Category: Small 4x4s 
Price Range: £10,099 to £15,950
Distinctive looks, roomy cabin, off-road ability, simplicity of 4x4, reliability
Limited market appeal, peaky petrol engine, characterless and cheap-looking interior, brittle low-speed ride
The first product of the Fiat-Suzuki alliance marries modest on-road dynamics with serious off-road ability, all wrapped in oddly distinctive sheetmetal.
The first thing you need to know is that the Sedici is pronounced Seh-dee-chee, which is Italian for 16. It's a play on the fact that the Fiat is a 4x4 - ha ha - and no doubt it will also be a linguistic challenge for Fiat UK's marketing department.
The Sedici is the result of a collaboration between Fiat and Suzuki. Both companies will produce a pair of soft-roaders - Fiat's Sedici and the Suzuki SX4 - that share the same Suzuki Swift platform and architecture.
The Japanese seem to have done most of the work - which is no bad thing - providing the overall architecture, the all-wheel-drive layout and a 1.6-litre petrol engine with five-speed manual gearbox.
The off-road set-up uses a simple electro-magnetic clutch that quickly and effectively apportions torque to the axle with the most grip. The engineers at Fiat have donated their 1.9-litre MultiJet turbo diesel engine and six-speed transmission.
Both cars have been designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro at Italdesign and both will be built at Suzuki's new Hungarian plant near Budapest. The Suzuki will dominate the production line - around 40,000 SX4s will be built next year compared to only 20,000 Sedicis.
