The Fiat Freemont - Dodge Journey with a Fiat badge
Fiat has revealed the Fiat Freemont ahead of its debut at Geneva. Based on the Dodge Journey it will go on sale in Europe in the Summer.
At the end of December we revealed that Fiat had decided they should take the Dodge Journey and turn it in to a Fiat. The Fiat Freemont – for that is what Fiat had decided to rename the Dodge Challenger for Europe – would effectively be a replacement for the Fiat Ulysse MPV.
It seems that Fiat has caught up with our story, so we now have official details on what the Freemont will offer. As expected, Fiat will have to pander to some European sensibilities if the Challenger is to be accepted as a European car. True, it will still be built in Mexico – alongside the Fiat 500 for North America – but it will be tweaked and fettled to make it feel like a European car.
Cosmetically the changes from Challenger to Freemont aren’t huge. The Freemont gets a Fiat grill, some new bumpers and LED lights. On the oily front, Fiat say the Freemont gets its suspension and steering tweaked for greater accuracy and directness, which you can read as ‘We’ve dialled out the Yank settings’.
The interior of the Freemont also benefits from a bit of de-Yanking, with some new soft-touch plastics and better quality materials, a titivated centre console and new instrument panel.
On the engine front it looks like there will be two versions of Fiat’s 2.0 litre Multijet diesel, offering either 138bhp or 168bhp. There are plans to add a version with Chrysler’s Pentastar V6 later and add 4WD as an option.
There will be just two trim levels on offer. Standard spec includes Climate, Cruise and Keyless Entry with the top spec adding 17″ alloys, Bluetooth and parking sensors.
The Fiat Freemont will debut at Geneva before going on sale throughout Europe in the Summer.
Will we get the Fiat Freemont in the UK? Maybe.
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