Bravo becomes Ritmo

FIAT has revealed the nameplate that will grace Australia's version of the all-new Bravo small car to be launched Down Under in October.

Bravo replaces Fiat's unsuccessful Stilo in the Italian car-maker's global range but Australian Fiat importer Ateco Automotive cannot use the model name here because it graces Mazda's previous-generation utility workhorse.

Instead, from a total of about 12 names considered by Ateco and Fiat, Ritmo is the name chosen to appear on the Bravo in Australia.

The Ritmo (which is derived from the Italian word for rhythm and is often seen in the phrase ‘ritmo de vida’, which directly translates to ‘the rhythm of life’) made its global premiere at the Geneva motor show in March and will make its Australian public debut at the 2007 Australian International Motor Show in Sydney on October 11.

The five-door mid-sized hatch goes on sale the same month, joining Fiat's Punto light hatch, which marked the reintroduction of Fiat passenger cars here last year.

Fiat Australia has also confirmed the Ritmo will be available here with a 110kW 1.9-litre Multijet turbo-diesel engine, plus a new 110kW turbocharged T-JET version of the 1.4-litre engine from the Punto.

"Ritmo, like Bravo, is a name that was used for one of the new model’s predecessors, a car that not only provided Fiat with strong sales in the 1970s and '80s, but which also produced what is often named as one of the world’s best remembered TV commercials of all time, "Hand-built by Robots," said the general manager of Fiat cars in Australia, David Stone.

"That advertisement marked the achievement that the original Ritmo was the first car to be built almost entirely by robots, now an industry standard, and demonstrated the Fiat Group’s domination in the automated car production line market with its ‘Robotgate’ production lines."