Road Test – Fiat 500 2013

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/116063327″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

The Fiat 500 gets top marks for character.

The first 500 model was made between 1957 and 1975, and is one of the great motoring icons not as big in sales but similar to the Model T, the Beetle and the Mini that bought affordable motoring to the masses.

The new version was launched in July 2007 and maintains that wonderful urban chic image.  It is the four wheel equivalent of the Vespa scooter.

Its small size is ideal for the city.  If you parallel park it, in marked spaces, you have plenty of space front and rear to get in and out.  If you angle park you have room to get access the vehicle on both sides.

It turns heads and makes a style statement.

But the mechanics, for one model in particular, are just, ….  well they are a battle.  I’ve driven the latest two cylinder dualogic model.  It had all the fashion of a garment on display on a catwalk and about as much practicality.  It was like finding a trendy looking person that could not put a sentence together.

Is it just me?  Let’s ask Brent Davison from the Newcastle Herald and the Illawarra Mercury.