News November 23 2006

Fiat announce new Bravo to join Australian line-up

Fiat has released the first details of the new Fiat Bravo, which will be revealed in Europe on 29 January 2007, prior to an Australian launch late in 2007 positioned above the Fiat Punto, the car that heralded the return of Fiat to Australia earlier this year.

The new Bravo has been developed by the Fiat Style Centre and will be built in Fiat Auto's Piedimonte San Germano plant. It is aims to set a benchmark in the most important segment of the European market, the medium size hatchback class. The new Fiat Bravo (see the original model here) combines a compact five-door body with a remarkable amount of interior space: it is 434 centimetres long, 179 cm wide and 149 cm high, with a wheelbase of 2.6 metres, and a boot capacity of 400 litres that tops its class. The Fiat Bravo also aims to be a car of substance, thanks to a wide range of technological features, and quality standards worthy of a higher class where safety, comfort and driving enjoyment are concerned. The Fiat Bravo will come with a wide choice of engines including the popular turbodiesel 1.9 MultiJets (120 and 150 bhp), the 90 bhp 1.4, and a new family of turbocharged T-JET petrol engines (120 and 150 bhp 1.4 Turbo) that will be making their debut, combining low fuel consumption with outstanding performance. Full details of the Australian Fiat Bravo range will be announced when it goes on sale locally, although it will need to be renamed, as Mitsubishi has the rights to the name 'Bravo'. Suggestions on a postcard please!

Fiat launches a new logo with the Bravo model

Fiat is marking the launch of the Bravo with the debut of new Fiat Logo. "In this important, dynamic context, we have decided to acknowledge the progress achieved by Fiat, by changing our logo, as a tangible sign of the new impetus that is projecting us towards future challenges," explains Luca De Meo, President of the Fiat Brand. "This is why the new logo will make its debut on the front of the new Bravo, before being gradually adopted on all Fiat models." Created jointly by RobilantAssociati, an agency specialising in Brand Advisors & Strategic Design, and the Fiat Style Centre, the new symbol is derived from the famous shield that decorated the front of Fiat cars from 1931 to 1968, with the vertically elongated letters of the word 'FIAT' standing out against a ruby red background, encased in a chromed round frame. It has a three-dimensional effect which conveys an idea of technology, Italian design, dynamism and a strong personality, while it also harks back to the round logo (white wording against a red background, surrounded by laurel leaves) that identified powerful, high performance Fiat models for many years. The essential, strong new logo therefore conveys 'ongoing change', a sign of the past re-read in a modern key which is particularly representative of Fiat today, a brand projected towards the challenges of the future but also proud of its historical identity. The two main elements of the new logo (the shield shape and the colour red) immediately bring to mind the Fiat 524 of 1931, which was the first to use a rectangular logo that blended into the new grille, designed with stylistic but also aerodynamic pretensions, in the shape of a shield with vertical elements. The new FIAT logo is designed to sum up the mission of an Italian company that for over one hundred years has been building good-looking cars that are accessible and capable of guaranteeing the best quality of everyday life.