NF500 / italy

According to a report in La Republica today, a new law which is set to come into force next July will prevent newly qualified Italian drivers from taking the wheel in “high powered vehicles”.

“Sounds perfectly reasonable” I hear you cry. That may be so, however those behind the legislation decided to use that measure of performance muched bragged about by Abarth owners over history of BHP/tonne. In this case the performance limit is due to be set at 67 bhp/tonne. This figure, which was presumably arrived at after much careful consideration, means high powered tarmac munching speed machines such as the Fiat 500, Toyota Aygo and MINI One will be off limits for the first year of driving for newly qualified Italian drivers. Perversely, a Land Rover Discovery or Nissan Patrol could still be considered perfectly acceptable transport for novice motorists.

Apparently this isn’t the only drawback of the new legislation, one of the other potential pitfalls being that the kW/Tonne of each vehicle on the roads is not something readily available to Italian traffic police, so quite how this will be enforced is anyone’s guess.

Thanks once again to KevinB for the heads up on this story.

The Fiat 500 1.4 Sport Fiat 500 shown here is a special edition created by the Fiat Style Centre in Turin, paying homage to both Valentino Rossi and 1957, the year the original Fiat 500 was born. The car will be displayed at the 2007 Bologna Motor Show which takes place from the 7th to the 16th December.

The hand painted livery celebrates 1957, the year of birth of the first Fiat 500 by taking inspiration from the twist of rock’n'roll, electric guitars, Elvis and Rita Pavone. Mixed with the retro inspired tones and shapes are pastel shades of blue and pink, mixed with the Tricolor to represent “Made in Italy”.

According to press reports in Italy (and now slowly spreading across the web), Fiat are considering increasing production of the new Fiat 500 by introducing manufacturing of the supermini to their Termini Imerese plant, situated in Sicily.

The plant currently produces the Lancia Ypsilon, and rumours suggest that Fiat may introduce one or two further models to the line in the near future, with the favourites being touted as the new Fiat 500 and Fiat Panda.

One interesting aspect of the 2008 Car of the Year website is a section entitled ‘The Voting Grid’.  Sounds riveting doesn’t it?  But bear with us.

The Voting Grid shows all the judges, where they come from, how they voted and why. Splitting the vote into nations, it appears opinion on on the Fiat 500 is most strongly divided in Germany where judges granted the car either 10 or 2 points and nothing else.  France, Great Britain and Italy generally appear smitten and Portugal comes over largely unimpressed.

We’re not sure if the voting could be labelled the automotive equivalent of the politically charged Eurovision Song Contest, but it is quite interesting to see how different cars are received (by the press at least) in different countries and cultures all the same.

We will be live on the scene at the International Motor Show in Frankfurt on September 11th 2007, where the new Fiat 500 will make its first public appearance since the official launch event held in Italy earlier this year.

We will be uploading photographs as soon as possible via Flickr, they will show up in the Flash presentation below. We will also report on any new Fiat 500 news and gossip we pick up at the show.

We have our first competition here at NF500! We’re offering the chance for one lucky winner to walk away with a pack containing four Norev Fiat 500 model cars, featuring a rather nifty “Do-it-Yourself” decal kit. Here is the kit up for grabs…

The box:

The Contents:

The Front:

The Back:

The Rest: On Flickr

We’re not model car experts by any stretch of the imagination, but we thought this set was pretty cool, especially with its decals and four cars. As the 500 is all about customisation we felt it was a good one to offer. The kit came from Italy, we have no idea of the retail price, but it’s not all about that now is it!

To enter the competition, simply tell us at NF500 why you think you are most deserving of this fabulous prize by commenting on this story. We’ll pick the answer we find most amusing, most desperate, or most touching. Be imaginative, fun, honest, whatever. It’s as much about making us smile as feeling sorry enough for you to chose you as winner!

The judges (that’s us) decision is final, and no alternative cash or other types of prizes will be offered. Oh, and no correspondence shall be entered into (that means if you lose, keep the mumbling and groaning to yourself). Final day for entries will be Sunday the 30th September, we’ll announce the winner on the 2nd October on this site, and contact the lucky Fiat fan for their address to post the prize to.

Good luck everyone!

Customer Think has a short but interesting opinion piece on the marketing and customer engagement that Fiat has used during the build up to, and following the launch of the New Fiat 500.

The official Fiat 500 website has been interesting to watch for quite some time during the build up to the new baby Fiat’s public release, especially for a person who has an interest in marketing, IT and cars.  The emotive marketing messages Fiat have used, especially in Italy where the 500 has proved a smash hit already, have also provided an intriguing counter to the style and presentation of the oft compared new MINI when it was launched.

The focus of the piece is “Customer Engagement”, basically a technique used by an increasing number of companies, across a broad range of industries, whereby the customer is given a real sense of ownership, of involvement, and a closer relationship to the brand and/or product.

It’s relatively brief, so if you’re looking for an alternative angle on the Fiat 500 it’s worth a quick glance at least.  You’ll find it on the Customer Think Blog.