A Date With Sweet Ritmo
Newcastle Herald
Saturday August 2, 2008
RITMO. It's Italian for rhythm. Has Fiat's latest small car arrival got rhythm? Well, kinda, but it has a lot more going for it in terms of sex appeal and if you met it in a singles bar you would probably ask it out on a date.
Yes, in a class dominated by anonymous boxes, Ritmo stands out with its pouting mouth, seductive forward styling and well-rounded rump.It is not all form over function, though, because Ritmo has an interior roomy enough for five at a pinch, four in comfort and even the rear legroom is suitable for people taller than kids. And should you want to chuck in a bit of luggage, maybe the spoils of war from the shopping trip or just the general dross of life, there is 400 litres of boot space at your disposal that can be boosted to almost 1200 litres if the back seat is folded.There is even a fair degree of cleverness under the bonnet where, instead of a largish lump of conventional engine, there is a quite petite 1.4-litre, four-cylinder with an intercooled turbocharger attached and twin overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder getting the fuel in and the gas out.The 1.4 Turbo is good for 110 kilowatts of power at a non-stratospheric 5500rpm and a very handy 230 Newton metres of torque at 3000rpm. Connected to a six-speed manual transmission it gives the Fiat the snappy kind of performance it might need to flick around Rome or Turin before blasting along a favourite autostrada. Fiat's little engine isn't too shabby, quickly spinning up to its rev peak when the throttle is floored and delivering without any sign of turbo lag. And if you want extra sharpness try the "Sport" button, which changes the engine's electronic mapping and increases the urgency a little.If there is anything holding it back it is the six-speed transmission which has ratios that seem quite tall (for maximum fuel economy, we'd suggest) to the point where trying to be lazy and run in a higher cog has the thing bogging down until the revs rise to a point where the powertrain can catch up with itself. It is gutsy, though, and quite quick, while returning reasonable fuel economy figures. Official figures give it a 7.1 litres/100km average. We managed a slightly less-thrifty 8.5 litres/100km.The six-speeder is a fairly sweet little thing to use, too, light and accurate and mated to a clutch that is quick and short of travel. About the only complaint is that the shifter is heavily spring-loaded towards the third-fourth plane and can be wrong-slotted by inattentive drivers.When it does come time to give the Ritmo a serious punt it is well up to the job. The suspension on our Sport model was not exactly high tech with its independent MacPherson strut front end and a torsion beam rear axle located by telescopic dampers and an anti-roll bar.The ride is firm on good surfaces, bordering on harsh on the not-so-good and not really helped by big (17x7-inch) alloy wheels wearing 225/45 tyres. But damn, they look good!But Ritmo Sport is a fun drive nevertheless with well-balanced and nicely weighted steering that is pin sharp and blindingly accurate and a comprehensive chassis electronics package that works without being intrusive. There is some road noise but, frankly, only the clueless would expect otherwise.Braking is by four reasonably big discs and they can pull the 1275 kilograms to stop quickly and without fade after repeated use. By the way, "Sport" in Fiatspeak means playing dress-up rather than doing anything terribly major, like adding a big exhaust or a radical turbo tweak. To that end and compared to the Emotion model the car gets the previously mentioned bigger wheels and tyres, a full body kit, leather steering wheel with matching gear lever and handbrake, sports instrument graphics and cool alloy pedals.When it comes to habitation the five-door Fiat is a pretty good place to be. The seats are reasonably comfortable and very adjustable and while they have been made to look sporty they really are not. A nice use of fabrics and colours, though.The A-pillars either side of the windscreen are thick enough to block sight lines on right turns and once we actually "lost" a cyclist on a roundabout because the pillar blocked the view.Similarly, the B-, or side, pillar is also quite wide, and really, it just goes to show the lengths to which car makers have to go to earn high crash test safety ratings.It is all very tactile inside, very touchy-feely, from the seat fabric right through to the pleasantly odd basketweave effect on the dashtop plastics.What did not go down well was the main instrument treatment. They might be big and they might be well-placed but the colour scheme light grey graphics on a dark grey background is hard to read in good light, impossible to read in bad light and only any good at night when the lights make the numerals glow a visible red.It might only be speculation, but we also had to wonder about how an air-conditioning system designed for mild European summers will cope with an Aussie blast furnace. Even a warm July day had it working hard.If Ritmo Sport has a downside, though, it is in its pricing. A small hatchback with a $33,000 ask is perhaps a bit high in comparison to some of its rivals.Or is it simply that some sultry Italians are just a bit more financially demanding?Ritmo's steering is pin sharp and blindingly accurate.FIAT RITMOSPORTPRICE$32,990 (plus onroad costs)DIMENSIONSLength ........................................4336mmWidth ..........................................1792mmHeight ........................................1498mmWheelbase .................................2600mmTracks (f/r) .................1538mm/1532mmTurning circle ................................ 10.4mWeight ...........................................1275kgMECHANICALFuel-injected, 1368cc, inline four-cylinderwith double overhead camshafts, fourvalves per cylinder and intercooled turbocharger,110kW at 5500rpm, 230Nm at3000rpm. Six-speed manual.CHASSISFront, transverse engine, front-wheel-drive,electrically-assisted rack and pinion steering,power-assisted four-wheel disc brakeswith anti-lock and electronic brakeforce distribution,electronic stability, traction control.17x7-inch alloy wheels, 225/45R17 tyres.SUSPENSIONIndependent MacPherson struts, telescopicdampers, coil springs and anti-roll bar front,torsion beam rear axle, telescopic dampersand anti-roll bar.FUEL TYPE/CAPACITYPremium/58litres.FUEL ECONOMY7.1l/100km (ADR81/01 combined average).MAIN RIVALSCitroen C4, Peugeot 307, Renault Megane,Volkswagen Golf.
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