Auto Motor und Sport have published a longer video of the new Fiat 500 Abarth during testing at the Nurburgring. The video shows nothing new in terms of detail, but we thought it well worth a watch and bringing to wider attention.
Unfortunately we can’t show the video here as embedding has been disabled, but you can watch it all over on YouTube. Enjoy!
The Fiat 500 has achieved the prestigious Euro NCAP five-star rating (with a total of score of 35 points) taking over top spot in its segment for safety. This is an important award which, added to those assigned recently to the Fiat Bravo, the Grande Punto and the Fiat Croma, confirms the special attention Fiat Automobiles Spa pays to all aspects of driver and passenger protection.
In the case of the Fiat 500, this effort has produced such excellent results that the new car is rated as one of the safest in the entire automotive industry. To achieve its rating, the designers examined every possible type of accident: front and side collisions, overturns, rear-end collisions. The different speeds at which collisions take place, the different types of obstacle involved and the protection of occupants with widely varying physical characteristics, were also taken into consideration.
The coveted award was achieved thanks to the many sophisticated devices that the Fiat 500 offers as standard, starting with those dedicated to passive safety: 2 dual stage front airbags, 2 front side airbags for chest/pelvis protection, 2 window-bags and a driver knee airbag. Front seat-belts with double pretensioner and load limiter are also standard.
In addition, the new car guarantees constant, predictable road behaviour that will forgive many driver errors and enable the person at the wheel to overcome critical situations without difficulty. As well as a high performance braking system, the Fiat 500 deploys the most sophisticated electronic devices for the control of the car’s dynamic behaviour: from braking to drive assemblies: ABS with EBD (Electronic brake force distribution) and, above all ESP (Electronic Stability Program), the system which cuts in to assist the driver when conditions approach extremes and the stability of the car is at risk. The device is standard on the version with Fire 1.4 16v 100 bhp engine and an option on the other two units. Further, the ESP proposed on the Fiat 500 includes a number of additional systems: the ASR (Anti Slip Regulation) which limits the slip of drive wheels in poor grip conditions; the MSR (Motor Schleppmoment Regelung) which cuts in during an abrupt change of gear during a climb, restoring torque to the engine and so preventing excessive drag on the drive wheels; the HBA (Hydraulic Brake Assistance), the electronic-hydraulic device that cuts in during emergency braking; and, finally, the Hill-holder which assists the driver in hill starts.
In a word, the Fiat 500 is a car designed and built to achieve the highest levels of quality, as today’s safety award by the Euro NCAP confirms. This total protection feature has contributed to the commercial success of the model: in fact, since the launch the car has won over Italy and France with about 70,000 orders. A great success prior to the marketing of the car in the main European markets: from 27 October in Germany and, thereafter, in Spain, Poland, Switzerland and Austria.
You can see a full report on the Euro NCAP site, videos follow below:
Frontal impact test:
Side impact test:
Pole test:
Over 500 people have been hired at the Fiat car factory in Tychy, Poland, in the past six months in order to meet production demands for the new Fiat 500.
According to Fiat Auto Poland spokesman Boguslaw Cieslar employment in the factory may as much as double when the new Ford Ka starts rolling off the assembly lines. When the factory reaches its target capacity in 2009 it will turn out half a million cars a year, becoming one of the largest Fiat production sites in the World.
This year’s plan envisages the production of 366,000 units, 58,000 more than in 2006. The factory turned out 205,000 cars during the January-July 2007 period, 16,000 more than in the same duration last year.
In autumn the new 500 will hit Fiat dealerships in Germany, Spain, Portugal and Poland, and next year in Britain and other markets.
Top Gear have a gushing and glowing feature on the new Fiat 500 now available to read online.
It’s an all out positive review, even the few faults that could be found by the reviewer are brushed under the carpet and washed out with enthusiasm for the baby Fiat, it’s one of the most rose tinted reports on anything, let alone a car, we’ve read for a very long time. Top Gear is no small fry in the automotive world either, so Fiat will no doubt be delighted with the praise being lavished upon their new creation.
While the article is written by a male reporter, the photos, all nicely shot very much in “fashion magazine” style feature glamorous female models, which will no doubt serve to reinforce the gradual drip-drip effect that ever increases the 500s image as a “girls car”. But just because it’s small and pretty doesn’t have to limit the car’s appeal to the fairer sex, does it?
The review also mentions in passing that engineers snuck Top Gear the figures for the forthcoming Fiat 500 Abarth, quoting the 1.4 turbo as kicking out 170lb ft torque and 135bhp.
You can read the full review, titled “Sexy Little Number” on the Top Gear website.
A little free gift for our readers this week.
In our downloads section here at NF500 you’ll find two copies of a retro desktop image we’ve created for you. A widescreen version is available, as well as a more traditional 4:3 aspect ratio, they’re high resolution but should “shrink to fit” lower resolution screens quite nicely.
The above image is just a little preview, get the full size images in the downloads section. Enjoy!
We plan to offer more free downloads, wallpapers and such, over the coming months. Indeed, if you’re the creative type and feel you’ve created a masterpiece you wish to share with the Fiat 500 community, then let us know and we’ll see if we can’t host it for you here at NF500.
Special thanks to 12monthsOFwinter for the wallpaper pattern.
The same red Fiat 500 Abarth that was caught testing last month and seen on WorldCarFans.com has popped up again, and this time Evo have the exclusive photographs on their website.
Disappointingly there’s only two images, and the text does nothing more than reitterate previous rumours, with Evo claiming there will be a 135 hp Abarth, an Abarth 500 SS with 150 hp, plus a more powerful 200 hp version. The 200 hp hot 500 is most likely (sadly) to be used exclusively in a one-make race series Fiat are rumoured to be planning for launch some time in 2008.
British purveyors of motoring fiction, Auto Express, have added a Fiat 500 “group test” video to their website Today, which you may consider worthy of a few moments of your time. The video features a short but pleasant driving sequence of old and new 500s together on their test track.
We put group test in quotes because although they show a line-up of small cars at the start of the piece, they only actually draw any parallels in the review with the new MINI, to which they compare the new 500 rather unfavourably, especially in terms of handling and driver engagement.
However, despite saying the Fiat wallows and rolls and isn’t as engaging to drive as its looks could lead you to believe, the conclusion is that you should indeed pop down to your local friendly dealer and put your money on a new 500. Why? Because it will be “the car to be seen in” when it arrives in January*.
So not exactly a group test, and not really very in depth, but you can judge for yourself on the Auto Express website.
*Despite for some time Fiat saying the new Fiat 500 is on sale in the UK from February 2008
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