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Fiat 124 Spider to debut late 2015, go on sale worldwide from 2016 – report

A report indicates that the Fiat 124 Spider will make its debut at an end-of-the-year auto show before going on sale around the world during 2016.


Sources have told Edmunds that the Fiat 124 Spider will premiere at either the Frankfurt auto show in September or the Los Angeles auto show in November.

The Fiat 124 Spider will be based on the Mazda MX-5's rear-wheel drive platform. Unidentified people within Fiat Chrysler have told the American website that the Fiat 124 will be powered a turbocharged 1.4-litre four-cylinder engine, rather than the MX-5's 1.5- and 2.0-litre four-pot SkyActiv motors.

Regarding the car's styling, Jason Stoicevich, head of Fiat North America, told the US publication: "[The 124] will not be a rebadged MX-5. We will have our own style, our own stamp on it."


Above: The original Fiat 124 Sport Spider, which was launched in 1965.

The Fiat 124 Spider will be built alongside the MX-5 at Mazda's plant in Hiroshima, Japan. The collaboration between the Italian and Japanese car makers was initially set to yield an Alfa Romeo-badged car in addition to the fourth-generation Mazda roadster.

These plans were reportedly scuppered when Fiat Chrysler decided to refocus Alfa as a rear-wheel drive marque with all its models designed in-house and built in Italy.

The 124 Spider will be Fiat's first standalone convertible model since the front-wheel drive Barchetta (above), which was launched in 1995 and that went out of production in 2005.

Australian availability of the Mazda-based Fiat 124 Spider has yet to be confirmed.

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