Demo Test Drive Report

[RacerRon]

Just got back from my first test drive of the 500, so here's a quick report. I met Stacey of Mack Massey Chrysler/Fiat of El Paso. A red 500 was waiting in the back with a sun roof. They just got it on Feb. 28 and the dealer applied the graphics package. After a walk-around and some discussions about the car, I hopped in. Stacey sat in the front passenger seat and my 12-year old daughter got in the back. For a tiny car I was surprised at how much room there was in the front. My daughter said she was comfortable in the back. I'm 6-feet tall and I didn't even try to get in the back. I like how the door locks inside just by pushing in the door handle. I like the position of the shifter and it rows through the gears very easily, though not as precise as my Mazda Miata. The clutch is very light and it is easy to drive.

I drove on some back roads behind the dealership, which has a combination of smooth and rough roads. To get decent acceleration you do need to rev it a bit, but it revs easily and I like the sound of the sport exhaust. It is not a quick car, but it easily keeps up with other cars on the road in normal driving, and that was with three people in the car. It tried it with the Sport mode on and off. Definitely like it with the Sport button on, you can feel the steering firm up. Fiat has created a perfect balance of ride and handling in the Sport version. Even going over railroad tracks didn't upset the car too much. I got to try out the handling on some corners, but didn't go too fast, and there's a minimum amount of body lean.

I think it is much better looking than a Mini or a Yaris, and Fiat should be able to sell a ton of them.

Oh, Gavin, Stacey mentioned your name and said hi.

[5*(10)^2]

I am beginning to like the rosso a lot more now!

[Gavin]

thanks Ron...nice photos...

I'm 6 foot also...how was the sunroof??

I'm sad Stacey won't be delivering my Prima :(

Gavin

[RacerRon]

Yes, I really like that color red too. Gavin, I didn't think I would like the sunroof, but I kind-of liked this one. I had plenty of headroom. The seat was a little high (everyone seems to complain about that), but I get used too it right away. This car would be perfect for scooting around town doing errands, as long as you don't have to carry a lot of stuff. I pushed the rear seats down  (after pushing the headrests all the way down). They don't lay completely flat but it does give you some extra room for storage.

I forgot to take interior pictures, but it was black. It's a nice combination, the black and red.

[RacerRon]

Gavin, too bad you won't be picking up your PE in El Paso. Really wanted to see a PE in person.

BTW, The pictures I took were behind where the studio is going to be. it is an existing building that is used for office space. They are going to expand it to meet all the requirements Fiat is imposing. Stacey said they even had to have a specific Italian tile in the showroom. It won't be completed until sometime in the summer.

I asked about the Abarth version, but she didn't have any more information than what Chris has given us, except that it will be sometime in 2012 along with Alfas. It will be pretty neat to finally see Alfas back in the U.S.

[Gavin]

Thanks Ron....when, if, I get my Prima I will send you some photos :)

Looks like I will be going through the Austin, TX dealership...nice, energitic people...but I did and still prefer going through El Paso...closer, had good communication with Stacey. Oh well.

I don't know if Austin will ship to me...and that could be a deal breaker...

Never been to Austin and wouldn't mind taking a trip there to get the car, but (due to a co-worker leaving) I can't be more than an hour from my work for the next 5 weeks...kinda on perpetual call until Mid April...so no way I can go 700 miles to get my car.

So we will just see how this all plays out. I probably should just bail on the Prima, but I will keep fighting a bit more....now if home delivery is out, or there are dealer add ons past what El Paso was quoting, well I will see that as a sign that I should either get the LEAF Nissan can deliver me in April, or just wait a while for the EV I really want (either the Fiat 500 EV or the Volvo C30 EV...whichever will sell me one first).

thanks....glad you had fun on the test ride...I would love to hit El Paso and try out the sport...but again, 7 hours of round trip travel takes me a bit out of my on-call range :)

Gavin

[RacerRon]

Gavin,

Too bad your are "stuck" for the next 54 weeks. What a bummer. Austin is a nice city, and it would be a nice drive to go back to NM in your Prima. I would think Austin could deliver it to you, but they would probably charge you extra, which is understandable from their point of view. I think Fiat really wanted to get the PE out before the regular cars were sold, but without all the dealerships ready, it became an awkward situation for some.

[RacerRon]

Oops, meant to write "5 weeks".

[ciddyguy]

Ron,

Which version of the red, was the basic Russo or the Russo Brilliante?

That is nice and from your photos, can't tell if metallic or anything like that. The one guy who did an extensive video review of a Russo 500 at a dealership in S.C. and it looked to be a bluish tinted red and didn't appear to be metallic at all.

BTW, nice review. I didn't find the seat too high but remember, we've all become too accustomed to low seats that you have to squat down into in many cars, but then again, I'm used to tall seat as I drive a truck.

I'm 5'10" or so and found no issues with the sunroof myself and want one and had one in my 88 Honda Accord LXI 4 door and loved it (never mind that the AC was broken), it was still nice.

[sjmst]

That looks like the Brilliante red

[RacerRon]

I don't know which color red it is and I didn't think to ask, but it didn't appear to be a metallic color.

I'm not a small guy, but it was very easy to get in and out of.

[MrJones]

Thanks for the report. I hope you don't mind if I tack on my own quick impressions here instead of starting (another) new test drive thread.

The Good:
Light, responsive (with or without Sport engaged), easy to drive, quiet (for a car, that is), stylish/aesthetically appealing. Tight suspension, great turning radius (fun doing donuts in the parking lot). This is a fantastic car at this price-point. If you don't drive manual trans., this car will teach you quickly--it is super easy to drive. The shifter is quite a bit higher than normal. I have never owned an automatic and I am so accustomed to the shifter being much lower. You get used to it.

The O.K.:
The seat sits high on the model with the sun-roof. Acceleration at highway speeds is painfully slow--don't expect to quickly pass another car to make it to the upcoming exit--the speedometer mockingly lists 140mph as the top speed. The Bose stereo is O.K. Sure, it's loud, but your only audio adjustments are bass and treble (or loud and louder). I hoped there would be a little more customization of sound/tone.

The Bad:
The only thing I could say bad about this car was the back seat. Only in case of an emergency would I let a person taller than 5'7" sit in the back for more than 5 minutes. I am 5'9" and found that the headrest jammed into my upper back (when lowered) or just under my cranium (when fully extended). Plus, my head was touching the roof line the whole time. If you hit a bump, they are going to crack their head on the roof/back window. Leg room was fine--quite a bit less than your average airline seat, but serviceable.

RacerRon, I agree that it looks better than a Yaris, and I can say that it is better to drive than one too. FWIW, I have a Honda Fit (Sport), and it puts that car to shame for handling and fun-factor (though pales in cargo volume).

[Gavin]

Nice review...both of you :)

So the only bad is the back seat? Cool...I plan to use the 500 as a 2 seater anyways :0

The back, as you said, is really only in emergencies for me

Thanks...everybody gets to test ride it but me :(  

I guess my test ride will be the day mine is bought and sitting in my driveway....what a strange way to buy a car :)

Gavin

[Jim McKenzie]

I have my test drive at Fiat of Clearwater scheduled for 10:00 Saturday (2 days).  I'll be taking my Fiat X1/9 on the trip down (about 45-50 mils each way) and hope to take pictures.   The guy I spoke to (Steve Schwartz) couldn't have been nicer.

Funny..he introduced himself on the call as th Internet Sales mgr of Dayton Andrews "Chrysler Jeep"...corrected himself as "Fiat of CLearwater" and then laughed and said he wasn't used to saying that yet:)

I'll post pictures Saturday when I get back.   Funny, Saturday is also the day I am registering my 1973 850 Sport Spider and putting her on the road as an antique.   Karma baby...karma.
 

[sketch]

You have to remove the headrests entirely, but the seats will fold pretty much flat.  This is per the Euro owners' manual.

I also learned while reading it that the rear headrests were designed to interfere with the passengers' backs so that they would have to raise them in order to sit.  Makes sense, since that's gonna prevent your head going through the back window.

[ciddyguy]

MrJones wrote

Thanks for the report. I hope you don't mind if I tack on my own quick impressions here instead of starting (another) new test drive thread.

The Good:
Light, responsive (with or without Sport engaged), easy to drive, quiet (for a car, that is), stylish/aesthetically appealing. Tight suspension, great turning radius (fun doing donuts in the parking lot). This is a fantastic car at this price-point. If you don't drive manual trans., this car will teach you quickly--it is super easy to drive. The shifter is quite a bit higher than normal. I have never owned an automatic and I am so accustomed to the shifter being much lower. You get used to it.

The O.K.:
The seat sits high on the model with the sun-roof. Acceleration at highway speeds is painfully slow--don't expect to quickly pass another car to make it to the upcoming exit--the speedometer mockingly lists 140mph as the top speed. The Bose stereo is O.K. Sure, it's loud, but your only audio adjustments are bass and treble (or loud and louder). I hoped there would be a little more customization of sound/tone.

The Bad:
The only thing I could say bad about this car was the back seat. Only in case of an emergency would I let a person taller than 5'7" sit in the back for more than 5 minutes. I am 5'9" and found that the headrest jammed into my upper back (when lowered) or just under my cranium (when fully extended). Plus, my head was touching the roof line the whole time. If you hit a bump, they are going to crack their head on the roof/back window. Leg room was fine--quite a bit less than your average airline seat, but serviceable.

RacerRon, I agree that it looks better than a Yaris, and I can say that it is better to drive than one too. FWIW, I have a Honda Fit (Sport), and it puts that car to shame for handling and fun-factor (though pales in cargo volume).

Good review, one thing to keep in mind and it's been said before about this car but you have to rev the motor way high, it redlines at  6900rpm if I'm not mistaken, so keep the revs unless cruising at 4000 to 5500 or so and you can maintain momentum, and perhaps pass, and it may require dropping to 3rd gear to keep the rpms up. Now I didn't get to pass anyone but I found the acceleration to be fine in the situations I was in, 2nd gear can be kept far longer than in most cars before you have to shift into 3rd. 4th gear isn't really a passing gear like you'd think so it may require dropping it into 3rd to get a decent passing speed. This is true of all cars with small displacement motors.

I can't say how good the Bose system was, I only got to listen to FM for a brief time and it is NOT a good source to tell how something sounds though better than AM by a long shot.

[MrJones]

Good to know about the redline rpm. Having driven manuals all my life, I am weary of such a dramatic downshift (ie. 5th to 3rd) at highway speed (65-70mph). My point was that this car will not win any speed records (but few speeding tickets too!)

I knew I wanted to test the stereo, so I brought a USB with high-quality .mp3 files. Didn't test the Blue&Me with the USB--should have thought of that.

[sketch]

Recline is at 6600, I'm pretty sure. Close, I'm just being pedantic :P

[ciddyguy]

Mr Jones,

Tried to comment to this, this morning but the forum would not have any of it. :-( Then I had to rush off to work.

Anyway, most engines like this one really do well when you keep the revs just to a boil, that means roughly 3500-4500rpms or so unless cruising or higher to get the most out of the torque when accelerating.

As I said, sometimes it may mean dropping it into 3rd gear to get the rpms up enough to get the car going, once you do, you can then drop back into 4th to finish out your pass before swinging back into your lane if that's what you're after.

It's been said that this is what you should do, and yes, it does mean rowing much more than we all may be used to.

I once did a downshift in my truck to I think 4th (from 5th), the rpms shot up and the truck lurched forward and got past the slow driver on the freeway, I was amazed and this was a pushrodd 4.0L V6 with a 5spd manual. Today, this truck doesn't do that quite as well as it's got over 232K miles on it now, at the time (about 4 years ago) It might've still be just under 200K.

In any event, I find that even with my truck letting the revs stay between 3-4Krpms helps keep the old truck lively and I just push down the accelerator and the truck just pulls ahead, only shifting up when the rpms get over 4K as the motor redlines at 5K.

In any event, I'm planning on getting a Fiat soon, and yes, it'll be a sport if at all possible. :-)

[Giallo Edizione]

I just got back from dealer that opened today. They had one Silver Sport on the showroom floor. No test drivers yet.

Very nice car. Exterior fit and finish excellent. As a recent MINI owner I was not shocked by the sizea and I had seen them in Europe last November. It seemed similar, shorter nose, more storage space in boot/trunk area with rear seat up than MINI, but way less rear seat leg and head room.

As others stated the interior appointments are nice, good quality look and feel to it. Gauges, controls etc easy and intuitive. Sitting is very upright for me to have legroom but have steering wheel at a comfortable distance (I like it a little closer-not straight-armed).

The really bad news: Sunroof really intrudes into the cockpit. I am 6'1 and more leg than torso and still it was tight. I could adjust seat and steering wheel in a way where I could get comfortable but my head was up in the sunroof space and ahri brishing on the edges and any hard right turn or bump will likely push my head into the side rail depression. Also, because this car had a Bose stereo ( like the Primo) the passenger seat is not adjustable up and down due to the unit being installed under the seat, and so that side is even worse. This really sux because I foolishly ordered the roof in my Primo thinking it would be nice and help resale and when I heard it might be a problem it was too late to change the order. Frankly it is so bad that I am very seriously thinking of cancelling the Primo and taking one of the incoming Sports without the roof-probably a stripper since I expect I'd sell in a year to get an Abarth if I liked it and might as well limit downside on resale. So much for exclusivity. I am trying to get the dealer to make some pro-active calls to any of the other 10 Primo's coming into his dealership that did not order a roof to see if they have remorse and would like to swap orders. Even this may not be allowed by Chrysler FIAT due to the way they are handling PE waiting list. ( Boston area in case somebody on this forum is one of the incoming PE's that might want to swap). He says 10 Sports are coming in next week, and another 40 by end of month so I'd have plenty to choose from. I'll return next week for a test drive when the inventory arrives and sit in some non-roof examples and make a decision. Interestingly all the incoming cars are allocation-dealer had no choice in colors and options. Generally the strippers all have engine block heaters, blue and me and something else and with delivery are $18,600.

Sigh. The really should have put telescoping steering columns in the 500.