Fiat 500: Baby reborn
Slick city car turns heads and scores glances.
It’s at home in Rome and Paris — or Leichhardt. It turns heads and scores surprised glances standing still outside cafes and around piazzas. The reborn baby Fiat 500 is a slick city car, and ideal for commuting with style.
So several months after its launch we thought we’d see how it does away from the madding crowds, the tight city streets and laneways.
Like out in the bush. Not the real outback 4WD country mind you, but on country dirt roads complete with potholes and twists and turns.
After all, in its original incarnation in the 1950s and ’60s the 500, and the slightly bigger but very similar 600 model, was basically a family car.
With mum and dad and a few kids packed in the back, the original really did go everywhere and it managed to take the good roads with the bad.
Our test vehicle was a six-speed manual 1.4-litre petrol-engined Sport.
And you weren’t going to miss it in its striking red-and-white stripes and checkered paint scheme.
Indeed, that colouring harks back to the original. As a picture shown here reveals, the scheme was used on an 850cc Fiat 600 Abarth competition model in the early 1960s.
The 850 TC (Turismo Competizione) won seven straight manufacturers championships and took three European Challenge Touring Class victories. Publicity from the time tells us that the little Abarth of that period was “enjoying a wide cult following throughout Europe among young, lead-footed drivers”.
The current car is a tremendous revision of the original. In the same way that BMW has re-created the Mini — and Volkswagen has failed to achieve with the Beetle — it’s all about the detail. The dials, the dash, the wheels, and the styling all hark back to the original. The modern Fiat has that aura about it that immediately focuses your mind on the original. Around town it has sprightly acceleration at the lights but it certainly isn’t a rocket.
It takes 10.5 seconds to reach 100km/h from standing, and has a top speed of about 180km/h. On the downside, the 500’s not the most comfortable ride around.
I did spend some time trying to get the driver’s seat in the right position to suit. There’s not a great lot of room offered in the back, either. But then again, neither did the original. Still, it was OK for two children and the boot space is bigger than you’d expect.
We took it up to Wisemans Ferry and it cruised through the outer suburbs well. We enjoyed its run down the twisty road to the town. On the way back, though, we followed the river road through Lower Portland.
At times it’s a narrow, twisting path that descends into dirt and became muddy as it was now raining.
The fully-laden Fiat handled it all quite well but its little engine was found wanting on some of the steeper slopes where switching back a gear or two in the six-speed box was vital.
In such a car in such a place, it did feel that you were in some sort of time warp. It was on old-style, Sunday afternoon country drive.
The little 500 didn’t particularly enjoy some of the bigger potholes because it sits fairly low to the ground.
Today, it wouldn’t be the first car you would take on such a road, but it was an interesting exercise. There’s a multitude of choices for Fiat 500 buyers, starting from the base Pop model and branching out to either the Sport or the more luxury-oriented Lounge. To say nothing of the millions of different options when you start choosing exterior colours, trim colours, patterns and stripes.
The 1.4-litre engine in the Sport packs the most punch. It puts out 74kW of power and 131Nm of torque.
They’re not Earth-shattering figures but in a car just 3.5m long, there is a handy power-to-weight ratio that creates its zippiness on the road.
There’s also plenty of driver inputin a car of this size. You are constantly swapping gears. The lever sits within easy reach, just below the dash and above the centre of the front seats.
You can see where all the enthusiasm bordering on fanaticism has developed with the original. It’s fun to drive as you roll along.
The leather trim and old-school dash are also quite funky.
The 500 also comes with a 1.3-litre diesel engine. A few months ago you would have seriously contemplated this version if keeping the fuel bill down was your main concern.
But with the price of diesel soaring you’d be hard-pressed to justify the extra $2000 over this Sport petrol car (or $1000 over the equivalent Lounge petrol version). The claimed combined city/highway consumption figure for the petrol is 6.3 litres per 100km and 8.2 litres per 100km for city driving.
We achieved a little higher than that but of more concern is that the Fiat doesn’t have a very big fuel tank. With only a 35-litre capacity, it means the range with normal driving is only going to be around 425km in city driving.
It does rise to about 580km if you mix up city and highway driving but you would expect most of these cars are destined for a city life anyway.
Fiat’s Australian importers say the Lounge model, with the 1.4-litre petrol engine, is proving the biggest seller, although diesel sales are increasing.
Not surprisingly, white and red are the most popular sellers in Australia.
You don’t get a lot of car for the money, but what you get is all style.