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Article: News analysis: Here's what's wrong with Fiat.
- Article from:
- Automotive News Europe
- Article date:
- October 22, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Crain Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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This was supposed to be Fiat Auto's year of recovery. Now the economic crisis has pushed it back to the brink of disaster.
"Fiat Auto has been massively impacted by a downturn in domestic demand," according to a report issued last week by analysts at Merrill Lynch in London.
Despite its optimism a few months ago, Fiat SpA's car division now expects to lose money in 2001 - just as it has in four of the last five years.
This time the company can blame the terrorist attacks in the USA and the resulting impact on sales. But the problems go much deeper. Fiat Auto has lost a combined E1.35 billion in the last three years and is still a long way from ...