NF500 / new mini

Now the fun of Christmas and New Year is over, Fiat UK are doing their best to alleviate that down-in-the-dumps feeling by starting the hype for a whole new celebration.

The Fiat 500 is due to be launched officially 500 hours into 2008, at eight o’clock on the 21st of January, riding high in one of the capsules at the London Eye.

As part of the London Eye event, Fiat are also staging a celebrity and showbiz ticketed event, which will feature live bands and “fantastic light show”. Sure, it may struggle to live up to the 2008 New Year event at the same location, but it sounds fun all the same!.

Fiat UK Marketing Director, Elena Bernardelli, is quoted in an official Fiat press release as saying;

It will be a great event, and we at FIAT are committed to making the country smile for the night.

Fiat have also launched a new website for the UK to coincide with the launch, which includes the oppurtunity to win tickets to the launch event in London. The style of marketing appears to be taking a leaf from other recent car launches aimed at the younger end of the car buying market, such as the new MINI, Volvo C30 or Vauxhall Corsa. That is to say, it’s a bit irreverent.

If you’re unable to make it to London for the UK launch event, have no fear, for the launch is being broadcast at just about every Fiat dealership in the land, as well as reportedly on TV channel Five, ahead of motoring show Fifth Gear.

Fiat 500 supply to the UK dealership network will be strictly limited, bad news for those still considering a purchase maybe, but equally likely to be good news for those with deposits already placed.

According to a source from Fiat, supply could be limited to around 10 Fiat 500s per dealership per month, at least for first quarter of 2008.

Using the most obvious comparison of the new MINI at launch, supply was also limited, and as such waiting for a new car to your specification was par for the course. This in turn helped to improve residuals, with customers more ready to pay a little extra for a car similar to their ideal immediately, rather than joining the new car queue.

Of course, this all depends on demand for the 500 in the UK outstripping the limited supply that dealers will apparently have to make do with.

British purveyors of motoring fiction, Auto Express, have added a Fiat 500 “group test” video to their website Today, which you may consider worthy of a few moments of your time.  The video features a short but pleasant driving sequence of old and new 500s together on their test track.

We put group test in quotes because although they show a line-up of small cars at the start of the piece, they only actually draw any parallels in the review with the new MINI, to which they compare the new 500 rather unfavourably, especially in terms of handling and driver engagement.

However, despite saying the Fiat wallows and rolls and isn’t as engaging to drive as its looks could lead you to believe, the conclusion is that you should indeed pop down to your local friendly dealer and put your money on a new 500.  Why?  Because it will be “the car to be seen in” when it arrives in January*.

So not exactly a group test, and not really very in depth, but you can judge for yourself on the Auto Express website.

*Despite for some time Fiat saying the new Fiat 500 is on sale in the UK from February 2008

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.

Talking to Fiat UKs PR Director Peter Newton last week we couldn’t help but notice one line that popped up in conversation more than once was the insistence that the new Fiat 500 is “not some retro pastiche”, but rather a proper car, with a grown up attitude and bursting with new ideas, modern technology and state of the art safety systems.

During our discussion it certainly became clear that comparisons drawn to the new MINI were viewed as far more favourable than any made with the VW Beetle, with the MINI seen as a successful reinvention of an historic brand and the Beetle frankly not so.

But the only reason these three cars are thrown together so keenly by members of the media and public alike is indeed their retro nature, and once again we come to the point being made to us that the 500 is a car that can and will sell on it’s own merits. Sure the appearance may offer a little throw back to a halcyon age of motoring, but the message was clear, Fiat want the 500 to be seen as a thoroughly modern car in it’s own right, and to not rest in the shadow of its revolutionary namesake of the past.

With all the talk of the “retro battle” between the Fiat 500 and the new MINI, or at least of how Fiat can benefit from the success of the MINI and learn from BMWs approach, the Ford Ka has been a little overlooked.  Until this week, when Car Magazine’s online publication posted more (rumoured) details of the upcoming budget Ford, which has sparked a fair bit of interest (and indeed, this very article).

The article itself doesn’t offer very much by way of new information, but does tie together some previous reports and rumours in a neat, easily digestible package.

The reason this could be of interest to Fiat 500 fans is the fact that the new Ford Ka is based on the Fiat 500 platform, and Car claim it will also mimic the baby Fiat in almost every other way.  Same engines, different tuning packages, a convertible, a larger “SUV” variant.  Basically everything the 500 will do, the Ford Ka will do.  But cheaper.

And here’s the reason we feel the Ka, not the MINI, Beetle, or any other cool car is the one to watch with regards to the success of the 500.

Very few dispute the Fiat 500’s looks, charms, and unique appeal.  But Ford have also been raising their game in terms of quality and style recently, winning over many with their latest Mondeo as the best vehicle Ford have made in a long time.  If the Ka can carry on that trend of quality and style then it could grab sales from Fiat as the sensible, budget equivalent of the 500.

True, the Fiat is retro and chic, while the Ford Ka will without doubt go for a modern, even futuristic style.  But in the same way some knocked the Beetle for being a “Golf in a skirt”, the 500 may be seen as Ka in a pretty frock.   And if you do want to continue the MINI - 500 references, the unique platform of the MINI was a strong selling point for BMW.

I guess the question is, “for what price style?” and Fiat will have to be careful to continue to get the balance right when the Ford hits the scene in 2008.

The immediate sales success of the new Fiat 500 has revived talk of Fiat putting into production a microcar concept first shown in 2005 when the Fiat 500 “Trepiuno” was considered too impractical and expensive to be made by many industry observers.

In 2005 the concept vehicle, rumoured to measure just 2.65 metres in length, was shown originally by Italian motoring magazine Quattroroute.

At the time, Italiaspeed.com reported Frank Stephenson, then the recently appointed head of design at Fiat, wanted to steer away from the “retro” market he’d so successfully won over with his design for the new MINI, and the microcar would include many innovations to enable an extremely compact car to accommodate four people at an affordable price.

Those innovations were rumoured to include Fiat’s trademark all-glass roof and a sliding door for easy access in confined spaces with the 1.3 litre Multijet diesel engine sat behind and under the rear seats driving the rear wheels to allow for a comparatively spacious and flexible interiroir space.

As we all know, this never came to light and recently the “Trepiuno” hit the streets as the new Fiat 500. However, the instant popularity of Fiat’s new baby has lead to rumours of the microcar coming back. How much weight such rumours hold is yet to be seen, but the success of one car does not guarantee the success of another, or indeed mean a manufacturer suddenly has the funds to put a relatively complex concept into production and the one thing Fiat have shown in recent times is sharp business acumen.