While it is enjoying considerable growth in the Irish market - so far this year sales of its cars and vans are up 26 per cent compared to 2005 - Fiat is still several years away from making a profit in Ireland.
The Italian manufacturer expects to find just 3,200 Irish customers by the end of 2006 - a far cry from the 17,250 car buyers it got behind its cars' wheels at the turn of the millennium.
However, while accepting that the company will not see its bank balance come out of the red for at least another three years, Geoff Smyth, Fiat Auto Ireland's managing director, is upbeat, saying things are finally heading in the right direction for the company, which also supplies the premium Alfa Romeo marque.
Indeed, internationally the Italian carmaker is in profit and sales of Fiat cars have bucked the European downward trend by jumping almost 20 per cent in the first nine months of this year. Alfa Romeo sales in Europe have also risen, this time by a more modest 10 per cent over the same period.
But Alfa has fallen from favour with Irish car buyers over the past few years. In the year 2000, over 2,600 motorists bought Alfa Romeos here - most of which were of the marque's most successful car, the 156. But as the 156 came to the end of its lifecycle, and newer cars such as BMW's 3-Series and Audi's A4 tempted buyers, so sales across the entire marque fell rapidly until this year - even with the 156's replacement, the 159 on the market.
Smyth admits that just 500 Alfas will leave the showrooms.This, he says, is not so much down to disillusioned 156 owners looking elsewhere, but rather because the smallest engine available in the 159 line-up is currently a 1.9-litre engine.
The entry-level 156, on the other hand, had a tax-friendly 1.6-litre engine. "So the gap in pricing between the 156 and the 159 put buyers off," explains Smyth. "There will be a 1.8-litre engine in the 159 available by the end of the month, so this will make it more accessible."
But while the Alfa marque is important, it is the not Smyth's main concern. It is success, or otherwise, of the Fiat brand here that is critical to the company getting its bank balance back into the black.
This week Fiat launched its latest offering to Irish motorists - the four-wheel drive SUV known as the Sedici, which was built in partnership with Suzuki. Starting at over €22,000, Fiat hopes the Sedici will attract buyers from other compact SUV makers, such as from one of its main rivals Kia.
But whatever the Sedici's success, it is a niche product and as such will not impact greatly on the marque's overall sales targets.
For that one has to look at the imminent arrival of the Stilo replacement - the new Bravo. While the failure of the Stilo was a disaster for Fiat, the company has realigned its sales predictions to a level more on par with analysts' assessments of the company's international market position. But even the arrival of the Bravo is proving a difficulty for Smyth and his team.
Still negotiating a marketing strategy and budget with the head office in Turin, the Irish team is stuck with the fact that the car will arrive here in May 2007 - well after the peak selling season is over and well before the start of the 2008 new car buying rush.
This is a similar problem to the one the company faced this year with the late arrival of the Grande Punto.
A mid-year arrival for such an important car led to the decision to send hundreds of Grande Puntos as well as other Fiats into the car rental market - a risky strategy as it means that now the peak rental demand is over, these cars are being returned to dealers who must find buyers for all these "nearly new" Fiats. Such a glut of cars can severely damage residualvalues.
"We took the decision to put a number of Grande Puntos into the rental market to increase the model's visibility on the streets," explains Smyth. Indeed, it was quite a number of cars that were used simply to increase visibility - around one-quarter of all Fiat sales this year have been into the short-term rental market.
But with a full range of vehicles on sale by the middle of next year, Smyth is hopeful of a modest rise in sales to 4,000 by the end of 2007.
In 2008, when the Bravo will have its full complement of engines, he is more optimistic for the Fiat brand in Ireland. "Sales should touch on 5,000 units," he says.
This will, of course, be dependent on the company attracting another six dealers to its network. It will only be if Fiat can find the extra six dealers and the extra 1,800 customers that Smyth's hopes of making his bank manager smile the following year will be realised.