Fiats to be made in China
July 7, 2009 by Matt Brogan
Fiat will begin building cars in China from mid-2011 after signing a 50:50 agreement with Guangzhou Automobile Industry Group.
The joint venture allows Guangzhou Auto, a Chinese partner of Honda and Toyota, to build Fiat cars and engines for the local market but could also expand to manufacture up to 300,000 export engines a year.
The first model to be launched by the joint venture will be the Linea sedan (as pictured) which will be equipped by two variants of a 1.4-litre turbocharged petrol engine, delivering 90 and 110kw respectively.
Other models planned for production in China are the Bravo and Grande Punto.
Fiat began cooperating with Guangzhou Auto in early 2008.
Print it: 
And i betcha thier the ones we get…..great even more crud made cars on our roads…
*****PRIMO!*****
FIAT Group have been having a on/off relationship with the Chinese for more than a decade.
Did you know that the Chinese purchased all the production line of the AlfaRomeo FWD 166?The funny thing is that its completly changed in looks, still looks Italian but not like the unloved 166 AlfaRomeo.
The old 156 production line is also heading to China as is the FIAT Bravo [nee Ritmo].FIAT Group have found a dumping ground for all its obsolete platform and designs!
Future LARGE A/R and Lancia will be based on BigC [300C?] platform and back to RWD…..hooray!
They in theory could manufacture them in RHD, so we could see all this old stuff back on our market labled as a Chinese brand/model.
9 million cars a year made and rising, China is not a child in the market, and will be #1 worldwide in a few short years, once the quality is improved and people accept it, going to be game over for a lot of brands….
Cheers
F-0
Not that I was planning on buying a Fiat, but there’s no way I’d ever consider driving one now even if I was forced.
Get over that *****PRIMO!***** rubbish, it’s so stupid.
Jack Donaghy summed it up best on 30 Rock when he said “The Italians have a saying, Lemon. “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” And although they’ve never won a war or mass-produced a decent car, in this area they are correct.”
looks ok
“D”^^^^^
Get your own nick!
:-)
BENITO^^^^
““And although they’ve never won a war or mass-produced a decent car””
Err NO!
Never heard of the RomanEmpire then?
FIAT Group have won more European/World Car Of The Year than eney other brand, and multiple of its models have been made over the 5 million mark.
Best thing, Germans burned 40 BILLION dollars on BigC, Italians got it for NOTHING! Pure GENIUS!!
Cheers
F-0
[Trading as *****PRIMO!*****]
idiot countries making fine italian cars…
Idiots like Benito saying Italians cant make cars or win wars…
This world is being inherited by the meek, u know what you can have this earth and shove….
Any one else remember where Lada got its designs (perhaps tooling) from?
Will we be seeing a repeat of history, resurected Fiat models flooding the cheap and extreamly nasty end of the market?
FrugalOne, your irrelevant 2000 year old examples are disturbing my concentration while I try to cut the rust out of my new Ritmo.
All the old italian jokes are really boring, the italians are the new 80’s japenese. They are the best at the business table now. As I always say ‘There are italians, then those who want to be italian’. Fiat is the new world super power in cars
The part of this mariage that I will appreciate the most will be when the Chinese Electronics make their way into the Italian cars.. too many hours of my life have been spent figuring out the electrical faults of Fiats and Alfa’s (to the dulcit tones of them quietly rusting whilst you work :-))
So what many of you are saying is just because something is made in China you wont buy it. Well that means that anything you buy in the next week will also fall into this category. If you guys didnt hear this news you would have had the same image of Fiat in your minds. China will overtake the world in manufacturing and they have to start somewhere.
FIATs made in Italy: Nobody in Aust or the US buys.
FIATs made in China: ?
U guys that talk rust and Italian cars are living in the seventies when everything else on wheels suffered the same fate to varying degrees.
Old designs being reborn and Mitsubitshi must be the equivalent of Fiat in Asia.
Chinese materials in any form will be substandard.
Must add other muck to make it go further I reckon.
Ok i think i might just resubmit my first comment with more specifics. I for one am not bagging italian made fiats, ive owned 7 of them over my 37 years on this planet and the majority were the 70’s cars (rust an all) and i loved them all. but the new ones are just so so much better i love them, the 500 i love it but the price, thats another story, i probably would look at a ritmo for work/promotional purposes next year. But the quality that might come from china with fiat badges right now,im sorry but they have a long way to go in china in regards to car quality. When that gets better thier will be no question of more people buying them for sure.
And someone made a comment about chinese technology in the fiats will go a long way in the near future, i would agree with that totally. Every manufacturer/car company or whatever needs time to get things right, but for now id like to buy my fiat or alfa from italy…im also looking forward to the thought of rwd fiats or alfas, now thats back to the good old days of fiats…without the rust..
Realcars, Itake on board what you have said, but stand by my electronics comment. Last Italian I owned with elcetrical gremlins?? 2000 y/m 156 selespeed.
Would I own another Alfa, considering the pain? You bet.
Shak…
I’ve seen a lot of your posts here, made me chuckle on some of them, a few were worth reading. But what you said just then about China..
You’re pretty much on the ball.
Why?
Those guys are relentless workers, sure they have limitations in their society in comparison to the other western countries. But they make everyone look lazy.
No joke, I was once one of those people that always had doubts on Chinese manufactured things, they are cheap for a reason. But you know, with some guidance from established corporate systems etc… and in combination with the effort they put in…. give them 10 years and they’ll be one of the most significant manufacturing countries in the world… automotive included. I for one can attest some “established” and “BIG” automotive companies are racing to establish Chinese plants…. and soon they’ll be there… a lot more!!