Italian Job: Badge Engineering Baby!
Coming soon to a friendly dealer near you (if you live in Europe) and in a couple of months to another whole set of friendly dealers (if you live in Brazil), ladies and gentlemen, the totally brand-new, super exclusive, Italianate Fiat Freemont! Never seen before at Fiat dealers. This beast is all new. Well, to Fiat buyers anyway.
According to my local paper Estado de Minas, Fiat representatives in Europe, talking to Brazilian journalists at the Geneva Autoshow, swear they have sweated out the details, giving it a whole new interior with a truly Italian vibe (interestingly though no pics of said interior were forthcoming). While at it, they continued the Italian job and decided to change the engines and offer two 2.0 diesels with outputs of 140 and 170hp, both of which developed by FPT (Fiat Powertrain Technologies, the Italian maker’s supplier of engines and transmissions). The venerable 3.5 V6 Pentastar from Chrysler will also be available for those who prefer their Italian with some American punch. News on the engines as per Brazilian enthusiast site Bestcars.com.
Though slow in America, the joining of the hip between Fiat and Chrysler is fast gaining pace in Europe. Brazil is also a “beneficiary” of this growing collaboration. At Geneva, Fiat launched the Lancia Thema and Grand Voyager (see here). Easy to spot what cars donated their lithe bodies to their Italian stablemates, no?
For Brazil, no word on pricing or engines. Here, diesels are verboten for passenger cars. That means at first probably the Chrysler’s 2.7 24v engine will continue to be the only choice. This engine powers the Dodge Journey now available in Brazil.
As Fiat has a better brand than Chrysler in Europe and (especially) in Brazil, will this be enough to get this baby rolling? In Brazil, the car is sold in two versions. The cheaper one goes for R$85,900 and the more expensive one goes for R$99,900 (at R$1.7=US$1, $50,529 and $58,765 verdinhas. )
One thing it has going for it as a Fiat is that it will be sold at Fiat dealers. The Italians have a very capillarized network in Brazil (second only to VW’s). Meanwhile, Dodge’s are sold at Mercedes dealers (a hangover from DC times), which is basically present only in larger cities. The negative? The price and competition. This bird, in Dodge guise, is rarely seen in Brazil’s cityscape. Without the stigma of an import brand (high-cost and difficult maintenance plus difficult re-sale), could this crossover (yes, in Brazil it is marketed as a crossover and not minivan) get close to the segment leaders (Chevy Captiva, Hyundai ix35, Kia Sportage among others)? That’s the Italians’ bet.
More by Marcelo de Vasconcellos
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I had a 2011 Dodge Journey in mid-level trim for about a week. It was an extremely pleasant people-mover. The interior was extremely quiet at any speed, well built and fairly well thought out. Everyone who rode in it enjoyed the rear legroom although nobody ever sat in the third row. Gas mileage was decent for it's size and weight. I had an AWD model and averaged about 20 with four people and luggage in the car, going up towards Vail in Colorado, a 5000-9000 feet elevation change. It even steers and handles fairly well for it's size and weight, but it's no sports car. The Fiat version looks more aggressive and stylish from outside, which should help it a bit. The US version looks anonymous, especially in Rental Car White.
Honestly, a Journey with a fiat-ified version of the NEW interior (which is quite nice) and some reasonable diesel engines... actually seems like a nice car. Even if the whole thing is ridiculous. Really, they're going to sell a Chrysler 200/sebring as a Lancia Flavia? talk about name-rape. -James at www.carthrottle.com