ROAD TEST
It’s a long way to Tiporary
Fiat promised much with its new Tipo, but it seriously underdelivered, says Mark Smyth
Earlier this month, Matt Prior, a motoring hack with Autocar in the UK, tweeted: "Which hire company has bought all the Fiat Tipos?" The tweet made me laugh, because I had only just given back the Tipo 1.6 Easy automatic hatchback that we had on test and his question hit the nail on the head. I laughed even more when a newsroom colleague asked me if it was an Opel Astra? No, I replied, although it does sit on a joint General Motors Fiat small car platform. But her question was appropriate because the styling of the Tipo could best be described as generic. From some angles it looks very Astra, from others more Peugeot 308. It has been designed by the stylish-sounding Centro Stilo, but there is nothing unique when it comes to its styling at all. Harking back to the days of the ad for the Fiat Palio, the new Tipo could easily be described as nice and the nicest bit about it is easily its price. Our test model retails at R294,900 for which you actually get quite a bit of car, including ...
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