- Two new cars that were promoted to great fanfare by their respective manufacturers in 2011 are ending the year on a sour sales note.
- The Chevrolet Volt and the Fiat 500 have registered considerably lower sales than originally forecast.
- Volt is expected to end the year with fewer than 7,500 sales, while the 500 will finish below 20,000 units.
DETROIT — The Chevrolet Volt and the Fiat 500 — two new cars that were promoted to great fanfare by their respective manufacturers in 2011 — are ending the year on a sour sales note.
The Volt has fallen considerably short of General Motors' lofty sales projections. Through November, GM had sold just 6,142 Volts, although monthly sales were finally beginning to rise slightly toward year's end. Full-year sales are expected to total fewer than 7,500 units, according to projections by Edmunds.com. GM's sales target for the year was 10,000 units.
On the downside, a December survey by CNW Marketing of more than 3,800 U.S. buyers showed a decline in their consideration of the Volt in the wake of a federal probe into post-crash battery fires.
Fiat had high hopes for the 500, which was extensively re-engineered for the U.S. and went on sale here in March. The Italian automaker — now the corporate parent of Chrysler — had anticipated it would sell 50,000 Cinquecentos this year in the U.S. Instead, the little hatchback has sold only 17,444 units through November and will likely fall below 20,000 units, according to projections by Edmunds.com.
In December, the 500 received one more bit of bad news — a disappointing overall safety rating of three out of five stars from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Fiat has made several aggressive moves to bolster its brand image and presence in the American market, replacing its U.S. sales chief in November and hiring celebrity Jennifer Lopez to be its spokeswoman in a series of splashy TV ads.
Inside Line says: The disappointing sales figures suggest there may be some terrific showroom deals in the new year.
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no_slappz says:
06:16 AM, 01/03/2012
The Volt is a failure. It may run well and its technology may be the best, but buyers don't care. Sales are the only measure that matters.
Batteries are still primitive -- after 200 years, they are unable to store more than a little bit of energy. When the Einstein of batteries comes along and creates a battery that holds as much energy as a tank of gas and recharges in minutes, these cars will succeed.
Till then, they won't.
aztd1 says:
11:08 PM, 01/01/2012
Curious to see how many of those Volts were bought by federal/state/local government.
hondaman1 says:
09:03 PM, 01/01/2012
The Chevrolet Volt is not a failure, I think that its a well engineered car and looks great. However, the high price will take time for people to get used to (for a Chevy sedan). On the other hand, Sergio Marchioni's projection of 50,000 Fiat 500 units per year is not only tremendously OVER-OPTIMISTIC, but also totally UNREALISTIC. Re-launching the Fiat brand with ONLY one model is the first fatal mistake. Also, people who remember the Fiat brand, like myself, would need some very compelling reasons to even consider looking at one. The Fiat 500 does not provide any such reasons. The Fiat 500 is a very UGLY car, it does not get the type of fuel economy one would expect from such a small car, Its over-priced for its size and fuel economy, and its safety rating is NOT impressive. Compared to its competition such as BMW's Mini, Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, Nissan Versa, etc..., its a DUD and D.O.A, Dead on arrival.
Sergio Marchioni fired his Fiat Manager for North American sales. He should fire himself. His projections were impossible here in America. Those figures might be possible in Italy or elsewhere in Europe, but NEVER in America. Sergio, face the facts, the Fiat 500 is a dud. Give your Fiat manager her job back.
An experience car guy such as Sergio should know better than to attempt to re-launch any brand in America with just ONE vehicle, especially one thats NOT known for RELIABILITY.
I sincerely hope they have better luck with Chrysler. Making the SRT models a separate brand and moving Ralph Giles to the manager of that position from his former position as the head of Dodge is a very STUPID idea. Good luck with that.
blackdynamite1 says:
01:59 PM, 01/01/2012
Mr kq
No, "flop" pretty much nailed it
10k is as low a bar as you can set with a straight face
Chevy only has 4000 dealers to use.
No excuses.
BD
mr_kq says:
05:19 AM, 01/01/2012
This article is a shining example of how low our journalistic standards have fallen. Calling the Volt a "Flop" is not supported by the numbers. Mildly disappointing is a much more accurate description of Volt sales, but a phrase like that doesn't make a good headline and it doesn't bait the electric car haters into posting comments.
blackdynamite1 says:
08:26 PM, 12/31/2011
Fiat 500 was never gonna sell over 25k, just be looking at it, and seeing it's ordinary EPA MPG estimate.
There just aren't many reasons to get one over a new Focus or Corolla or whatever
Volt was a loser from the jump, and GMs desperate attempt to build demand by cutting off supply in the summer, and reaping the pent-up demand in the fall didn't work. It's still an overpriced steaming load, winter, spring, summer, or fall.
We have two more guinea pigs lined up just like these two, with the Scion iQ, which Toyota/Scion says should sell around 20-24k in 2012, and the Tesla Model S coming in the summer, which they say they will build 5k in 2012, and have many pre-ordered with deposit already.
Let's see if these can jump over lower bars, and build a following from more humble expectations.....
BD
wingsfan19 says:
03:34 PM, 12/31/2011
I live in Austin, TX. and have seen quite a few Volts and 500's. I've seen more Volts than Leafs although there are more of those popping up around here. I see the 500's around the UT campus area which makes sense to me. My point is, I think it depends on where you live. Austin is an area where you find a lot of Prii and even Smart cars. They have over 300 Smart cars as part of a car sharing program.
motorstreet says:
08:05 AM, 12/31/2011
There are two somewhat unfair things that happened to the 500. The EPA ratings are totally unrealistic. If you look under the 30 city, 38 highway (27/34 for the auto) rating on fueleconomy.gov you will find that 500 owners are averaging 42mpg for manual models and 38 mpg for automatic models. I have found that the figures from owners are usually more realistic (I average 43-45mpg on my VW Golf TDI, other owners average 44mpg according to the "Your MPG" section of fueleconomy.gov).
The NHTSA crash test rating should be 4 stars, because it got 4 stars in the frontal and rollover tests. It is brought down by the 2 star side crash test rating, but if you look further into the side rating it got 5 stars for the driver and 3 stars in the pole test, but only 2 stars for the rear passenger. The problem is that the rear seat is tiny and useless, so there will almost never be passengers in the rear seat. The rear passenger rating is irrelevant and if you ignore that section it would have received 4 stars in the side crash test. The NHTSA test is also outdated and irrelevant compared to the much tougher IIHS tests. IIHS gave the 500 a Top Safety Pick rating, which means it got the highest rating in every test. the 500 also got the highest possible rating in every section of the rear passenger side impact rating.
says:
02:19 AM, 12/31/2011
Fiat will do well. Needs time and create a track. Small cars are needed as a newer society emphazises fuel economy and value.
firstwagon says:
05:00 PM, 12/30/2011
The Fiat 500 needs more time for people to realize that's a good little car with a proven history. I chuckle when people say Fiats are unreliable. My first question is always .. So which Fiat are you referring too? If it was a Fiat from the 70's that someone you knew had then you are clueless. Most cars from the 70's were lucky to make 100K without rusting out or falling apart.
No use worrying about the opinion of people who's egos won't let them drive small cute cars, they are beyond reasoning with.
As for the Volt, I won't call it a flop until I see rows of them on the lots with big discounts on the windshield. Right now it's too hard to say what effect supply problems had.