Best-value estate ever from Fiat?

IF you’re not troubled by badge equity and don’t need irrelevant niceties of design, Fiat’s Tipo Station Wagon might actually be well worth a look.

This car comes from a project the Italian brand has jointly funded with the Tofas manufacturing firm in Turkey to create a simple, lowcost family model for developing markets in the Middle East and Africa. Selected European countries get it, too — ours being one of them.

That doesn’t mean that this can’t be a very credible contender in the ‘C’-segment estate category though. After all, it shares the same engines and high-strength modular steel platform that already feature in the Jeep Renegade and the Fiat 500L.

You get the same kind of infotainment technology, too, yet the manufacturing concept means Fiat can sell you a Tipo Station Wagon for thousands less than most competing brands will charge for a car in this class — Focus, Golf or Astra estates.

This Tipo has been set up to favour relaxed comfort rather than any kind of dynamic drive.

This is, after all, a car designed primarily around the needs of buyers in developing countries who simply want to get comfortably from A to B for the lowest possible price.

On the ‘what you’ll need’ side lies a frugal pair of MultiJet diesel engines — a 95bhp 1.3-litre unit and a 120bhp 1.6-litre powerplant, which is the one you’ll need if you want Fiat’s dual-clutch DCT automatic gearbox as an option.

For petrol lovers, there’s an entrylevel 95bhp 1.4-litre unit, a 120bhp 1.4-litre T-Jet turbo option and a 1.6-litre E-Torq variant.

Whatever your choice in engines, you’ll find that on the move the Tipo’s suspension is troubled only by really poor surfaces and body roll is well controlled through the bends. There’s also a neat ‘City’ button that lightens the steering for parking.

This Station Wagon estate bodystyle is more distinctive than its five-door hatch stablemate, but neither derivation is particularly recognisable as a Fiat. Perhaps that’s the idea. What’s important is that there’s plenty of room in the back — 550-litres to be exact. And you can make the most of the space thanks to a height-adjustable load platform floor.

The bottom line is if you’re looking for the best car in this segment, then this isn’t it. If you’re looking for the best value choice in the class, though, it might well be.

Prices sit in the £14,000 to £21,000 bracket — £1,000 over the alternative five-door hatchback bodystyle.