Fiat 500 shows poor sales in the United States

What do you expect? Americans are into big vehicles and would only consider fuel effeciency when we don't have a choice. We are the modern day Romans. And you know how they ended up. Funny thing about it is that the first problem the Romans started having was with debt. Just like the U.S.A

A lot of Americans can barely fit in this car, let alone pack one or two additional adults for a lunch getaway.

I think the biggest issue is that I have not seen one commercial for the car.

I think invading barbarian hoards was a hell of a lot more of a problem than debt, no matter what Glenn Beck says.

It's only been one month...shouldn't we give it more time? It did sell just as many as VW did sell Beetles last month too. Time will tell but this is too early to say it's not selling well.

No, the US market for small and toy vehicles is there alive and well, ask MINI, but not for Fiat.
The 2012 Scion iQ will kill the Fiat 500 and put it out of its misery.

Agree that the market is there, but not for Fiat--which supports those who are suggesting it's a marketing problem. Fiat never had a great reputation here and as much blather as I've heard from enthusiast forums about the iconic status of the 500, it just doesn't apply in the States.

The theory about it being too small also applied to the original Mini's less-than-successful effort here in the late 60's and yet the Beetle sold like hotcakes. There too it was a marketing problem. A few Mr. Bean shows and a couple of versions of the Italian Job later on, problem solved.

Didnt know they began offering them here. Key may be in advertising. Especially with gas prices the way they are. Hurry and expand to more (urban) markets

Lol I sure didn't know it was on sale I agree I think that's the real problem. I haven't even seen one commercial or saw a dealer ship or their cars at anyone else dealerships.
Does anybody know who they partnered with?

Well of course initial sales numbers are low. Who has seen a shred of marketing for this thing. 99% of the mainstream public hasn't even heard of it yet. They need to blast the airwaves, the internet, and print with ads or it will fail.

The article really did not go into any detail about Fiat 500 US sales. I know Fiat sold 500 units last month. It may take a little time for this to ramp up.As SteedPub mentions many have not heard of the 500 yet. Fiat/Chrysler needs to step up it's marketing a bit to help get the word out.They should not follow what Suzuki did with the Kisashi. That was a marketing disaster on a decent car. The 500 is also a decent car. Fiat needs to take a page from BMW to see how they marketed Mini.

True, Americans love big cars, but they love big motors more...if they atleast turbocharge this little tyke (500), it might stand its ground against Scion and Mini. Otherwise, its doomed to fail.

Maybe because they start at $15,000. You can get a true 4 seater for that price and a little extra room.

I personally would be very uncomfortable in the car being 6'5'' tall. Fiat forgot to calculate that 1/3 of all americans are obese

I was in a FIAT store the other day and there was a guy, 6'7'' tall, that was able to fit comfortably inside the car (I can't believe he was able to fit!). I got a chance to sit in it, too... Needless to say, it's a very deceiving car from the outside. It looks small but it surprisingly had a lot of room on the inside. I test drove a stick and it had plenty of pick-up for me. Overall, it's a very nice car and fun as hell to drive!

And 2/3ds are not.

At 6'5" could you easily fit into a Mini? As for the 500 not offering options. At the NY Auto show it will offer the 500C. This is a semi convertable(Top comes all the way down but the side windows and frame remain in place. Next year they will have the 500 Abarth with supposidly 160 HP and sport tuned suspension.A 4dr 500 that is slightly bigger will also be offered in 2013. So the 500 is following Mini in it's variety but for less money. I think that's the way you have to look at it.You also have to figure at some point Fiat will improve the gas mileage of this car further(It's not terrible now at 38 MPG on the highway). I think Fiat is doing things right with this car. It should definately catch on and should offer a fun alternative to many of the Japenese and Korean alternatives out there.

I think it's because the economy is so bad right now that people who can afford to negotiate new car prices and keep up with the auto dealer terms are choosing more reliable and popular name brands of cars. Purchasing used is more attainable to the public today since there are so many people out of work. It might even be less expensive to purchase a car online rather than hassle with a dealer.

Having had several Fiats and a Lancia, I'm a natural customer, but I have no idea where to buy a Fiat 500, and South Florida is a pretty big car market.

The current fashion of big, cost efficient dealers that are far apart may be good for economies of scale, but it means I won't be buying a Volvo, Buick, Chrysler, Lincoln, Audi, or any other brand that is 20 miles away.

i drove the car. I'm in the market for a small car.
It's cute, but it should be a cheap car and it isn't. It's too expensive (over $20k, equipped) for what it is.
There are far too many and better alternatives out there.
If this really would have been a car in the $15k+- category, i would have purchased it. As it is, I couldn't help feeling I was being charged a hipster tax.

Dealerships haven't been selling the car because they don't actually have any. The only ones delivered were the 500 pre-sold "Prima Editions" that were sold online last year. Aside from those, some dealers have a single test car to show but not to sell. Who know why, but so far it is all advertisement and no actual cars.

We'll see how it goes. I was at a Fiat dealer in Bridgewater, NJ - twice over the past couple of weeks. The first time they only had 10 or so 500's on the lot and none in the showroom. Now they have three in the showroom and at least 40 or 50 in the lot.
Unfortunately, out of all those 500's I only saw 1 manual transmission. I feel with the automatic it will be too underpowered. Mostly, even with the stick, I'll wait for the Abarth if my car can last that long. If not - I;m not sure what I'm going to get.

This article is either has an axe to grind or is completely ridiculous - it has no basis in facts and pulls a spurious conclusion out of thin air. When this article was posted, FIAT had been selling the 500 in the U.S. for less than a month. There's no logical basis for concluding that FIAT was disappointed in the sales of the 500, barely three weeks into the rollout. They've since acknowledged that the rollout of new showrooms/dealers occurred months later than they'd hoped, and so they made a decision to postpone their marketing program. At the same time, they've acknowledged that these factors will mean the marque will not hit the original sales estimate. All the rest of the "FIAT sucks/Americans are SUV-driving indiots/Mini's are better" chaff in the comments is meaningless. Only fact we know is that despite virtually no advertising, with few dealerships up and running, they've still managed to sell over 11,000 500's through August. Time will tell how well this vehicle, the marque, and Marchionne's strategy work out.