Fiat has drawn the digital screen of the all-new Strada in South America. The practical Fiat will be available with two and four doors.
At the beginning of 2019, the first photos of a very remarkable test model from Fiat surfaced. The test model sprinkled with angular fake sheet metal parts seemed to be the new generation Fiat Strada, and that turned out to be correct. Fiat showed the first computer drawings of that new pick-up at the beginning of this year. The design of this new practical Fiat is no longer a big surprise.
Nevertheless, the new Strada is very welcome. After all, the current model was basically launched in 1996. The Strada has been a relatively simple front-wheel drive pickup for almost 25 years, sharing its base with the Palio, a car whose station version, the Palio Weekend, was also sold in the Netherlands. This completely new Strada is no longer a Palio, but a car that shares its technology with the Argo and therefore also with the Cronos, respectively a compact hatchback and a compact sedan that Fiat sells in Brazil, among others. The appearance of the Strada is clearly inspired by that of the Fiat Toro, also a pick-up that you cannot buy in the Netherlands.
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The Strada is 4.48 meters long, 1.74 meters wide and 1.6 meters high. The distance between the front and rear axle is 2.74 meters. This makes the Fiat roughly as long as a hatchback in the C-segment. Big brother Toro is a lot bigger with his height of 4.92. The Strada is in all cases a four-wheel drive that is available with a single or double cabin. The latter version has two rear doors. The Strada with only two doors has a load capacity of 650 kilos and has a loading platform that is 1.17 meters deep. The two-door variant has a payload of 720 kilos and a deeper body. How much bigger exactly, Fiat does not mention. We do know that the four-door swallows up 844 liters and that the two-door version kicks it up to 1,354 liters. Fiat naturally puts engines from the new Firefly family on the engine list. There is a 109 hp and 139 Nm strong 1.3 available, although Fiat also simply supplies an 88 hp and 123 Nm strong 1.4, an old Fire engine.
The dashboard of the Strada cannot be compared to that of its Cronos and Argos brothers. The interior is a lot tougher, complete with a centrally placed infotainment screen flanked by two large outlets of the ventilation system. The whole looks almost Ram-like. That is not surprising. FCA Automobiles has the outgoing Fiat Strada in Mexico on the order lists as Ram 700, among others. Don’t be surprised if this new Strada also gets horns stuck on its head in the long term.