At the recent 77th Paris Mondial de l'Automobile Fiat Auto released a detailed investor presentation that offered more information about their aspirations for the new Bravo model as well as two images offering pointers towards the new C-segment model. While the two impressions are not a final look at the completed car (the detailing in fact differs between each image) they do clearly point to the overall shape of the Bravo, matching closely the car's lines which have already been seen on the Bravo's sister, the Lancia Delta HPE, which was presented in concept form last month in Paris.

The Turinese carmaker sees the new Bravo (and also the new 500 model due next September) as "opening a new stage in the Fiat brand's journey", picking up the baton passed on to them after the recent market arrival of the Croma, Sedici, Panda Cross and the highly-successful Grande Punto model range, and slotting in very neatly before the next-generation Panda and other models arrives a year or two later. Fiat regards the new Bravo as an ideal car to slot into the competitive European C-segment as it will provide "Emotion" (sexy Italian design, smart driving, wants to be noticed), "Accessibility" (no frills easy-to-use technology, a car for all uses, good value for money) and "Solidity" (quality, reliability, safety).

The presentation also confirmed that this car is breaking new ground with its "exclusive use of virtual engineering with no use of physical prototypes; 18 months from design freeze to production and the first units built directly on assembly line using actual tooling". The project development time was in fact reduced from a projected 32 months to just 18 months thanks to the use of computer technology to fully create the car (which is codenamed Progetto 198).
 

The project was carried out in conjunction with Austrian-based specialist engineering concern, Magna-Steyr, and the first prototypes, which are already on the roads, have been built on the actual production line which is now in place at the Cassino plant where its production will commence in full early next year.

Fiat Auto in the Paris presentation also lay clear emphasise on the Bravo's "Italian Design" (Sportiness, sharing family DNA with Grande Punto, ideal C-segment size); "Perceived Quality" (Excellent quality indicators; Materials and interior trims; Customization, ie: colours, sport and option packs); "Roominess" (Comfortably seating 5 people, very good trunk capacity (Best-in-class safety; Aiming at 5 EuroNcap stars) "New Powertrain Range" (1.4 turbocharged gas engine; New 1.6 diesel engine.

Finally they add that the Bravo's production target for 2007 will be 120,000 units: it is expected to arrive in the Italian showrooms around the time it is officially launched to the public at the Geneva Motor Show in the spring. An expected targeted of 250,000 units per year is most likely to arrive in 2008, by which time the Bravo will have been rolled out right across Europe.