Fiat Multijet drive - The engine story

Priyadarshan Bawikar      2 Nov 2009

"Fiat Diesel Drives India" might sound like a rather bold claim to make, but it's not entirely untrue either. Quite a few of the middle-order diesel-powered sedans and hatchbacks in the country are running a Fiat engine under the hood.

In fact, apart from the Italian auto giant's own line of cars in the country, diesel variants of the Swift and the Swift Dzire from Maruti as well as the Indica Vista and the Indigo Manza from Tata all run the same 1.3-litreMultijet motor, albeit in different states of tune. And it's not just in India that one finds this engine doing business in so many different cars. Even in Europe, a whole range of auto manufacturers use Fiat's 1.3-litre Multijet motor to power their diesel cars. And if that wasn't praise enough, winning the coveted International Engine of the Year award in the 1-litre to 1.4-litre category in 2005 should say it all.

So an opportunity to test drive four of Fiat India's Multijet powered offerings on the first leg of an epic 10,000 km journey was the best way to experience the abilities of this motor for ourselves and get a feel for how well it performs on our roads. Now in theory, all the cars Fiat had put on the anvil, the Grande Punto, the Linea, the Palio and the 500, have the same engine - a diesel burning 1,248cc 4-cylinder turbocharged common-rail engine. But in reality, apart from some basic similar characteristics, the way each car's engine has been tuned and how it works in that car is leagues apart from the other, and it showed in the way each car performed through our journey.

Speaking about performance, while it is physically impossible for any car powered by a 1.3-litre diesel to really snap your neck under when you put your right foot to the floor, the real party piece of the Multijet, in all the cars, was lovely surge of torque after the turbo spooled up, all the way up to around 4000rpm where it ran out of breath. This means that highway performance is absolutely up to the mark, with nary a need for a downshift to overtake and fairly effortless cruising speeds of 100 to 120km/h. But the lack of usable torque lower down the rev range meant that driving through traffic in required frequent gearshifts and heavy use of the clutch. That being said, it was while we were blasting through demanding twisties that the Multijet engine really proved its mettle and complemented the exceptional handling abilities of all four cars, providing plenty of torque to ensure fast corner exits and a quick run up to the next corner.