Fiat Strada ute won't come here

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Fiat importers for Australia, Ateco Automotive, says there's "no chance" of the Fiat Strada ute getting here.
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Neil Dowling

Contributing Journalist

1 min read

The Fiat Strada Sporting is the mini-ute for all reasons and most seasons and the only downside is that you have to go to Brazil to drive it.  The ute, based on the platform of the Strada and built in Brazil at one of Fiat's South American factories, is made only in left-hand drive.

Fiat importers for Australia, Ateco Automotive, says there's "no chance" of it getting here.  "It is a left hand drive only vehicle and has never been engineered for right hand drive," says cold water specialist Edward Rowe of Ateco.

The ute is based on the Strada Extended Cab and is powered by a 97kW/249Nm 1.8-litre four-cylinder driving the front wheels through a five-speed manual gearbox.

It is on sale at $BRL46,270, equivalent to about $27,000. Though that sounds expensive, it is hit with Brazil's high taxation regime.  By comparison, a Toyota Corolla in Brazil is equivalent to about $52,000 - a car that in Australia sells for $21,000.

Photo of Neil Dowling
Neil Dowling

Contributing Journalist

GoAutoMedia Cars have been the corner stone to Neil’s passion, beginning at pre-school age, through school but then pushed sideways while he studied accounting. It was rekindled when he started contributing to magazines including Bushdriver and then when he started a motoring section in Perth’s The Western Mail. He was then appointed as a finance writer for the evening Daily News, supplemented by writing its motoring column. He moved to The Sunday Times as finance editor and after a nine-year term, finally drove back into motoring when in 1998 he was asked to rebrand and restyle the newspaper’s motoring section, expanding it over 12 years from a two-page section to a 36-page lift-out. In 2010 he was selected to join News Ltd’s national motoring group Carsguide and covered national and international events, launches, news conferences and Car of the Year awards until November 2014 when he moved into freelancing, working for GoAuto, The West Australian, Western 4WDriver magazine, Bauer Media and as an online content writer for one of Australia’s biggest car groups. He has involved himself in all aspects including motorsport where he has competed in everything from motocross to motorkhanas and rallies including Targa West and the ARC Forest Rally. He loves all facets of the car industry, from design, manufacture, testing, marketing and even business structures and believes cars are one of the few high-volume consumables to combine a very high degree of engineering enlivened with an even higher degree of emotion from its consumers.
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