The new Fiat Scudo van range which arrives on the market in Europe this month, and is in fact making its public debut at the 85th Brussels Motor Show this week, will feature the recently-retired F1 star Michael Schumacher in a new TV advertising campaign.

The TV spot has been created by the Leo Burnett advertising agency, who were responsible for the well received campaign for the new Ducato van which ran on Italian TV last summer and which featured Italian football manager Giovanni Trapattoni along with a host of top Italian players. This time though the former F1 World Champion, who ended his Grand Prix career with Ferrari late last year, is seen putting the New Scudo "to work" with Schumacher now playing the role of a gardener. The theme is that as the German has just retired from motor racing he is now seeking to continue to work, but has swapped his "vehicle" to something more in fitting with his new career.

The new Scudo, which is making its public debut in Brussels this week, inherits and improves on the strengths of the previous vehicle: vans and passenger vehicles with the architecture of an MPV, excellent road behaviour, entertaining to drive, with handling and comfort that are comparable with those of a modern saloon. It becomes the new benchmark for its category in terms of the extension of the range, functionality (increased volume and payload), performance, low running costs, sturdiness and safety, as well as protection against theft.
 

Also to be underlined is the wide choice of glazed and semi-glazed passenger versions with 5/6 and 8/9 seats, and short or long wheelbases: the Combi for professional uses, the Panorama Family for private use (people for whom space is the fundamental purchasing motivation: large families or people who do a lot of sport in their free time), the Panorama Executive for more sophisticated transport services (minibuses/shuttles for large hotels or taxi limousines for elite tourism).

The Panorama versions in particular offer a high quality of life on board and styling typical of a people-mover, with elegant interior furnishings and lavish equipment, painstakingly finished in terms of acoustic and climatic comfort. There is a choice of three engines, all with 4 cylinders and 16 valves, and all Euro 4, elastic engines with a smooth torque delivery even at low speeds, quiet, comfortable, but above all very economical: the 90 Multijet 1.6 litres (90 bhp, 180 Nm), 120 Multijet 2.0 litres (120 bhp, 300 Nm) and 140 Multijet Power 2.0 litres (136 bhp, 320 Nm) with a particulate trap as standard equipment.