hose clamps seem ot be the bane of line workers everywhere. so far i've discovered one completely forgotten clamp, and there are numerous complains of loose coolant system and charge-system clamps on the fiat forums (assembly line responsible for this car is chrysler's plant in toluca mexico). however, this is quite a bit better than the complaints i've seen about the focus ST (detroit, mich) -- completely missing clamps in the pressurized coolant system that dump their coolant 15 minutes off the lot (lol). and ford mexico (immediate unexplainable grenading, everything possible out of tolerance).
the most reliable plants by far are still the really well run ones in japan, germany and northern europe. these are second only by a hair to the well run japanese/german owned plants in the US and canada.
mazda is booting up a plant in mexico next year though for the next gen 3-series though, and mazda does not eff around.
anyway, to get back on topic, the sourcing of the for the 2011-2013 nafta fiat 500 is: USA engine, (dundee mich). chassis and body toluca mexico, transmission US/IT (USA for the base transmission, italy for the turbo and abarth). final assembly, toluca mexico.
so far, i've seen some hilarious stuff under the hood of my car, but the chassis and body are excellent -- better than my last car, which was 100% japanese sourced and built in Honda's flagship Suzuka plant (the one right next to honda's famous testing ground: Suzuka circuit
, home of the japanese GP). that said, the suzuka-built driveline is a near pinnacle of automated motor assembly.