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Numbers confirm what we already knew: Fiat 500 is pos

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Doppel said:
Majority of americans don't live in that city and many who do don't even own a car. Most people here have no parking issues or streets first conceived in the middle ages so honestly there is just plenty of room. Two car garages, wide streets, 6000 lb SUVs, a fiat looks (and is) like a coffin compared to them.
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Meh, it's small, it looks cool, it's safe, it's got good fuel economy, the abarth is hot, fast. I don't see the downsides.
 
I've seen J. Lo in a Rolls and a Maybach. There's no way should would really drive a 500.
 
It seems that Fiat made some changes to the 500 mid production 2011 so they could fair better in US crash test standards which are measured differently than other parts of the world. 500s built before August 2011 received a "marginal" rating but cars built after the change received a "good" rating, the highest given by IIHS.

The IIHS has called the Fiat 500 a "top safety pick" just this year:

http://www.iihs.org/news/default.html#101811

The Fiat 500, a minicar introduced by Chrysler in the U.S. market for the 2012 model year, earns the Institute's top safety award for good performance in front, side, rollover, and rear impact evaluations, and for having electronic stability control as standard equipment.

The award applies to 500s built after July 2011 because the driver's seat structure was modified to improve occupant protection in both frontal and rear-end crashes.


The 500 along with the Ford Fiesta are the only minicars to earn the Top Safety Pick designation.
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http://www.iihs.org/ratings/ratingsbyseries.aspx?id=732


Still, it bothers me that the Italians could only bothered to make their car safe after the US public at large spent time/money/effort proving it wasn't safe. It doesn't give a warm fuzzy when it comes to Fiat products. What else is wrong with the car that just hasn't been proven yet?
 
It's less likely to pull out in front of my Grand Cherokee in London, so it's safer over there...

I can't even see those roller skates... 😀
 
HAL9000 said:
Bizzare I don't get how that works... A safe car is a safe car globally...
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An unsafe far is an unsafe car globally. The crash testing is different here. The car isn't safe, period. But that's basic physics; a tiny car cannot by virtue of its size be safe. That's why you don't want to be t-boned while in a Miata or Smart car, either.
 
I bought one. I keep it in the spare tire slot in the trunk of my Challenger.

Beats the crap out of riding a spare tire down the road.
 
Doppel said:
An unsafe far is an unsafe car globally. The crash testing is different here. The car isn't safe, period. But that's basic physics; a tiny car cannot by virtue of its size be safe. That's why you don't want to be t-boned while in a Miata or Smart car, either.
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...

Vic Vega said:
It seems that Fiat made some changes to the 500 mid production 2011 so they could fair better in US crash test standards which are measured differently than other parts of the world. 500s built before August 2011 received a "marginal" rating but cars built after the change received a "good" rating, the highest given by IIHS.

The IIHS has called the Fiat 500 a "top safety pick" just this year:

http://www.iihs.org/news/default.html#101811




http://www.iihs.org/ratings/ratingsbyseries.aspx?id=732


Still, it bothers me that the Italians could only bothered to make their car safe after the US public at large spent time/money/effort proving it wasn't safe. It doesn't give a warm fuzzy when it comes to Fiat products. What else is wrong with the car that just hasn't been proven yet?
Click to expand...
 
Still, it bothers me that the Italians could only bothered to make their car safe after the US public at large spent time/money/effort proving it wasn't safe. It doesn't give a warm fuzzy when it comes to Fiat products. What else is wrong with the car that just hasn't been proven yet?
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I would blame the lower standards of the European market for that, not Fiat. The original version we got got a 5 star rating in Europe and the car is very popular over there. Those are probably major reasons it was the first Fiat to be sold over here. It's likely Fiat did not intend to sell the car in the US when it was first being designed and having not sold cars here for a very long time was not familiar with our crash standards. It didn't test well here, so they went back and fixed the issues. That's what you want them to do.

I'm not sure why Fiat thought they would sell 50,000 of those this year. That was a ridiculous sales goal. The Smart car sold about 45,000 in the first 3 years of sales. That should have been Fiat's goal, 50k in 3 years. With around 20,000 500's sold this year, that looks like a realistic goal.
 
HAL9000 said:
It's only like $14k, (assuming it's the same price as here) That's a good price for a small, good to drive, good looking (IMO), funky retro car.



Not if you live in New York city etc... It's meant for town driving....
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Every urban car that has been introduced has failed. America is a very spread out country. Most people live in the suburbs or the country. A lot of those that due live in heavy urban areas don't even own a car due to the availability of mass transit and the cost of parking.(parking spaces in NYC rent for insane amounts of money)
 
I agree with boomhower for the most part, but there have been successful small cars, the original Civic, Escort and Corolla were at the time what we would consider "city" car sized (although all are much, much larger now, the Escort being replaced by the Focus - the current Corolla is larger than the 90s Camry).

I know in Chicago a deeded parking space (one that you own) in front of your house/townhouse/condo might cost you $50k or more. Down town parking is a killer. I haven't lived there in several years but in 2006 it was running about $35.00/day for an open lot where they crammed your car into and you were assured to be hit/scratched/etc and more for a garage. The saving grace would be working in a highrise with a garage and getting an employee discount. That's the only way to make it affordable for the average person driving in DT Chicago.
 
I was having some work done on my Sonata and the dealer gave me a free rental from Enterprise that was across the street. They had a 500 so I thought I would try it.

Drove it for a day and a half, a base model. I was surprised how much I liked it. The stereo wasn't very good but it was fun to tool around in. I would imagine a heavily optioned model would have been a much nicer experience. It did seem really cheap inside.

-KeithP
 
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