Fiat 500 C review
by David Finlay (26 June 2009)
Until the 1938 Bentley came along and started distracting people's attention, nothing - not even the peerless cakes at the nearby café - had quite the same effect on visitors to Hive Beach on the Dorset coast as the line of two dozen or so Fiat 500 Cs which had been settled in the car park while the journalists who were driving them relaxed during a mid-morning stop on the UK press launch.
It doesn't take long to work out why this happened, nor why Fiat decided to add a convertible model to the 500 range. The 500 hatchback is, if you like this sort of thing (which I do, though it's not a universal opinion), the cutest car on sale today, and a top-down version was always going to generate even more oohs and aahs of appreciation. That's especially the case in the UK, traditionally a very strong market for convertibles, which is why we're getting the 500 C ahead of any other European country, including even Italy.
The line-up is simple to describe because it follows that of the hatchback very closely. There's the same choice of engines - 1.2- and 1.4-litre petrol engines and a 1.3 turbo diesel which to my mind is the best of the lot - and two trim levels, called Pop and Lounge, which will similarly come as no surprise to 500 enthusiasts.
Lounges cost £1400 more than Pops, and for the extra money you get automatic climate control air-conditioning (as opposed to simple manual aircon in the Pop), electric door mirrors, foglights, a 50/50-split rear seat, rear parking sensors, extra storage compartments, 15" alloy wheels, interior and exterior chrome, ESP, a hill-hold function, a leather steering wheel and Fiat's Blue&Me hands-free system (with Bluetooth connectivity, voice recognition and a digital audio file players with a USB port). If you want some but not all of this equipment, it's on the options list for the Pop.
In all important respects the C is identical to the 500 hatch except that the metal roof has been removed - creating a noticeable but unconcerning wobble over rougher road surfaces - and a fabric one fitted in its place. In its overall design the whole car recalls the previous 500, created more than half a century ago, and there's a nostalgic feel to the roof. It doesn't hide itself in the luggage compartment or anything modern like that. Instead, it just crumples into a heap behind the heads of the rear passengers.
One problem with this is that it blocks the rear view spectacularly (not that rear visibility was ever a 500 strong point in any case) and your best way of checking that there is nothing behind you is to stand up and have a look before sitting back down again and engaging reverse.
Apart from that, though, the arrangement isn't as haphazard as it looks. In the full-down position the high-level brake light is still fully visible, as it is when the roof is raised enough for the rear window to be vertical but still leaving empty space above the heads of all the occupants.
For safety reasons Fiat won't let you have the roof in any position between these two, and it has also arranged that the roof won't automatically close all the way - you have to press the roof-mounted button deliberately to make this happen so that you can let go if a child suddenly stands up to look over the windscreen and risks decapitation.
The side panels are the same as they are on the hatchback and the roof moves up and down on rails attached to them, so it's possible to change its position on the move without it being ripped off in the breeze. There's another safety feature here, though, in that it won't respond to button-pressing if you're doing more than 37mph.
A wind stop is available as one of many optional extras, but neither of the cars I tried had it, and with the roof fully down there was quite a lot of airflow within the cabin. That's not my idea of a good time, but I suspect that with this car, more than most other convertibles, having your hair blown all over the place as you potter along a coastal road is simply going to add to the fun.
That fun doesn't come cheap. The C is a full £3000 more expensive than equivalent hatchback models, ranging from £11,300 for the 1.2 Pop (that's more than any of the hatch versions other than the Abarth) to £14,100 for the 1.3 diesel Lounge. The MINI Convertible is substantially more expensive still, of course, and it's nothing like as cute, but it does offer a driving experience which the 500 C can't begin to match.
As someone who doesn't really enjoy convertibles and shies away from spending £3000 unnecessarily, I'd pick the standard 500 over the C every time. But having seen so many people fall in love with the C on Hive Beach, I'm quite prepared to believe that it will sell in impressive numbers no matter what I think.
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