2012 Fiat 500: First Drive (Jalopnik)

[Mr Kleen]

2012 Fiat 500: First Drive

The Fiat 500 set to invade American shores after a several-decade hiatus isn't the same car that's caught on in Europe. It's better, with more engine, revised suspension and upgraded safety. The Mini Cooper just got pwned.

By Fiat's reckoning, a comparably equipped 500 should undercut a similar Mini by $4,000. It's even less than $1,000 away from a Toyota Yaris, which attracts owners seeking a "True Grit" test of character.

So although the 500 won't outrun the Mini today, that may change in the first quarter of 2012 when the 500 Abarth arrives hauling a turbo 1.4-liter MultiAir engine that could produce between 140 hp and 170 hp.

Worth the read if you're interested in fun, affordable cars. I can't wait for the Abarth.

[Sabre]

Worth the read if you're interested in fun, affordable cars. I can't wait for the Abarth.

After seeing Top Gear's review of the Abarth version, I would LOVE to drive it.

[PGT]

took these pics in Strasbourg two years ago

[HappyIdiot]

We sat in a Fiat this past weekend at the Auto Show. My butt said it was nice and shifting the gears felt great. Unfortunately, my right foot didn't get a chance to formulate an opinion.

[drwrx]

I see it's biggest competitive hurdle not with the Mini, but with the Ford Fiesta, Mazda 2, and Honda Fit.
All are likely more comfortable. The Fit and Fiesta will be more roomy and better equipped. The 2 will be equally or even more sporty. And all will likely be better mechanically.
It will be forced to win solely on price, which it may not be able to do.

[PGT]

fun to drive quotient which the others have in varying degrees

[zaxrex]

I can't for the life of me find the photos of my trip to the UK.
I was waiting to put my review up until I could find them.
Well I guess now is the time.
Enjoy


So, I rented it from Hertz, picked it up from the Heathrow airport on the evening of my arrival.

Since this was the first time shifting left-handed and driving at night, I de-selected the 'Sport' mode just to get a hold of things.

I noticed that the normally sized boost gauge sticking up out of the dash looked absolutely clownish in such a small space. That and the non-sport mode limits boost to .4 to .6 bar, depending on gear selected. As in 1-3 is limited to .4, and 4-5 is .6. I think. I’ll get back to that later.

I guess I am just used to my ’02 bug-eye steering wheel and those of the cars that I rent, but this one is more than full figured, it is fat. I am driving such a small car, why the hell does my thumb just barely over cross my fingers when gripping the wheel? This thing is so think, that there is less than two inches of clearance between the wheel and the door handle. Sort of puts a damper in things when you are trying to unwind the wheel after navigating one of the eleventy-billion traffic circles at dusk as you exit. Skin off your knuckle from the join seam of metalicized plastic handle, say hey! Oh, and it has buttons. Volume up/down, phone connect/disconnect, mute, and another thingy that didn’t seem to do anything. It sure as hell couldn’t adjust the reach of the wheel. I could angle it up or down, but only so far before it hit me in the knees. That brings up the only other thing you can move, the seat.

The seats are firm and supportive, but not tiring after long drives. Three hours was about the limit for me though. Knurled knobs on the side of the seat slowly adjust the angle of the seat back. A seat leaver raises and lowers the bottom seat, but strangely, the back of the seat stays fixed. I couldn’t figure out why, and then I thought that the seat really could not go any higher without poking through the roof. It can slide back and forth a good distance on the rails, but with the center console and door so close together, there is not much lateral room for the “bendy bits” of the legs to go side to side. They can only go up. Hello steering wheel.

I felt like a Fisher-Price or Leggo figure sitting in a toy car whose proportions were figured by an eight year old.

But that eight year old sure knew how to party. I had fun in this thing. It wasn’t the best car for all conditions, hell it wasn’t even good in some. At other times I was frustrated and confused. But I would be lying if I said it didn’t put a smile on my face daily.

It didn’t start out that way. The next morning after picking it up, I set out to go to Cambridge. I proudly pushed the “Sport” button with a bit of anticipation before leaving the parking lot. I get through the first couple of rotaries to a 40 MPH road and push the skinny all the way down for the first time in second gear. RPMs climb, boost gauge starts building, Ohh I can’t wait! For the car to lurch, boost to be cut to around .2 with the dash flashing its amber anger at me.
Shit.
I try again. What is it they say about doing the same thing again and again expecting a different result? Yeah, theys talkin’ ‘bout me.
So, I’m back to the Hertz shop to get another one. The attendant said they would get the “white one” ready and I should go inside for the paperwork. Half an hour later, we find out that the “white one” had too many miles and could not be rented. Ugh. On my back to the car, the guy I first met said that the “bloke” before me probably filled up with cheap petrol. I laughed and said “cheap petrol, from where?” I should have known that only half the people back home get my humor half the time, what did I think was going to happen with the Brits? He then explained that he meant low grade, instead of the high octane. Told me to drive it easy ‘till empty and fill up with proper grade.

I don’t know if it was easy or not, but that little thing does 85 MPH like a champ, still getting passed though. Easily got a new tank of gas the next morning. Never could get any idea how to reset the ECU on the thing. Turns out I didn’t need to bother.

That evening, I found some “proper B roads” in the countryside. Farms to the left, farms to the right. Corners linked by straights. GPS maps loaded, full tank of good go juice, recce done. Only thing I would have liked would be to disconnect the battery and reset the ECU.

Wheeee! First gear was a joke, but no loss of traction. Torque steer like a bad ass, but that could have been more of a symptom of the uneven road surface. Second gear was perfect, but only reaching .8 bar, still pulled hard though. Third was a bit long, but developed a full 1.1 indicated on the gauge, tapering back just before 5K to the 6K redline. That was when things got wiggy, or more accurately, wiggly.

This next feature may be common in all new Euro-spec cars, but when you toss out the anchor while at speed, the hazard lights begin flashing at two distinct intervals; depending on the severity of the braking 'maneuver'. Interesting. With such wide 'tyres' it is very hard to find the straight-line adhesive limits without being absolutely bonkers on the middle pedal. When that happens, the ABS kicks in and the instrument panel center cluster flashes.
So I started to have some fun, finding a high speed 2nd gear turn, shifting into 3rd before the turn and covering with the brake to build good boost for the exit. Took a couple of times before I got it right, but when I did, it was like a slingshot out of the turn. Except slingshots don’t normally flash all the dash panel lights, and then go completely dark, not even a radio. So here I am coasting at 40 mph at night in the dark on the left hand side of the road. Cycling the keys back and forth do nothing. I slowly apply the brakes, and the car does slow, but not even brake lights come on. I have used door nails with more life than this thing. One more thing left to do while I still have momentum.
I turn the key to normal drive, shift back into 2nd and pop the clutch to see if I can roll start the thing. Nope. Put it back into neutral and glide to a stop on the side of the road. I step out of the car in the dark and see that I am under a tree, blocking what little of the moonlight is available. Nice thing with a small car like this, I can pretty easily push it 30 feet on the flat grass to get out of the shadow.
After popping the hood and seeing nothing out of place, I closed the ‘bonnet’, sat on the fender, and looked at my cell phone that didn’t work in England. I was feeling pretty embarrassed. So after about ten minutes of that, I decided to get back in the car and try the key again. This time it did something. The dash came up with all of these questions about settings and modes and such. It was then that I realized that I had finaly found out how to reset the ECU. Weather this was by safety feature built into the car, or the little GPS transmitter thing attached to the battery in the trunk was beaming my telemetry to Hertz, I will never know. I just felt happy to be motoring on with lights again.
Mostly normal driving ensued after that. That is when I started noticing small things.
Boost was very erratic. Sometimes getting full 1.1 in 3rd, and then others only getting .6-.8 in 4th. I don’t know if that is by design and certain conditions were not being met to give full boost, or the controller is just that bad.
Having such a short wheelbase and wide tires, little steering inputs give you big changes, also is very twitchy on grooved roads, or concrete seams.
The paint scheme is very noticeable. Sometimes getting a little too much attention, especially over here where vandalism and theft are a problem.
This thing needs AWD, but in such a small platform, the extra weight would really be felt and performance would suffer. At least a limited slip diff to better tie the front wheels together would be better.