The news comes as Fiat this week unveiled the new Bravo, a five-door hatchback that will target the Ford Focus and new Toyota Auris. It will arrive within weeks to replace the Stilo and pricing will be very keen. Fiat say it will under-cut the competitors and believe it will be a hit with family buyers because of the price, strong styling and good levels of equipment on board.

The Stilo was a failure and the new car was brought to the market in 18 months without any prototypes being built. A modified version of the platform first used to underpin the Stilo in 2001 is used and it allows for a lot more space inside.

Prior to the launch in Rome, vice president Luca DeMeo said the new model would help to push Fiat sales in western Europe to nearly 1 million this year, a level Fiat last achieved in 2002. It is planned to build 120,000 Bravo cars a year.

The Bravo has a relatively conservative design compared to the big seller, the Grande Punto, which became the biggest selling car in Europe and DeMeo says the Multipla replacement, the C X-over, which debuts in 2009, will be even more innovative in its design and packaging.

He said that in June Fiat plans to introduce another new car, the Linea, a lower medium saloon, and in September the new 500 will come to the market.

It is known that, as part of Fiat's plans, in 2008 a Minicargo Panorama will be built, in 2009 a small car to replace the Italian Palio as well as a Doblo Panorama replacement will be released, and in 2010 an Idea replacement and Bravo station wagon will be constructed.

Not all the vehicles will come to the Irish market but there will be a Scudo replacement next month, a minicargo commercial in 2008 and a new Dublo commercial in 2009.

There is an expectation that Lancia will return to the market here and a new Delta HPE is due to arrive in mid-2008, while there will be a specially product in 2009. Among the Alfa Romeo arrivals then will be a 159 Crosswagon this spring, a replacement for the 147 in 2008, a new model 169 in 2009 and a CX-over, which is a production version of the Kamal in 2010.

De Meo has gone on record as saying the company is creating designs to generate a new family of small cars. And he said that new arrivals such as the Toyota Aygo, Citroen C1 and Peugeot 107 had created fresh interest in the Panda segment. Last year was the best for Panda sales and the strategy here was to keep the image fresh by adding special models.

And one of the Panda 'specials' has just arrived.

The Panda 100 HP allows owners to choose their driving style.

A feature is the dashboard-mounted 'Sport' button which gives improved steering and throttle sensitivity. This enables the driver to choose between 'Normal' or 'Sport' steering and throttle settings. When 'Sport is selected, the steering gives less power assistance to provide better feedback while the throttle simultaneously becomes more sensitive to accelerator pedal action.

The newcomer features a 1.4-litre 16v engine, which produces 100 bhp at 6000 rpm, giving the car a top speed of 185 km/h and an acceleration time of just 9.5 seconds from 0 - 100km/h.

It is longer and wider to accommodate the extra performance. Standard features include a sixspeed gearbox, air conditioning, split rear seat, radio CD with MP3, sports suspension, allround disc brakes ventilated on front, chrome exhaust pipe, sporty interiors and black facia with chrome details, fog lights, 15" alloy wheels and red brake callipers. Price Euro16,715.