IT Angle ???
Is there one ?
As a rule, I loathe retro car design. The people responsible for VW’s re-imagining of the Beetle, and BMW’s not-that-mini Mini should have passed water on the graves of Dr. Ferdinand Porsche and Sir Alec Issigonis, and had done with it. Such is the intellectual perfidy of this despicable and lazy philosophy of car design. Fiat …
It could have an Apple logo, then it would cost twice as much and would only run on fuel approved by Apple and priced well above market rates. And you'd probably need a rubber bumper over the steering wheel as you're surely holding it wrong :-)
But worst of all it will only come in one color and if you don't upgrade yearly you'll be ridiculed for driving such an obsolete vehicle.
Fiat's eco:drive is a internet based application. It pulls in data from the vehicle, data on fuel prices and combines them along with other users data on fuel efficiency.
This immediatly makes the article more IT relevent than the next 'a different colour i-product is rumoured to be in development'.
"....A "7or similar" is a car for people who can't cope with a motorbike test....." Nah, it's for those that want to be able to survive a 30mph shunt without extensive surgery. Unlike bikers. I can also offer from experience the fact that most girls will get into a Se7en, even in a cocktail dress, but won't be happy to put on leathers or mess their hair up with an helmet, and then perch on a pillion. Bikes are great for solo thrills, if that's how you like your thrills....
Now, Se7ens with bike engines are fun, so why don't Fiat make a small, mid-engined sportster with this turbo twin? They could call it the new X-19.
The IT angle is.. that the car runs Windows (Windows Automotive) which handles various control functions and the media player. (And El Reg has covered low emission cars for a while!)
We bought one of the first new 500s in the UK early in 2008 - apart from the weird random flashing odometer thing and some issues with external trim, it has been a reliable little thing and it really is fun to drive. It's pretty high-tech underneath the retro exterior, and there are zillions of different options which means that no two are exactly the same.
Well it does have a USB port...
I was also excited by the "Buy from Amazon" link, thinking the online behemoth had made the move into the automotive industry. Clicking on the link was something of a disappointment as I'm not sure "The 2011 Electric Car Guide: Discover the Truth About Owning and Using Electric Cars" will serve my motoring needs too well. Although I imagine it has very low running costs.
The orginal also came in a roofless version with wicker seats called a Jolly, see here:
http://microcarmuseum.com/tour/fiat500jolly.html
I remember once reading an article about this beastie in a Classic car mag, which closed with something like; "There. I managed to write the whole article without once mentioning Noddy..........damn.".
This sort of thing is definitely the near future of motoring: it has to be. Much better suited to short town journeys than any diesel, too... (My wife has a golf TDI with a DPF, and it needs an occasional longer drive at motorway speed to empty the crud from the dpf)
definitely worth checking out.
Saying that, how come a 2 cylinder, 875cc engine weighs 85kg? What's it made out of? The BMW N52 3 litre 6 cylinder engine weighs 161kg... Three times the size, three times the number of cylinders, three times the power - but under twice the weight & co2 emissions. If they'd taken the same approach it could have been down to just over 50kg? I guess there's a turbo, multiair cleverness etc but I'm surprised a 2 cylinder engine would weigh that much: it doesn't strike me as particularly light.
The 500 series is based on the 2003 Panda chassis, iirc. I like my Panda, it handles well for a low-end non-sports car, but it's not quite as fun as it could be. It's comparable to a Pug 205 in terms of driving experience, which is good, but it's no Mini (and by Mini, I mean an actual Mini, not the fat ugly crap BMW make)
If this compares well to a Mini, I might be interested. Does better mpg than my current Panda diesel too. I agree on the styling, I think the 500 is one of the few reimagined classics which actually works. The Panda is too, thinking about it. Fiat are doing a lot right these days.
Company cars never get anywhere near the mpg that other drivers of the same vehicle get, let alone the manufacturer's claimed mpg.
Something to do with the accompanying company fuel card positively encouraging hefty use of the "lead welly" to get yer money's worth on the associated tax liability.
One of my colleagues reports that by attaching a roofrack, a huge roof box and two surfboards, loading the car+box to the gunwales and thrashing the living goolies off it all the way to the south of France, you can get a Prius to do under 40mpg on a run. I was impressed.
My all time fave scheme was that of a mate whose car policy said that you could take the cash alternative and still get the fuel card. He did so and bought a 4 litre V8 Land Rover Discovery. It's amazing how much you can get one of those to drink when you're *really* trying......
I think I've found my next car. I love the design of the new 500 (it reminds me of a space age toaster) and I found the old cinquecento to be a hoot when driven hard.
I also love the whole concept of fuel economy dropping into the 40 mpg range if driven hard. That's good for a lot of cars if driven cautiously./
Speeaking as someone who's had a hire car with the predecessor, Microsoft Sync...
HELL NO!
I always thought needing to pull over, stop and restart the car was from the 'what if microsoft made cars' joke. But when it got stuck in a loop 'Please say command...please say command...' barrelling down Highway 1 at midnight I didnt find it THAT funny.
My previous car was a 2007 Fiat Bravo with blue&me.
Brilliant system. If there was too much noise for the voice detection to work (you would need to be driving through a roadworks with the windows open) you simply use the menu/enter, up/down and back/esc buttons on the steering wheel. Of course if it was that noisey the person you called couldn't hear you.
The mp3 playing and eco drive worked very well too. The only problem was DRM.