Fiat 500 to be launched this month

Fiat, which is aggressively trying to expand its presence in India, is launching its much-talkedabout two-door lifestyle car Fiat 500 this month. The Fiat 500 small car will be imported to India as a completely built unit, as an image building exercise for the car maker in the country.

The Fiat 500 has three four-cylinder engines - a 1400 cc 100 bhp petrol, a 1200cc 69 bhp petrol, and a 1248cc, 75 bhp multijet diesel engine already in India on the diesel Suzuki Swift. The car is 3.55 metres in length, but features 7 airbags including a knee-airbag and comes with a five star rating in EuroNCAP tests.

Expected to sport a price tag of Rs 15 lakh, the Fiat 500 is likely to find its craze among the celebrities, youth and auto enthusiasts. The launch of Fiat 500 is being positioned in such a way that it would pave the arrival of the other new models such as Bravo and most importantly the Linea.

The Fiat 500 will be a flagship model for the company - Fiat’s image has not really recovered in India after their initial hiccups in the late 1990s.The company, which has established Palio in the upper segment of small cars in its comeback, is now on an expansion mode, with seven variants in diesel and petrol, Palio sells around 600 units a month.This, significantly, means is that the company sells all that it makes.