Fiat Linea hits the road in May, first in İstanbul
Posted by meb at February 5th, 2007
The international test-drive date for the Fiat Linea, which will be produced in Bursa at the Turkey Automotive Factory Corp. (Tofaş) facilities, has been set. The new compact car will hit the road in İstanbul with a gigantic presentation in the first week of May. Tofaş CEO Ali Pandır said there would be 1,500 guests attending from abroad. “We invited Fiat Chairman Luca di Montezemolo, Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne, Fiat Brand Director Luca de Meo and many distinguished persons,” he added.
This is the first time that Tofaş will undertake worldwide publicity for a car it manufactured. Tofaş will manufacture 60,000 Fiat Lineas at first for export to European markets. The Linea will replace the Lacuna, which Fiat has in the sedan compact cars sector, and will compete with rivals Ford Focus and Toyota Corolla. Two other cars with worldwide publicity were made in Turkey. The Dacia Logan hit the road in Cappadocia, a tourism region famous for its chimney rocks, and the Mitsubishi L200 from Antalya.
After Marchionne became the new top executive of Fiat Auto in 2004, the company started earning profits for the first time in six years. Fiat’s 2006 profits reached 291 million euros while its net revenue reached 23.7 billion euros, up 21.3 percent over the previous year.
Total sales were 51.8 billion euros in 2006 and net profit just 1.9 million euros. The especially good sales performance of the Doblo and Ducato model, which are both manufactured in Turkey, increased Fiat sales by 13.4 percent to 323,000 units in the light commercial vehicle class.
The Fiat Group is planning to increase revenue to 67 billion euros and net profits to 5 billion euros in 2010. It is expected that the Fiat Linea, Minicargo, new Fiat Bravo and the new Fiat 500, all manufactured by Tofaş, will contribute to achieving these goals.
“We estimate sales of 3.5 millions cars in 2010 and we will significantly benefit from Turkey in our goal,” said Marchionne. De Meo said they had increased sales in 2006 due to the influence of the Grande Punto. “We made the highest leap in European markets, which remain constant,” said de Meo.
source: www.todayszaman.com
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