When you think about car design, every automaker that happens to be mentioned brings a different set of thoughts to your head. Porsche, for instance, leads to think of smooth curves and fastback rear. Nissan, in turn, goes to muscular shapes with angular elements. Some might still get boxy SWs after choosing Volvo, and the list goes on and on. But when it comes to Fiat, the results have been a little different from that, over the past few years. After the redesigned Ducato, Fiat has taken a firm second step towards what seems to be the beginning of a very interesting change.
Between successive financial crisis, internal and external, and the acquisition of the Chrysler group, Fiat has kept a sort of low profile since the last decade. After giving its best in the 1990s, with vehicles such as Barchetta, Coupé, Marea and Multipla (not to mention all the concept cars), and seeing their sales stay way below what its investment would expect, the company became more rational than ever. Its attention went to urban hatchbacks and commercial vans, in order to avoid risky ventures, but the results were mixed. The positive side is that cars such as 500, Palio and Punto did not take long to receive great market acceptance. The negative is that acting so carefully made Fiat’s design concepts become lost.
Since it cannot afford to go wrong, the company started to make vehicles which attract mostly by rational features, like comfort and space. In other words, people are buying Fiats merely to satisfy a need, instead of being drawn by any kind of emotional characteristics strong enough to make them want this particular brand and no other. This must be the reason why the company decided to replace most of its current models with extensions of the 500 hatchback: a very good strategy would be to take its attractive image as an opportunity to slowly replace all its urban vehicles, with options which attract people because of their roomy cabins and frugal engines as well as their attractive lines. But even more interesting is to know that some of these ideas went to the work lineup, too.
Yes, the very same commercial range which used to give up everything else in order to be as efficient and cheap as possible. In what could be an attempt to give Fiat Professional an image of its own, Ducato’s surprisingly stylish facelift is now joined by an equally interesting Doblò, whose tweaks were inspired by its North-American brother, ProMaster City. There is an entirely new front fascia, which dropped the old bubbly styling in favor of a much more solid look. The headlights are sitting taller now, above a wide grille whose design creates a visual connection with its lower counterpart. No breaths will be taken away, of course, but it is great to see how could Fiat achieve such a great result with relatively few changes.
The imponent design is followed by retouched wheels and tail lights, but there are much bigger news inside. There is a new dashboard, whose design follows what Fiat has been doing in the latest years, and it brings new steering wheel and central console and more storage areas. When it comes to performance, the plethora of engine options is the same: you can burn gasoline, diesel or LPG, and at some options choose between manual or automatic gearbox. The highlights go to the new EcoJet trim levels, which combine the smallest MultiJet II engines with low-resistance tires, start/stop system and aerodynamic accessories, in order to improve fuel efficiency – Fiat claims an average consumption of 22.7 kpl. All these news go to both passenger and cargo versions.