First look: Fiat launches 500 in Europe

THE Fiat 500 will come to Australia next March with a premium pricetag of around $25,000. The retro-styled baby-car will be more expensive than its big brother, the Punto, which starts at $19,990.

Fiat launched the new light car among much fanfare in Italy this week, exactly 50 years after the iconic original was released.

The Australian importer of Fiat cars, Ateco Automotive, has told GoAuto that the baby 500 might be small, but is worthy of the “mid-20s” pricetag.

“This is a premium, style-driven car,” said Ateco spokesman Edward Rowe.

“Another car that would fall into this type of category is the Mini, and that is a lot more expensive.”

The new-age Fiat 500 is 3550mm long, 1630mm wide and 1490mm tall, which makes it one of the smallest cars on the road.

To put that in perspective, the Ford Fiesta three-door is 374mm longer and 55mm wider, but its roofline sits 22mm lower than the Fiat.

The 500 is expected to deliver lively performance, armed with two of the engines already used to power Australian Punto models.

Buyers will be able to choose from a 1.4-litre petrol and a 1.3-litre turbo diesel engine.

The 1.4-litre four cylinder petrol engine generates 57kW at 6000rpm and 115Nm or torque at 3000rpm.

Its four-cylinder diesel counterpart pumps out 66kW at 4000rpm and 200Nm of torque at 1750rpm.

Both engines will be available with the regular manual transmissions (including a five-speed for the petrol and six-speed for the diesel) or a Dual-logic sequential manual with automatic clutch.

The sequential transmission saves enough fuel for the Fiat 500 diesel to achieve a fuel consumption figure of 4.2 litres per 100km, which is ever so slightly better than a Toyota petrol-electric hybrid.

Fiat has stuck to a fairly standard formula when developing the new Fiat 500’s suspension, using MacPherson struts at the front and a torsion beam set-up for the rear.

The Italian car-maker has saved some money by fitting the 500 with drum brakes at the rear, instead of matching the front-end’s disc brakes.

All 500s will come standard with seven airbags, while electronic stability control is available with all engines in Europe and standard with the 1.4-litre petrol-engined model.

The company says the 500 has been designed to achieve five stars in the European New Car Assessment program crash tests and it is even confident of scoring six stars if the new rating system is introduced.

Fiat is aiming to copy Mini’s popular program of offering a massive array of options, many of which will also be available in Australia.

In Europe, the 500 will be available with a choice of 12 exterior colours, three specification levels, 15 different upholstery comibinations, nine different types of wheel rims and 19 types of extrernal sticker kits, including racing stripes.

Fiat said this all adds up to 549,936 variants.

Ateco said it had already had a high level of interest in the new 500, but still doesn’t expect it to be the best-selling Fiat in Australia.

That honour is tipped to remain with its big brother, the Punto.

The 500 will be launched here at the same time as Fiat’s new five-door mid-sized hatch called the Ritmo.

The Ritmo, which goes by the name Bravo in Europe, was originally scheduled to be launched in Australia this October, but Ateco has held off because it would have only been available with a manual transmission.

Both the manual shifter and automatic will be available when the Ritmo goes on sale locally in March.

What’s coming from Fiat:
Fiat Ritmo	March 2008
Fiat 500	March 2008
Fiat Punto Abarth	October 2008
Revised Fiat Punto	October 2008
Fiat 500 Abarth	October 2008
Fiat 500 Convertible	March 2009

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