"With any new brand, it's important to build a relationship--to put a face with the brand, " says Soave.
Soave selected 130 of them to receive a Fiat franchise but is requiring them to build separate facilities for the 500 and its kin.
Instead, Soave is taking the 500 to hip spots like cappuccino bars and art exhibits, where its stylish, modern Italian flair will blend in.
Soave has a clever distribution plan in the meantime: home delivery.
"I grew up fighting my parents and my heritage, " recalls Soave.
Perhaps no one is better suited for the challenge of reintroducing Fiat to the U.S. than Soave, who grew up bridging the Italian and American cultures.
Soave expects to have 40 to 50 Fiat stores open by March, mostly on the East and West coasts, and most of the rest operating by the end of the year.
"That event alone captured several hundred hand-raisers, " Soave said.
When word spread that Fiat, the Italian carmaker, was returning to the U.S. after a 28-year absence, Laura Soave, the brand's new North American head, was inundated by advertising agencies hoping to win Fiat's business.
To Soave, a first-generation Italian-American who spent her childhood summers tooling around Italy in her family's Fiat, such stereotypes are no more symbolic of Italian culture or cars than an episode of The Sopranos or Jersey Shore.
By handing her the keys to Fiat's brand-new North American business, Marchionne entrusted Soave with a crucial element in the risky alliance between Fiat and Chrysler he hopes to turn into an automotive empire on the scale of Toyota, General Motors and Volkswagen.
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