NF500 / 500 Awards

In January Fiat UK Managing Director Andrew Humberstone made a pledge that he would be taking a hands on approach to bringing up the standard and reputation of the UK Fiat dealership network. Well, if a survey of around 32,000 UK motorists recently published by magazine Auto Express is anything to go by, he’s going to have his work cut out.

The Driver Power Dealer Survey canvassed the car buying public’s opinions on a range of criterea to paint a balanced picture of people’s overall dealership experience, and Fiat came a lowly 29 out of 30 overall.

This probably comes as perplexing, and certainly challenging news for new Fiat Group UK Sales Director Andrew Sproston, who took up his new position at the company this past Monday.

The broken down results show Fiat dealers as coming in the following positions:

• 20th for Value for money
• 29th for Standard of Workmanship
• 30th for Technical knowledge
• 30th for helpfulness and attitude
• 29th for Communication
• 30th Cleanliness and Atmosphere

It appears to us at NF500 that only the 20th place for “Value for money” saved Fiat’s dealerships from receiving the wooden spoon in this particular survey.

The Fiat 500, as the European wide “500% Fiat” marketing campaign reminds us all, is indented to be the embodiment of a completely fresh and revitalised Fiat. If these results really are anything to go by, along with some recent worrying reports from Fiat 500 owners and would-be owners on the new Fiat 500 forums, Fiat could do with taking a serious look at the dealership network and find out what they can do to improve their reputation “on the street”. If customers are being treated well by dealerships, word gets around, no matter how slick and polished your promotional work may be.

Credit to James on the forums for pointing this one out to us.

The Fiat 500 1.3 Multijet won its category at the What Diesel Car of the Year awards 2008, it has been announced today.

The overall winner was the Jaguar XF, but the Fiat 500 came up trumps in the “small car” category.

Voted on by a panel of ten judges from the motoring world, including Sue Baker, Russell Bray and Simon Hacker, the What Diesel Car Of The Year category winners are claimed to epitomise what is the very best of modern diesel engined motoring.

In announcing the winners the Fiat 500 received an honourable mention from What Diesel Editor, Ian Robertson, who commented;

This year has seen some tough opposition join the new car market, with the Fiat 500 and Jaguar XF leading the pack.

The new Fiat 500 has added to its extensive trophy haul by taking top honours in the Small and Compact Vehicle category at this year’s Auto 1 Awards, held in Geneva last week.

Fiat’s new city car won the class comfortably, taking votes not only from the Auto 1 organisation’s editors, experts and racing drivers, but also millions of enthusiastic readers across Europe.

Auto 1 titles are awarded by the Auto Bild Europe magazines group which is made up of 26 European-wide specialist car magazines, including the UK’s Auto Express. Voting is carried out by each magazine before short-listed cars go forward to a demanding and challenging judging process.

With a starting price of just £7,900 OTR, the new Fiat 500 represents excellent value for money and positions the car well below what Fiat consider to be benchmark rivals. At the top end of the range, a highly specified version with a larger engine costs only £10,700 – an OTR price that includes air conditioning and alloy wheels as standard.

Available with a choice of three frugal, ultra-low emissions, Euro 5-ready engines: 69 bhp 1.2-litre and 100 bhp 1.4-litre petrol, or 75 bhp 1.3-litre MultiJet turbodiesel, the new Fiat 500 can be ordered in three different trim levels – Pop, Sport and Lounge.

We at NF500 are not sure what the photos included with this press release have to do with this particular reward, but we’re always happy to share Fiat 500 eye candy, and maybe it’s the award that the women in the second photo are smiling about?!

Car Design News, the largest media in car design, has announced the two winners of their Car Design of the Year, the winners are:

• BMW Concept CS wins Car Design of the Year 2007 – Concept
• Fiat 500 wins Car Design of the Year 2007 – Production

For the third consecutive year, Car Design News ran an online vote for the best car designs to debut during 2007. With over a thousand responses and an international readership including more car designers than any other media, this is considered the most qualified award within the car design world – as Car Design News would have it, ‘by designers for designers’.

Awards were presented to the design team of each winning design at the Geneva Motor Show on Wednesday 5th March.

The voting in full was as follows:

Car Design of the Year 2007 – Concept:

• 1st Place: BMW Concept CS, 4794 points
• 2nd Place: Mazda Taiki. 4495 points
• 3rd Place: Citroën C-Cactus. 4115 points

Car Design of the Year 2007 – Production:

• 1st Place: Fiat 500, 4643 points
• 2nd Place: Maserati Gran Turismo. 4140 points
• 3rd Place: Audi A5. 3965 points

For the second year running Fiat group have won the production car category, this year claiming the top two places. The Fiat 500 was the clear winner, with 50% of readers giving it a top three ranking. This clear victory for the 500 is made more impressive when considering the other top five contenders were all luxury models costing far more than the baby Fiat.

Roberto Giolito, Head of Fiat Design, accepted the award together with Lorenzo Ramaciotti, Design Director of Fiat Group Automobiles.

We are really pleased to receive this award

said Ramaciotti,

it’s the second year in a row that Fiat Group have won, last year with the Alfa 8C at the top end and now the Fiat 500 at the lower end of our range and the Maserati in second place this year

The coveted Car of the Year 2008 award, which was given to the Fiat 500 by a jury of 58 specialist journalists from 22 European countries, was presented this evening (28 January) at a ceremony in Berlin.

Fiat’s supermini was not only the overall winner, but it also received votes from the largest number of jury members: 57 out of 58 included the car on their short lists, and 33 put it in first place.

It is the second A-Segment car – the first was the Fiat Panda in 2004 – to win the worldwide motor industry’s most prestigious title. An extraordinary record that brings the total Car of the Year titles won by Fiat Group Automobiles to 12.

Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat Group Automobiles, who received the award, said:

We have gone a long way in a short space of time, and I am proud to be able to underline that Fiat was the fastest growing car brand in Europe last year. The 500 is not a final target for the brand, but just the first stage in the ongoing development of the ‘new Fiat’. Which is why we see the 500 as not just a car, but as a ‘travelling agenda’ of what we want to achieve.

The Fiat 500 marks the first time that a car of just 3.55 metres long has been awarded five Euro NCAP stars for crash safety, and the standard fitting of seven airbags is a ‘first’ for this category (the knee-bag is unique for a supermini). It is also the first car to be launched with an engine range (69 bhp 1.2, 75 bhp 1.3 MultiJet with DPF and 100 bhp 1.4 16v) that already reaches Euro 5 emissions limits, more than two years before these become law.

These are some of the winning features of a car that has become the new benchmark for its segment. And the prestigious Car for the Year 2008 title confirms the great interest it has aroused since it was presented in Turin on 4 July last year. More than 140,000 orders have been placed by European customers since the car’s launch.

Today at Monte Carlo (Monaco), Felipe Massa was presented with a Fiat 500 powered by an exclusive 1.4 litre, 120 bhp engine and personalised with unique graphic details, such as his signature embossed in the sill scuff plate.

With Pearl White paintwork and interior trim in brown Cordura, the supermini given to the Scuderia Ferrari driver is, of course, the Sport variant, with a Skydome electric sunroof, 16” diamond alloy finish and red brake callipers.

What really sets the car apart, however, is its lusty 1.4 16v engine with a power output raised to 120 bhp by Fiat Powertrain Racing, the FPT (Fiat Powertrain Technologies) division responsible for the design, research, development and production of engines for competition use, performance kits for petrol and diesel units and, lastly, special engines for limited edition models.

So a distinctly sporty Fiat 500 for the charming, talented Brazilian driver who picked up six pole positions and three wins (Grand Prix of Bahrain, Spain and Turkey) last season, finishing in fourth place and contributing significantly to Ferrari’s Constructors’ title and to team mate Kimi Räikkönen’s World Drivers’ Championship victory.

This major sporting achievement is reflected perfectly in a car that has garnered numerous prestigious international accolades, such as “Car of the Year 2008”, “EuroCarBody 2007”, “Auto Europa 2008” and “European Gay Car of the Year”. This is why the Brazilian driver and the Fiat 500 are so well matched, as the sporting and personal attributes of Felipe Massa are echoed in the character of the Fiat 500: a car that is lovable and unconventional, yet innovative and successful.

LeDorga have voted the new Fiat 500 as the European Gay Car of the Year.

For the very first time in the history of the election of the Gay Car of the Year, the winner was not a soft top. The Fiat 500 has won the election hands down, fending off more prestigious contenders such as Aston Martin or Alfa Romeo by quite some margin.

Apparently your author here has a very gay taste in cars, because the top five are all, in my opinion, cracking cars:

Fiat 500: 122 points
Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione: 83 points
Volvo C30: 53 points
Aston Martin DBS: 42 points
Aston Martin V8 Vantage: 37 points.

As you can see the Fiat literally swept the competition away, more information the LeDorga website.