U.S. Fiat Dealers Four-Square Behind 500L

U.S. Fiat dealers welcome news the Italian brand will deliver to their showrooms in 2013 a 4-door version of the 500 minicar, dubbed the 500L.

“We get requests for a 4-door all the time,” says Travis DuPont, sales manager-Yark Fiat in Toledo, OH.

Chrysler, which distributes Fiat in North America, today announces the 500L will be unveiled next month at the Geneva auto show. The car is scheduled for launch this year in overseas markets, where it will replace the Fiat Idea and Multipla people-movers.

The U.S.-market introduction of the 500L is part of a strategy to diversify Fiat’s showroom in a bid to boost sales volume in the wake of a disappointing 2011 when sales fell some 24,000 units short of a 50,000-unit target. But CEO Sergio Marchionne has accepted blame for the miss, saying he set the bar too high.

Last month, Chrysler recorded 1,911 Fiat 500 deliveries – well short of the car’s best month, August 2011, when dealers sold 3,106, according to WardsAuto data.

Marchionne has said he will be more realistic with sales expectations for the 500L, though he also has said he would like to pull ahead its U.S. debut to the fourth quarter of this year.

The car raises to five the number of 500 derivatives Chrysler will bring to market in the U.S. An Abarth-branded high-performance model is set to arrive in a few weeks and the fourth quarter will see an all-electric 500.

They will join three derivatives already on sale: a cabrio version and two limited-edition Gucci-brand models. “Anything will help,” says a Fiat dealer in the Northeast.

The Fiat 500L will be produced at the Italian auto maker’s plant in Kragujevac, Serbia, which once was a site of Yugo output.

The 500L will be powered by a 1.4L 4-cyl. engine boasting Fiat’s celebrated MultiAir valve-actuation technology. Safety features include seven standard airbags.

“I think it’s pretty cool,” DuPont says of the car, adding he would have liked to see a Fiat badge on the all-new ’13 Dodge Dart, which is derived from a platform engineered by Fiat for the Alfa Romeo Giulietta sport hatch.

“Dodge has enough models,” he says.

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