|
|
This post was updated on .
Well, went and test drove a Fiat 500 or Cinquecento rather and this is my report on it and my first impressions of the little Italian car.
I called Erin of Fiat of Kirkland and set up an appointment to go see this little car and what all the “fuss” was about, snagged a 2:15PM appointment at the dealer, which, BTW, is at their main facility, for now, they have a building across 130th St that they own, literally a stone’s throw from their main facility that will become the new Fiat Studio but meanwhile, they are selling the little cars out of their main dealership and the new facility should be ready by May at the latest from what she told me.
Getting to the dealer would’ve been easier if I hadn’t absentmindedly followed a fellow coming off the exit onto Totem Lake Blvd, which is just before 124th, off the same exit, ooops so had to get myself turned around and onto the correct street, made it within a minute of the actual appointment after all.
Erin was out with a customer, obviously showing them the same car (the demo) so I sat and waited about 30-35 minutes before meeting up with her and we went out to see the little car. Yes, the car is small, but that’s part of its charm and it is no smaller than the first 2 generations of the Honda Civic to use a reference point, I think it’s within an inch of the original Civic in fact in pretty much all dimensions (for a more recent frame of reference, it's about 6" shorter than a MINI but close everywhere else and is larger than a Smart 4-2 and more powerful than the Smart as well) One fact I've read is that the Fiat has more cargo space with the rear seats up than the MINI but the MINI has a tad more rear seat legroom though.
The car in question is a sport model with the auto climate controls, sunroof and of course, the 5spd manual in Rame (copper) metallic, a nice color, but not one I’d choose in any event, but nice.
The day itself was dampened by snow flurries and being barely above freezing but the roads were largely dry, still in all a decent enough day to try out this little car. As we walked out to where she’d parked it, we talked about what I knew and I told her what I knew and she was impressed right off the bat of my knowledge of the car and when we got to the car, I instinctively reached for the hatch to open it, not thinking it might be unlocked (it wasn't) so she unlocked it with the key and I opened up the back. Cargo room is decent though not especially commodious with the seats up, down, it is quite commodious indeed, about what I had in the 83 Honda Civic (with the main difference being that the Civic didn't slope down like in the Fiat so the depth from front to back remained the same up to the base of the rear glass before it sloped in), in fact, I think Fiat did as good a job with the interior space usage as Honda did back then with the 2nd gen Civic 3 door hatch. The whole car felt solid with solid thunks from the doors and hatch, all switchgear felt solid and well made.
Then it was getting in the car, I immediately spotted the height adjuster (under one’s left knee) and immediately began adjusting for height, the adjustments are quite fine so it takes many pulls to raise it (as pushing down to lower) the lever to get it to the right height. The fore/aft adjuster is under one’s right knee and works in the conventional fashion, I almost forgot where the seat back rake adjuster was (next to the inside seat back hinge) and it functions much like the others, just pull up and push back for rake or lean forward and it’ll spring upright, just like any other car), I found the steering wheel adjuster and got that adjusted (for height only, not for reach, a potential problem for those who need their seats pushed back) I didn’t find the reach too far for my needs and the driving position was actually quite fine, more than fine in fact if I’d lowered the wheel just a scoshe from where I had it (full up position) it would've been nearly perfect, the instrument cluster is very easily seen and was not blocked by the wheel in any way, the tach is easy to track as well as was the center info screen, which houses the info on time, date, outside temp and duplicated the radio display when needed and can display the names of the artists while playing the radio or CD even when the data is available and displays the fuel and water temp gauges as well as the trip computer and is very easily seen and both it and the gauges are lit in a nice, soft red/orange glow with good contrast for things like the numbers on both speedo and tach and the needles are easily seen as well and to differentiate between the two despite being nestled onto one another.
The gear shift lever is very smooth, precise and snicks into gear nicely, while it may not be the smoothest shifting unit, its close enough in my view, even the throws aren’t long though not super short either. The syringe style reverse lock out gate is easy to use (just pull up the ring below the shifter to engage reverse), something that doesn’t’ exist on my truck (’92 Ford Ranger), nor on neither the Honda Civic (83) nor the Accord, which was an ‘88 model year vehicle. The shift knob is very comfortable to use and looks nice as is.
Then once I got it started, getting used to the clutch, which at first took me by surprise as just how light the clutch was, lighter than I recall on either the Honda Civic or the Accord and they had cable actuated clutches, don’t know if this one is cable or hydraulic but it was easy to figure out where it lets up and to feather it despite the overall light feel, which didn't bother me, once I got used to it and that didn't take any time at all to do. The steering is nicely weighted when in sport mode (I may not take it out of sport mode, it’s that good). I only had a minor issue with the transmission when still in the parking lot as I tried to start out in 3rd gear when I thought I was in 1st gear, ooops, that was largely due to the definite spring action while in neutral and it’s easy to think you are in 1st gear when you aren’t at first, once I realized the situation, I didn’t have any other issues after that. Oh, I did stall the car once, but remembered reading on the Fiat 500 USA forum about turning the key off and back on to restart the car. Most cars now if they don’t require that at least require one push in the clutch pedal to de-activate the starter safety switch to allow one to start the car, it’s the same thing as when one drives an automatic, one has to put their foot on the brake and depress it before you can take it out of park.
All controls are easy to decipher and fall easily to hand, even the radio controls are within easy reach, the controls behind the steering wheel spokes for the volume and seek are easy to figure out and use. I found the shifter a little high at first, but quickly found it to be at the right height and the window switches have express down for both doors, but sadly, no express up though. The sunroof works great, just pull or push the switch and let go, it'll go to vent and repeat the switch again for full open or close.
As for driving the car, it’s small, agile and very well damped when it comes to rough road surfaces, much more so than one would expect for a sport tuned suspension on a very short wheelbase and very little yaw and pitch either, but it was taut and very sporting indeed and while I didn't get to really test its cornering abilities, it felt firm with little body roll but not hard, nor jiggly either, a well refined ride indeed. The motor was more than capable of getting up to speed, in fact, it revs easily and quickly, taking no time to rev to near redline if one isn’t careful (redline begins at 6900rpm), which I almost did when I deliberately kept the transmission in second while accelerating onto the 405 freeway before snicking into 3rd gear and then 4th. The car felt stable on the freeway and only the growl of the exhaust protrudes into the cabin at higher revs and even there, it’s not overwhelming, wind, road and tire noise was very absent even at freeway speeds. One thing to be aware of is it'll rev up much quicker than you may be used to despite the 101HP on tap, it can be quite deceptive at first.
This car is quick, though not a pocket rocket, but it might as well as be a mini pocket rocket for all of its 101 HP feels more than adequate for the car’s weight. That I was pleasantly surprised and everything just felt lively and eager like an eager beaver, so to speak. I found the car comfortable, even the back wasn’t too bad, as long as one didn’t shove the front seats totally back. The shifter console didn’t protrude into my space and I didn’t find the foot well crowded and everything works as they should. Heck, the sunroof didn't intrude onto my headroom, though the rear seat headroom if one leaned back was not adequate as my head touched the headliner at the structural element just above the hatch.
Yes, the USB and Aux jacks are in the glove box, which I’m proud to say its door is damped so it doesn’t just flop down like many of them do, a classy touch if you ask me.
The steering felt nicely weighted and gave decent feedback and was smooth in its turning radius, though it could use a bit more feedback but it didn’t damp one’s driving experience one bit.
Overall, I found the car well put together, tight, agile, sprightly in more ways than one and just an overall nice little car that feels very refined indeed. It makes my little Honda civic of over 25 years ago feel un-refined and it was more refined than than many cars of its class at the time, like a sprightly little motor that didn’t thrash about and was able to hold its own on the freeway with aplomb, shifted smoothly with one of the smoothest shifters back in the day and did so better than most cars of its class back in the day.
Then when it was over, I got into the truck and pushed in the clutch and went, OMG, wow, such a heavy clutch and how dead feels, wow. The whole truck for a bit on my way back to the freeway and ONTO it, felt like it was slow, lethargic, taking its own sweet time getting up to speed and lumbered along rather ungainly when in comparison to the little Fiat, wow, such a sharp contrast…
Anyway, I’m back to being used to the truck and its truck like ways (never mind it has a little over 232K miles on it) and now to find the scratch and see if I bay buy this little thing before the end of the year.
|
Locked
In all seriousness, it was a very good review. Though at this point I'm still undecided on whether I should buy the Fiat 500 or a '92 Ford Ranger. 
