Why Isn't the Fiat 124 Spider Selling Well In the US and Will It Turn Around?

I was looking to buy one or the Mazda. I ended up purchasing a great used Miata for a great price and haven't looked back. Living in Socal helped as there are plenty of well kept used Miatas, many with some nice upgrades. This is what I have noticed. First, you are dealing with the unknown reliability of the Fiat turbo engine and the generally poor reputation of Fiat. Second, you have Fiat dealerships vanishing or being folded into Chrysler dealerships who have little knowledge of the car which does not bode well for future service. On one occasion I went to the Fiat dealership and while there was a single 124 there (the special azure blue with automatic selling for $45,000!) no people were present except for a security guard who told me to go across the street to the Chrysler dealer.Third, when I was able to find one in stock it usually was an automatic classic with the tech package and always black or grey. Never even saw an Abarth and one of the salespeople never even heard of the Abarth but said it sounded "cool". Yeah whatever. And this is Socal where not having a convertible is practically a misdemeanor or at least should be. Mazda dealerships are plentiful and while they are heavy on automatics, about a 50/50 split, they have plenty of cars in stock, know the product and will be around next week. Its a miracle they are selling any of these cars. By the way, I owned a 1972 Fiat 124 and loved it. She was reliable but demanded above average care and attention like any gorgeous Italian.

If you don't advertise, NO ONE knows you have a product to sell. GET WITH IT FCA! The Spider is an AWESOME car! No one will buy one if they don't know they exist!!!
Hello!!!!!!!!!!!!

I live in Miami, the automobile capital of South Florida and i’ve only seen one of these 124 Spiders. I’ve seen more Bentleys. I like being an car snob - except when you need service. ... anyway, it’s a second car for most everybody so I guess waiting two weeks for a part that most cars can get from Autozone is not a deal-breaker. The 124s also look better than the Miata.

I can tell you why! first, they do not have the expert mechanic needed to take care of fiats-they rely on dodge and chrysler mechanics, second, most of their accessories has to be purchase in a package-who ever heard of a car nowadays with no autolink rearview mirror,third, lack of storage space and I can go on.......
I hope they correct these issues and have better marketing.

I know that this is an older post. It is 2019. I do disagree with the author regarding advertising. I didn’t know this car existed. I never saw a TV or magazine ad for this car EVER. That is a big problem. I just saw one by chance in my neighborhood. When I started researching them locally, all the dealers had auto trans only. The new head of Fiat announced that they are now only going to focus on variants off the 500. No more sports cars. I live in San Diego, and there is perfect weather for convertibles to thrive year round.

I have been looking at purchasing a Miata MX-5, but after looking at the Fiat Spider 124, I'm confused now. I have always heard that Fiat was not very reliable! Has that changed? Also, what is the negative in buying one with the 6-speed automatic transmission versus the standard?

I bought my daughter a Fiat 124, and at 6', I am truly maxxed out in the car. She's almost 5'11" and she puts the seat all the way back.

In the US population, about 14.5 percent of all men are six feet or over. Even more strikingly, 3.9 percent are 6'2" or taller. For women over 6' it is close to 1%. That means at least 15,000,000 people would question the practicality and comfort of getting the 124. That's leaving an awful lot on the table. Adding just 1 inch to the "leg room" would then include 10,000,000 additional potential owners.

Its March 2020, I'm a lifelong Alfa Romeo owner (5) and I've been trying to buy a 124 Abarth since they were introduced. While the Miata may very well be the Best British Roadster ever built, it does have an unfortunate reputation as a girl's car. Enter the new Fiat 124, all the goodness of the Miata and much more muscular, a man's car. Now that it has been cancelled by Fiat, I'll tell you why it had such low sales. Fiat and Dealer greed! The Abarth is perfect at an MSRP of $29K, a great value proposition but almost all inventory cars since 2018 are grossly over optioned. Its a great buy at $29K at $38K to $40K (most Abarths available), its totally unattractive. Pure greed killed this great little roadster.

I have an Abarth automatic, black with a black/red interior. Waited over a year to find a color combination that I wanted. Like everything about the car. Having previously owned a Miata no expectations for huge storage or to haul a 6'4" 250 lb passenger. It really isn't a comfortable car for anybody over 6'. Great fun to drive and has sufficient performance for my needs. Sport mode does make the automatic much more enjoyable in the automatic. Haven't had a single problem in 9 nine months of ownership.

My guess as to why as I am nearing the end of an exhaustive and long vehicle search.

Poorly written reviews mistranslated by consumers reviewing the vehicle. The car language of the average consumer is not the same as the average car journalist and the car journalists expect the consumer to learn and adapt to their vernacular. Most purchasers are not enthusiasts. AKA the review community does a bad job unless you count being pretentious as being a good job.

The turbo lag a normal factor of every turbo comes off as a Laggy small 4 cylinder engine in most review websites. Small 4 cylinder and Laggy american consumer moves on....compound that by translation software...

Automobile enthusiast writers write expecting their readers to use automotive language like they do. Causing translation errors in their audience.

For a specialty car that is a nuanced vehicle this makes things challenging for the consumer. And the miata is the known safe choice with no scarey negative words like "laggy" in its review. Not a good word in a sporty car review.

Combine that with limited sales and therefore visibility and limited marketing and it's hard for consumers to understand the cars actual performance.

Finding one to sit in is practically impossible so any miscommunication is disastrous.

Finally the marketing they did have went away from who the consumer of this car strikes me as most likely to be and at the consumer more likely to be happy without a LSD and with a normally aspirated engine and predictable stable torque. Fiat appears to have wanted to create a chick car to pair with what they thought of as a more guys car 500. Wrong choice if you are using the small turbo IMHO. They would have been better off dressing more cars with LSD and creating better price and finish variation in the better handling versions and made that their niche.

Likely getting one used if I can find an abarth in appropriate configuration. Only been able to sit in automatics so far however.