First look: Fiat goes back to the future

FIFTY years after the iconic Fiat 500 was introduced and more than three decades after the last one was produced, the Italian car maker has taken the wraps off an all-new version that is headed for Australia.

Official photos released last night show a modern incarnation that clearly draws on the original but will not look out of place in the 21st century.

The new Fiat 500 baby car will make its Australian debut at the Sydney motor show at Darling Harbour in October before being officially launched here in early 2008.

Fiat Australia intends pricing the car from below $20,000.

One year to 18 months later, we can expect a hot Abarth-badged model to arrive, powered by the potent 110kW/205Nm 1.4-litre turbocharged engine that appeared in the Punto Abarth model unveiled in Geneva last month.

Fiat Group is committed to producing Abarth versions of all its models and the Australian agent Ateco Automotive is keen to promote these performance models, which were popular here in the past.

A convertible version is expected to be built next year and come here by early 2009. Although the Italians have yet to confirm the convertible, it will almost certainly go ahead and right-hand drive production is guaranteed because the UK is (perhaps remarkably) such a strong convertible market.

Built on a platform developed in conjunction with Ford, which will also spawn the next generation Ka, the new 500 was designed by the Fiat Style Centre and is manufactured in Poland.

It is 3550mm long (compared with 2970mm for the original car), 1650mm wide (1320mm), 1490mm high (1320mm) and sits on a wheelbase of 2300mm (1840mm).

Available only as a three-door hatchback, the 500 will be powered in Australia by either a 1.4-litre 16-valve petrol engine producing 75kW of power or a 55kW 1.3-litre turbo-diesel, driving through either a five-speed or six-speed manual gearbox.

Although the original 500 was rear-engined and drove the rear wheels, the new model is a typical modern micro car with the engine mounted up front and driving the front wheels.

Fiat was relaunched as a brand in Australia last July with the Punto and at the Sydney show next October will introduce the new Bravo small car (which has to be re-named because of Mazda’s claim on the name in Australia).

The ‘Cinquecento’ (‘500’ in Italian) will complete Fiat’s core local line-up as its price entry-level model.

“The small car segment is the biggest growth area of the Australian market and most of that growth is in the premium segment,” said Fiat Australia spokesman Edward Rowe.

“The Fiat 500 is an excellent fit for our positioning of the brand in Australia because the premium end of the market is style-driven. Both the 500 and the Abarth range fit extremely well and are very important to the brand in Australia.”

Fiat presented the original Fiat 500 in Turin on 4 July 1957, powered by a tiny 479cc two-cylinder air-cooled engine.

Fifty years later to the day, Fiat will formally launch the 2008 model, again in Turin.

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