NF500 / geneva

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?!

Forbes are today echoing reports from October last year regarding Fiat’s intentions to increase annual production of the new 500 model to 190,000 vehicles from the start of 2009.

We’re not sure if this is new news, because Sergio Marchionne was quoted as saying as much in October 2007, but if it is a reaffirmation on Fiat’s part, then that’s got to be a good sign of their confidence in the continued success of the Fiat 500, no doubt boosted by the hype and hysteria surrounding the 500 Abarth model and Aria concept due to show at Geneva next month.

Images of the hot new Abarth version of the Fiat 500 have hit the web, via motoring blog site Carscoop, ahead of the planned release dates for information and images later this week.

Here’s a sample of the chunky, scooped goodness Abarth will bring to the 500, which will be shown to the public for the first time at this years Geneva Motorshow early in March.

Further details are expected this coming week from official sources, but the photos do reveal all concerning the exterior styling of Fiat’s baby hot hatch. One interesting absent feature are the much commented bonnet scoops, seen on several test vehicles, which could perhaps be being saved for the even hotter Abarth SS version of the 500.