This is a Fiat Ottimo, seen on a hot summer morning in the Chinese capital Beijing. The Ottimo was in good shape, painted in a classy color called Sapphire Blue, and fitted with the original multispoke alloy wheels.
The Fiat Ottimo is a compact hatchback developed for the Chinese car market by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA). The Ottimo was based on the Fiat Compact Wide platform. It shared much of its underpinnings with the Dodge Dart. The Fiat Ottimo was made in China by the GAC-FCA joint venture from 2013 until 2017, with a small facelift in 2015. The car that I saw is an original pre-facelift car. The Chinese name of the Ottimo was 致悦 (致悦, lit.: Delight). Fiat also sold a sedan variant called the Fiat Viaggio.
The Fiat Ottimo was marketed as a sporty car, so it had sports seats with red stitching and a 3-spoke steering wheel. The owner of this car added fancy red neck pillows and a net between the front seats. Perhaps the owner had a kid who threw all sorts of stuff around from the back bench. Better be careful with that!
Fiat offered two engines for the Ottimo (they only offered one for the Viaggio): a 1.4 turbo with 120 hp or a 1.4 turbo with 150 hp. Each variant was available with a 5-speed manual or a 7-speed DCT. The car that I saw is a top-spec 150-hp version with the DCT gearbox. It sold for 158.800 yuan in 2014.
A major design trend in China in the 2010s was large light units. It sometimes seemed like car makers were competing who could fit the largest lights. Fiat joined the party! These rear lights are about as large as they can be, there just isn’t any space to fit larger lights.
Characters: 广汽菲亚特, Guǎngqì Fēiyàtè, GAC Fiat.
The Fiat Viaggio sedan sold much better than this Ottimo hatchback, so the latter is way rarer. At the time, sedans were generally more popular than hatchbacks. Sadly, sales of the GAC-FCA joint venture were not good enough in any way, and in 2023 the joint venture went bankrupt.
A sad end for Fiat in the largest car market in the world. And it wasn’t the first time. Back in 2007, Fiat discontinued an earlier joint venture with Nanjing Auto, which made the Siena sedan and Palio hatchback. There are currently no plans to bring the Fiat brand back to China for a third time.