Dynamically, the Tipo feels very much like a car whose basics are sound enough but which has been tuned and generally finished with little care or skill.
It would be pompous and unfair to assume this necessarily had anything to do with the fact that it was developed in Turkey, away from Fiat’s western European engineering base, by the same company that will build the car.
And yet, whatever the cause, there’s no mistaking where the Tipo is left. Even a driver who didn’t much care how sophisticated or easy to drive their prospective new hatchback was might get out of the Tipo, we fear, drive one of its direct rivals and immediately appreciate what the Fiat had been doing badly.
The springing of the car’s suspension feels medium-firm, but its ride is fairly quiet and well bushed, so there’s little of the hollow coarseness you might expect from a budget option.
But as the road surface you’re crossing goes from level to uneven, the cabin quickly becomes fidgety and hyperactive.
The car’s dampers fail to respond either quickly or progressively enough to take the sting out of bumps from the beginning of the first compression stroke, only to then over-react as the amplitude and frequency of the suspension inputs increase.