James Bond will try to prevent a Russian spy from winning a baccarat game
The Fiat Panda, one of Fiat SpA's cheapest models, will make its screen debut in the next James Bond film due in 2006, replacing the luxury cars typically used by the secret agent such as Aston Martin's V12 Vanquish.
The Panda, which is priced from 12,490 euros ($15,379), 21 times less than the Vanquish, will have cinema's most famous secret agent behind the wheel in ``Casino Royale,'' the latest installment of the James Bond saga.
``Pierce Brosnan was so enthusiastic about the car that he immediately bought one,'' Lapo Elkann, head of brand promotion for Fiat said in an interview in Gazzetta dello Sport and confirmed by Bloomberg. Brosnan, the Irish actor who has played James Bond since 1995, hasn't been officially signed for the movie.
The Panda is Fiat's second-best selling car with over 250,000 units sold annually. Fiat has been rolling out new versions of the car, including a sports utility vehicle, to tap the brand's popularity. Sales of the Panda helped Fiat produce two quarters of operating profit after three years of losses.
Fiat will provide the cars for the production and won't pay to have the Panda in the film.
``It's a zero-cost operation,'' Elkann said. ``It's a new marketing strategy for us. A nice car is everyone's object of desire, and James Bond is the man of everyone's dreams. Who wouldn't want his car?''
The Panda will have to demonstrate that it can stack up against much faster predecessors that the super spy used to escape his enemies by tapping special gadgets such as pop-up machine guns and missile launchers. ``I don't know how the Panda will be armed for Bond,'' Elkann said. ``Movie producers will make all the decisions on that.''
While the Vanquish -- used in the latest Bond movie, ``Die Another Day,'' in 2002 -- goes from 0 to 60 miles per hour in less than five seconds and has a top speed of 200 miles per hour, the Panda takes four times as long to reach 60 mph, and its top speed is less than half that of the Aston Martin model.
``We've seen James Bond always with beautiful women and luxury cars,'' Elkann said. ``But maybe now he will get married, have children, and will need a Panda!''
``Casino Royale'' should be in theatres next year, with Bond trying to prevent a Russian spy from winning a baccarat game worth millions.
The Panda is built at a Fiat factory in Poland.
Fiat shares fell 5 cents, or 0.6 percent, to 7.13 euros at 4:15 p.m. in Milan. The shares have gained 20 percent this year and on July 29 had their highest close in more than two years.
