Fiat’s Compact architecture to underpin 700,000 Chrysler vehicles in the U.S.

Fiat SpA’s new Compact vehicle architecture, which will debut on the new Alfa Romeo Giulietta hatchback, is scheduled to underpin 700,000 Chrysler group vehicles a year in the United States and 300,000 in Europe by 2014. Fiat and Chrysler are currently working on a widened version of the architecture, known as Compact Wide, which will underpin at least seven new models for the Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands.

According to Automotive News, the first Chrysler Group vehicles to get the Compact Wide architecture will replace the PT Cruiser and the Dodge Caliber in 2012.

Fiat Linea Price

Fiat India Launched much awaited Fiat Linea for Indian Car Lovers. Fiat Linea will be available in both Multi Jet diesel and Fire petrol engine versions.

Fiat Qubo 1.3 16v Multijet Dynamic

Fiat Qubo 1.3 16v Multijet Dynamic

2010 Fiat Punto Evo Price

Pricing for the forthcoming Fiat Punto Evo has just been announced by Fiat Group Automobiles UK.

With a starting price of £10,995 OTR the new car, which goes on sale in the UK in January, represents outstanding value for money. At the top end of the Punto Evo range, the highly specified Sporting 1.4 MultiAir version costs £15,295 – an OTR price that includes sports seats, cruise control, side skirts, air conditioning, sports suspension and 17-inch alloy wheels as standard.

Available with a choice of five low emissions, Euro 5 engines, all fitted with Start&Stop as standard, the new Punto Evo comes in five different trim levels – Active, Dynamic, GP, Eleganza and Sporting.

Among the advanced engine line-up are two power units featuring Fiat’s new MultiAir technology. The full list includes: 1.4 8-valve petrol, 1.4 16-valve MultiAir petrol (105bhp and 135bhp) and 1.3 16-valve MultiJet diesel (75bhp and 95bhp).

Standard equipment in the entry-level Active model includes ABS anti-lock brakes with EBD, driver, passenger and knee airbags, radio/CD/MP3 player, power steering, electric mirrors and Blue&Me infotainment.

Dynamic trim level adds such equipment as side and window airbags, leather steering wheel and air conditioning, while Eleganza models get alloy wheels, cruise control and rear parking sensors as standard. The GP specification includes rear spoiler, dark tinted headlights and foglights.

Fiat Warns Of Likely Car Plant Conversion

Italian carmaker Fiat SpA (F.MI) Friday said it is sticking to plans to convert a plant in Sicily, despite protests from workers.

Union workers at the Termini Imerese plant have been protesting all week, demanding that Fiat provide more certainty on the future of the plant, which the firm has said is the most costly to operate of all of its plants.

After the workers occupied the town hall, politicians vowed to raise their concerns with Fiat in the coming weeks.

But Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said Fiat is sticking to plans to convert the plant by 2012.

"Keeping all of the plants open and doing all these necessary things are... demands that are no longer feasible in a world that has drastically changed," he told reporters at an event at Fiat's research centre in this town near Turin in the country's northwest. "We can't turn back to a reality that no longer exists."

Marchionne said a single Fiat plant in Brazil made more cars than its six plants in Italy combined over the year. He has yet to say what he wants Termini Imerese to do if not cars.

He and other Fiat officials are to hold meetings with union and government officials in the coming weeks to discuss their plans for Fiat in Italy. Their plans are a likely extension of the one presented in Detroit Nov. 4 to revive Chrysler Group LLC, its U.S. partner.

Marchionne is also expected to discuss the possible extension of Italy's car scrappage scheme when he meets with the government next month.

With several of these schemes expiring across Europe, analysts fear that demand will fall once more, making 2010 a difficult year for carmakers already struggling to survive the industry's worst crisis in decades.

Fiat will keep Alfa Romeo, sees U.S. role

In an interview with Reuters, Montezemolo dismissed a suggestion by analysts with asset management fund Sanford Bernstein that Volkswagen AG could be the right buyer for the money-losing brand. He also said Fiat doesn't need an Asian partnership to match recent tie-ups by European competitors with Japanese automakers.

"We will present the new Alfa that substitutes the 147, and we think there are also very important opportunities for Alfa Romeo in the United States," Montezemolo said.

Alfa's aging 147 hatchback will be replaced early next year by the Giulietta, a car that may be Alfa's last new model. Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has ordered a strategic review of the brand to consider whether to freeze substantial investments after the introduction of the Giulietta or to refresh Alfa's lineup using Chrysler Group platforms. Those platforms could be used to replace the aging Alfa 159 sedan and wagon and the discontinued 166 flagship sedan.

Alfa's new-car sales have declined steeply in the past decade as its range became older and new products were delayed.

Last year, Alfa sold 103,000 new cars, down from 203,000 in 2000. The brand has lost between 200 million and 400 million euros a year in the past 10 years, according to industry sources. Fiat does not release separate financial results for any of its brands.

Marchionne is expected to announce the future of Alfa early next year, when the Italian automaker presents its 2010 to 2014

Fiat 500

Fiat 500 Pop 1.2

NEVER let it be said that little cars are born to be boring.

Fiat has proved without doubt that small is very definitely beautiful with its iconic 500 that hit the streets in 2008 exactly 500 hours after the start of the New Year.

The 500 is a nostalgic take of Dante Giacosa's iconic Fiat 500 of July 1957 and it was a very feeling strange getting behind the wheel of the new car because I can compare it to the original which I drove in the mid-1960s.

It is certainly not easy mixing the old with the new, but there are rules for success. Firstly any such interpretation must have modern handling, technology, safety, performance and ease of ownership.

It must also reflect the character of the original and just make you smile.

And that has been achieved without doubt with the 500. As soon as you see it you know that it is special.

Open the door and take in the 1950s styling cues and you know that you have a car that you will never treat as plain ordinary. This model, a basic 1.2 Pop featured a white steering wheel and trim with a painted red body colour dash. It really felt the part.

But where it does not feel like the original is in the technical department because it a benchmark in terms of safety and technology in its now highly competitive market segment.

Fiat says it represents a company blueprint for a future which embraces a modern approach, new brand strategies, radical innovations in customer relations and a lasting process of expansion.

An ambitious statement but the 500 certainly proves that Fiat means business. Its products have suddenly become much better built in addition to being far more attractive.