Yeah, talk about a terrible name for a car.:picard: Hopefully they get renamed before hitting the market.
“dude, you drive a bitch car.” “no way, this thing is sweet. check out my red calipers yo.” “no, your car literally means bitch.” "Oh. 
"
i love how america has high levels of fat people yet smaller and smaller cars keep coming into the market. people are gonna have to buy giant shoehorns to shove themselves into these things eventually…but hopefully this gets chrysler back on a better track and they get their quality/reliability back instead of the shit theyve been selling lately.
Yeah, like the Punta hatch. Reminds me of a GTI crossed with a Versa or Yaris, in a good way.
I think we use small cars as a gimmick, something bored housewives own because it’s cute. The smartcar is 15k and uses 93 octane and only gets like 30mpg, so it’s not really what small cars are about. Plus our roads are so much bigger here in the US that maybe small cars aren’t necessary from a physical standpoint. I wonder if the fiats will be treated the same once they’re here, as a gimmick instead of an economical choice.
I think the hyundai accent is a lot like a fiat, generally people buy them as a great small economy car.
and fiats are already in america, a guy on rt 5 near 77 has one with 36" tires, a snorkel, and a 22" lift :eekdance:
Or they can stop being fat fucks.
I do agree with the gimmick aspect of small cars. Though I also think that a soccer mom does not need a 3500hd turbo diesel truck as a daily. Hell if i had the cash Id go for a new 5 series diesel BMW. After all according to some test it got better gas mileage than the Prius. Granted the difference was small but when you consider that those two cars are way in a different class it isnt bad deal.
But no I wasnt able to find exactly witch cars Fiat was bringing over here so i might be out of line. i just saw the econo hoopties and was a bit dissapointed because when I was over seas I saw some really nice looking and performing fiats/ alfa romeos/ lancias. I just wish they would bring thiose over as opposed to the econo boxes. Though the econo boxes arent bad either. Just not really my style (contradictory to what I currently drive lol).
Yeah but the US is doing a lot to keep diesels from being commonplace. Although for sure, economy wise they’re fantastic. They get their epa mpg no matter how you drive them, which is what makes them so great. Unlike hybrids which are only good in low speed environments. They’ve got a 3 cylinder diesel smartcar in Canada that I hear is 100x more practical than the current one we have.
So I recently needed to rent a car and ended up with a little red Fiat 500… And I was actually impressed.
The car is very light weight so it blows ALL over the road. But the suspension seemed quite good, more along the lines of a mid-sized car than an econobox. The car handled great too, although the short wheel base took a little getting used to coming from my SUV. Interior options had everything except heated seats and auto climate, but it was a rental so I don’t mind. It even had cruise control, which the renal car company told me I couldn’t get unless I spent $50 more for a mid-sized car. I decided to stick with a compact car and was pleasantly surprised when cruise control buttons were on the steering wheel. The car even had Bluetooth everything, which works well as any other system. Highway road & wind noise was actually not that bad even at 80 mph. MPG was ~34 on the highway and I manged to get almost 400 miles to a tank, each fill up costing just under $30. Also, the interior quality was much higher than I expected. Think near-VW not Chrysler. Sure some panels could have been better, but the car didn’t feel hollow behind the skins or have sloppy control feedback like a Chrysler 200. And speaking of feedback, the “sport” button on the dash changes the steering ratio and messes with the gear changes (this was auto) and does actually make a noticeable difference. Although the “sport” shifts driving around town can get annoying because of how hard they kick.
I put about 1,600 miles on the car and the only thing I didn’t like was that my luggage didn’t fit all in the trunk… I had to put it on the back seat or the hatch wouldn’t close, lol. If I was in the market for a tiny car I’d consider it.
nice review josh! These are cool quirky little cars for sure.
nice review. I always wondered how these were and would like to drive an Abarath. I have heard good things about them and the interior seems very nice from the exposure ive had.
I, too, had a Fiat 500 that I took to Philly. I liked it. Not too tiny on the interstate (transmission seemed to do a lot of hunting though) and outstanding in the city. I kept it in Sport pretty much the entire time just to keep it entertaining. I’d definitely consider one for a commuter car but it’s to small for an “only” car.
I liked it.
that’s insane. 5 times better on gas than my BMW.
you should rent these everytime you drive to knoxville.
Only 34mpg? Pffft civic does better
Holy old post. I have not driven either of the 2 avail fiats… But will ignorantly say I’m disappointed with the offerings thus far.
I hated the Fiat 500 I had as a rental. Maybe because a Mini gets better mpg and has better build quality. The boot of the Fiat had trim pieces falling apart.
Word is we’re getting the 500L in a couple months.
I wonder how long before Fiat gives into Americans and starts making them bigger…
Like that new mini