The Fiat 500 is an interesting entrant into the small car marketplace. It's very stylish, some would say "cute," and has a lot of unique spunk to it. Essentially, the 500 has a tremendous amount of character.
And if Fiat didn't catch your attention with the original 500, maybe it will with an electric version, the hotted-up ABARTH -- which I am licking my chops for -- and a drop-top 500. You cannot really blame Fiat as it is on a quest to capture a good chunk of the small-car market.
Question is: will these extra models accomplish that?
While the spritelike Fiat 500 may not accommodate much baggage, it nevertheless arrives in the United States laden with it.
That said, the legacy of Fiat products in the United States — undeniable cuteness, unrelenting unreliability — does not faze Laura Soave, the brand manager for the Italian company in North America. “Everywhere I go, someone has a Fiat story,” she said on Thursday, speaking to a meeting of the International Motor Press Organization in Manhattan. Some of those stories are not particularly flattering to the brand...
...Even so, an electric version is in development and scheduled for 2012 production, as is the second-generation Abarth-edition high-performance 500. A cabrio model is scheduled to be shown in April at the New York auto show...
[Source: The New York Times]
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