Fiat X/19 and Spider and how Cadillac Allante killed them in USA!

PROMO 16 - HOW MALCOLM SAVED FIAT X19 AND SPIDER IN THE USA ...

Mon, 4/5 12:26PM • 5:02

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

car, sergio, tony, build, selling, fiat, contract, paint job, corvette, united states, month, important, country, call, transmission, goddamn, fianna, pulling, spider, joe

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I get a call from Tony seminara. And he used to work for fiyat. And he used to work for current driver. He's a car guy. I mean, if you want a guy to tell you about every nut bolt and every goddamn car in the universe, Tony seminare is the man. He calls me up and he says, I'm going to be at the automotive News World Congress. This is a couple of years after I was at the first one. He said, Are you going to be there? I said, No, I didn't plan on being there. I said, I'm not speaking. So there was no reason for me to go. He said, Do me a favor, come I got something important to talk to you. Okay. So I go sit down over lunch. He says, Did you know that Fianna is going to pull out the country should know what are they going to do with the spider in the x one nine? Because I'd met both dinner Farina Sergio Pininfarina and new Joe Bertoni. At a time when I was going to build another car after the Brooklyn failed, I wanted to build a $250,000 car using both designers. And you know, zero archive stuff. The head engineer for Corvette, it's called the father of the Corvette, even though he isn't but he is considered that. He when he retired, he went to work for me. He is the nicest human being in the industry of the world. Anyhow, so we had met with penetrator Bertoni over in Turin, and we'd become friendly, but we decided I decided my ego, didn't need to go build another car. That was forget about that for right now. So I knew I knew I knew both been referring to and knew. And I knew Joe for Tony. So I'm here and he's telling me fans pulling out of the country. And I say to him, what's going to happen because those two cars were built by those two guys, the x one nine by Bertoni and the spider by Pininfarina. And if they're pulling out of the United States, that was a that that's who they sold these cars to. And they were not they needed a business like that. So he said, You know, I don't know. I imagine it's over for him. I said, Okay, get on the phone, tell new Joe and Sergio, I want them together. We're flying over to have a meeting. Well, what about just what the hell do you care? Without getting a ticket, you'll be on the plane. Let's go next week, I want a meeting with those guys. I got something to talk about. So we get there. And here's the story. I said, Listen, get Fiat to agree that of you sending the bodies there, and they put the engines, have them send the engines transmission to you, you build the bodies, I'll bring him into United States. You have to agree to make the changes necessary. So you don't have a lousy reputation of the goddamn things always come down. And if you'll listen to Tony seminara, who was at one time in charge of the complaint department at Fiat in the United States, they tell you he'll live here and tell you everything that's wrong. And everything that has to be fixed. And I want new paint jobs. I'll bring them into the country. How many were you selling a couple 100 a month? I'll sell 1000 a month from each year. I but I needed both. But you have to get me to contract with the coffee advances? No. So of course, you know, I don't take no for an answer. And I bring him over. How can you put these two guys out of business? There's the legends at the rental and you're putting them out of business. That's not going to look good when the PR comes out. And you're sorry that you ruined these two guys that everybody looks up to Oh my God. They gave me the contract. We did the paint job and we made the changes. And we were selling like crazy. And then one day I get a call from Sergio Pininfarina. When I come over to the rain right away. It was important. But I find it thread. He says Malcolm, I hate to tell you this, but he got six months more selling. I'm selling 1000 a month by the way, making a couple million dollars a month. And at the end of six months, I can't sell you any more cars. Excuse me. You're selling more cars than you ever sold in your life. Is there something you don't like? Oh no, no, you're doing a great job. When I just made a deal with the Cadillac a lengthy the build and design the lnj over here, build the body over here, put them on 740 sevens, fly him to Detroit, where they're going to put the motors and transmissions in and sell it for $55,000 with my name on the side, and they don't want me to be selling in the United States at 12 to $15,000 per frame. And I know I can't cancel you because that's against the law but I can't stop production because that's part of the contract. And I'm sorry, but this is more important than your business. Oh shit. I can't just have one is not an extended a couple of months each. This is not a dealer doesn't want to have to begin. Crap. Now what am I gonna do? I get Tony seminara Tony got six months we got an organization. We got everything coming in and we got money. You go around the world and find me the goddamn cheapest car in the universe. comes back with I found it is Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia Where the hell are you this This has been Jeff Sterns connected through cars.