All over the news then, huh?
Someone else had to point that interview out to me the first time and it was on CNN's website for a while. However, being CNN, it's been dumped as 'old news' - along with much of anything else that's more than 18 months old.
Yes, there is a shortage. The thread covers three years and is barely three pages long, and not all posters are having problems.
I am interested in this because i lived in Italy and know how cars, especially the small ones, are abused. In rural areas, asphalt is often the exception and potholes, cracks, etc. standard. When there was a "shattering" problem on the Panda platform, all of Italy would have been in an uproar.
So yeah, either the exec exaggerated or you did (not too far fetched knowing your bias against continental European cars), and I call this one debunked.
Fine. Here's some more threads, since you won't take just one:
http://www.fiatforum.com/500/321551-new-her-potential-suspension-problems.html
mine is a 58 model and its already had 2 front suspension arms at 20k!!
http://www.fiatforum.com/500/274791-fiat-500-warranty.html
The main issues you're going to run into with the 500 is suspension problems. Things like droplinks, balljoints this requires the replacement of the wishbone!
http://www.fiatforum.com/500/298728-things-go-bump-back.html
The bump stop had completely fallen off and was rattling around inside the spring.
Suspension is definately Fiat's weak spot.
http://www.fiatforum.com/500/190117-fiat-500-slated-auto-express-3.html
{Had following replaced within first year} New steering rack, new suspension mounts, new drop links, new anti roll bar kit....
Plenty more just at this one forum alone. Here's a Google search for there, since I don't feel like listing out every single thread on that site that's germane:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...AKvHAjXHSfZJwcw&bvm=bv.50165853,d.eWU&cad=rja
You can google more if you want, because there's plenty more there.
As for my bias against Continental cars, yes, it's so bad that I recommend Mercedes to friends and family at present (one family member just bought a new CL550 4Motion on my recommendation). Mercedes is not continental at all, right?
I recommend cars based on personal experience and data collected from multiple sources; I've personally owned a 911, a BMW 7, a 504, an Alfa and others including a W123, and associate with people who own all sorts of Euro marques in the US. When I think something is bad from experience and have seen no signs of improvement since that experience, I'll say so. Likewise, if something used to be bad but is now showing signs that it's now good, I'll say that as well. If it happens that a lot of the crap I see is coming from Europe right now and in the recent past, that's the breaks.
For that matter, there isn't a single car in Jaguar's current lineup that I'd recommend so aside from Mercedes and Aston I can't think of any other single manufacturer in Europe, continental or otherwise, who I'd recommend many products of to others. Of the US, there's Ford (but not even all of their lineup); of the Asians, some Nissans/Infinitis, couple of Hondas, some of the Hyundai/Kias, but that's about it.