Fiat 500C Manual: Price check in aisle Cinquecento
Cars like the Volkswagen Beetle and the Mini Cooper have shown that cute can sell in the United States. But it hasn’t quite worked as well for Fiat’s adorable retromobile, the 500. The little Cinquecento never really took off sales-wise on our shores since its return for the 2012 model year, be it because of low gas prices, its diminutive size, or brand perception.
Fiat’s latest effort to drum up some showroom traffic is a good old-fashioned price cut. The 500 itself hasn’t changed much for 2017, but its MSRPs have. Base prices for the coupe models dropped by a significant $2000, putting the car’s entry point just under the $16,000 threshold, where bargain-basement offerings such as the Mitsubishi Mirage reside. The Fiat’s sticker can still rise above $20K as you add options, but in the case of our $20,365 500C convertible test car, getting the same amount of equipment in 2016 would have cost several thousand dollars more.
The Fiat doesn’t look that cheap. On the contrary, it’s quite fashionable and distinctive, its rounded and nicely detailed look having aged well. Fiat also offers all sorts of customization possibilities including fun colors and a variety of trim packages. Our test car wasn’t quite so eye-catching with its subdued gray Rhino paint, but it did feature a Sport package with tasteful darkened headlight bezels, a body kit, body-color fascias, and 16-inch wheels that look larger than their size suggests given the petite stature of this car. IT’S TEENY TINY
While the original Fiat 500 was widely known as a paragon of space efficiency, there’s no getting around the current car’s size when you try to stuff four adults inside (yes, it can be done, in a pinch). Measuring a scant 139.6 inches long, the Fiat is nearly two feet shorter than a Honda Fit, and that shows in the rear seats: There’s little legroom and limited headroom back there, and the cushions are thinly padded. The front seats provide a more spacious feel, and the 500C’s power-retractable canvas roof takes that airiness to an even higher level. It has three primary positions: closed, halfway open for a sunroof-like aperture, and fully retracted back to the trunklid.
One benefit of a convertible
top of this type is that it doesn’t add much weight to the tiny Fiat, which tips the scales at just 2479 pounds. There is a slight loss in structural integrity, as we noticed a bit of cowl shake and some rattles. The 500C surely isn’t a corner carver, with its tall seating position and narrow body imparting a tippy feel as you push toward its 0.82-g limit of grip. YOU GET WHAT YOU DON’T PAY FOR
Now that the little Fiat is cheaper, we’re more willing to forgive the somewhat low-rent plastics used throughout the cabin. Spending more money allows you to spice things up by adorning the cabin with fancier upholstery options and bits of colored trim, but in all versions, the dashboard is simplistic in its design. A touchscreen mounted atop the center stack is flanked by volume and tuning knobs, while an array of buttons lower down operates the climate-control system. There are a few oddities, such as the power-window controls located on either side of the shifter and the kitschylooking digital gauge cluster. The car’s touchscreen is a dumbed-down version of Fiat Chrysler’s typically intuitive Uconnect system. Compared with many other FCA vehicles’ 8.4-inch screen, this little car has a little 5.0-inch unit with smaller buttons and touchpoints that make it more difficult to operate the various functions including audio, navigation, and phone connectivity.
Small also applies to what’s in the engine compartment: a 1.4-liter inline-four with just 101 horsepower and 97 lb-ft of torque that has motivated the 500 since it first arrived on our shores. There’s adequate pep to be had if you row the gears of the standard five-speed manual; the optional six-speed automatic saps a considerable amount of energy from the diminutive engine. If you want to get from zero to 60 mph quicker than 9.8 seconds, your only option now is the snorty Fiat 500 Abarth, which straps a turbocharger to the four-pot to make a significantly more potent 160 horsepower. (The in-between option, the 135-hp 500 Turbo, has disappeared from the lineup.)
But with the Abarth’s extroverted exhaust note being its chief standout feature, we wonder why you’d bother spending more — a 500C Abarth starts at $22,485 — for just a tad bit more excitement. Better to keep it simple and stick to the 500’s best attributes: its cheapness and its cheerfulness. Maybe the new lower price will help more Americans discover those virtues.