Brazilian Uno Caught on Video

by Marcelo de Vasconcellos

Published: July 11th, 2010

As part of our ongoing coverage of the new Fiat Uno, undoubtedly Fiat’s Brazil most important launch yet (see here and here and here, too), not to mention the biggest launch this year in our market, I’m bringing you this little video of the car. Grab your dictionaries and for those of you knowledgeable in Spanish, can you make anything out? Priceless the faces this car provokes on the streets (as you can see at the very end of the video).

Fiat honchos have promised me a car to test drive. Until it happens (the World Cup is over, so things are coming back to normal), take the video like an aperitivo. The video is courtesy of Brazilian website vrum.com.br.

Marcelo de Vasconcellos

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10 of 17 comments

Lucianrosca on Jul 11, 2010

There are 2-3 decades I wait for something exciting from Fiat. Still nothing. This looks like the basic transportation with nothing to excel. Good, but not good enough. For some reason the exterior makes me think that it was designed in the '90s. The new 500 is an exception ( I have to say I like it a lot) but it's a redo not a new concept. Italians have innovative designers with a lot of talent, and vision, still I don't understand why Fiat doesn't know how to make good use of them.

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- Marcelo de Vasconcellos on Jul 11, 2010
  
  The Uno is a modern interpretation of the original Beetle, Topolino, 500, CV2 etc. Nothing more nothing less. But many, many miles ahead of those cars, not to mention such things as Tata Nanos. Look at it that way and you might find some sympathy for it. This country for one loves the car. Many millions of people have gotten their first taste in motoring in this car. And if we continue growing like we are, many more will join them. It's not for nothing that the Uno is known is Brazil as the new (and better) replacement of the Beetle.
  
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Marcelo de Vasconcellos on Jul 11, 2010

Hi guya, Thanks for the interest. remeber those mileage figures were for mixed city/highway. Also keep in mind that that's with BRAZILIAN gasoline. So low grade stuff with an ethanol content that can legally vary between 22% and 29%. So, with high grade PURE gasoline, you're looking at numbers anywhere from 25 to 35% better. Case in point is Educatordan's question. The Ecotech GM engine, though fine and durable is considered quite the thirsty pig when it comes to consumption. The joke is buy a car with one but be sure to buy a gas station, too. Stingray, he said the plastics look hard but feel nice to the touch. So for this price and category of car in Brazil, win, win! Much better than competition, trust me (have you seen the plastics in a |GM celta????) As to Fiat quality, Fiat and Volkswagen are the go to brands here. In other words. They've got the brand (and that means market trusts and believesd in them). Kinda crazy but maybe with live in some kind of bizarro world. Carlos, you got the original Fiat 500 in Chile, didn't you? Well, think of it in this vein and it'll start to make sense. And really, no comparison between it (or things like the Citroen C2 or VW Beetle) and the Uno. The Uno is the modern incarnation of cars like that. And much, much better. Hope to have clarified your doubts.

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- PrincipalDan on Jul 11, 2010
  
  That's sad Marchelo. A Cobalt with the ecotec get's approximately 35mpg hwy driving like we Americans do. (Fast and rudely.) Driving like my grandmother (never topping 55mph) will get you 40mpg and the engine makes decent hp for its size. Some guys claim the MPGs even go up as the miles accumulate and it gets broken in. Of course, classic GM, you have to decide if a good power train is worth overlooking any other faults.
  
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- Stingray on Jul 12, 2010
  
  Buen Día Marcelo, sadly I haven't seen a Celta. Fiat may not excel in finish, but their powertrain are mostly bulletproof. Mom have a 98 Siena EDX (1.3lts here) and it has about 340K kms on the original engine. Spare parts wise, is very little what it has requested.
  
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- Marcelo de Vasconcellos on Jul 12, 2010
  
  Bom dia Stingray, The Celta has a good little engine. In fact it is the strongest of the 1.0s. It weighs very little, so performance and economy are among best in class. But I swear, oh the finishing! It's a step or two or even three, below Palio, Uno, Gol, Fiesta, Clio, even Classic and Corsa. I'm not kidding. That's why I guess it's not exported much. Probably only Brazilians suffer its finishing (and probably why it can't get anywhere near Gol, Uno and Palio in sales, though it's one of the cheapest in its class).
  
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Stingray on Jul 12, 2010

Marcelo, sorry to hijack, but I just checked your local Chevy site and the Omega is not available for sale. Are you having any import restriction over there or it's done by quotas?

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- Marcelo de Vasconcellos on Jul 12, 2010
  
  It's a free trade. It depends on how many they want to sell. For example, at the moment, the Malibu is being imported at a pace of 200 a month (much below the Fusion's average monthly sales of about 800). Why? GM says since they can't beat Fusion on price, they want to keep it exclusive. I have some doubts about that. My thoughts on the Malibu were a subject of another post, but my guess is that GM probably make very little money on the Malibu at current prices (they pay import tariffs 'cause it comes from US, while Fusion doesn't due to free trade agreement with Mexico). And I just did a quick search on-line, and the official word is that they still have some (enough) units at dealers, but they stopped importation for the moment. Officially, they are waiting for the new model, which will supposedly be completely different. However, it is strange not to announce the unsold ones.
  
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Philadlj on Jul 12, 2010

I understand the awkwardly high ground clearance, but what's with the ginormous d-pillars? Do carmakers insist these days that drivers have the largest blind spots possible?

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- Marcelo de Vasconcellos on Jul 12, 2010
  
  From what I understand, the sorry excuse is that it makes the cars look tougher. Tough=Durable in consumers' minds, so makers must keep it in their design. Case in point, in Brazil the old Uno was never really a threat to the Gol. Why? People at Fiat told me their research indicated that the slim columns of the car (and that was great because the car had almost unparralled visibility) made people think it was flimsy. Well, time has proven that's untrue, but people still think it looks more fragile than the Gol. So when they made the Pailo and now Uno, thich columns became the norm. You can thank (blame) the original VW Golf for this lamentable trend.
  
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