Nother CarGuy

Fans are split on whether the Fiat 124 Spider is better looking than the Mazda Miata but the company is trying to settle the debate once and for all with the new 124 Spider S-Design. Set to debut at the Geneva Motor Show next month, the 124 Spider S-Design is a stylish roadster which has been outfitted with red stripes and unique 17-inch lightweight alloy wheels. The car also sports a small tricolor badge on the back and has an assortment of components – including the roll bar, mirror caps and A-pillar – decorated in polished steel. Besides the sporty styling touches, the model comes nicely equipped with leather seats and an automatic climate control system. Other highlights include a leather-wrapped steering wheel and a Keyless Go system. A turbocharged 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine resides under the hood and produces 140 PS (103 kW) and 240 Nm (177 lb-ft) of torque. When paired to the standard six-speed manual transmission, the engine allows the roadster to acceler...

European C-segment buyers don’t like saloons much; five-door hatchbacks is where the game is at, and Fiat has been absent for quite some time. This has just been rectified with the launch of the new  Tipo hatchback  that’s going for a piece of the pie currently by the likes of the Megane,  newly-crowned COTY  Astra and, of course, the default choice that is the Golf.  Fiat has played it safe with this one: nothing ground-breaking, yet nothing offensive either. Not necessarily a bad thing – practicality, value and space are more often than not higher in the list of priorities of lots of customers than cutting-edge design. Speaking of which, the Italian designers didn’t have to start from scratch, as they already had the Tipo  sedan  to work on. That they did, ditching the saloon’s boot for a fifth door with a wraparound window and boomerang-shaped lights. The Tipo family has just gained a third member, too, in the  estate  that’s also makin...

 sketch depicting  Fiat’s new Tipo  Estate (name not confirmed yet) has appeared online, with some outlets portraying it as official, but we traced it back to a two-week old report from Italian daily  Corriere Della Sera . Whereas its authenticity as a Fiat-sourced teaser is questionable, what isn’t is the fact that it will make its world premiere at the  Geneva Motor Show on Tuesday , March 1, alongside the five-door hatchback version of the Tipo series.  The newspaper quoted Fiat’s EMEA region Chief Operating Officer Alfredo Altavilla as saying:  “The Geneva Motor Show will be an unprecedented event for FCA, the most significant in years. We expose news for all brands in the group, completing the Fiat Tipo family with two other models, the five-door and station wagon, which mark our return in the most important category of the European market, the C-segment that is chosen by families.” Altavilla went on to confirm the presentation of  the Aba...