Auto Express offer balanced Fiat 500 review
January 17th, 2008Auto Express have given the new Fiat 500 a nice balanced first drive review, and it’s now up on their website for all to enjoy.
The short piece goes over many of the strengths and weaknesses of the new 500, making the obvious comparisons between the baby Fiat and the baby BMW aka MINI One. The conclusion seems to be the same as many have drawn, maybe not so sporty to drive or as quality overall, but better value for money and, certainly at this stage, more quirky and individual.
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January 17th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Seems like a fair review, but not terribly high quality journalism unfortunately.
I haven’t driven one yet, but I have had a good look and am generally impressed, the standard sound system seemed particularly good. My personal gripes are three; the wands on the steering column are slightly too far away from the rim of the wheel to make fingertip control totally comfortable - you may even have to remove your hands from the wheel to indicate if you are small; the rear headroom is, as everyone has commented, poor, and the front seats don’t have a memory function. Even my ancient Uno had seats that returned to their pre-set positions after tipping, those on the new 500 have to be re-adjusted every time someone gets in the back. Nuts! This is really retrograde stuff. Oh, and the internal storage is not great, even the Panda has a glove box. The clever under-seat storage is useful of course, but it cannot take a laptop.
I don’t want to sound like a moaner, but these gripes are the sort of small inconveniences that can cause annoyance after the first flush of excitement has worn off, and if I were a manufacturer I’d do my level best to ensure that they were designed out in the beginning.
But hey, it’s a cute little car, the front seating position is really very good (why can’t the big Bravo have a comfortable front seat and decent space around the pedals, and a clutch foot rest?) and it will be cheap to run. For myself, I am still waiting for the new twin cylinder jobbies. Until then I would recommend anyone to buy the sweet little diesel, which sounds quiet and promises superb economy and durability.