The Fiat Grande Punto has won the prize “Imprensa Automotiva 2007″ in Brazil, one of the most important automotive awards in the country, since it is given by a jury of specialised journalists.

The jury was made of 63 automotive journalists coming from brazilian newspapers, magazines, radio stations and televisions.
The finalists in the category of ‘Best National Vehicle’ were the Fiat Punto, Chevrolet Vectra, Citroën C4 Pallas, Honda Civic and Volkswagen Golf. The Fiat Punto won with a clean 77 % of share.

The small italian car was elected not only for its design, but also for being the only car on sale on the Brazilian market to offer the innovative Blue&Me system and for the good equipment in general. This is the second award in barely two months: in october the Brazilian-built Punto won another award, the “Inter-American Car of the Year”.

Via | ItaliaSpeed

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Thanks to the success of the brand new Fiat 500, Fiat has approved a new 275 million Euro investment to expand the Tychy plant, that will have to satisfy the increasing orders for the old-fashioned italian citycar.

In 2008 the polish plant shall produce 40-60.000 units more than previewed, and by 2009 500.000 units per year will be built in Tychy.

Next year the Tichy plant should start assembling the new Ford Ka alongside the Fiat Panda and the 500.

Via | Repubblica.it

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Fiat has announced the restyling of its flagship Croma. The Nuova Croma is now called a station wagon.

The Nuova Croma is unchanged in size (4.78 m long, 1.77 m wide and 1.60 m high, with a 2.70 m wheelbase). The trunk volume is unchanged too (500 liters with 5 passengers, 1,600 liters with the backseat folded).

The main changes to the exterior are the radiator mask now more similar to the Fiat Bravo’s one, and the rear bumper, that gets a new two-colour tone; in the side view the Nuova Croma remains the same as the old model. The engines too are the same available for the pre-restyling version: Multijet diesels (1,9 in two power steps, 120 bhp and 150 bhp and 2,4 five-cylinders 200 bhp) and gasoline units (1,8 140 bhp and 2,2 147 bhp).

Continue reading: New Fiat Croma

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To complete the Fiat 500 day here at Eurocarblog, a photo gallery of the interiors and the details of the new Fiat 500 (42 images). In previous posts you can find the exterior photos and the technical details of the new 500.

Continue reading: Fiat 500 - interior and details image gallery

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For your delectation: a complete photo gallery of the exterior of the new Fiat 500 (55 images). You can also visit the photo gallery of the interior and the details (42 images). In our previous post you can read the official Fiat press release.

Continue reading: Fiat 500 - exterior image gallery

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The Fiat 500 is here: after the great event in Turin on the 4th of July and the press conference this morning, Fiat dealers all over Italy have started showing the car to the public and selling it (check out the 55 photos of the exterior and the 42 photos of the interior and details in our photo galleries).

The price list is as follows:
1.2 69 ps POP -10.500 €
1.2 69 ps SPORT - 12.500€
1.2 69 ps LOUNGE - 12.500 €
1.4 16v 100 ps POP - 12.500 €
1.4 16v 100 ps SPORT - 14.500 €
1.4 16v 100 ps LOUNGE - 14.500 €
1.3 multijet 75 ps POP - 12.500 €
1.3 multijet 75 ps SPORT - 14.500 €
1.3 multijet 75 ps LOUNGE - 14.500 €

All three initially available engines respect the Euro5 emission standars. Fiat expects that the 500 will achieve a 5-star EuroNCAP rating. To that end the 500 has 7 airbags as standard equipment. The car is 3.55 m long and 1.63 m wide.

The warranty is quite unheard of: 5 years, 500.000 km, 24h roadside assistance, take-up and delivery and guaranteed mobility for the driver in case of scheduled maintainance.

In a couple of years we can expect the Small Gasoline Engine (a 900 cc 2-cylinder turbocarged engine, with two power-steps, 90 and 110 ps) and the Fiat 500 Abarth, with the 1.4-liter T-JET turbocharged engine (starting at 135 ps, with an optional tuning kit that will take it up to 150 ps).

Below the fold you can find the summary of the Fiat press release (or you can download the complete document, in word format)

Continue reading: Fiat 500 - press kit

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The Fiat Auto Group has developed a liking for the Nurburgring: after the photos of the Alfa 159 GTA here’s a video of the Fiat 500 Abarth doing the rounds. We absolutely love the sound of the engine and we find the claims in the video to be quite silly: the street-going 500 Abarth is expected to have the 1.4-liter T-JET engine under the hood, in a 135 ps incarnation, with the option of an Abarth-kit to take it up to 150 ps.

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Fiat Powertrain has announced its new 1.9 JTD Twin Stage Turbo engine, a diesel engine that can comply with Euro 5 regulations with a specific power output of up to 100 PS/liter.

The 1.9 JTD Twin Stage Turbo (TST) engine derives from the 1.9 JTD already in use on many Fiat and GM models. The new engine will be available in two power steps, one with 180 PS, the other with 190 PS (at 4,000 rpm), both with a maximum torque of 400 Nm at 2,000 rpm. The first one, which will be also available for clients outside Fiat Group, will be in production by july 2007, the other will be available by june 2008.

In the image gallery of the 1.9 JTD TST engine you can find some photos, technical details and the power curves.

Below the fold you can find the full text of the Fiat Powertrain press release (also in pdf). Also available is a pdf with technical details.

Continue reading: Fiat Powertrain: 1.9 JTD Twin Stage Turbo with 100 hp/liter

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We just got a call from Fiat: they were very happy about the 500×500 online booking initiative. All 500 units of the fiat “500 wants you edition” were sold out in 5 hours and 45 minutes. One every 40 seconds!

If this is an harbinger of things to come for the new Fiat 500, things are going to get interesting after the 4th of July. The success of the initiative is even more interesting if we consider that 20% of bookings came from outside Italy (where most of Fiat’s promotional effort has been expended).

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Fiat has officialy announced its new Linea, the saloon derived from the Grande Punto hatchback. The Linea is 4.56 metres long, 1.73 metres wide, 1.5 metres tall, with a wheelbase of 2.6 metres and a 500 litre luggage compartment.

The engine range, at the beginning, will be composed of a 1.4-liter gasoline engine (1.4 8v, 77 bhp) and a 1.3-liter turbodiesel engine (1.3 Multijet 16v, 90 bhp), both equipped with a five-speed manual gearbox. Later these engines will be joined by the 120 bhp 1.4-liter 16v T-Jet engine.

The full text of the Fiat press release and more images can be found below the fold.

Continue reading: Fiat Linea

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