Fiat

2012 Fiat 500 Base price: $16,000 (including destination charge) Price as tested: $19,050 Powertrain: 1.4-liter, SOHC, inline four-cylinder, 16 valves per cylinder, liquid cooled, sequential multiport electronic fuel injection, five-speed manual transmission Horsepower: 101 at 6,500 rpm Torque: 98 pound-feet at 4,000 rpm Curb weight: 2,363 pounds Wheelbase: 90.6 inches Overall...

There's nothing like competition to bring down the price of a product, even expensive electric cars. Chrysler Group said it will be offering a special deal on its first electric car, the Fiat 500e, when it goes on sale this summer. While the sticker price will be $32,500 before various government incentives, California residents can lease the car for $199 a month, plus tax, and a $999 down payment. It is a 36-month lease. Photos: Top 10 cars with lowest cost per mpg “It is a pretty attractive deal to test the waters and see what kind of a take rate they can get,” said Mike Wall, an analyst with IHS Automotive.

A quarter of a century after saying arrivederci to America, Fiat may be poised for a U.S. comeback. The huge Italian conglomerate, which sells vehicles under the Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Maserati and Ferrari nameplates, has been looking for a tie-up with another carmaker for some time. After reported discussions with the French company that makes Citroen and Peugeot appeared to go nowhere last year, Chrysler may be its next dance partner.

Actor Rob Lowe is the face of InsideHook L.A., a free, curated email newsletter announcing special experiences to men too busy to find those experiences themselves. The newsletter, which launched in Los Angeles last week, is the latest effort from capital investment firm Pilot Group, whose founders Bob Pittman and Andy Russell have also had a hand in shaping the successful email newsletters DailyCandy, Thrillist and Tasting Table. Lowe spent a recent afternoon indulging in InsideHook-delivered experiences - hovering high above the ocean off Newport Beach using a water-propelled jet pack, guzzling organic juice from his favorite Santa Monica food truck and dining at Santa Monica's new members-only club 41 Ocean.

Fiat will use the Los Angeles Auto Show to add three new versions of the diminutive 500. On Friday we got a first look at one of them. Following the green trend that is common for automakers at the L.A. show, Fiat will be bringing an all-electric version of its sub-compact, dubbed the 500e. Details on the car won't be available for another week, but it's clear from the photos that it will have push-button automatic (or perhaps a CVT) transmission not found on other 500s, as well as various exterior changes like a new front bumper and wheel design.

"Tonight Show" host Jay Leno will auction off his 2012 Fiat 500 Prima Edizione at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance next month. Leno, an avid automobile collector, has asked Santa Monica auction house Gooding & Co. to sell the car at the Concours, a celebrity-studded collector car showcase.  Leno is using the auction to raise money and awareness for the Fisher House Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides services and support to...

The car: 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth The power: 160 horsepower and 170 pound-feet of torque from a 1.4-liter, inline, turbocharged four-cylinder engine routing power to the front wheels via a five-speed manual transmission. The photos: 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth The speed: Zero to 60 mph in 6.6 seconds, according to Road & Track. The bragging rights: Peppiest little squirt on the road. The price: $22,700 is the base entry fee; $26,050 as tested.

The head of Fiat admitted that he has been unable to convince Libya to sell its 13% of common voting shares and 15% of non-voting shares in the Italian industrial giant or remove directors that represent a Libyan firm suspected of terrorist links. But Fiat Chairman Gianni Agnelli said he hopes to offer legal guarantees that Libyan leader Col.

Italian automaker Fiat will begin selling its Alfa Romeo sports cars in the United States after the summer, ending the brand's 13-year absence from that market, Ansa news agency reported. Fiat will sell its $265,000 8C Competizione coupe through Maserati dealers, and about 80 cars to be sent to the United States have already been sold, Ansa said in an unsourced story from New York. If demand is maintained, Fiat will offer three additional Alfa Romeo models for the U.S. market, the report said.

In a joint communique, Ford and the state-owned holding company Finmeccanica S.p.A. said Ford expected a response to its equity stake offer by Nov. 7. Details of Ford's offer for the Italian car maker were not disclosed. The U.S. company has been negotiating a stake in financially troubled Alfa since May. Shortly after the Ford bid was announced, Fiat offered the outlines of its counterproposal. It said the offer will be formalized later. A Fiat statement said Italy's No.

When it comes to bikini models, Fiat has trumped Toyota. It was a surprise earlier this year when the conservative Toyota Motor Corp. used a bikini model in an overseas television commercial selling its Auris, a Corolla variant not sold in the U.S.  The model - nude save for an open jacket and a skimpy bikini bottom - is seen strutting toward the new car.  The model then turns around and viewers discover it's a he rather than a she. In...

Fiat's little family of urban runabouts suddenly got a lot bigger at the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show. The Italian automaker used its Wednesday news conference to unveil three new versions of its 500: the four-door 500L, the all-electric 500e and a cabrio version of the spicy little 500 Abarth we tested in May 2012 . The trio will help broaden Fiat's appeal in a U.S. market that has recently embraced the pint-sized 500 after a cold start in...

Fiat will use the Los Angeles Auto Show to add three new versions of the diminutive 500. On Friday we got a first look at one of them. Following the green trend that is common for automakers at the L.A. show, Fiat will be bringing an all-electric version of its sub-compact, dubbed the 500e. Details on the car won't be available for another week, but it's clear from the photos that it will have push-button automatic (or perhaps a CVT) transmission not found on other 500s, as well as various exterior changes like a new front bumper and wheel design.

With the 2012 SEMA Show just around the corner, it would appear that Chrysler Group is coming to party. The company released details on many of the 24 modified vehicles it will be bringing to the private aftermarket show. Models from every one of its six brands (Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram, SRT and Fiat) will be on display, each featuring parts from Chrysler Group's Mopar aftermarket catalog. SEMA, the Specialty Equipment Market Assn., has thousands of company members and many of them will descend on Las Vegas from Oct. 30 to Nov. 2 to show off products like aftermarket wheels, vehicle body kits, engine upgrades and performance modifications for nearly every aspect of a car. Photos: Chrysler's 2012 SEMA preview Automakers have taken note of the show's reach and use it to showcase one-off designs of existing models as well as aftermarket products they make themselves.

If today's compact car segment is a party, it's a good one. Nearly every automaker is attending; the room is packed with plenty of attractive models that are worth spending some time with. This is a crowd in which even the few Debbie Downers and malcontents are due for updates soon. Conspicuously absent from this soiree has been Dodge. Its previous offering was a hatchback thing called the Caliber, as in "Boy, this is a really low-caliber product. " To no one's disappointment, it left the party in 2011.

"Tonight Show" host Jay Leno will auction off his 2012 Fiat 500 Prima Edizione at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance next month. Leno, an avid automobile collector, has asked Santa Monica auction house Gooding & Co. to sell the car at the Concours, a celebrity-studded collector car showcase.  Leno is using the auction to raise money and awareness for the Fisher House Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides services and support to...

Re: "Chrysler presents a big test for Fiat," June 11: In December, Fiat agreed to pay $17.8 million to settle U.S. claims that some of its subsidiaries gave illegal kickbacks to the former Iraqi government under the United Nations oil-for-food program. Between that and the terrible reputation for quality that Fiat had when it left the U.S. in the 1980s, I don't believe that appointing Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne head of Chrysler is in shareholders' best interest. Vicky Nissen Marina del Rey

The Italian government on Friday ratified the sale of sports car maker Alfa Romeo to Fiat, whose offer was chosen over a rival one from Ford Motor Co. The action followed Thursday's decision by the state conglomerate Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale and its Finmeccanica subsidiary, which jointly own Alfa, to sell the debt-ridden company to Fiat for an estimated $714 million.

Three years after their shotgun marriage, Chrysler and Fiat are rolling out a new car that combines Chrysler's legacy with Fiat's Italian design roots. FOR THE RECORD: A story in Wednesday's Business Section about Chrysler's reintroduction of the Dodge Dart misspelled the last name of Karl Brauer, chief executive of TotalCarSCore.com. The Dodge Dart, a reinterpretation of the 1960s' nameplate, needs to hit the bull's-eye if Chrysler is to have any chance of regaining a toehold in the competitive compact car market long dominated by import brands such as the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic.

The car: 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth The power: 160 horsepower and 170 pound-feet of torque from a 1.4-liter, inline, turbocharged four-cylinder engine routing power to the front wheels via a five-speed manual transmission. The photos: 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth The speed: Zero to 60 mph in 6.6 seconds, according to Road & Track. The bragging rights: Peppiest little squirt on the road. The price: $22,700 is the base entry fee; $26,050 as tested.