2013 FIAT 500 REVIEW

When it comes to innocent type, does somebody make it better than the Italians? Fuhgeddaboutit!

Now in its agree with day of production, and like all but three decades in expulsion from American shores, the Fiat 500 returns in lieu of 2013 with the same syrupy sweet sass and sprinkle of sporty goodness with the purpose of has endeared this city dweller’s compact car to so many all over its storied history.

But while the car has draw closer to be defined by its small stature, the 500’s current reintroduction begs the question: Is this lil’ Italian Stallion a one-trick horse; a car purely defined by its small stature? Or does it transcend its city car moniker, and like a modern-day Da Vinci, confirm too multi-faceted to label with such broad strokes?

A car with a personality

Designing a completely appealing car inside and elsewhere is a job we certainly don’t envy (ok, so maybe we make a little). Nevertheless, it’s a job Fiat’s designers come up with completed with momentous star. While onlookers will undoubtedly be drawn to the car’s bubbly outer, the interior is come again? Really steals the radio show.

Inside the design design is equal parts fun, funky, and functional (for the nearly all part). Think of it as impede amid Pee-Wee’s Playhouse and a Dali painting and you’re all but in attendance. (Hint: The secret word of the era at this juncture is “crazy-awesome”). From its two-tone color schemes to the Mini-like circular instrument gauges, the 500’s interior grabs your attention best away and on no account let’s turn.

It’s not all just right though. While we extol Fiat in lieu of insertion such a momentous prominence on fun, nearly design choices are questionable.

For starters, the 500 oddly chairs window controls on the core console. While a seemingly minor design preference, all but all drive we took incorporated a flash somewhere we felt utterly perplexed searching in lieu of the damn window controls.

Instead of a standard door-lock buttons, Fiat integrates these into the entry handles themselves. Is it neat? Sure it is. But it’s precisely individual of individuals design choices you’ll either love or hate.

Though the Fiat 500 is individual of the smallest cars on the bazaar, it’s surprisingly voluminous set its diminutive dimensions. But don’t assent to individuals back seats fool you; while the 500 can technically fit four, two adults with a pair of Hobbits thrown in back seems more appropriate.

Taller drivers/passengers be supposed to and earnings heed: Head and shoulder scope is incomplete, especially after optioning the power sunroof (a $950 option).

Cargo scope on the other hand over is surprisingly abundant if you don’t mind nearly seat shuffling. The Fiat 500 offers a modest 9.5 cubic feet of pause, which is more than adequate in lieu of a slip to the grocery hoard. If with the purpose of simply won’t make, fold individuals seats ahead, slap on with the purpose of European mankini, and make to swim in a sea of 30.2 cubes.

Tech takes a fall 

Where the Fiat 500 sincerely fails to impress is with its not enough on-board tech.

The 500 comes standard with an AM/FM telephone lines, single disc recording player with MP3 playback, steering circle mounted audio controls, and USB harbor located nauseatingly in the glovebox. An secondary audio input is and incorporated.

Fiat and throws in its Microsoft-developed Blue&Me arrangement, which – analogous to Microsoft’s SYNC – allows in lieu of hands-free statement amid mobile and USB campaign. But while Blue&Me may possibly sound friendly, it quickly slams the entry on several likely long-term bond due to its unpredictable behavior.

For pattern, the absence of a navigation/touchsreen in our 500 Turbo reassessment car essential blend be completed by imperative the voice-control button located on the steering circle and therefore speaking aloud the order in lieu of blend, which by instinct adequate is simply: “pair device.”

Once that’s complete, drivers are essential to enter a multi-digit code (sigh) followed by the option to import their contacts make an inventory. Initiating hands-free calls by simply speaking a person’s brand requires with the purpose of an deal with sign up be paired the vehicle.

Overall, receiving and insertion calls worked relatively well. There were period after Blue&ME had bother recognizing our commands, consequential in multiple attempts, which quickly grew irritating.

Similarly, as soon as your phone is paired, Blue&Me will intercept several text messages you receive and apply for to read them aloud. Our current reassessment of the Ford Focus Electric highlighted this trait; no more than in the Focus EV in attendance is a button to disable the function. Here the Fiat 500, however, veto such button exists. So passengers will be able to eavesdrop in while the car’s robotic voice reads aloud all your messages — even the mushy/really classified ones.

Where Blue&Me sincerely stumbles, though, is how poorly it interacts with tune campaign. The Fiat 500 does not support Bluetooth tune streaming (odd set the young at heart demographic the company is targeting) nor does it allow you to cable your phone to the car and barrage tune from apps.

Music with the purpose of is stored locally to your phone will fool around, however, but don’t expect it to design smoothly. In the role of far as we might tell, in attendance is veto visible way to sift manually through artists, albums, or playlists after using the head detachment or steering circle controls.

Playback was not as much of troublesome with an iPod, but still suffered from the same interface problems plaguing tune selection. Our no more than workaround was to physically unplug the iPod and manually first-rate come again? Track, playlist, or LP we wanted to fool around, therefore plug it back into the USB harbor.

While Blue&Me is alleged to help with DJ duties through its hands-free functionality, not as soon as were we able to revolution tracks via voice controls. Not cool, Fiat. Not cool on all.

Despite our wish to glimpse Blue&Me slumber with the fishes, our car incorporated a total of minutiae such as heated front seats , automatic high temperature control , security alarm, and upgraded Beats stereo arrangement ($1,500), which adds six premium speakers and a subwoofer.

The heated seats deserted were a lovely addition and not a trait you glimpse very often on this value dot (our reassessment car came in on $24,000), and even though the Beats arrangement isn’t untaken to echo with innocent audiophiles, it accessible a pleasant listening experience with the purpose of nearly all will have.

So many flavors

Like the contents of a gelato cart short of along the beautiful streets of Venice, The 2013 Fiat 500 is on hand in a total of discrete flavors activation with the stand Pop kind ($16,000); affecting on top of the boiling Sport ($17,500); the roomier Lounge ($18,500); the “t” Turbo ($19,500), which is original in lieu of 2013; and Fiat’s go-fast gladiator itself, the Abarth ($22,00).

For the nearly all part, the type quotient ratchets up with all succeeding kind, with the Pop and Lounge trims forgoing the outer styling tweaks in lieu of more straightforward appointments. The Lounge kind in distinct adds 15-inch wheels, chrome outer slender, and a fixed tumbler roof.

While all the 500 models are head-turners in their own best, rapid of the Abarth, we found our 500 Turbo reassessment kind the nearly all aesthetically appealing, which incorporated a total of styling touches with the purpose of bestowed levels of confidence and sexual category appeal typically cold in lieu of Milan catwalks.

Still, the Fiat 500 won’t be everyone’s cup of tea (cappuccino?) but character to Fiat in lieu of creating a retro-styled, novel version of the classic Cinqucento (500) with the purpose of can be both sickeningly cutesy and deliciously debonair.

The Fiat 500 is veto Mona Lisa of the automotive earth, but we imagine if Leonardo da Vinci were alive in the present day, he’d rock individual. Assuming, of stream, he wasn’t in demand buzzing around in his not public gyrocopter.

It’s until the end of time period in lieu of turbo period

Three engines accompany the Fiat 500 on its trans-Atlantic journey to U.S. Showrooms: The Pop, Sport, and Lounge models all receive a 1.4-liter inline four-cylinder with the purpose of foodstuffs 101 horsepower and 98 pound-feet of torque. The 500 skin a front-engine, front-wheel-drive setup and comes mated to a standard five-speed physical transmission or an not obligatory six-speed automatic ($1,250).

In the role of we already mentioned, Fiat has added a original Turbo kind in lieu of 2013, which gets a 1.4-liter, 16-valve MultiAir turbocharged engine, boosting output to 135 hp and 150 lb-ft of torque. Here addition to on condition that with the purpose of above prod rotten the blocks, it has individual of the nearly all melodically sweet engine explanation we’ve increasingly listened to on this value.

The 500 Turbo is no more than on hand with the five-speed physical, which be supposed to please enthusiasts, and is by far our top top-drawer. If you’re like the majority of drivers these days who don’t know how to drive a stick, now’s the period to understand.

Finally, in lieu of the sincerely wicked, the all-conquering Abarth kind gets an even greater engine overhaul, which sees hp jacked to 160 and lb-ft of torque to 170.

Depending on the transmission, fuel financial system is preferably stellar in the Fiat 500, diminishing no more than a little amid the spontaneously aspirated 1.4-cylinder, and the turbos with the purpose of power the 500 Turbo and Abarth models.

EPA estimates in lieu of the standard 1.4-liter place it on an first-rate 31 mpg in the city, 40 mpg on the highway, and 34 mpg combined after mated to the physical. Sadly mpg figures dip considerably after opting in lieu of the automatic. Dropping down to 27 in the city, 34 on the highway, and 30 combined.

Fuel financial system remains respectable in both the manual-driven Turbo and Abarth models, web 28 mpg in the city, 34 on the highway, and 31 combined.

One spirited Fiat

Despite its eccentric styling, you’d be forgiven in lieu of mistaking the Fiat 500 as a car devoid of several driving pleasure. At be opposite help, it ticks all the best boxes in lieu of a car with the purpose of caters to financial system done several degree of excitement. And yet, with the purpose of couldn’t be foster from the truth.

Simply plunk, the Fiat 500 Turbo is a fun car to drive. Behind the circle in attendance is a real have a feeling of excitement and lack of restrictions with the purpose of this little car happily bestows winning you.

Initially, its size may possibly drive nearly ancestors to feel enslaved and claustrophobic, but in lieu of us the diminutive nature was more freeing than everything in addition. Zipping in spaces others dare not and jetting around town with an assuredness with the purpose of typically escapes superior vehicles, driving the 500 Turbo precisely felt so natural.

Your smileage will undoubtedly vary on the inferior side of the spectrum (read: The Pop, Lounge, and Sport Models) but the 500 Turbo is simply a joy to drive. Combined with the vehicle’s smooth-as-butter transmission and you come up with a car with the purpose of handles supremely in traffic, cruises self-assuredly on the freeway – keeping pace with traffic and overtaking cars with improve – and isn’t anxious to mix it up in the curves, either. For with the purpose of take scenario, a sport button located on the core console quickens up rushing, tightens up the stifle, and sharpens up the suspension.

Finish line

The Fiat 500 is an exceptional vehicle.

With automakers so obsessed with crossovers, hybrids, and making cars superior in universal, it’s refreshing to glimpse a company like Fiat re-enter the American bazaar with a car that’s small, fun, and unapologetically European.

With so many trims to indicate from, in attendance is a Fiat in lieu of all but all driver, and its first-rate mix of fuel-economy, driving dynamics, and type help seal the deal in lieu of everyone on the fence.

Our no more than major complaint comes in the form of its limited tech offerings, which in lieu of nearly may possibly confirm too abysmal to ignore.

Nevertheless in attendance is a clear excite – energy even – after behind the circle of this spirited Fiat; a swagger nearly all vehicles rarely muster nonetheless of their size.

Is the 2013 Fiat 500 an offer you simply can’t junk? No. But if driving this little beauty proves everything, it’s with the purpose of size doesn’t subject.