Fiat is reviving the Ritmo name ‘down under’ in Australia.
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The Ritmo badge was previously used on a 1980s predecessor of the new Bravo in some markets and was renamed the Strada in others.
Fiat’s distributor for Australia and New Zealand, Ateco Automotive, will call the new car Bravo in NZ when it goes on sale next month, but will revive the Ritmo monicker for Australia.
“Fiat have been forced by another car maker that has the local rights to the Bravo name to use the name Ritmo,” an Ateco spokesman in Sydney told just-auto.
“With Fiat being out of the Australian market for so long, the name of the new car was fairly academic for them,” Lawrie Malatios, Ateco’s general manager for Fiat in New Zealand said.
“But here we were very keen to use the Bravo name as the previous model to wear this name was one of the most successful Fiat models in New Zealand and we wanted to build on the warmth already felt for the Bravo name with the new model.”
Fiat will sell only the two top Bravo models in New Zealand – with the 1.4-litre, 110kW T-Jet petrol engine and the 110kW/305Nm 1.9-litre JTD turbodiesel.
The T-jet normally develops 206 Nm of torque but the press of a button provides turbocharger overboost and a temporary hike to 230 Nm.
“The arrival of the Bravo is the start of a very exciting period for Fiat in New Zealand,” added Malatios. His firm already imports the smaller Punto and a range of light commercial models and will add the new 500 city car next year.
In Australia, the Bravo will follow the Punto which recently re-launched Fiat passenger cars there after a long absence from the market. Ateco had previously been selling the Italian automaker’s light commercial models for some years.
