The 500's early sales figures have exceeded the firm’s expectations despite initial concerns about relaunching the Fiat brand in the U.S. with such a small car. The partially open-top 500C was added to the range recently, with more powerful Abarth versions to follow in the very near future.
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You knew it was coming - a pinked out Barbie version of Fiat's 500 mini. Created by a partnership between the Fiat Centro Stile and Mattel, the customized Barbie 500 is a show car dedicated to famous doll for her 50th birthday and it will appear in public for the first time on Monday 9 March, when it will race through the streets of Milan's fashion district with 'Barbie' on the passenger seat and Ken behind the steering wheel.Aside from the bright pink paintwork, Barbie's 500 also gets pink seats, an LED-decked vanity mirror, glitzy crystals on interior bezels, hubcaps, outer window moldings and antenna, as well as a glossy cover featuring the distinctive Sixties version of the Fiat 500 and a Barbie autograph.
For this year's Geneva Motor Show, Swiss tuner and concept car specialist Rinspeed has developed a modified Fiat 500 Abarth study badged "E2" featuring a dual power mode system that affects the engine electronics. What this system does is, with the touch of a button, it reduces the output of the 500 Abarth's 1.4-liter turbocharged engine, from 160HP to 60HP. The 60-horsepower 'Commuting' mode, which is more suitable for city traffic, helps the 500 Abarth achieve an average consumption of around 4.0 lt / 100 km or 58.8mpg U.S.
Outside the city, the 'Highway' mode frees the 1.4 Turbo engine' 160HP. Fuel consumption in this mode is in the neighborhood of seven liters per 100 kilometers or 33.6mpg US.
"Just like the auto industry has to adjust to the demands of a new era, tuners have to look for new ways to do business as well," said Rinspeed boss Frank M. Rinderknecht.
"I don't believe too much in eco tuning. Many drivers are not willing to miss out on driving fun and don't want to drive a something that announces to the world that they do without. But the number of people who want to use our energy supply responsibly not in the least because they want to protect our environment will grow quickly," he added.
In anticipation of next week's Geneva Motor Show, Fiat released a few more photographs of its all-new 500C Convertible that will go on sale throughout Europe this spring. The 500C features a roll-back canvas top that covers the car's roof and rear-hatch section. It will be offered with the same three poweroplants as the tin top model, including a 75HP 1.3-liter turbo diesel and the two 1.2 liter 69 HP and 1.4 liter 100 HP gasoline engines, available with either manual or robotized Dualogic transmission. 
Fiat has just announced that the first official photographs of its all-new Fiat 500 Convertible will be released on Monday, February 16, two weeks ahead of the car's world premiere at the at the Geneva Motor Show. But to just to keep us on our toes, the Italian automaker uploaded two teaser sketches as well as a fuzzy photos of the rag-topped 500 on its dedicated micro site. The teaser shots confirm earlier reports that 500 Convertible will not be equipped with a fully retractable rooftop but instead, it will feature a folding-back canvas top covering the roof and the rear glasshouse.
Following its introduction in Geneva, the 500 Convertible will go on sale across Europe by summer 2009, and if all goes well with the proposed partnership between the Fiat Group and Chrysler LLC, we could see it coming to North America.
The canvas-top 500 is expected to be offered with the same powertrain options as the tin-top model including 1.2-liter and 1.4-liter gasoline engines and a 1.3-liter turbo diesel.
Start and stop systems are becoming more of a norm than an exception these days. Fiat for example has just launched in the UK a new version of the 500 fitted with this fuel saving technology that stops the engine automatically whenever traffic conditions bring the car to a complete halt, and restarts it when the driver wants to move off again. Called 500 Start&Stop, the new variant is based on the most successful 500 version, the 69HP 1.2 Lounge with prices starting from £9,500 OTR.With Fiat's Start&Stop system, CO2 emissions on the 1.2-liter petrol engine are just 113 g/km versus the standard car's 119 g/km, while Fiat supports that the 500's fuel consumption in the combined cycle is reduced from 5.1 lt / 100km (55.4 mpg UK) to 4.8 lt /100km (58.9 mpg UK).
| START&STOP | LOUNGE |
Fuel Consumption |
|
|
urban cycle mpg (l/100km) | 49.6 (5.7) | 44.1 (6.4) |
extra-urban cycle mpg (l/100km) | 65.7 (4.3) | 65.7 (4.3) |
combined cycle mpg (l/100km) | 58.9 (4.8) | 55.4 (5.1) |
CO2 Emissions (g/km) | 113 | 119 |
The Geneva Motor Show this March will see Fiat taking the top off its much anticipated 500 Convertible. As you can see in our rendering, unlike the MINI Cooper Cabrio that features a fully retractable rooftop, Fiat chose to retain the standard car's pillars and side windows, and simply fit the 500 Convertible with a folding-back canvas top that covers the roof and the rear glasshouse section. Although this solution does not offer a full drop-top experience, it helps keep the price down and logically, should make the 500 one of the most affordable cabriolets in the market.The 500 Convertible will arrive in dealerships across Europe by summer 2009. As one would assume, the engine range will be shared with the hatchback version and include 1.2- and 1.4-liter gasoline units and a 1.3-liter turbo diesel.
Stay tuned on Carscoop as our insiders are working overtime to bring you first all the world premieres that will take place at the Geneva Motor Show in March.
