Fiat, in the 1990s....got around to correcting a lot of their designs. I won’t say it’s perfect, but they are a lot better than they were noted in the 1970s.
As for this gamesmanship going on....all of this leads to the EU-US trade treaty underway, and the US needs some type of inside door on getting US car sales into Europe....but the fear is valid that the French, Italian and German companies are desperately trying to get their feet into a decent US market.
Had a friend with a FIAT sedan back in the early 80’s. The TOPS of the door panels rusted though. The bottoms were fine.
Fiat may have fixed it’s problems in the 1990’s...but for the US market it was too late. It’s reputation was cemented, and continues today. They may every well be fine cars at the lower end of the price scale, but buyers are brand loyal and you won’t see Fiat or Renault do well in the US markets
For all of their advertizing push I see damned few Fiat branded cars on the road.
I recently drove a new Fiat 500L.
No, they didn’t fix their problems.