79 Spider on ABC News tonight

[jimincalif]

Here is a link to ABC World News. Doing a Chrysler/Fiat story they try to start a 79 spider. The very end of the clip they got it started but from the white smoke it looks like the head gasket is blown.

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?catId=1206853

The Fiat clip starts with about 1:20 remaining. The remaining time shows in the bottom right corner of the player, once you get past the opening commercial you can scroll forward as fast as your download speed will let you in order to skip all the other bad news.

Fiat will have its work cut out for it to overcome its old image, especially with PR like this from the ever-helpful news shows.

[mbouse]

local news media operates on a knee jerk reaction... they spend very little time preparing for a news story.

i gotta call yesterday at 11 am from a local station producer. he was assigned the task of interviewing a Fiat enthusiest for a slot on their 6 pm edition of the news, and was calling me for suggestions on who to interview. the interview needed to be conducted, taped, edited and prepared for inclusion in a story that also featured an on camera reporter in another portion of the story AND a pre-recorded "expert" analyst.

at 11 am on a wednesday, who isn't at work? luckily i was able to find a guy that works only part time, and the producer actually found him at home when he called. had that phone call not been successful, i imagine that would have had to run the piece without the interview.

[wengr]

I find these so called news pieces worthless at best. While I appreciate the efforts of those being interviewed, what relevance do the opinions of classic car enthusiats have on the merit of modern fiats in today's market? All fluff pieces. Why not find someone with a good working knowledge of the current fiat offerings, and educate the public a little as to want thier new options will be like? I guess it's easier to manufacture news to match public perception.

[Gunsmith]

Asking us to comment on our 25-35 year old cars that have had many miles, owners and shade tree mechanics in and under them is ridiculous. You can not compare todays Fiat with yesterdays Fiat any more than todays Chrysler with yesterdays. There is nothing to compare to AT ALL. I have been waiting to see Fiat make a new car that had as much appeal as the Spider but I have not seen it yet, maybe I haven't looked hard enough, I don't know. I am however thoroughly disgusted with nearly all news agencies particularly the local stations. They never seem to let the facts get in the way of the story. Did they do any research on the person they interviewed to even determine if he knew what he was talking about? Over course not that would take too much work. Not too mention they will always edit everything to make what ever opinion the station manager has appear to be fact. If the station manager likes little Italian imports it will be a positive piece, if he has family or advertisers with GM ties Fiat will be bashed like crazy. There should be mandatory Icons in the corner of the screen to show the viewer which way that particular station slants so you know to take everything they report with a salt shaker and not just a grain of salt. Rest assured as soon as Fiat starts spending advertising dollars the positive news stories will start to appear. Funny how that works...........