Diesel diary
| Fiat Auto's three decades of diesel developments | |
| 1976 | Starts work on direct injection diesel for passenger cars |
| 1986 | Introduces first passenger car equipped with a direct-injection turbodiesel engine |
| 1988 | Starts work on high-pressure direct-injection called Unijet that becomes common-rail system |
| 1993 | Sells common-rail patent to Robert Bosch |
| 1997 | Introduces first car with common-rail, the Alfa Romeo 156 |
| 1997 | Starts work on the new common-rail diesel it calls Multijet; it keeps the related patents |
| 2003 | Introduces Multijet on 1.9-liter 4-cylinder and 2.4-liter 5-cylinder engines equipped with Bosch engine management systems; 1.3-liter 4-cylinder engines have Magneti Marelli engine management systems |
| 2004 | GM-Fiat Powertrain plant in Poland will produce 450,000 units of the 1.3 Multijet. |
| 2005 | Will introduce second-generation Multijet |
| 2005 | Suzuki will begin building 100,000 units a year of the 1.3-liter Multijet in India |
TURIN -- Fiat Auto, a leader in diesel direct-injection technology for almost 30 years, invented and patented the common-rail system that has made Robert Bosch a fortune.
