NF500 / product quality

Good news for those waiting for a diesel engine new Fiat 500 to arrive, production is about to restart. Although some cars appear to have made it to dealers which will need work to rectify this issue, the numbers affected seem miniscule, and delays are expected to be minimal, regardless of your Fiat 500 order status.

Full Fiat group press release follows:

The anomalies related to an externally-supplied component of the 1.3 Multijet engine have been resolved and on Saturday production of the engines resumed in the Bielsko Biala plant in Poland.

Production of cars that mount this engine will regularly resume within Tuesday February 26.

The suspension of production activities involved certain production lines of the Mirafiori, Melfi, Termini Imerese, Tychy and Bursa plants, where models equipped with 1.3 Multijet engines are produced. All these plants will resume normal activity within February 27.

The Company made every possible effort to speed up controls and adaptations that became necessary as well as to reduce delays in delivery to customers to the minimum.

Although Fiat is aware that this suspension of production, which has now been resolved, will have repercussions on its delivery volumes for the month of February, it nonetheless decided to adopt an uncompromising and rigorous approach so as to guarantee the highest levels of product quality to its customers.
Despite the cost that these measures will have, the Group confirms its targets for 2008.

Fiat has halted production of the 1.3 Multijet Diesel engine, as fitted to the Fiat 500, as a result of ‘anomalies’ in an externally supplied component. This means further delays for those waiting to get hold of their Diesel Fiat 500s.

Full press release from Fiat follows:

As a result of the constant quality controls carried out on all the components of Fiat Group Automobiles cars, a number of anomalies have emerged with
regard to an externally-supplied component for the 1.3 Multijet engine.

In order to verify that this supply of components meets the quality standardsrequested by Fiat, the Company has decided to suspend production of the
engines and cars on which they are mounted.

This decision has led to the suspension of production in the Bielsko Biala plant, where these engines are manufactured, as well as at certain production lines of the Mirafiori, Melfi, Termini Imerese, Tychy and Bursa plants, where models equipped with 1.3 Multijet engines are produced.

The Company is making every possible effort to speed up controls and adaptations that could become necessary, so as to reduce delays in delivery to
customers to the minimum.

Although Fiat is aware that this suspension of production will have repercussions on its delivery volumes for the month of February, it has
nonetheless decided to adopt an uncompromising and rigorous approach so as
to guarantee the highest levels of product quality to its customers.