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There are high-cubes and then there are high cubes...Fiat's new Fiorino is a revamp of a long-lived design. Its the biggest high-cube yet, and at a low price. But is bigger better?
Cast your mind back—no, further than
that to a time long, long ago, when Madonna was still slightly interesting and there was hardly any choice if you wanted a car-derived van with decent load volume. In fact it's only five years ago that the high-cube van was thought of as a Continental speciality: its leading exponents were Citroen (with the C15), Renault (with the Extra) and Fiat. It was in 1989 that the Uno-derived Fiorino took over from the Fiat 127-based model, launched a decade before, as Fiat sought to see off the French competition.
But the scenery has changed. Ford decided to raise the stakes and came up with the Courier; Nissan followed with the Sunny Van then, last year, Vauxhall replaced the Astramax with the Combo. GM's aggressive pricing and marketing prompted Ford to drop the price of the Courier, making the high-cube market ("Segment 1B" to the marketing men) as competitive as any in the commercial vehicle industry.
Now Fiat's trying to catch up with the market and hoping to overtake it: the latest version of the Fiorino, launched last December, is much bigger than before, and claimed to be much better. But is it good enough?
The latest Fiorino was greeted with some disappointment by the European press: the new model looked remarkably like the old one, while many had hoped that it would be based on the Punto, Fiat's successor to the Lino. But the new arrival—also built by Fiat's Brazilian arm—offered 20% more load volume and 15% more payload than before, along with a range of engines that would comply with forthcoming European emissions regulations.
• PRODUCT PROFILE
When CM tested the previous model five years ago, we came up with a number of misgivings and suggestions: the cabin lacked headroom and legroom; handling was a little uneasy at times; rear vision was poor, but we predicted that Fiat would have little difficulty selling its UK quota.
The full range of vans, pickups and "Panorama" four-seater vans is not available in the UK; neither are the 1.4-litre 67hp (50kW) or 1.6-litre 75hp (56kW) catalysed petrol engines here yet. The British buyer has the simple choice between a 1.7-litre diesel and,.er, that's about it. The 1.3-litre 67hp uncatalysed petrol engine is no longer offered: it will no longer meet EC emissions requirements
On the Continent Fiat offers a variety of interesting options such as a self-contained refrigerated container module for the pickup, an insulated "cell" (for the van) and a roller. shutter side door, as well as conventional racking kits and a slide-out floor. None of these is available in the UK, although you can specify a useful flap at the rear of the roof II* 4 which allows long items to protrude. This is similar to the arrangement seen on the Renault Extra (and the Renault 4 Van before it). It costs .E165; we suggested that this feature would be useful in our last test of the Fiorino so maybe someone was listening.
• PRODUCTIVITY
Fiat's original press release caused some hilarity by praising the new Fiorino's range of "parsimonious" engines; it's all very well being careful in the use of resources, but that's no excuse for stinginess.
However, Fiat Auto (UK) has done itself no favours by sending CMa van with less than a thousand miles on the clock. The engine of our test vehicle felt tight and restricted; there was some improvement in the course of our 700-odd miles of testing, but it never felt fully run-in. That helps explain some thor. oughly mediocre fuel consumption results: laden, round our (admittedly taxing) Kent test route it managed 36.1mpg, which is beaten by every one of its competitors.
Only the Renault Extra 775, with a similar gross weight but much larger payload and bigger engine, came close.
Fast unladen motorway driving resulted in similar fuel consumption figures, though here "fast" is relative: while the Combo, Courier or Sunny vans will happily nip up to the speed limit and stay there, an uphill 70mph became something of a struggle in our Fiorino. Hillclimb times were between 10 and 20% down on the Combo. Our average speeds round the Kent route look particularly unimpressive but to be fair we were hampered by roadworks.
However, the Fiorino may yet win point-topoint races by virtue of its massive 64-litre fuel tank (the Combo can only muster 50 litres). It should give a range of around 600 miles when the van is fully run in.
The Fiorino's payload is good: 545kg is 30 or 40kg more than most of the competition, though it can't match heavyweights such as the Combo 775 and Extra 775, which offer around 150kg more. Incidentally, all versions (petrol or diesel) of the Fiorino have the same payload as Fiat adjusts the GVW to suit.
What most users will be impressed by, we are sure, is the Fiorino's load space. At 3.2m3 it is the largest of the high-cubes by a good margin (almost 20% up on the Combo or Sunny) and, best of all, it's all usable. The Fiorino is much higher and narrower than the competition.
The loadspace is 100mm taller and 200mm narrower than that of the benchmark Combo but the wheelarches are not too intrusive (the minimum width is just 40rnrn less than the Combo's). What makes the difference is the length of the Fiorino's load area: at 1.76m maximum it is 660mm longer than the Combo's.
The Fiorino's floor is lower than most of its competitors', thanks to the spare wheel being mounted up front, but access to the front of the load space may be a problem with heavy loads; the sliding floor or roller shutter door could be a solution.
The one option that is available, the rear load flap, is well made (from body-coloured pressed steel) and held up by a gas strut. The reinforcing crossbar beneath it, to which the rear doors latch, is agricultural by comparison. it is hinged at the nearside end and locked by a sprung, sliding bolt at the other end. Unfortunately, when unlocked it swings down all too easily (and violently) into the nearside door pillar. We suspect that in service much paint will be scraped this way.
The rear load flap serves the secondary purpose of improving ventilation through the van—Fiat has the gall to promote this as a feature. A more welcome standard feature is the steel half-bulkhead with a mesh upper section.
The engine is packed in fairly tightly, along with the spare wheel, but inspection and maintenance of other components should be easy. For instance, the rear brake drums have inspection apertures for checking lining wear in situ, and they are easily accessible.
• ON THE ROAD If our Fiorino was hardly parsimonious in fuel consumption it was certainly mean in acceleration. Laden, we were barely able to reach 80km/h from rest on our usual timing straight: the average time of 24.8 seconds compares very poorly with the Combo's 14.1 seconds, despite a nominally similar power output and gross weight. But the Fiat's diesel feels thin compared to the flexible Isuzu unit in the Vauxhall, which manages to get to 80kinth in only three gears. The Fiat is pretty short-geared in fact, with a top gear roughly comparable to the Vauxhall's fourth, so motorway driving feels a little frantic,
In-gear acceleration was nothing special either; this is not the van to take if you're in a hurry. Gear-changing was notchy, with a tricky first gear, hut this may improve with use. The clutch pedal had long travel with a heavily sprung area in the middle.
The Fiat's handling is predictable: fat 70profile Pirellis offer plenty of grip and the long wheelbase (120mm longer than the Combo, despite a smaller overall length) makes it very stable; in fact it can take a fair wrench of the unassisted power steering to change direction on twisty A-roads.
The steering is acceptably light at parking speeds, though it lacks feel, and the long wheelbase means that the turning circle is not as tight as it could be. Ride is well up to standard for the class, laden or not, though there" is a fair bit of body roll on hard cornering.
Fiat is proud of the beefed-up braking system fitted to the new model, and it is up to scratch, though perhaps over-senmed. It was all too easy to lock the wheels up on a dry road and this affected our measured brake performance though the peak deceleration reading from 321cm/h was tremendous.
Fiat has answered our criticisms of rear vision conclusively, with superb door mirrors that match the Combo's. 'These, together with the sharp corners and slab sides of the bodywork, make parking a piece of tiramisu.
• CAB COMFORT Fiat has answered criticisms of the earlier van's headroom by raising the roof (and losing the vestigial roof-rack, which was of little use in any case). This is more than welcome, but there has been no effort to move the bulkhead back so legroom is still limited.
The accelerator pedal is still mounted a little high, while the steering column is low, forcing an uncomfortable sideways angle on this tester's right knee.
The fascia is dressed in basic black, and basic is the word to describe the rest of the interior features. Here the Fiorino is well behind the times in its class: the seats are difficult to adjust (and hardly worth adjusting in any case); the door pockets would barely accommodate a driving licence; and the glove box is taken up almost entirely by the owner's manual. The Fiorino completely fails CM'S clipboard-and-coke-can test: there is very little space, even behind the seats.
But the most striking feature of all is the apparent absence of a cigar lighter or ashtray. Where does the van-driver put his Polo wrappers? Or plug in her laptop computer? In fact, they are cunningly hidden under a flap,where only the most ardent manual-readers will find them. Central locking is now a standard feature of some of the competition, but the Fiat lacks even the conventional conveniences: the passenger door can only be locked when closed.
Noise levels are far from state-of-the-art wind roar is especially prominent at motorway speeds but they are certainly bearable. A long-term irritation (and an inexcusable design fault) is the vibration at idle.
Resting a foot lightly on the accelerator pedal at idle adds a couple of hundred revs and cuts noise levels by a decibel or two.
• SUMMARY
They must read CM in Brazil: our earlier criticisms have been answered almost exactly. We are flattered, but in following our suggestions Fiat may have lost sight of the ball: the competition has moved on not just in terms of loadspace but also in driver comfort and extras. The Fiorino lacks the refinement and performance of the latest crop of high-cubes, though we will reserve judgment on its fuel consumption until we try a properly run-in model.
Where the Fiorino succeeds, and in a big way, is in value for money and load volume. Build quality is acceptable, the price is significantly lower than most of the competition (apart from the long-lived Citroen C15). The warranty is excellent and the load volume is unmatched. In fact the Fiorino's price ought to encourage imaginative bodybuilding and fitting-out to make the most of that tremendous load space. It will tempt operators who would otherwise opt for a microvan and may even attract some from the smaller panel vans.
Madonna isn't alone in trying to reinvent herself; Fiat has attempted the same trick with the Fiorino. However the "new" model should find a niche and Brazil can be congratulated on producing a van with the enduring, if quirky, appeal of Carmen Miranda.