The U.S. market was the SIATA Spring's unexpected undoing

[Hagerty]

The Società Italiana Auto Trasformazione Accessori, or SIATA, was established in Turin by Giorgio Ambrosini in 1926. The company started out as a manufacturer of tuning equipment for Fiats and its products included items such as inlet manifolds, high-compression cylinder heads, overhead valve conversions, superchargers and gearboxes.
https://www.hagerty.com/media/car-profiles/siata-spring-us-market-unexpected-undoing/

[RallyeRalph]

One day a man came into my dealership to sell his Siata Sping. He told me it was one of only 4 in the USA. I answered (correctly) that I had already owned 4 different ones myself and I didn't think I had the market cornered. He called BS and left in a huff (well, a Siata Spring). What a comedown from the great small sportscars Siata had constructed. But actually the Spring sold well. It was a fun sub-compact second car ala Fiat Jolly. We had one in a parade and it was great. It caught everyone's eye and it had no trouble keeping up with the high school marching band in front of us. And it was much better quality and more comfortable than the Mercedes classic knock-off kits for VW chassis that were so common then. Economical, could easily out-drag parked cars. Safe? Meh- safety is just trying to defeat Karma. I once had a guy tell me that he wouldn't want to get hit by a semi in one of those. I asked what car he would want to get hit by a semi in.

[elvacarsdallas]

I can think of about a1000 or cars I would not like to be hit by a semi.

[anatolyarutunof]

we sold 2 new ones in '70. i got a $20 'big bore' exhaust system, made in south africa, from j.c.whitney. we had a chassis dyno and just changing the exhaust gave us over 40% more rearwheel horsepower!

[Snailish]

I wonder if we'll ever see a dealer-networked backed neoclassic again?

I'm kind of surprised some EV startup hasn't taken a classic name like Duesenberg and taken a bunch of deposits based on some renderings.