Super Sport Car Action: Fiat Sedici

Friday, August 5, 2011

Fiat Sedici

The Fiat Sedici is a mini sport utility vehicle co-developed by Fiat and Suzuki mainly for the European market. It was introduced at the 2006 Geneva Motor Show, and is built at the Magyar Suzuki plant in Hungary. The expected production volume is 60,000 units per year, 1/3 of these to be sold by Fiat and 2/3 of these to be sold by Suzuki, where it is badged as the SX4. The design was created by Giorgetto Giugiaro's Italdesign Giugiaro studio, and it is an alternative to mini multi-purpose vehicles (MPV), which have a more "boxy" appearance. Introduced by Fiat in December 2005, it was the official car of the 2006 Winter Olympics. As the car is four wheel drive, it is considered a 4x4. As 4x4 is 16, the car is named Sedici, which means "sixteen" in Italian. By pressing a button the driver can change between 4x2 and 4x4 transmission modes. The car also has electronic stability control (ESC) on the options list and a diesel particulate filter (DPF) is a standard feature. In November 2006 it was the second best selling SUV in the Italian market, and by June 2007 it was the best selling vehicle. The front wheel drive version of the Sedici was unveiled in spring 2008. It was available with the same engine choices as the 4X4 version and was available in two trim levels: Dynamic and Emotion. The price, in Italy, was around 2000€ cheaper than the 4x4 version.There are two engines available: a 1.6 L Suzuki petrol and a 1.9 L Fiat turbodiesel.In spring 2009, the Sedici was given a more substantial upgrade: A changed front grille, similar to that of the Bravo, and a new bumper. Inside it has more sophisticated instrumentation, new fabrics, the air conditioning vents were changed, and it has new Euro 5-compliant engines. The 1.9 litre Multijet engine was replaced by the more modern 2.0 litre Multijet engine 135 PS (99 kW; 133 hp), also the petrol 1.6 litre engine was upgraded to have 120 PS (88 kW; 118 hp), with lower fuel consumption.