Fiat Re-Designs Its UK Site

In partnership with AKQA, a digital consulting agency, Fiat unveiled today its brand new UK website at www.fiat.co.uk. As you can see from the screenshots that we downloaded, the Italians did a pretty fine job in the artistic department, but then again what else did you expect from the people who designed the Grande Punto and the 500… Moreover, Fiat added a bundle of goodies including a one-screen car configurator with eschews drop-down menus, pages of options and small images, all on one screen. -Continued: Click "Read More..." below

Built entirely for broadband, the site also features full-screen 360° images of the interiors and exteriors of the cars, combined with a tailored voiceover to give potential customers an audio-visual tour of every model. Other goodies include the ability for visitors to contact with Fiat Customer Services and book or confirm a test drive, request maps for directions and model brochures, in real-time. We hopped over at Fiat.co.uk and fiddled around with the site. Quite interesting, though we have to admit that it seemed kind of slow.

Fiat 500: Italians Are Studying SUV And SW Derivatives

Fiat’s is determined to capitalize on the momentum by planning to introduce several derivatives of the recently introduced New 500. The Italian firm has already announced that it will unveil an Abarth performance version equipped with a 1.4-litre Turbo engine at the Tokyo Show in October and a convertible in 2008 (most probably in Geneva, March). Now, Fiat is considering whether it should plan a full-head attack by developing two more variants, an SUV/Crossover obviously based on the Panda 4x4 mechanics and a Station Wagon (pic above).

“By the end of the year, we expect to decide on the New 500 Station Wagon and SUV,” a Fiat executive told Automotive News Europe under condition of anonymity. From the looks of things, Fiat is pretty darn serious about it as they showed the Station Wagon version in a video during the New 500’s media introduction last week. In the clip, Fiat 500’s designer Roberto Giolito displayed the station wagon version, giving journalists a taste of what they should expect if plans go ahead. Sounds like Fiat Group’s CEO Sergio Marchionne has learned his lesson well from BMW’s MINI renaissance. Now if he could just find a way to get the 500 into the North American market...

Via: ANE

Fiat 500 Abarth: Official Presentation At The October Tokyo Show

Surprised? So are we. While most of us were expecting Fiat to unveil the turbocharged version of its 500 minicar at next year’s Geneva Show, yesterday, during the worldwide media presentation in Torino, Italy, Fiat Automobile’s CEO (not Fiat Group) Luca De Meo, announced that the 500 Abarth will make its public appearance at the forthcoming Tokyo Show this October!

We talked to several journalists that attended the media presentation in Torino, but unfortunately no one managed to dig out any information concerning the Abarth’s powertrain. We suspect though that the rang-topping 500 will wear the Grande Punto’s 1.4-liter turbocharged unit that’s available in 120Hp and 150Hp guises. Check out a video featuring a prototype 500 Abarth at the Nurburgring race track here.

New Fiat 500: 100 High-Res Images

We’re inaugurating our newly bought image space here on Carscoop -can’t have everything for free!, by presenting about 100 high-res pictures of Fiat’s highly anticipated Nuovo 500; a car that Fiat’s CEO Sergio Marchionne believes will become the Italian carmaker’s iPod. "I want Fiat to become the Apple of automobiles. And the 500 will be our iPod," Marchionne said in an interview published Wednesday on the Italian newspaper Turin daily La Stampa. With all the commotion surrounding the 500 in Europe, don’t be surprised if he actually manages to succeed in doing so. Later on we’ll add the full English press release, but for now, follow the jump to check out our humongous Fiat Nuovo 500 image gallery. -Click “read More…” below

Via: Autoblog.it , Source: Fiat