According to PlayersChina.com, which caught a fairly nonrevealing spy shot of a car with the almost exact lines and proportions of the Dodge Dart, Fiat will be selling its own version of the Dart in China, through the Guangzhou-Fiat joint venture. The car is, according to PlayersChina, to be sold with Fiat’s 1.4 liter turbo engine, in two different states of tune, with the six-speed dual clutch transmission. The engine is to be made in China.
The information may not be entirely accurate; the article refers to the Dart has having the same C-EVO platform as the Alfa Romeo Giulietta, which is not the case. The camouflaged car did have the same proportions as the Dart, with additional padding to conceal body creases. It appears that the front clip might be somewhat different.
Automotive News reported on January 9, 2012 that Fiat would produce two cars based on the Dart at the Guangzhou plant in Hunan Province, for export to Europe. The first would be a sedan, the second would be a hatchback, replacing the Bravo. While Alfa’s Giulietta is also a hatchback, the Dart-based one would be wider, longer, and possibly less expensive (or comparably priced but larger).
Chrysler’s early and successful foothold in China, Beijing Jeep, was taken over by Mercedes during the DaimlerChrysler years. (Thanks, RVC, for finding this news/rumor.)
Automotive News is reporting that the small Jeep slated for production in Fiat’s Mirafiori plant in Turin has been bumped back a year to allow Fiat to get its own version of the “B-SUV,” as it’s known inside the company, into production earlier.
Fiat needs the new vehicle to replace its Sedici. The Sedici was developed jointly by Fiat and Suzuki and introduced in 2006. It’s a clone of the Suzuki SX4 that’s sold in the United States but the Fiat version is built in the Suzuki plant in Esztergom, Hungary. The Sedici received a mild facelift for this year but sales are falling: in 2011, volume dropped 10 percent to 14,000 units.
Fiat announced it will postpone the planned upgrades at the Mirafiori plant until late 2013. Mirafiori will continue to build the Alfa Romeo MiTo and Lancia Musa.
Production of the junior Jeep is now scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2014.
Fiat today released the first official images of the upcoming 500L, the larger, 5-passenger, please-don’t-call-it-a-station-wagon, multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) that will join the 500 and upcoming 500 Abarth in Fiat’s U.S. lineup next year.
As Fiat describes it: “With MPV passenger space combined with the feel of a small SUV on the road and the restrained dimensions and efficiency of a B segment car, the new Fiat model defies the conventional distinctions between the various segments, combining the typical characteristics of different categories in order to create a distinctive alternative to the traditional B and C segments.”
Previously known as “Ellezero” (L-zero) to the Italian press, the 500L is based on the platform used for the new Punto and derives some of its design cues from the popular Fiat Panda. The new car 500L will be produced at the Fiat plant in Kragujevac, Serbia. It will go on sale in Europe in the last quarter of 2012 and be offered there with three different engines, the TwinAir and 1.4-liter gasoline engines and the 1.3-liter MultiJet II turbodiesel.
The 500L will take its first bows at the Geneva Auto Show next month.
A four-door hatchback car to be called the Fiat 500L (L for Large) will be launched around the world, according to Automotive News. The car, based on the new L-Zero, uses the SCSS platform, as does the Fiat Punto, rather than the B-car platform used by the Fiat 500 itself. Thus, while the Fiat 500L will have similar styling to the Fiat 500, it will not share many key dimensions.
The Fiat 500L is to start selling in Europe in July, in seven and five seat form; the American version will only be a five-seater. The 500L will replace the Fiat Idea, as predicted by Dan Minick. The American version will most likely use the same engines as the Fiat 500, while European models might get a small diesel and the turbocharged two-cylinder.
The ongoing truckers blockade has now shut down almost all Fiat production in Italy. The Mirafiori, Sevel Sud, Melfi, Cassino and Pomigliano factories have been idled and workers sent home for the rest of the week because it is impossible for supplies to be delivered.
Fiat S.p.A. says it is losing 4,200 units of production per day.
Within Italy, Fiat has started to promote the new Panda in a way that echoes recent Chrysler and Jeep ads, more than traditional Italian or Fiat ads. The new 90-second Fiat Panda spot started airing yesterday.
In the ad, Fiat is shown as leading a new era of growth and development, calling on Italians to join. A release from the company says,
… there are many Italys in the collective imagination: a nation of art, invention and creative talent not to mention great industrial and technological enterprise. To dispel the quaint image of Italy and the negative stereotypes that are still often portrayed today, the spot shows powerful images of workers at the Pomigliano d’Arco plant where the new Fiat Panda is made.
These workers are symbolic of the Italy that never gives up, even in the most difficult moments, but rather has the will to take its future into its own hands with unquestionable dedication. They are proud and determined men and women who every day devote talent, passion and creativity and above all desire into making a product of the highest quality: the new Fiat Panda.
The narrative does not, after the first line, mention Fiat or the Panda itself, but uses the new Jeep tagline, “The things we make, make us”. The key message of the campaign is “This is the Italy we like,” echoing the recent Chrysler ads which show a nation that works and overcomes challenges, doesn’t give up, but strives to make and achieve.
Fiat, Europe’s leader in the city car segment for many years, claims that it has “focused on attaining the highest levels of quality throughout the development and production process” of the Panda, which is made at the Pomigliano d’Arco plant near Naples, Italy. The plant was completely retooled and has new body welding and assembly technologies; Fiat says it is “not only the most advanced Fiat facility, but also among the most advanced in the world.”
Olivier François, head of the Fiat brand (and until recently head of the Chrysler brand), said: “The new Panda is a symbol of Fiat’s know-how in the city car segment and this spot celebrates the return of production to Italy of the icon of Italian city cars : the Panda, the most sold city car in Europe. The upgraded plant in Pomigliano has introduced a radical new approach to quality and the campaign tells the story of this special place, a place where an industrious Italy has been reborn. An Italy where a job well done is a matter of personal pride. A place where people’s desire to produce a car of the highest quality is stronger every day. A place where innovation, research and passion are alive, where the relaunch of an Italy that the entire world believes in has begun.”
The language appears to echo that of the Chrysler 200 Super Bowl ad, which focused on Detroit rather than Italy.
The new campaign – which encompasses TV, press, billboards and web – was conceived and developed by the advertising agency Kube Libre, under the creative direction of Luciano Nardi. Shot in and around Naples, the TV spot was directed by Luca Maroni and produced by Movie Magic. The people appearing in the spot are workers at the plant and the soundtrack is from Flavio Ibba. The text is:
New Fiat Panda. This is the Italy we like.
How many types of Italy are there?
A nation of art?
A nation of great invention?
A nation of creative talent?
A nation of quaint images?
A nation of youth in search of a better future?
Or a nation capable of great industrial and technological enterprise?
We can choose which Italy to be.
It’s time to decide whether we want to be ourselves
or to be what others think we are.
Now is the moment to start afresh
To start the only way we know how: with our work
and rise to the occasion
Because, everyday, in Italy,
there is someone who wakes up
and puts their talent,
passion,
creativity,
and above all desire
into doing something well.
The things we make, make us
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