2012 Fiat 500 2dr Hb Lounge on 2040-cars

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Argentinians find stash of never-registered, brand-new 30-year-old Italian cars

While much of the world is sheltering in place, several new, never-registered Italian and French cars exited a 27-year confinement in Argentina. They were left for dead in an abandoned dealership that sold Alfa Romeo, Fiat, and Peugeot models in a city named Avellaneda near Buenos Aires, the country's capital. Details surrounding the dealership are murky. Argentina's Autoblog (no relation to us) reported it closed at some point during the 1990s after the owner and his son died in violent circumstances. Automotive archaeology tells your author it likely shut its doors in 1993, because that's the only year in which the first-generation Fiat Ducato launched in 1981 and the post-facelift Fiat Tipo, axed in 1995, overlapped. Both are clearly visible in the photos. What's certain is that someone finally inherited the property in 2020 and wanted the cars gone as quickly as possible in order to sell it. The anonymous owner asked Kaskote Calcos, a local body shop that also runs a used-car lot, to haul them away via Instagram. We're guessing the firm didn't need to be asked twice.           View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by Axel By Kaskote (@kaskotecalcos) on Mar 24, 2020 at 1:57pm PDT Many of the cars hidden in the dealership were made by Fiat; the photos show several examples of the Tipo, an Uno, a Tempra, and the aforementioned Ducato. An Alfa Romeo 33 wagon and a Peugeot 405 were also stashed in the trove. Most were stored indoors so they weren't damaged by sunlight or humidity, and images of the cars taken after they were pressure-washed confirm they're in like-new condition inside and out. We're told some even started, though for the love of valves and pistons we hope they got a new timing belt before being fired up.  Kaskote Calcos hasn't revealed what it will do with the cars. None are particularly sought-after, they're economy cars that were mass-produced and mass-destroyed, and their current values reflect that. You can get a post-facelift Uno for the price of a few Peroni pints in Italy. The fact that they're new, never-registered examples will undoubtedly increase their appeal, even if registering them could require slashing through jungles of red tape. As a side note, finding a 405 beached in a Fiat dealership isn't as random as it might sound.

Fiat-Chrysler alliance in jeopardy due to Pentastar's IPO filing?

The four-year relationship between Fiat and Chrysler has thus far been beneficial for both automakers, but it has also proven to be a complicated battle between Sergio Marchionne and the United Auto Workers - the latter controlling the remaining 41.5 percent of Chrysler. With the recent filing for a US IPO, it looks like Marchionne and the UAW appear to be playing a billion-dollar game of chicken, with both sides far apart on how much the union's shares are worth. If it comes down to Chrysler's remaining stake being publicly traded, it could act to drive a wedge between the two companies.
According to Bloomberg, Fiat's chairman John Elkann says "if the IPO will take place, there will be two companies, and that's different than having a single one." Now, we're not great at math, but this sounds like the complete opposite of the full merger that Marchionne has been pushing for since taking the helm at Chrysler. Bloomberg notes that the UAW's shares should be worth around $5.6 billion, but Fiat could end up paying as little as $4.9 billion for Fiat to gain full control of Chrysler. A story by The Detroit News points out that Marchionne's "alleged low-balling" is just the latest hurdle the Auburn Hills-based automaker must overcome as its ownership is being fought over for the fourth time in 15 years.

Could Chrysler leave Michigan for Tennessee?

Detroit's Big Three could become the Big Two. According to an AP report in The Detroit News, state officials have been lobbying for Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne to select Tennessee as the location for Fiat's joint headquarters with Chrysler Group LLC.
This weekend, Marchionne met with Tennessee governor Bill Haslam at a ceremony celebrating the expansion of a Fiat subsidiary plant in the city of Pulaski. The AP report does not mention any serious talks about headquarters relocation, only that Tennessee officials have been "working me over pretty well," according to Marchionne.
Fiat hopes to complete its merger with the Auburn Hills-based automaker sometime next year, and earlier reports have stated that the company is seeking $10 billion in financing to buy the remaining bits of Chrysler. If the company were to relocate, it would join Nissan and Volkswagen in having major American automotive operations in Tennessee. Of course, that whole "Imported From Detroit" thing would need to go out the window, as well.