Fiat Dealership To Open In Louisville

It will join the Sam Swope Auto Group, which already operates dealerships for several major car makers, including Honda, GMC, Buick and Mitsubishi. Fiat of Louisville will be located at 4311 Shelbyville Road and is expected to open in December. Charles Spivey bought a new Fiat Sport in Indianapolis in May. Later this year, a new Fiat dealership will open in St. Matthews, bringing the stylish, fuel-saving Italian cars closer to home. Charles Spivey bought a new Fiat Sport in Indianapolis in May. Later this year, a new Fiat dealership will open in St. Matthews, bringing the stylish, fuel-saving Italian cars closer to home. (By Michael Hayman, The Courier-Journal) Italian-made Fiat automobiles will go on sale in Louisville by the end of the year, the Sam Swope Automotive Group announced Wednesday.

The Fiat 500 and 500c convertible will be sold at the soon-to-be-named “Fiat Studio” at 4311 Shelbyville Road, the former location of Huffman Nissan and near Louisville's only MINI dealership.

The property will be renovated to showcase 50 of the curvy new coupes, which have prices beginning at $15,500.

“We have a lot of faith in Fiat,” Swope President and CEO Dick Swope said Wednesday. “It is a huge company worldwide, and it is very well respected.”

The Sam Swope Group owns the property, occupied in the 1960s by the dealership's original Pontiac franchise. In 1966, the Swope Pontiac dealership specialized in then-popular GTO and Bonneville muscle cars, Dick Swope said.

Regarded in Italy as affordable and stylish, Fiat's 1400-cc engine is poised to win over buyers who are keen to save on fuel without sacrificing fun and flair, he said.

“It is in the right location,” Swope said of the dealership site, which is in a St. Matthews shopping strip close to young professionals and families. “There are a lot of early adopters there, a lot of young people who own and rent homes and folks who are concerned about the environment.”

Louisville Public Media's Charles Spivey's new red Fiat Sport cost him around $19,000 equipped with leather seats, satellite radio and hands-free mobile phone capability at the Indianapolis Fiat dealership in May.

Spivey parked the red coupe on the banks of the Ohio River next to the stage at Waterfront Wednesday while he presided over the event as promotions manager for WFPK-FM.

“I don't think of myself as cool. I like cool things, maybe,” Spivey, 36, said of the car, which replaced a Smart ForTwo totaled in an April crash.

Measuring less than 12 feet long and little more than 5 feet wide, the Fiat models compete in the newly emerging “B Car” segment. Also known as the micro car category, the segment includes the MINI Cooper, the Ford Fiesta, Toyota's Scion vehicles and the Smart ForTwo.

Manufactured in Toluca, Mexico, the new Fiat coupes get between 30 and 38 miles per gallon with a manual transmission and 27 to 32 miles per gallon with an automatic transmission.
Source www.courier-journal.com.
Reporter Jere Downs can be reached at (502) 582-4669.