In partnering with Mazda’s MX-5 Miata to resurrect the classic Fiat 124 Spider — thus the nickname “Fiata” — Fiat Chrysler not only gained a halo sports car for its struggling Italian brand, but likely saved the most celebrated small sports car of the past 25 years.
“The possibility exists that without our partnership with FCA, there may not have been a business case to produce the fourth-generation MX-5 Miata,” says Robert Davis, Mazda’s senior vice president of U.S. operations.
The critically acclaimed 2017 Fiat Spider is the latest addition to an American performance product renaissance. From the Dodge Challenger Hellcat to the Ford Focus RS to the Subaru BRZ, the motoring public has not had such a buffet of affordable performance iron since the 1960s. As Tim Kuniskis, Fiat Chrysler’s head of passenger car brands, likes to call it: “The Second Golden Age of the Performance Car.”
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