Blame Sergio Marchionne. Yes, he slashed Fiat’s debt substantially, but did so by cutting nearly all new car development, just giving away the market share it had where Fiats did sell. The existing and successful models were left to rot on the vine until they were no longer competitive, then cancelled without replacement. Now Fiat barely has any market share left, and conquering sales from customers who left for Toyota or Hyundai is just a pipe dream. There won’t be product because nobody will come to buy it.

(Instead, Where’s me Jumper threw money at Alfa but without planning for hybridisation, and didn’t bother making a Giulia estate when the only market Alfa had any substantial share in vastly prefers estates in that segment. Not that it would have made much of a difference with Fiat/Alfa’s idea of aftersales service. End of mini-rant)

Bigger margins on the 500, and under the skin the US/Canada market 500 is rather different from the RoW 500. The lower margins probably make adapting it to the US regulatory environment uneconomical. VW never bothered federalising the larger and higher priced Polo for that reason.