Fiat Freemont Urban Diesel 2013 Review

Price Guide (recommended price before statutory & delivery charges): $32,600
Options fitted to test car (not included in above price): Flexible seating (third row plus adjustable mid-row $1500); metallic paint ($450)
Crash rating: Four-star (ANCAP)
Fuel: Diesel
Claimed fuel economy (L/100km): 6.4
CO2 emissions (g/km): 169
Also consider: Holden Captiva 7 (from $35,490); Mahindra XUV500 (from $29,900); Ssangyong Stavic (from $29,990); Mitsubishi Outlander LS (from $40,990)

Over the last couple of years, Fiat-Chrysler has forgone upmarket ambitions in search of a niche at the value end of the local car market. That’s meant a dramatic shift downmarket for its tiny modern day 500, which arrived Down Under starting well over $20K, but is now available in base Pop form for less than $15K.

With the Freemont seven-seat SUV, the company has taken a different tack. The rebadged Dodge Journey serves two purposes for the Italo-American conglomerate. It gives the Fiat name a fast-track entrée into an important segment of the local market, while giving a bit of branding spice to well-priced but unexciting American product.

It still sells as a Dodge in this country, differentiated from the “Italian” fare by dibs on a 3.6-litre V6 petrol engine. Prices start just below this costliest Freemont’s $32,600 (plus on-road costs), and extend up to around $36K.

In petrol form, the four-cylinder Freemont starts at $25,990 (or $27K driveaway). The diesel-powered Urban-spec test vehicle we have here sits at the top of the Fiat range in price but not equipment. The mid-spec Urban’s the only one that gets the oiler -- a $4300 option that pushes it past the price of the better equipped but petrol-only Lounge ($30,300 plus ORCs).

Don’t expect any signature Italian gorgeousness indoors, either. The Fiat makeover pretty much starts and stops with the badgework. The interior, then, is suburban American: functional, ergonomically up to scratch, and devoid of eccentricity.

Where the Freemont compels is on value for your hard-earned: seven seats, a spacious and versatile interior, a generous equipment list and a willing yet thrifty engine, all for around $35K on the road.

The Urban standard equipment list includes keyless entry and start, dual-zone climate control, electric adjustment for the driver’s seat, rear parking sensors, heated folding wing mirrors, auto headlights and foglights front and rear. The mid-row seats get integrated child boosters and the 17-inch alloys get tyre pressure monitoring.

The 8.4-inch central control screen integrates a reversing camera, vehicle settings and audio with USB, auxiliary, Bluetooth and DVD inputs.

Mid-row seating offers decent leg- and footroom for grown-ups, although the seats themselves are a little short under thigh. Nice touches here include making them reclinable, and underfloor hidey-hole trays -- just one part of a thoughtful approach to storage all round. There are loads of places for drinks and nic-nacs throughout.

With the optional ($1500) third-row seating in place, life becomes a choice between people and cargo. Behind the back row there’s enough room for a couple of bits of hand luggage or a few bags of shopping. Even with the extra 100mm of legroom available by sliding second-row seats forward, the seats are realistically for kids only. But ingress and egress is easy enough, and they get air vents and drink holders.

With the third row folded away, load space expands to a decent 784 litres; flatten the mid-row and you’ve got 1461 litres. A luggage net comes standard to help hold things in place.

Up front, the cockpit is what one might expect of a largish SUV starting under $30K: aesthetically forgettable but comfortable, with sufficient seat and tilt/telescopic steering adjustment for pretty much anybody to settle in. The plastics are a bit, well, plasticky, but fit and finish are up to scratch for the price. Rear and side vision are decent, but we found forward vision hampered by the thickness and rake of the A-pillars.

An odd omission from the kit list is automatic transmission. The diesel comes with six-speed manual only, so if you’re after an auto, you’re stuck with the 2.4-litre petrol four.

Married to the manual, the Freemont’s 125kW 2.0-litre oiler keeps you busy around town. Turning on its 350Nm from 1750-2500rpm and maintaining most of it well beyond, it has no problem even with 1843kg of car plus people and stuff. It will also tow up to 1250kg braked.

But it takes a fair bit of shifting up and down to keep it sweet. The shift action is pretty ordinary, but the clutch is light and easy and the combined action’s not hard to get used to.

The upside is fuel economy. With a little care, we found the 8.3L/100km official urban consumption figure reachable, although it was closer to 9.0 driven without thought. Against an official highway figure of 5.3, a relatively short and unladen highway/freeway run yielded late fives without effort.

Downstairs, the Freemont is skewed towards handling over ride, something Fiat says its engineers intended in differentiating it from the donor Dodge.

For a high-rider it’s quite assured through bends at the kinds of speeds it’s made for, though it does start showing signs of discomfort on the rough stuff. The damping soaks up most of what it gets from suburban roads, albeit with a bit of bump and thud when the going gets tougher. For NVH it’s no Lexus, but it’s pretty quiet and unfussed inside. The only noise intrusions come with coarse chips and when you push the engine well beyond its comfort zone.

The steering’s on par for a vehicle of this kind -- a bit vague round 12 o’clock, but linear enough to please through changes of direction. Although we didn’t put the brakes to any major stress test, it’s clear they’re well up to anything drivers will serve up in a car like this, dry and wet.

The Freemont earned a four-star ANCAP crash rating with front, side and curtain airbags, a full-length extension to the latter included with the third-row option. The now normal collection of brake and chassis electronics are supplemented by hill-start assist and electronic rollover mitigation -- an extension to the stability control system that helps reduce the risk of rolling.

In short, the Freemont embodies nothing more or less than you’d expect of mass-market SUVs: adequate rather than great driving dynamics, adequate build quality, adequate ergonomics and uninspiring visuals.

Where everything falls into place is on a value equation that thumps natural competitors from the likes of Holden and Mitsubishi on price, and not so obvious ones from Mahindra and Ssangyong on driving dynamics, brand power and therefore resale.

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