LEAKED! - First picture of new Fiat Uno emerges

Emerging countries (and possibly Europe) have been hearing rumours of a new Fiat Uno to come up in the next few months. Well, the rumours are true, as these pictures, obtained by Novidades Automotivas in a Brazilian registry office, INPI, have confirmed. Check it below:



The picture confirms the renderings our friend Marlos Ney Vidal, from the blog Autos Segredos, has already presented about a month ago, but also presents a few important differences, such as the hood fold that goes from the front to the windshield of the car following the forms of Fiat shield. The three air scoops between the headlamps (by the right side of the car, when looking at it from the front) are also bigger and more aligned to Fiat's logo. Below these air scoops there is the main air entrance, trespassed by a bar in which the front plate will be placed. It will be black, not in the body colour, what makes it look like a big mouth.

Another sensible difference is in the rear mirrors, similar to the ones once used by Fiat Punto. Although there are differences, the renderings, which you can see below, give us quite a good idea of what the car will be like when it goes on sale, next March, in Brazil.



The image above presents us the back lights of the car. The central part will be for the brake lights, while the upper part will be dedicated to turning lights. The lower niche will be reserved for rear lights and possibly for a fog lamp in one of the sides of the car, something we would not like to see. If the car is to have a fog lamp, we hope it to be somewhere else.

There will be two flexible fuel engine options: a 1-litre able to generate 75 bhp on ethanol and a new 1.4-litre engine, which will be called Evo, based on the current 1.4-litre Fire. The luggage compartment will not be exactly big, with 200 l, but the fuel tank will hold 48 l, something important due to the smaller range of ethanol.

The new Uno will be sold in other South American countries and may be produced in other BRIC countries, such as India, China and Russia.




Source: Novidades Automotivas via Autos Segredos

Fiat presents its new Strada Cabine Dupla (double cab) in Brazil

Some of you may have already heard about the new Fiat Strada Cabine Dupla (which stands for double cab). Even if you have not heard about it so far, it is worth taking a look at the first double cab small pick-up truck based on a car of the world.



Fiat Strada is based on Palio, a car that is sold all over the world, but only in emerging countries (what has made it be called third world car instead of world car, as Fiat wanted it to be known). With this new version, it intends to keep its leadership in its market segment in the Brazilian car market. It also wants to be a solution that many countries of the world will want to have. Strada is the most exported car produced by Fiat in South America.

Equipped with a flexfuel 1.8-litre engine that generates 112 bhp with petrol and 114 bhp with ethanol, Fiat Strada CD is 4.46 m long, 1.74 m wide, 1.63 m tall and bears a wheelbase of 2.75 m. Besides the 1.8-litre engine, there will be a 1.4-litre engine version for exports and also for Brazilian companies. Fiat denies it is working on this version, but it has also denied there would ever be a double cab Strada.

Presented in Itaipu, the biggest hydroelectric powerplant of the world in operation, Strada CD has no room for more than four people. The two back passengers also suffer from lack of space, unless they are small people, such as children. They should not be taller than 1.75 m, anyway. Anyone that is taller than that will have no headroom and, depending on how tall is the driver, will also have to travel with its legs open in order to fit in the car.

The car will cost R$ 46,440, about US$ 23,800. If you are not Brazilian, this may sound excessive to you, but I can assure you this price, in the Brazilian market, is highly competitive. In other words, Brazilian people are so rich they accept to pay insanely high prices for cars that could cost half of what they pay. In fact, they cost half in other countries where they are sold. Carmakers blame the government and the government calls automakers greedy. With no one to blame, it gets difficult to have a fair price on cars.





















Source: Fiat

Fiat presents the first double cab small pick-up truck of the world, Strada CD

Besides integrating to Chrysler, Fiat is also busy creating new products, some of them pretty innovative ones. Its latest move towards innovation has received a name: Strada Cabine Dupla, or Strada CD. Cabine Dupla stands for double cab, and it must be the first mass-production small double cab pick-up truck of the world. Have a look at it:



Some of you may think you have already seen double cab small pick-up trucks, but let me clarify that I mean small in South American standards, what implies Strada is 4.46 m long, 1.74 m wide, 1.65 m tall and bears a wheelbase of 2.75 m. Strada is based on Fiat Palio, a small hatchback that is about to be totally transformed.

Engines for the new Strada CD will be a 1.4-litre and a 1.8 litre, both running on petrol. There will surely be diesel units, but they have not been disclosed so far.

Source: Fiat

SCOOP! - Fiat Strada CD, the first small double cab pick-up truck of the world, is seen in Brasilia

Readers of MotorTips are once again ahead of others. Not only because they read this blog, but also because once in a while they have the chance to see cars that have not been released and take pictures of them for us. This is what happened to Rafael Ferreira, from Brasilia, Brazil, who has seen the new Fiat Strada CD pick-up, the first double cab small car-based pick-up truck of the world, in front of a hotel in his city. It is important to highlight that we mean small by Brazilian standards, or else, it is based on Fiat Palio, a car that is much smaller than Honda Civic, for example, which is considered as a compact car in the USA.

More than seeing, Ferreira has photographed the car and its interior (something nobody had seen so far) with his cell phone. Check how the interior of the car will be below.



"I was coming back from work when I saw two pick-up trucks and its passengers in front of a hotel in Brasilia, which is close to my office. After Fiat guys (I guess) went away, I tried to take pictures from the interior of the cars, once they have already been widely photographed with this camouflage", said Ferreira. The pictures of the interior, two of the four he has sent us, are here, in order for everyone to see how the car will be when it reaches Brazilian dealers, in July. Once Fiat always exports its Brazilian vehicles, expect to see the new Strada CD (for Cabine Dupla, double cab in Portuguese) in other South American markets and Mexico very soon.

As if he was not making us a big favour, Ferreira apologised. "Unfortunately the sun light was reflecting everywhere in the car and a net on the back windows made things a bit difficult, but it was possible to see 'in loco' that the back seats are only for two people. The roof seems to be a little low. I have seen two units of the new small pick-up truck, both of them equipped with a 1.8-litre engine and with Locker, a system that electronically blocks a wheel that has no grip in order to help the other one move the car." Strada CD was developed under the code X4, indicating it would only have four seats in order for the car not to compete with other Fiat products, such as Siena (a small sedan) and even Palio itself.

Besides the Adventure version, which is the one Ferreira has spotted, there will also be a more simple trim level for Strada CD, created for direct sales and big companies that need a vehicle for maintenace teams, for example. Engines, therefore, will be a 1.4-litre and a 1.8-litre engine. The 1.9-litre engine that powers Fiat Linea, meanwhile, will remain in this Punto-based sedan.

If you manage to find and photograph a new car running around, disguised or not, and want to share you finding with us, do not hesitate to contact us andsend us your pictures. Please do not forget to authorise us to publish them. We will be glad to share them with our other readers, as we have done with Ferreira's picture!





Source: Rafael Ferreira

Fiat Linea may be sold in the USA as the new Dodge Neon

Fiat and Chrysler alliance may take 18 months to produce its first cars, but Autocar has already anticipated one of the possible vehicles to come up from that marriage: a new Dodge Neon. The car would be based on the Fiat Linea. If Autocar has stated that, we have no reasons whatsoever to doubt it. And the talented designer Theophilus Chin has given us his vision of what the car may look like, and we are very inclined to think he has hit the nail in the head.



Fiat Linea uses two engines in Brazil, a 1.9-litre flexfuel unit and a petrol turbocharged 1.4-litre, known as T-JET. In Turkey, where it is also produced, the car is powered by the T-JET, a petrol 1.4-litre engine and two diesel engines, the 1.3-litre Multijet and a 1.6-litre unit. We expect the USA version to use the 1.9-litre engine, as well as the T-JET with some improvements. Meanwhile, have a look at what may appear in a Dodge dealer next to you (the one that remains open until that, of course; let's hope them to be many).




Source: Theophilus Chin

Check a possible Fiat-Chrysler sedan created by Jorge L. Fernández

After we have presented you to a possibility of the future Fiat-Chrysler compact sedan created by Rodrigo Bruno, some other designers also came up with ideas, but none has been so interesting so far as Jorge L. Fernández's, from Area 75. He has even come up with a name suggestion: Chrysler Shadow. Would that be a shadow of Bravo or Alfa Romeo Milano, cars that already use the FAT C-Evo platform? We hope not.



In fact, Fiat has to improve the quality of its products a great deal in order to attract North-American customers. This is what some satisfaction indexes point out in Europe. And the Italian carmaker is already aware of that, if its experience with Alfa Romeo in the USA in the 1990's has taugh the company anything. For the sake of Chrysler and Fiat, that's highly advisable.

Source: Area 75

Chrysler and Fiat get together; Cledorvino Belini may head new company

Fiat is not exactly in a comfortable position. In fact, few, if any automakers, are. This is why most of them are studying ways to get together with others and join forces. Fiat's golden opportunity has arised with the world financial crisis. The company intended to have a participation in the North American market. And there is not a better way to do so than making an alliance with a North American carmaker. Chrysler, in this case.



These companies have complementary ranges and Fiat has the kind of technology that matters to Chrysler: how to produce light and fuel-saving vehicles. Fiat also has the guy who knows how to produce these cars: Cledorvino Belini, CEO of Fiat's operations in Brazil.



Belini has conducted Fiat to a very successful operation in Brazil, where the Italian company leads overall vehicle sales for seven consecutive years. Quick decisions, fast vehicle development, efficient suppliers management, cars that offer good value for money and lean production are some of the qualities Fiat presents in Brazil. Since Chrysler needs a similar recipe to recover, and Belini has the confidence of Fiat's world CEO, Sergio Marchionne, we may hear his name quite often in the next few months.

As for Fiat and Chrysler, reports state they have created an alliance, but in fact a new company has been created. This new company will run Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep and will be managed by Fiat, once Bob Nardelli and Tom LaSorda have stepped down from their positions in the company. Nardelli will act in Cerberus as an advisor.

Chrysler has not avoided filing for Chapter 11. Some of its creditors did not want to negociate, what, in the end, will be worse for them. Now the company counts with legal protection and will not have to negotiate anything, only say what it can do or not. Creditors, at least for now, will just have to accept.

Even though it seems nice for Chrysler, it is not. Their main stake, buyers' confidence, may drop in a menacing way. This is why Barack Obama himself said Chrysler cars will have the backup of the USA government.

Car production in the USA will be suspended from Monday, May 4, until all details of the new company are revealed. An important part of it has already been divulged: 55% of the company's shares will be in the hands of VEBA (Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association) 10% with the governments of USA and Canada and 20% with Fiat. The other 15% will also go to Fiat if the company manages to fulfill these requirements:

* 5% if it provides Chrysler with a car that is able to reach 17 km/l to be produced in the USA (this car has already been confirmed to be the 500);
* 5% if it offers a fuel-efficient family of engines to be produced in the USA (FIRE engines, already confirmed by Fiat) and;
* 5% if it opens its dealers doors all over the world for Chrysler to export its vehicles.

This is a step Fiat is already taking care of. Dodge Dakota units have been seen in Betim by the blog Autos Segredos, where the Italian automaker controls what is about to become the biggest car-producing plant of the world, with a capacity of 800,000 every year. Since Fiat does not produce pick-up trucks, this is the right product to sell in South American markets.

If Fiat manages to lower Chrysler debts with the USA to US$ 3 billion or less, it will be eligible to acquire an additional 16% equity interest from January 1, 2013 to June 30, 2016, what will leave the company in the position of holding 51% of all shares. Anyway, Fiat will be limited to 49% of all shares until all loans granted by the US Treasury have been paid.

Besides that, all financing operations from Chrysler will be performed by GMAC, what will keep cars accessible to those that still have their jobs. Let's just hope Fiat and Chrysler manage not only to keep the ones that already exist, but that they help create new ones.

Source: Chrysler

Will Chrysler's compact sedan look like this? Will there be a Bravo Sedan?

News are that Chrysler is so confident in a partnership with Fiat it has even presented future common products with the Italian automaker to its dealers. One of these new vehicles would be a sport sedan. Compact, for North American customers, mid-sized, for the rest of the world, it would be built over the FAT C-Evo platform, the same one used by Fiat Bravo, Lancia Delta and the future Alfa Romeo 159, Milano and Giulia. That made us wonder what would this car look like and the designer Rodrigo Bruno gave us a hand in figuring it out. In fact, he gave us a rendered speculation that may turn into a real product. Both for Chrysler and for Fiat.



The Italian automaker was confident Fiat Linea would be accepted by many markets as a contender against Honda Civic and other sedans, but the fact it Linea is widely seen as the (gorgeous) sedan version for Grande Punto. Therefore, people expected it to be cheaper. A Bravo Sedan, specially in developing countries, would solve the matter right away.

Meanwhile, let's see if Fiat and Chrysler really can reach an agreement. If they do, Bruno's suggestion may be in the dealers in a few years from now.




Source: Rodrigo Bruno

2011 Fiat Uno, known as project 327, appears in Minas Gerais, Brazil

Most of you must know Fiat intends to bring back the name Uno. The car is still being generated under the codename "Project 327". What you still did not have was an image of this car, but Marlos Ney Vidal, from the blog Autos Segredos, has fixed this problem with over one month waiting for the car to show up. And it has eventually happened, as you can see below.



The car will hit the Brazilian market in 2010 as a 2011 model and will present front airbags as a standard equipment, something the Brazilian law has just recently demanded. Expect for three and five door versions. Besides that, Vidal also tells us the car will share its platform, or architecture, if you prefer, with the next generation of Panda. It is not clear if the next Panda will adopt the name Uno in Europe or if there will be a Uno and a Panda in the Old World, besides the next Topolino.

These vehicles will have different interior versions. The European will be based on the interior of 500, while the South American Uno will share some parts with Fiat Palio. Since we have mentioned this car, it's new generation is also being developed in Brazil and Vidal promises to bring us the images of the so called "Project 326" very soon. We will be waiting!



Source: Autos Segredos