Fiat are pushing ahead with plans to introduce permanent four wheel drive as an option right across the Alfa Romeo range, and to selected Fiat models.

Buoyed by the initial excitement generated by the unveiling of Alfa Romeo Crosswagon Q4, which features a compact, innovative and cost-effective four wheel drive solution, seven Alfa Romeo models, along with three Fiats, will be rolled out over the next year and a half with power fed to all four wheels.

If the market positively responds to these new models, a further Alfa Romeo, three Fiats and a Lancia, will all receive permanent four wheel drive as an option.

Fiat are confident that they can offer four wheel drive at a highly competitive price, and believe that in this area they now have stolen a march on the opposition.

Fiat Auto CEO Herbert Demel is a big fan of four wheel drive. During his time at Audi he was involved at the cutting-edge of 4x4 development as products boss, introducing this form of traction to all production models.

The idea is to offer a strong niche four wheel drive brand association, stepping into a perceived market gap as few of the major mass-selling brands have any great strength or association in the 4x4 sector.

While the VAG Group has a good mix of four wheel drive capability available through its brands (VW, Audi, Seat, Skoda and Lamborghini), few others among the big European volume manufacturer's are players in this sector.

Ford, GM Europe (Vauxhall & Opel), MG Rover, Citroen and Peugeot all have no 4x4 models on the market at present, while Renault can merely 4x4 solely on its Kangoo platform.

The Japanese brands are only represented in Europe by the long term popular 4x4 models from Subaru and Suzuki, while the South Korean carmakers have no 4x4 capability.

Fiat have a strong tradition of 4x4. The last model to offer this was the hugely popular original Panda, which finally ceased production last September.

The Panda was cheap to buy, fun to drive, and has now reached iconic status. Fiat have flirted with 4x4 recently, notably with a rugged-looking off-road Doblo concept presented at the Bologna Motor Show in December 2002, and latterly with a 4x4 version of the 'Car of the Year' award winning new Panda.

Alfa Romeo also has a tradition of high performance 4x4 vehicles. The Crosswagon, with its Q4 designation, follows in the footsteps of the ultra-quick and responsive 155 Q4, and the bigger executive-targeted 164 Q4.

The last decade also saw one of the cheapest, exciting high-performance hatchbacks ever, the Alfa 33 Permanent 4. This final evolution of the Alfa 33 theme mated a neat 4x4 system up to the classic 'boxer' engine, by that stage bored out to 1700cc and with 16 valves on offer.

Alfa Romeo are in the closing stages of adding the well-received 4x4 Torsen C-System, with its three differential set-up, into the popular 147 saloon.

Next up will be Project 939, the upmarket, luxurious replacement for the 156 saloon, which will see 4x4 available as an option on every model.

From the 140bhp 1.8-litre entry level JTS-powered model, through to the 270bhp 3.2-litre V6 model, and the 1.9 and 2.4-litre M-Jet turbodiesel models, all will gain 4x4 when the range is launched next year, while the diesel range-topping 250bhp 3.0 V6 M-Jet will only be available with 4x4.

These will be bolstered in 2006 by the addition of a series of breathtaking out-an-out performance models which will only put their power down through all four wheels. These will include a 310bhp 2.2-litre Turbo JTS and a breaktaking 405bhp 3.2-litre Twin Turbo GTA-version. A QV-branded derivative of the 3.0-litre M-Jet diesel will see its output pumped up to 300bhp.

Fiat will kick off their 4x4 era with the Stilo Adventure, a beefed-up 'Crossover' version of the Multiwagon which is due to be shown for the first time at the Paris Mondial during the Autumn. Next up will be a 4x4 version of the new Punto-based Idea 'mini MPV.

Both Fiat and Alfa Romeo now have serious 'Sports Utility Vehicle's in the pipeline, as the Italian carmaker belatedly climbs onto the SUV bandwagon.

While Alfa Romeo has the gorgeous Kamal SUV, first seen as a concept in Geneva last March, in the development stage, Fiat are co-operating with Suzuki, the undoubted world leader in the 'fun' 4x4 segment, to assist their late market entry.

ALFA ROMEO 147 4X4 PROTOTYPE UNDERGOING ADVERSE WEATHER TRIALS