspension replaced from the normal 1/2 ton to a 2.5 ton Kodiak suspension. It rides hard but almost no body roll when I take our clover leaf on and off ramp at 80+ So the Arbath might have a 131 MPH top speed, but I know my Trailblazer SS goes faster as does my tuned Subruban and Escalade. Will stick with my comfy roomy large SUV's. Now back to our program of this Subjective Ugly little car. I actually like the spark Personality far better than this car. It looks like a sad little jelly bean that has sat so long it has become fat around the base with a pointed head. Their POP, SPORT, Lounge, Lounge Cabrio just does nothing for me or anyone else I have asked around here.

See here I again disagree with you as the Fiat has a Hot Wheels look to it. In regards to how people think about Fiat, around Seattle they hear that name and what comes to mind is an OLD SOCIALIST GARBAGE Making car company. Fiat had lousy cars last time they were here in the states and still do not make that great of cars based on experiance of being in them over in Europe. I would take many other car companies over Fiat if I was in Europe. Fiat has returned after 27 years and for young teen and 20's it might be considered a new company, but for those of us who have been around a bit longer, they are bottom of the bucket garbage cars that we remember when they were here back in 1985. Now with the state average income much higher than other states, the Fiats are not selling here. People are buying American, German and then Asian. The few that have sold seems to be to people that have moved here from out side this state. They might be selling better in other states, but they are just piling up on the couple dealership lots here. In fact the Jeep, Dodge and Chrysler Dealership called Rairdon also opened the Fiat and they have moved the Jeeps, Dodges and Chrysler products to the front street line row since the Fiats are not selling. http://www.rairdon.com/ They have 110 sitting on their lots and they are collecting dust bunnies. They offer $500 rebates and 0% financing up to 72 months and they still cannot sell them.

For sure the Chevy Spark is far better looking, even the Mini is better looking than this car. Hyndia's, Kia, they all have better looking subcompacts than this IMO.

Some cars should just be scrapped and left to the history books. Here is a perfect example. Love the It ran when parked 18 years ago. Jeers, ready for the recycle pile.

I think that most companies if they focused the Hybrid on fancy ultra cool luxury versions first, they would get the price of the technology down faster. I truly believe that with Caddy getting their own totally Rock On Cool Version of the Volt, it will help GM get this technology into far more auto's. This will then help them exceed the new corp standards. Does anyone else think that they Hybrid should have been focused on the luxury divisions first to recoop the R&D costs over going with a Chevy version that required a big GOV tax break?

Black Lab

Your just way too funny!!! The Verano is also a great vehicle for us big folks, Me being 6'6" tall if we wanted a small CUV, then this is great. But it is still a small auto.

Interesting you should bring up Fiat's wacky American dealer network. Here in Kentucky, the two nearest Fiat dealerships to me are in Florence, a town 12 miles south of Cincinnati, and Louisville. Both are around 100 miles away from me. I understand Louisville because its one of Kentucky's largest cities, but Florence? There's a Fiat dealership in Cincinnati proper, so why can't folks in Florence drive a mere 12 miles up the road to buy and service their 500s? I also don't see, you know, tons of people in Florence driving 500s, either. Lexington is Kentucky's other large metropolitan area besides Louisville and I think a Fiat showroom there would attract more buyers and general interest than one in Florence, considering one of the largest colleges in the state is there. I totally agree with this that having a dearship hundereds of miles from a customer is not going to win over someone to buy their product and setting one up only 12 miles away from a major town in a small town is just stupid. Here the dealership is close to seattle and the next major one is almost 100 miles away but at least you have the ability to cover a nice wide area, but then the hilly Seattle area is all about the SUV and the dealerships here are over loaded with these small ugly cars. Maybe if they did some newspaper and Television advertising would help to bring in potential buyers. Yet the crowd I think this is focused at are also the same people that preferre the share a ride which is huge in the seattle area. Just pay your monthly fee and then also a basic cost when you need a car. This works out better for those that live in the big cities.

Please you must have your head in a vice grip to not see the squeezed tall head of an ugly small car that will tip over easily in a high wind. Yet, as they say, Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Enjoy your love of the car as I think there are far better sub compacts than this ugly basterd of a car.

That was Rock on for a Communicate nothing show. Yea they hit the few talking head points, they should have allowed him to point out some things the Gov and the car business should be doing to really rock us forward. Still great to see he is kicking hard. Awesome dude.

Sweet Post Balthazar, that is really cool, I had no idea the headlamps followed you as you turned the steering wheel.