Comments by "John Luetjen" (@jehl1963) on "" video.

  1. Being an American who lived through the 70's -- and even once drove a US version of the Spyder -- it didn't cause Fiat to leave the US. In fact the Spyder (and the X-1/9) both contined to be sold in the US for a few more years under the Bertone and Peninfarina name. It was Fiat's other cars which torpedoed the brand. Fiat couldn't maintain their sales network on just the sports cars. It also was getting very expensive to meet the US pollution and crash safety requirements. The costs of these certifications was being spread over a shrinking fleet of models. They could be sold as Bertones/Peninfarinas because they could operate under the reduced requirements of a "specialist" manufacturer. These required fewer cars to be crashed for study and shorter emissions tests. So rest assured, the pretty Spyder didn't kill Fiat in the US, the government bureaucrats did! We can take shallow solace in the fact that it was done for our own good. 😢
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