A look at the Fiat Bravo.
The Fiat Bravo and the short history of its newest model.
The Fiat Bravo has been marketed as a small family car which was originally launched in 2007, taking the same name of its predecessor that was rolled off the production line between 1995 and 2001. The 2007 model was given its first outing at the Geneva Motor Show and could truly be said to be international, with parts made in Italy and Brazil, whilst the car also had parts engineered by an Austrian-Canadian company.
It was the Fiat Style Centre that designed the car in Italy, however it was Magna-Steyr who were based in Austria who were challenged with engineering most of the car’s body. Despite it sharing the same name as the 1990s model, the Fiat Bravo actually takes its inspiration from the Fiat Stilo and the Lancia Delta.
Built as a five door hatchback, the Fiat Bravo comes as an FF layout and can run on petrol, LPG and diesel engines. The LPG offers a 1.4 litre engine, similar to the petrol engine which can also offer a 1.8 litre engine. The diesel engines range from 1.6 litre through to 1.9 litre engines and supported by transmission, which come as a five speed manual, six speed manual or five or six speed dualogic.
Like other newer Fiat models the Fiat Bravo comes with Blue&me, a device created with Microsoft which offers the driver hands-free mobile equipment. Alongside this is the ability for SMS messages to be displayed on the dash screen and an inbuilt voice activation. With other technological advances it is clear that the Bravo is at the forefront of the new technology and makes the drive a lot easier for motorists.
The safety record of the Bravo is superb for adults in the car, very good for children who are travelling as passengers but only average for of the car catches a pedestrian. When the Bravo was put through its paces for the Euro NCAP tests in Belgium the car received five out of five stars for adult safety, four out of five for child safety but only two out of four for pedestrian safety.