Test drive Fiat 500 since 2007 hatchback

All photos Fiat 500 since 2007

Correcting for a while

- Oh, what a cutie! Oh, how nice! Ah, what a face! It's your?
- Yes, thanks, I like it too.
- No, well, look what a charm! What is the name of?
- Fiat 500
- Fiat? Well! And how much does it cost?
- 670 thousand rubles!
- Wow! Why is it so expensive?
- You see, the glamor is now dear!

I had to conduct similar dialogs almost every time I got out of the car. Perhaps I never felt so much attention to a small typewriter in my life. Moreover, the representatives of both the beautiful half of humanity and strong were the same. The fiatic beckons! My mother always says that she likes buses and cars of the 50s, because they, in her opinion, are like living, similar to people. The eyes of that and look wink, and the radiator grille will stretch out in a friendly smile. Of course, the best in our time managed to revive the cars to John Lasseter and Joe Ranft to the directors of the cartoon of the car. Well, after all, then animation, but here is real life. Fiat designers were able to breathe in their baby life, he is alive!
Perhaps the reason for such cheerfulness of the five hundredth lies that his dad is just their 50s, from a generation of cars with faces. Everyone knows that the modern Fiat 500 is based on the very legendary Italian folk car. But still half a century has passed, in the world now other values \u200b\u200bare both psychological and technological. Therefore, once again bravo fiat for deciding on this reincarnation. Let the fiatic lost his main trump cards, which he flaunted in the middle of the last century: simplicity, efficiency and accessibility for everyone. But then he managed to maintain attractiveness and brightness. In our country, for some reason, this is customary to call glamor. This is the reason for universal love. We love glamorous things. Even if there is little benefit from them.

And how many it is from Fiat 500? Honestly, in addition to the aesthetic component, not very. First of all due to supercompact sizes. We must pay tribute to modern designers, they have learned to arrange junior cars A in such a way that four people could fit them. But still, full comfort for four adults from a car 3.5 m long and 1.6 m should not be expected wide. In front is nothing. Of course, ergonomics are far from the ideal for example, you sit like in a tractor, half -hearted, you constantly contact your elbows with a neighbor.
But Glamor wins here. You look at all these fashionable fichens like chrome-plated pens or saucers with two arrows chasing each other, feeling quite pleasant perforated skin on the armrest, hold on to a convenient (again leather) ball of the gearbox and think: yes, to the devil with it, With ergonomics! But how sweet and original! The music is more fun and louder to drown out numerous noises (tires, engine, wind at high speeds), and go!
Yes, Fiat 500 can take on board two adult passengers. But this is due to a number of obvious inconvenience. For example, this two will have to, twisting in three deaths, wade through a narrow hole. Then it is possible to sit behind, although it is also not very convenient: the supply of space at the legs and shoulders is back, but the rolled roof presses, and the impossibility of instant output gives rise to claustrophobia, which intensifies with the growth of speed and the number of holes in the back thoroughly shakes. It is almost impossible to talk with sitting in front in motion, they do not hear you, and you are. In general, hard to the rear riders, and they did not get glamor only leather decoration of flat seats. So it is better to use a small machine for its intended purpose, namely, to drive nothing more than together.
And in the content of the fiatic there was no trace of the simplicity of the progenitor. Here you have a new 1.4-liter motor with a hundred horses, and a six-speed box, an electric steering wheel, and disc brakes on all wheels. There is a substitution of ideology: from an affordable car for everyone, it turned into a fashionable technological toy. Italians always knew how to teach their cars the right behavior on the road, regardless of size. In addition to the extremely favorable sensations that he is ready to deliver when he contemplating, Fiat 500 will also like the driver. Immediately, I will grieve some young ladies, which, at the sight of photographs of the 500th, will immediately reach for husbands of husbands, unfortunately, the option with the most powerful 1.4-liter engine is available only on the handle. But with a 1.2-liter 70-horsepower, you can order a robot. Although, most likely, a lower power will not become an obstacle, because it is so pretty!.

Curred under Euro-5, the 100-horsepower engine was noticeably dull. It seems to be a hundred strength for this baby should be enough with excess. But this is not so. The motor is strangled, the reaction to the pressing of the gas pedal is extremely damped, the transmission is stretched incredibly (on the third you can accelerate almost to 160 km/h). All this leads to the fact that acceleration is moderate. The sharpness of the gas pedal adds to press the SPORT button on the front panel. It makes the steering wheel heavier, in the Lounge version, instead of sports, the ultra -light City mode is included. I would not call it a necessary measure for active driving, it would be better to have more feedback.
But despite all these again, glamorous and ecological troubles, it’s nice to drive in fiatic. The wheel placed in the corners, an elastic suspension. And modest dimensions and a good steering wheel allow you to feel great both dimensions and the angle of rotation of the wheels. Down with Glamor, give a hard drive! The fiat, even more arched and the humpbacked back, rushes forward. In a bend, he behaves in an adult rotation is close to neutral. But it is possible in a drift. Sorry, ESP cannot be completely turned off. The baby is so clear and easy to manage that it strains. Especially at the output from the sliding, when you need to properly open the gas, and ESP still grunts the ABS system and cuts off the fuel supply. For its modest overclocking potential, Fiat is completely recouped by a magnificent suspension. And comfort for a small car, it provides excellent, and allows you to make a lot. Bumps and pits are smoothed out perfectly. In a turn of irregularities, they almost do not affect the trajectory. Of course, at high speeds, the car becomes a little swirling, but it is rather the fault of a short base than the suspensions.
Glamor is now expensive, and therefore it is somehow embarrassed to talk about economy. But you need. Moreover, eating 10 liters per hundred with active ride for the 500th is not a problem. A lot of? Again you consider money! It is empty. It is better to calculate the number of views and index fingers thrown on Fiat directed in his direction. I look at the new Fiat 500 under the window, and in the computer a photograph of his ancestor from the distant 1957. Much has changed: more technologies, more bells and whistles and more money on the output. But it is unlikely that anyone today will say that the idea of \u200b\u200bthe original five hundredth is perverted and its essence is wrong. Reincarnation could not be different. Look at the same mini! Fiat 500 is the embodiment of history, traditions, it is a brand recognizable for decades. Today, it is customary to overpay for originality with such a powerful historical background of the background. This is a normal order of things.
NOTE
Engine
The car provided for the test was equipped with a top 1.4-liter in-line four-cylinder engine of the Fire family (in the past Starjet, also installed by Nagrande Punto) with two distributions and 16 valves. The working volume of the combustion chamber was 1368 cm with a piston diameter of 72 mm and its course of 84 mm. It may seem to someone that 100 hp. and 131 nm outstanding results for a hopeless motor of such a small volume. In fact, Alfa Romeo, which is part of the Fiat concern, back in the late 80s of the last century, set up some of its models (for example 33) with 1.4-liter engines, which already developed 90 forces. So not so great progress. In addition, with the mass of the machine about a ton of 100 hp. It is more often not enough than a lot. At the same time, there is an even less powerful modification with the Fire 1.2 liter engine (69 hp). Apparently, for those who are never in a hurry. Both of these engines satisfy the upcoming ecological requirements of Euro-5. For the European market, of course, a diesel version with the Multijet engine 1.3 liters is also proposed. This turbodiesel with the Common Rail system develops 75 forces and 145 Nm.
Chassis
The 500th platform was borrowed from Fiat Panda. They even have the same length and wheelbase! Yes, and they produce these cars (and with them also Ford KA at the same factory in Poland. Of course, for the 500th suspension they were reconfigured, but constructively they are as simple as that of Panda, McPherson in front and the beam to the back. But the brakes of the 500s on all wheels are disk, and on the 1.4-liter version in front, even ventilated, unlike Panda. The steering with Dualdrive electric power, capable of working both in the usual mode and in the city City (on simple modifications of Fiat 500) or sports on Sport.

The history of the model
It just so happened that even before the modern 500th, two models with the same name lit up in the history of the Italian automotive industry, and the great Fiat designer Dante Dzhakoza worked on both. Common to these cars were simple, like orange, design, small dimensions, economy and cheapness.
The first Italian Mickey Mouse (this is how it can be translated by his nickname Topolino) appeared before the Second World War, in 1936. A simple car with a 569-cubic four-cylinder engine, consoled behind the front axle, and the radiator located behind it was the rear-wheel drive Senior Angelli did not favors the front-wheel drive technique. Topolino could accelerate to 85 km/h, while consuming about 6 liters of gasoline per 100 km. The mouse, having survived two minor modernizations, continued to be produced after the war, until 1955, when it became clear that the 500th was finally behind his time. Mickey Musch, replicated in an amount of more than half a million copies.
At the same time, Jacosa began work on the new five hundredth. He was published in 1957, and they began to call Bambino, or Nuova 500. The not very successful model 600 was taken as a basis, which, by the way, similar to our hunchbacked heater. It was this 500th that was destined to become a cult car. Until 1975, he spread around the world with a circulation of almost four million copies. Low-power, but light, cramped, but economical, well-controlled, simple and extremely reliable car came in handy in Italy, as well as in Europe, despite the fact that a two-cylinder half-liter motor developed only 13 to 21 hp. The length of the new five hundredth was 2970 mm, width 1320, height 1325; Wheel base 1840 mm. Landing formula 2 + 2, adults were arranged in front, and at the back only at best children. The pedals were barely placed between the wheel arch and the central tunnel.
Despite the engine located in the rear overhang, the fiatic isolation was not bad 43.5% on the front axle and 56.5% per rear. It was possible to achieve this thanks to the layout of Transaxle; The manual 4-speed checkpoint was located in front of the rear axle. In the front suspension, double transverse levers were used (with a transverse sheet springs), in the posterior oblique levers and screw springs. The steering mechanism (worm-sector) greetings from the past, like drum brakes in a circle. The salon was heated by air directly from the engine cooling system. But there were descending, not shifting door glasses and a cloth roof, opened and breathing fresh Mediterranean air.
Dmitry Krotov