NF500 / supermini

The “perky” Fiat 500. Of course.

Evecars.com has just added to the Fiat 500s trophy cabinet by naming the small Italian car winner in both their Supermini and City Car categories in the Evecars.com Car of the Year awards 2008. Clearly making no attempt to destroy any “girls and cars” stereotypes, the Fiat 500 was noted for its style, optional extras and light steering when parking.

Commenting on the award, Alex Jenner-Fust, editor of evecars.com says:

The Fiat 500 stole our judges’ hearts with its retro-inspired style and deceptively roomy interior. It’s perky to drive around town, and has clever features such as the ‘City’ parking button, which lightens the steering to help you park. Better still, there are thousands of optional extras to help you personalise the car to suit your style.

Andrew Humberstone, managing director, Fiat Group Automobiles had this to say about the Fiat 500s latest accolade

We are delighted with this latest award which makes an exciting addition to 500’s already impressive honours list.

Customers continue to demonstrate how much they love the 500 and it’s good to see the experts showing us they are also big fans.

Mike Rutherford, a British motoring journalist not known for holding back with his forthright views is pondering if Fiat have created the “Car of the Year” in their new 500 only half way through 2007.

In his report Mr Rutherford praises not only the vehicle itself, but puts it side by side with the more expensive MINI range and questions the value of the latter now the baby Fiat is on the scene.

Of driving the new Fiat 500, Mike can’t be more complimentary in his opening few paragraphs

While driving 1.2 and 1.4 versions of the 500 in Fiat’s home town… I instinctively did something I’ve almost forgotten to do behind the wheel of a motor car: smile, have fun, remind myself that great cars don’t need to be high powered and cost tens of thousands of pounds to be hugely entertaining and highly effective.

The 500 presses all the right buttons.

In the article published in the AOL Motoring section, Mr Rutherford then goes on to pitch his own battle lines between Fiat and BMW in the MINI versus 500 crusade, and falls well in favour of the Italian supermini. Indeed, this certainly isn’t the most in depth review of the new Fiat 500 we’ve yet to read, but it’s certainly one of the most emotive and emotional appraisals we’ve seen from a non Italian publication. When it comes to reinventing a brand from a bygone era, emotion is key, and we feel Mike has been well and truly won over by the spirit of the new bambino.