First Drive Overview
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Retromobility for your retro-hipster cosplay party.
Great news for those who like to arrive fashionably late to parties: The 1957 Edition of the Fiat 500 survives for the 2015 model year. Introduced for 2014 to commemorate, oddly enough as it was, the 57th anniversary of the model that inspired its style, the commemoration carries on into year 58 since, nicely, Italians and clocks, right?
With fellow Fiat-Chrysler divisions Maserati and Dodge celebrating centennials and Fiat’s personal centennial in 1999 extended behind it, maybe Fiat didn’t want to really feel left out. What ever the lead to, it was already playing quick and loose when it dreamed up the 1957 as a way to add but an additional particular-edition 500. When you’re playing the style card, as exemplified by BMW’s Mini brand, you need to take advantage of each opportunity. Aside from the stylish array of interior and exterior colors (your choice of Celeste [pastel blue], Verde Chiaro [light green], or Bianco [white]), 1957-style Fiat badges replacing the modern ones, and 16-inch painted aluminum wheels developed to appear as old college as a black-and-white Audrey Hepburn flick on TCM, there’s not significantly else that modifications from the normal Cinquecento.
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Harkening to a Much more Pastel Time
The tiny, quasi-original twenty-1st century Fiat character car traces its style inspiration to 1957 when Fiat rolled out the original 500—which was then named the Nuova (New) 500 to distinguish it from the 1936–1955 Topolino. In the U.S., a ’57 reference quite much gets you a Chevy—the be-finned conclusion to the tri-5 run of household vehicles that made the little-block V-8 renowned. It may show up in say, turquoise or coral occupied by some child-boomer retiree who still refers to herself as a “gal” wearing a poodle skirt. That ’57 Chevy driver’s millennial cohort, en route to the vintage clothes shop or the retro furniture store, may want the reliability and fuel economy of a spanking-new, infant-blue Fiat.
What she’ll find at the Fiat shop, for a tiny more jingle than the base value on the more effective 500 Turbo, is basically the 500 in Lounge trim, except that on the 1957 Edition the leather package is standard. The dashboard is rendered in ivory and gray and contrasts nicely with the brown leather and its prominent ivory-colored stitching. The information are quite contemporary, with plenty of digital electronic displays and such, but rendered in retro style (for instance, the round “dials” flanking the radio-tuner face are in fact buttons arrayed to look like dials). And that white roof? The Mini is the clear touchstone. Those who’ve observed the 1969 movie The Italian Job will don’;t forget that though Mini was the star, the Fiat 500s had been ubiquitous all through. As in the modern day car marketplace, Mini is the star that shows the way, but Fiat can cash in on retro, too.
Still, in spite of the robust fashion cues, the 1957 Edition drives like any other Fiat 500. It is roughly a 10-seconds-to-60-mph vehicle, like our lengthy-term 2012 Fiat Sport example. This distinct automobile had the 6-speed automatic transmission, so it was less engaging to drive than the 5-speed manual version of the 1959 Edition that begins at $ 21,250, $ 1900 a lot more than a 500 Lounge. With its regular sport-tuned suspension, the 1957 Edition is undoubtedly nimbler and more entertaining to pilot than Fiat’s other auto, the newer 500L crossover, a bloated, Serbian-constructed bus wearing the quantity and the face but with none of the charm. Nevertheless, we really like saying “Cinquecento.”
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