Fiat Tipo: Can the new hatchback compete with the likes of Ford and Vauxhall?

Well, in reality, it’s really just the badge that’s made a return. After all Fiat has had the Stilo, Bravo and Brava in this sector between then and now so this is really the Italian firm’s latest offering in the Ford Focus, Vauxhall Astra and VW Golf class.

The only problem is that things have rather moved on. That family hatchback class is now more fiercely fought than ever and even the “second tier” – Honda Civic, Kia Ceed, Hyundai i30 – have plenty of attributes to recommend them.

Fiat is honest enough about aiming for exactly that second tier with this new Tipo, although it’s a bit of an odd admission that it can’t hope to compete on a level with the likes of Ford, Vauxhall and VW.

Certainly it looks inoffensive enough. The old eye-catching angular shape has gone and in its place are smooth lines that aren’t ugly but, by the same degree, won’t make it stand out from the crowd. As anonymous motoring goes, this latest Tipo is the ultimate automotive camouflage.

Not that you’ll be able to hide for long when you turn the ignition key on this 1.6-litre turbo-diesel version of the Tipo.With 120bhp, it’s certainly not the quietest of powerplants even when warmed up. It does 0 to 60mph in 9.8 seconds and has a 124mph top speed. That’s swift enough, rather than earth-shattering, but the 76.3mpg average fuel economy and 98g/km emissions are respectable.

The engine boasts a decent amount of grunt, too, which is just as well as the rest of the driving experience leaves much to be desired. The steering is accurate enough but lacks any real feel about what the car is doing beneath you, while the gear change is sloppy and the ride quality is far too unsettled for this class of car.

Overall you can’t help but feel disappointed and wonder whether Fiat’s engineers have perhaps under-estimated how far their rivals, even in that second tier, have come on in recent years. It’s hard to think of a single rival in the sector, even some of the worst ones, that can’t out-point it in one area or another.

Unfortunately, the news doesn’t get much better inside, either. The plastics used throughout the cabin are just far too cheap to the eye and the touch and while our Lounge version had a touch-screen with bluetooth and sat nav, at 5ins diagonal the screen was far too small to use for directions on the move.

Annoyingly it doesn’t remember your preference for the map in terms of the compass and zoom settings, which revert to a basic format each time. What’s even more strange is that Fiat seems to have made fairly basic mistakes in terms of layout and everyday ease-of-use for the Tipo.

The typeface on the dials is simply horrid and the digital readout has a grey shadow behind the numbers (rather like those trendy number plates of a few years ago) that can make them hard to make out at times.

The beam from the headlights are poor, making you strain your eyes when driving at night, and we’ve even got concerns about the Tipo’s build quality as elements such as the bonnet release fell off on our test car.

On their own these items might be frustrations rather than anything more significant, but taken together they suggest something else.

As we said earlier, it’s hard to think of a single reason why anyone would buy the Tipo over virtually any other car in the class. There’s a big boot and a decent amount of space but the mainstream models from Ford, Vauxhall and VW we mentioned earlier are simply in a different ballpark altogether and even those second tier models are considerably better on many levels. It’s almost as if nobody from Fiat has driven a car in this sector for the past 10 years.

Back in 1989, when the original Tipo made its first appearance, it was among the best in class – hence that Car of the Year gong. Since then several car manufacturers have been able to get away with offering lacklustre cars, picking up sales simply for being in the sector. Not any more though. Today’s buyers are savvier, wiser and have a better choice than ever of good cars and as a result sales of this new Fiat Tipo might end up paying the price.

LOGBOOK LOWDOWN

• Price: from £16,995
• Engine: Turbo-diesel – 1.6-litre
• Power: 0 to 60mph in 9.8 seconds, 124mph top speed
• Fuel economy: 76.3mpg CO2 emissions: 98g/km
• Rivals: Ford Focus, Hyundai i30, Kia Ceed, Peugeot 308, Vauxhall Astra Rating: 5/10