| Launch Report Fiat Idea |
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From Small Ideas Spinning the steering wheel round from left to right to left as we kept steady pace down the serpentine road, I was impressed. This small box-like vehicle shouldn’t have been coping with these conditions so well. It had felt very upright when I got into it, being only about three inches shorter than it was wide, but over the past 50 miles of mixed roads the suspension set up had filled me with confidence, and now it was acquitting itself well on this most challenging of proving grounds. This was the launch of Fiat’s new mini MPV, the Idea, built small and competing directly with Vauxhall’s Meriva. In fact, the platform it's built on is a joint project with Vauxhall's parent company GM, a platform partly shared with the Corsa and therefore the Meriva itself.
The range is simple. From launch the Idea comes with a choice of two engines and three specification levels. The petrol engine is a 1.4-litre that turns out 93bhp and 94lb/ft of torque. It can give the car a top speed of 109mph and get it up to 62mph in 11.5 seconds. It’s a frugal unit, giving a combined fuel consumption of just under 43mpg. Diesel Torque And Economy The diesel engine is described by Fiat as the smallest and most advanced turbo diesel of its kind. With a capacity of just 1.3 litres it turns out 68bhp and an impressive 132lb/ft of torque. Although the figures show a top speed of just under 100mph and a 0-62mph time of 15.4 seconds, out on the road it feels much more flexible than the petrol engine. It’s also claimed that you can get an average 55.4mpg combined, which means it’s possible to drive well over 500 miles between fill-ups. |
We swept down the hillside from the cork trees and broken stacks of red granite towards the turquoise sea off the west coast of Sardinia. As the landscape unfolded below us, the switchback corners came one after another after another, all turning back in on themselves like the coils of a heraldic snake.
