To celebrate the New York Bankruptcy Court's decision yesterday to approve the sale of key Chrysler assets to a new Chrysler Group that includes Fiat as an initial 20 percent shareholder, the Italian Consul General Francesco M. Talo (top) of the city drove a special Fiat 500 through the heavy downtown traffic from the consulate to the Upper East Site and Wall Street (bottom). Photos: AP.

As the Fiat 500 takes to the streets of New York to celebrate the tie-up with Chrysler, news comes that the Car of the Year 2008 award winner is set to go on sale across the United States in around 18 months time leading out the arrival of Fiat's models and technology. It is however expected to be the only Turinese model to appear in its current format as all Fiat's will be comprehensively reworked for their Chrysler application. This is the view of Richard Gadeselli, vice president of Fiat communications, made during an interview with Automotive News.

"The Fiat 500, we see that, like the Mini, as a sort of boutique car that we think we can sell in good numbers on the East and West coasts in the same way that Mini has been successful in the U.S.," Gadeselli told AN. There has been speculation recently that the Fiat 500 could be launched under a standalone "500" brand name in a similar style to BMW's niche Mini brand as it is expected to be the only Fiat-branded model to be sold stateside in the near future.

Gadeselli also addressed onlookers concerns that Fiat and Chrysler might rush the former's models to the U.S. with little more than some rapid 'badge engineering'. "There is a misconception out there that Chrysler is going to build the Fiat Bravo, just stick a different badge on it," he told AN, while confirming that up to six small-to-mid size models engineered around current Fiat models could be sold across the Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brand name portfolio. "They will be Chrysler products. They will be specific to Chrysler. The vehicle architectures will be based on our stuff, and there will be some powertrains. The vehicles will be U.S. vehicles, designed for U.S. customers by a U.S. company," he added.

To celebrate the New York Bankruptcy Court's decision yesterday to approve the sale of key Chrysler assets to a new Chrysler Group that includes Fiat as an initial 20 percent shareholder, the Italian Consul General for the city drove a special Fiat 500 through the heavy downtown traffic journeying from the consulate to the Upper East Site and Wall Street and to the Italian restaurant Cipriani, a trip of around 6 miles. The Consul Francesco M. Talo said afterwards: "I guess this could be a good option to save money, save gasoline, save the earth and pollute less. We have a wonderful example of industrial cooperation between the United States and Italy," continued Talo, who made the trek with his wife and three children joining him in the white 500 which bore special Michigan decals on the C-pillars. "It would be the perfect car to run to the city, take a date out, and go back," he added.