Thursday, May 23, 2013
2012 Fiat 500 Review and Pricing
The 2012 Fiat 500 is out in the wild now, streaming out of more than a hundred new Fiat showrooms across the country, as Chrysler and Fiat firm up their alliance and find new, inventive ways to get high-gas-mileage cars to America quickly. The 500s been on sale for years in Europe; now its been engineered to meet U.S. safety and marketing standards, and to be built in a North American plant, too.
It could hardly have arrived at a better time. Gas prices are over $3 a gallon, and the 500s nearly 40-mpg fuel economy gives it at least one convincing argument to park itself in the garages of small-car buyers ever
ywhere. But unlike other subcompact buyers with big EPA numbers, the 500 has a heady dose of style, from its heritage-induced proportions to the mix-and-match color play of its pint-sized interior.
Nearly 30 years after Fiat sold its last car in the U.S., the 2012 Fiat 500 officially makes its debut at the Los Angeles auto show. Cute as a button—or at least a New Beetle or Mini Cooper—the 500 will be powered by a 101-hp, 1.4-liter four-cylinder with 97 lb-ft of torque when it goes on sale in January. The little four-cylinder is assembled in Dundee, Michigan, and utilizes variable valve timing and lift to achieve a best of 29 mpg city and 37 highway when e
quipped with the manual transmission. A multinational effort, the 500 is being assembled in Toluca, Mexico, in the factory that used to screw together Chrysler’s PT Cruiser.
In terms of retro-futurism, the 2012 Fiat 500 shares more with the VW New Beetle than the Mini Cooper. The 1957-75 500s rear-mounted two-cylinder engine is now a 1.4-liter MultiAir four, up front with the drive wheels. While the original was almost microcar-tiny, the modern take is now merely small, as its large enough to meet safety and crash standards. Its sub-Mini, sub-Beetle small, notes Laura Soave, head of the Fiat brand in North America.
"Technically, based on overall length, the 500 is an a-segment car," she says. That makes its direct competition the smart fortwo and the upcoming Scion iQ.
