Almost all Italian car manufacturers are owned by Stellantis, owner of Fiat, Abarth, Lancia, Alfa Romeo and Maserati. But the relations of the group resulting from the merger of PSA and FCA with the Italian government are far from good.
Earlier this year, the Italian Minister of Business and Made in Italy alerted Alfa Romeo that its first model produced outside Italian lands could not legally bear the Milano name, attached to the national territory. Just announced, the SUV produced in Poland has been renamed Junior to calm the enthusiasm.
A Tricolor that poses a problem
Now, the Italian financial police have seized 134 Fiat Topolino at the port of Livorno (source: La Repubblica), from Morocco, where the light quadricycle is produced in the same factory as its cousin Citroën Ami, in Kénitra. In question, the very small Italian flag stuck on both sides of the car would not respect the national law regarding Made in Italy and would confuse customers. This is the same reason that was cited against the original name of the Alfa Romeo Milano, which became Junior.
In many other countries, manufacturers do not hesitate to multiply references to their country of origin, even if their vehicles are produced on the other side of the planet, but Italian law does not tolerate this. Stellantis was therefore forced to remove this little tricolor sticker, adding that it had never misled its customers about the place of production of the Topolino. The group says it only stuck the sticker because the development of the Topolino project was carried out in Turin. It is perhaps on this last point that Stellantis is being a bit misleading, when we know that “the Topolino project” only consisted of rebadging the Citroën Ami without very profound modifications.