Fiat 500C Review

A huge 70 per cent of the Fiat 500C's customers will be female, and it will be a confident heterosexual male who puts his hand in his wallet for one. It's a dinky, bubbly car, painted in pretty pastel colours, with big plastic buttons inside, a panel on the facia for writing shopping lists in traffic jams (it wipes clean) and the prettiest cream leather steering wheel you've ever seen. It's a kiss-me-quick car, designed full of cheek, verve and zest; the perfect antidote to a serious global recession.

Yes, £11,300-£14,100 is a high price range for a diddy runaround, but it's a much better waste of money than that other retro-based, expensive small car that trades on people's affections, the MINI.

Unlike the German pastiche, Fiat has kept faithfully to the spirit of the 1957 orginal Cinquecento with this car. It makes you want to shout "Ciao!" and "Pronto!" and "Que bella!" at the top of your voice as you zip through narrow cobbled streets, a latte spilling everywhere, small yappy dog in passenger seat, Dean Martin's Volare blaring from the radio.

As the purchasing decision for this car will undoubtedly revolve entirely around its looks, there's little point in mentioning ride, handling or performance. Suffice to say you don't get much of the last with 69bhp from the 1.2 petrol engine, unless you spend a lot of time changing down gears. The handling is a little woolly, the ride bouncy and the throttle pedal oversprung. But who gives a damn when the car looks this good?

Of more interest is the fabric folding roof, modelled so closely on the original, but with one or two clever new touches. It rolls back from the body in the manner of a panoramic sunroof rather than a true convertible, and concertinas electronically behind the rear seats, but it doesn't lower out of sight, so leaves you with an arrow slit of sky in your rear-view mirror. Silly as it sounds for a car of this size, the standard rear parking sensors are welcome.

Cleverly, you can opt to roll it back halfway, which leaves the rear window in place and gives you a large area of sky above your head. Even better, if the roof is fully down and you wish to open the boot, the folded roof automatically rises slightly and tips to give you access.

There are three engines on offer: 1.2- and 1.4-litre petrols and a 1.3-litre MultiJet diesel. The 1.2-litre engine mixed with the higher Lounge trim will be the best-selling model in the UK, which was home to the international launch of the car and is remarkably the first market to get the car, ahead of Italy, such is the importance of Britain to convertible sales.

But the lower Pop specification is generous enough, with body-coloured bumpers, chromed door handles, MP3-compatible CD player, electric door mirrors, Isofix attachments and steering wheel-mounted buttons for audio controls. You also get a choice of colours for the fabric roof: black, red or ivory.

There is no prettier car than a 500C in pale blue with a cream fabric roof and matching interior. Men with girlfriends and wives to please, take note.