mmarshall

The Fiat 500's original nickname was "Topolino" which means "Mouse" in Italian.

spwolf

aka Zastava Fico in ex-Yugoslavia... there were later cinquecento's, and were trully crap cars... btw mmarshal, Fiats are still rated at the bottom of all reliability surveys across the Europe ;-)

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

that's why it was a perfect marriage for them to hookup with chrysler.

Big Andy

My wife got rid of her Audi A3 a year ago and has been running a little 1.2 litre FIAT 500 since then. She absolutely loves it. The 68hp engine revs very sweetly and it has plenty of zip off the line (these are Italian horses after all!) and it will happily cruise at 80mph. It's got a fabulous gear change that is only a hand's span from the wheel and it's a joy to flick between the gears. Quality is great, we've had no problems and it comes equipped with 6 airbags, CD player, mp3 input, bluetooth hands free - it even reads out text messages as you drive along. Spacewise you can seat 4 and the trunk is quite a lot bigger than the MINI's. I can't really fault it and quite often find myself borrowing it to pop into town. It also only costs £35 to tax for a year.

From what I'm hearing about the new FIAT multi-air engines they seem excellent and I'm sure the 0.9 litre one will offer even more torque and better fuel economy.

mmarshall

Yes, it's too bad that they haven't been able to do what Hyundai and Kia did, who were also once at the bottom of the barrel. Yet Fiats still sell......especially in Italy.

He may have a point. Of course, when M-B hooked up with Chrysler, M-B's reliability was already on the way down after decades of being on top.

mmarshall

Thanks. It's nice to hear from a satisfied Fiat owner, despite the brand's reputation.

Anybody else on CL own a Fiat? (We obviously have few, if any owners, here in the U.S.) If so, what is your opinion of it?

ecr527

I thought Fiat was going to bring these to the U.S. within the next year or so to be sold in Chrysler dealerships??

mmarshall

Fiat first has to decide if the cost of Federalizing their cars (safety, emissions, etc...) and the potential market they would have here in the U.S., is worth the investment in time and money. The American public, particularly those who are old enough (like me) to remember the junk they sold here 30-40 years ago, still generally takes a dim view of the brand (though Big Andy's wife, above, has a Euro-spec model and seels to like it). The plan (if it ever takes effect), as I understand it, would be to develop joint Fiat-Chrysler-designed small cars that would be designed from the start with American-market requirements in mind.....that, of course, would include the new CAFE fuel-economy standards coming up in a few years.

I8ABMR

I thought it was a done deal and that we would see Fiats on the street by 2012. I guess not. I am sure they will need to provide a few engine options for a car this small to do well with US consumers

Big Andy

I believe that plans are already underway to build the FIAT 500 in Mexico and import to the US. It'll be fitted with the 1.4 litre engine and a 173bhp version will be available as well.

spwolf

europeans dont care about reliability that much, looks and price is more important... fiat, renault, peugot, citroen are always at the bottom of every single survey, with all of their vehicles, yet they still sell well.