Fiat IDEA RANGE
The
Fiat Idea Is Another Of Those Niche-Busting Cars That We Have A Tough Job Categorising. Instead Well File It Under Pretty Good. Andy Enright Reports
How simple things were when you either bought a hatchback, a saloon or an estate car for family duties. The people carrying MPV started to blur the boundaries and now there are cars like the Fiat Idea which defy categorisation. Our closest guess would be to label it a supermini-MPV but its elegant hatchback style profile is a world away from the ludicrous popemobile looks of many rivals in this market sector.
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In fact, its easy to miss the Idea. Unlike the Multipla, it doesnt turn heads, its lines resembling a rather sleeker
Hyundai Getz. This is no coincidence as Giugiaro is responsible for penning the Getz and also had a hand in the shape of the Idea. Fiats internal design house contributed to the car and for a car effectively designed by committee, its a very accomplished effort.
Its certainly a good deal easier on the eye than the Multipla, a car that melded design brilliance to hugely unconventional looks and which failed to net the sales in this conservative market that it deserved.
Fiat has rightly chosen to adopt a more sober approach with the Idea, slotting the car into the range somewhere just above the Punto line up. Think of it as being to the Punto what a
Ford Focus C-MAX is to a Focus hatch and youll probably get the gist of it. No, it doesnt offer any additional seats but you can pull some intriguing moves with the seats you do get thirty-two of them to be precise.
The rear seats are split 40-20-40 and can move back and forth either together or individually, prioritising either legroom or luggage space. The
seat backs can also be reclined for comfort which is a distinct rarity at this price point. The rear seat backs can fold forward as does the front passenger seat to allow you to carry some very long items. You can even fold all the seat backs flat to create a double bed effect.
This is all very well, but it does make one wonder why Fiat which is partly owned by General Motors never got access to the even cleverer FlexSpace seating system as used in the
Vauxhall Meriva where the seats fold flat to the floor.
"The Idea boasts a roof that soars overhead, prompting one to consider sparking a stovepipe hat revival"
Three across the back is a bit of a tight squeeze, especially as the firm centre pew looks guaranteed to numb the posterior over longer distances but theres certainly no problem as far as headroom goes, the Idea boasting a roof that soars overhead, prompting one to consider sparking a stovepipe hat revival. The interior otherwise benefits from Fiats huge experience of building MPV-style vehicles with a multitude of storage bins, cubbies, pockets and compartments. The dashboard is beautifully styled in a spare, almost minimal fashion with centre-mounted instruments and clean lines. The Idea has the pick of the Puntos engine range and plucks two of the best in its 94bhp 1.
4-litre petrol unit and 70bhp 1.3-litre Multijet turbodiesel. Of the two engines, the Multijet is where the
smart money goes, returning excellent fuel figures and boasting enough torque to really punch the little Idea forward even when its fully laden. The petrol unit comes to the fore when youve got the Idea to yourself and theres a twisty road ahead.
Around town you can toggle the Dualdrive button to take the effort out of twirling the wheel. Expect to see 45.6mpg around town in the 1.3-litre car with a sprint to 60mph detaining you for 15.
2 seconds and a top speed just nudging three figures. The petrol-engined Idea is a bit quicker, zipping to the benchmark sprint in 11.3 seconds and on to a top speed of 109mph. Fuel economy is a bit heavier in the urban sprawl and crawl, the 1.
4 seeing 33.2mpg but it cant match the diesel car when it comes to carbon dioxide emissions, chuntering out 157g/km of CO2 versus the Multijets 135. The ride is firm, courtesy of a very stiff chassis and the chunky windscreen pillars obscure visibility when negotiating tight roundabouts but aside from that the driving characteristics are much as youd expect from a Punto in other words lively but strangely loveable. The prices look set to endear the Idea to many as well, starting from around £10,000 and rising to £12,495 which puts it in direct comparison with its distant cousin, the Meriva as well as cars like the Hyundai Matrix and
Toyota Yaris Verso, When is all this niche-filling ever going to end? In chasing ever smaller groups of customers with infinitely modular car designs, manufacturers run the risk of confusing many potential buyers.
That said, the Idea is one of the better choices and despite its common engineering, it does enough to differentiate itself from its Punto roots to justify its own existence, something that a car like Fords Fusion singularly fails to pull off. After much publicised financial difficulties, its good to see Fiat producing cars that you could countenance buying. The Idea is but one of a series of models that look set to put the Italian giant back on the right track. It might be difficult to categorise but its significance is very easy to grasp.
FACTS AT A GLANCE
CAR: Fiat Idea range
PRICES: £9,995-£12,495 - on the road
INSURANCE GROUPS: 4-5
CO2 EMISSIONS: 135-175g/km
PERFORMANCE: [1.4] 0-60mph 11.3s / Max Speed 109mph
FUEL CONSUMPTION: [1.3 Multijet] [urban] 45.6mpg
STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: twin front, side and curtain airbags, ABS
WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/Width/Height 3980/1695/1762mm
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