Tuesday 9th May 2006

Design your own Fiat 500

Iconic minicar makes a comeback

---

Build your own Fiat 500

Have you ever wondered about the purity of the original Fiat 500 -- the fact that it's just big enough for two and costs peanuts to run? Now you can build your own.

Fiat is making the most of the iconic nature of the car and is running an online design competition. You can be subtle or you can install every accessory at Halfords and then some -- and leave your results for everyone else to look at. The execution's quite well done.

And the motive? The Italian car company is making the point that it's only 500 days before the new 500 is due.

• 500 wants you

[planetdave]

Yeah - great. Fool around with spoilers and colours.

How about something that will last longer than 3 years before being a candidate for the skip?

[stu_the_flat]

no matter what I did with it. It still looks horrible

[mini_ralf]

Ok... Would you prefer a Fiat 500 or the abomination known as a Nissan Micra? I know which one of two I'd go for!

[r988]

mini_ralf said:

Ok... Would you prefer a Fiat 500 or the abomination known as a Nissan Micra? I know which one of two I'd go for!

The bus?

[racylady]

I think it's kinda cute - but will never be as gorgeous as the old Fiat 500 (one of which I own, albeit in bits at the moment!)

[slapmatt]

Can you design it so that it doesn't need constant trips back to the dealer in order to fix a plethra of fault?

[J111]

I gather FIAT build quality hasn't exactly come on in leaps and bounds since our Tipo's engine block fell apart on the M1 ?

mini_ralf said:

Ok... Would you prefer a Fiat 500 or the abomination known as a Nissan Micra? I know which one of two I'd go for!

Me too the Micra

[mini_ralf]

r988 said:

mini_ralf said: Ok... Would you prefer a Fiat 500 or the abomination known as a Nissan Micra? I know which one of two I'd go for! The bus?

.... Fair point... Knowing the relaibility of Fiat's that I've had in the past I'd probably spend a lot of time on the bus anyway!

[the fury]

I quite like it! Clever way of fiat to research which options to bother manufacturing too...

[jamieboy]

Given that it's the new Ka underneath, maybe we shouldn't make up too many horror stories of how unreliable it will be?

[cortina1]

oh yes...nice one, I passed my test in one of those and then celebrated by blowing the doors off a porsche 911, mind you I was going at a terminal speed of 58 mph in a 30 zone and the porsche driver had more maturity than being baited by a spotty git.

[roop]

My Cinquecento was more reliable than the two Rovers I had and also better built than my Golf GTI. Fiat did 101k miles and never missed a beat plus fully galvanised so no rust - unlike my Golf which began to rot after 3 years.

[runnersp]

Maybe I've just been lucky, but the Fiats in my family have always run faultlessly, including a 1.2 Punto, a Punto GT, an Uno and my 1963 500, which after a three years under a dust sheet in someone's garage needed only a new battery, tyres and an oil change to get it back on the road, where it now runs faultlessly whenever i'm lucky enough to use it. As for the new one, I quite like it and prefer it to the vast majority of other small cars on the road. I'd definitely take it over one of those fortwo abominations.

[Tuna]

Another vote for Fiats here, we have a punto on 50K miles and an X1/9 on 102K miles, both start and run fine every day.

[mini_ralf]

Must have done something wrong.....

My Panda worked.
My Y10 required constant fettling to get it to go up hils.
My first Bravo blew up with the following problems.
Worn cams
Broken Crank (Not my fault. The Fiat garage broke that)
Bent vavles.
Various knockings from the engine bay.
The replacement Punto, which Fiat donated while they attempted to fix the above problems, lasted 5 months before needing some cough cough... Maintenance.
The replacement Bravo which Fiat supplied after they failed to get the first one running was less than perfect.

I want to believe... Honest I do. When the cars worked they were fun. But I never managed more than a few miles before they broke again.

If they've got the reliability sorted I'd get a 500. Could be a real wheeze!

[sa_20v]

I've owned 4 Fiat Coupes, never missed a beat. Dealers are crap though, but find a decent specialist and you're laughing.

www.powerfiat.co.uk

[tinman0]

another vote for fiat here. had a few problems with the bravo but nothing like my friends with their Golf Mk4s.

if this fiat is for real - i may well put an order in for one as I like small run around cars for intown stuff, and i like fiats generally.

[xxplod]

I wish someone would remanufacture the original. I love the genuine 500.

[smash]

Fiat 500?! Should be called the Fiat 5,000 'cos it's 10 times bigger...

[Twincam16]

One thing's for certain - it'll be great to drive.

If it doesn't have power steering or servoed pedals, that is.