NF500 / mini one

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.

We knew it wouldn’t take long. Last night’s Fifth Gear show, featuring a head to head with the Fiat 500 Sport and MINI One has appeared on YouTube.

To save you some time searching for it, here it is:

The Fiat 500 1.4 sport beat the MINI One around the track on UK TV channel Five’s “Fifth Gear” motoring magazine show this evening (25th February).

The white and red Fiat 500 beat the MINI One by a clear second around the Fifth Gear track. Both were cars commandeered by Vicki Butler-Henderson, the Fiat 500 completing the circuit in one minute and 35.1 seconds.

Unlike previous MINI V 500 features, Fifth gear at least made an attempt to compare more similar vehicles, the 1.4 Sport and the 1.4 MINI One, coming in at around £1,000 difference in retail price (the MINI the more expensive of the two).

More on the official website.

Auto 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.

German motoring publication AutoBild have a nice side-by-side review and comparison of the new Fiat 500 and new MINI One which has been published online and includes a nice video presentation of both small cars.

The review (in German, of course) compares both cars on just about every level, quality, price, performance and comfort and seems very even handed in their approach.

From what we can gather (our language skills are sadly lacking) the Fiat came out on top for comfort, price and as an all round “city car” package, whereas the MINI One felt more sporty, modern and slightly higher quality, perhaps more suited for more adventurous back road excursions.

You can read the review and watch the video feature on the AutoBild website.  Not surprisingly the feature includes scenes of the new 500 causing quite a stir among the public in it’s native Italy as the AutoBild team take the car off the beaten track.