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Road Rake
The Best Car You Can't Buy
The once again iconic Fiat 500
I usually hate these articles in car magazines. However, there is a little car (accent on small) that is currently taking Italy by storm and threatens to topple the Mini, Peugeot, and everything else in its path once it is exported.
With this kind of success and with the resurgence of Fiat (now run by Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, the best CEO on the planet--from Ferrari), it may only be a matter of time before you see it here.*
The car is the much beloved Topolino/CinqueCento, now called the Nuova 500. This little thing makes women melt and men wish they had its mojo. It is so hot in Italy right now that they cannot even export it, so I hear. It is designed by Frank Stephenson (almost as cool as Luca), who previously penned the first generation Mini for BMW.
* You can't buy this car, yet, but you can probably buy Fiat as an ADR on the NYSE. I did this with Toyota eighteen months ago and it has treated me well. So I recommend you buy the ADR, wait two years, and then allow your stock appreciation to pay for the car. Worth visiting the "Street" Rake, eh?
Mr. Montezemolo: a small picture of the biggest man in cars.
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Comments
So, Road Rake, how does this beast run in the snow? Or better yet, how do you find it in the snow if you have to park it on the street? My guess is that when a Minnesotan buys this bug (note I didn't say beetle) and Winter hits, he or she just picks it up, brings it into the house and puts it on the hearth in front of a roaring fire until Spring comes. It appears to me that after a good meal at Lucia's, I might only be able to get my right leg into this car.
When we start issuing drivers licenses to 6 year olds, Fiat will have a killer market to tap...and they'll all fit.
Cheers!
Road Rake,
The little Italian gem that could take on the mini raises some interesting questions for the Grumpy Neighbor guy:
If you follow your nicely placed links to the Wikipedia listing for the Nuovo 500, you see that the same assembly plant produces a kind of zippy looking sister car, the Ford Ka
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Ka
Taking a look at the Ka, you have to wonder....WHAT THE HELL IS FORD THINKING by not bringing their own "City Car" to the US to compete with the Mini?
For an outfit that is clearly struggling (not just the St. Paul plant, but have you noticed that at least three Ford dealers just in Hennepin County alone have folded recently?) this seems pretty much a case of big company myopia.
Of course, this is the same company that confused the marketplace by dumping the Taurus name, which, though boring in its last iteration, could have created some splash by calling the new Fusion the "Next Taurus" and then compounded the brand equity trade away confusion by taking the rather bulbous "500", and renaming it the "new Taurus".
Maybe this is why the US automakers are fixin' to die - after 20+ years, a brand name like "Camry" means something in the marketplace (although Camry = total commonism), that the average consumer can ID even as they overhaul the platform every 2-3 years.
To pick on Ford a little more, just do a mental list of the way Ford and Mercury have befuddled the marketplace with model name switcheroos. Besides the Mustang, what platform hasn't undergone crazy name changes?
Tempo, Taurus, Fusion, Contour, LTD, Crown Vic, LTD II, Escort, Torino, Fairlane, Galaxie, Falcon, Elite, jeeeez!
Commonism bad. Stupidism worse.
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