Ciao all you Fiat Fanatics!
I've been a member of the Forum for about 10 years, having joined when we retired from Italy back to NZ in 2011 and purchased my mum's ex-Japan market 2000 Punto ELX 1.2 16V 4-speed auto. Sold in 2015 when we moved back to Italy and purchased a 2010 Lancia Musa, for which I did find some useful info (for Idea) on the forum.
However, my Fiat-centric interests date back much earlier than that, as the first Fiat was a '80 X1/9 1.5, purchased in 1990. Shortly after that the ag equipment company I worked for became NZ distributor for Fiatagri (Fiat's ag equipment division, now CNH) and I was appointed NZ Brand Manager. The X1/9 was an effective "icebreaker" with all the skeptical Fiatagri dealers!.
When a new NZ Fiat Auto distributor was appointed in 1995 after a long hiatus I ordered a new 1996 Brava 1.8 ELX, not long after the NZ launch. Then in '97 I moved to Sydney with New Holland Oz (as Fiatagri had morphed into). No Fiat Auto distributor in Oz at that time, so it was back to driving Ford Falcons. In 2000 I transferred to New Holland in Modena, Italy as a Product Marketing Manager in their Africa, Middle East & Asia marketing group. A succession of company-facilitated new cars followed, including '00 Alfa 146 1.9TD blue, '01 Alfa 147 1.6 black, '02 Stilo 3-dr JTD blue, '04 Stilo 3-dr JTD red, '06 Panda Cross MJT orange (purchased after 12 months), '07 Lancia Musa MJT burgundy met., '08 Punto Grande 3-dr JTD red, '09 Alfa MiTo 1.4T red.
The plan was to take the Panda Cross with us to NZ after we retired (my wife also worked for New Holland/CNH in Modena, primary reason for my move there in 2000), but the NZ RTA changed the rules on LHD cars which made it illegal for importation (as an OE RHD version was available). In its place we purchased an '07 Jeep Cherokee CRD in red met. from Charles Hurst Belfast in 2010, had it delivered to a CNH colleague's home in Kent & drove it back to Italy (first Jeep on the CNH site after Fiat bought Chrysler Jeep in '09). Intended to ship the Jeep from Italy with our household goods but it was way cheaper to ship from UK, so another drive Italy-UK in November 2010!
We had been waiting for the new small Jeep which should be launched next year as the Renegade is a bit too big our needs these days but decided an interim Panda Cross would do nicely and give the Stellantis effect time to work through the system. It was going to be a hybrid, but when I realised how much less power/torque it has we went for the 4x4 TwinAir Turbo 64kW in Giallo Sole (as it's called for the Italian market).
Hopefully, we'll have it around the end of this month!
I'm not able to upload pics yet, so they will have to wait.
Cheers from sunny Italy
I've been a member of the Forum for about 10 years, having joined when we retired from Italy back to NZ in 2011 and purchased my mum's ex-Japan market 2000 Punto ELX 1.2 16V 4-speed auto. Sold in 2015 when we moved back to Italy and purchased a 2010 Lancia Musa, for which I did find some useful info (for Idea) on the forum.
However, my Fiat-centric interests date back much earlier than that, as the first Fiat was a '80 X1/9 1.5, purchased in 1990. Shortly after that the ag equipment company I worked for became NZ distributor for Fiatagri (Fiat's ag equipment division, now CNH) and I was appointed NZ Brand Manager. The X1/9 was an effective "icebreaker" with all the skeptical Fiatagri dealers!.
When a new NZ Fiat Auto distributor was appointed in 1995 after a long hiatus I ordered a new 1996 Brava 1.8 ELX, not long after the NZ launch. Then in '97 I moved to Sydney with New Holland Oz (as Fiatagri had morphed into). No Fiat Auto distributor in Oz at that time, so it was back to driving Ford Falcons. In 2000 I transferred to New Holland in Modena, Italy as a Product Marketing Manager in their Africa, Middle East & Asia marketing group. A succession of company-facilitated new cars followed, including '00 Alfa 146 1.9TD blue, '01 Alfa 147 1.6 black, '02 Stilo 3-dr JTD blue, '04 Stilo 3-dr JTD red, '06 Panda Cross MJT orange (purchased after 12 months), '07 Lancia Musa MJT burgundy met., '08 Punto Grande 3-dr JTD red, '09 Alfa MiTo 1.4T red.
The plan was to take the Panda Cross with us to NZ after we retired (my wife also worked for New Holland/CNH in Modena, primary reason for my move there in 2000), but the NZ RTA changed the rules on LHD cars which made it illegal for importation (as an OE RHD version was available). In its place we purchased an '07 Jeep Cherokee CRD in red met. from Charles Hurst Belfast in 2010, had it delivered to a CNH colleague's home in Kent & drove it back to Italy (first Jeep on the CNH site after Fiat bought Chrysler Jeep in '09). Intended to ship the Jeep from Italy with our household goods but it was way cheaper to ship from UK, so another drive Italy-UK in November 2010!
We had been waiting for the new small Jeep which should be launched next year as the Renegade is a bit too big our needs these days but decided an interim Panda Cross would do nicely and give the Stellantis effect time to work through the system. It was going to be a hybrid, but when I realised how much less power/torque it has we went for the 4x4 TwinAir Turbo 64kW in Giallo Sole (as it's called for the Italian market).
Hopefully, we'll have it around the end of this month!
I'm not able to upload pics yet, so they will have to wait.
Cheers from sunny Italy