Bizarre Product Placement: James Bond to Drive a Fiat Econobox

According to an article on Bloomberg, James Bond will slip behind the wheel of, ahem, a Fiat Panda:

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.

According to the article, Fiat didn't have to pay any placement fees, and just has to provide multiple cars for the production. If this is indeed true, it looks like a major marketing coup for Fiat and a mjor miscue for whoever's marketing the Bond franchise. Any way you look at it, Q is going to have to work some major miracles to make this econobox look even half-way cool.

[Via Bloomberg.com: Europe]