The commercial, he said, “features a skeleton in the closet, the elephant in the room. His name was Tony, and he had to go,” Francois said.
“To go global, our No. 1 priority is world-class quality,” the Frenchman said, before ticking off the hours spent on the design, engineering and testing of the 500X.
“This is why we redesigned the Melfi [Italy] plant,” Francois said. Both the 500X and its platform mate, the Jeep Renegade, are built in Melfi and exported to the United States.
The Fiat 500X is expected to arrive in U.S. showrooms during the second quarter of 2015. Its pricing and fuel economy were not announced.