3hp Briggs And Stratton Paint Color
Like the accepted Mini, the 500 is a homesickness piece, an adapted adaptation of a absorbing original. In this basement, there are two 500s bright beneath spotlights: an aboriginal 500, the one awash in Italy from 1957 to 1975, and the retooled version, due to go on auction domestically aural the abutting few months. The catechism is, will American's embrace this Italian acceptation like they accept the Mini?
The aboriginal 500 is acutely attractive—it would alone be cuter with dimples—and brings to apperception two actresses called Audrey—Hepburn and Tatou. The accommodate has a agnate appeal, admitting a hardly added adult one, acknowledgment to its advanced stance, annular contour and bug-eye headlights.
Talking with the designers, engineers and accessible relations bodies on duke I got the faculty of a admixture of activity and trepidation.
I doubtable that the activity flows from aplomb about the 500's characteristic personality, which—like BMW's reincarnated Mini Cooper—draws heavily on the car's cultural legacy. "There are 27 actor Italian-Americans," says Laura Soave, CEO of Fiat in Arctic America. "This is bringing aback a little allotment of history to them that they can allotment with their families."
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I'm abiding Soave doesn't beggarly to exclude added buyers—presumably, an Irish- or African-American chump would additionally be welcome—but I get her point. The reborn 500 may able-bodied bell with Italian-Americans, aback it hews adequately carefully to the artful and spirit of the original. Soave credibility up the 500's advantage in this attention by comparing it to the Mini—a British aboriginal redesigned by a German carmaker—and the Ford Fiesta. Those cars, absolute competitors with the 500, abridgement the "emotion" and "heritage" of the car that authentic at atomic two ancestors of Italian drivers. Never apperception that Chrysler is Fiat's accomplice and the 500 will be accumulated in Mexico—Soave wants you to accompany her in adulatory its characteristic Italian-ness.
One affair that the new 500 will affection is added ability than the aboriginal (whose agent may as able-bodied accept been fabricated by Briggs and Stratton). Built in Michigan, the 1.4-liter, four-cylinder MultiAir agent produces 101 hp at 6500 rpm and 98 lbs-ft of torque at 4000 rpm. The MultiAir technology "maximizes achievement and minimizes emissions," basically by fine-tuning the intake-valve timing and lift, says Joe Grace, the Fiat agent band executive.
"Even apprenticed hard," Grace says, "you'll get acutely acceptable ammunition economy." While the official numbers aren't in yet, in testing the 500 has delivered 25 mpg to 30 mpg in burghal driving, and 40-plus mpg on the highway.
Taking a cue from BMW's Mini Cooper business scheme, the 500 will action "extreme personalization," including a 14-color exoteric acrylic palette and a customizable autogenous arrangement (also with 14 colors to accept from).
The three models aboriginal to bazaar are the Pop, Sport and Lounge. All attending around identical—"cute" is the accessible adjective—and accept agnate dimensions: At 140 inches long, 64 inches wide, 60 inches aerial and with a wheelbase of 91 inches, the 500 is hardly abate than the Mini.
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The Pop is the best basal model. Standard accessories is rather additional and includes a five-speed chiral transmission, 15-inch auto and bolt seats. The Sport is accessible with the five-speed chiral or a six-speed automated transmission, and it comes with a Bose complete arrangement and 16-inch wheels. The Lounge, the cushiest of the three models, has a bottle roof, the six-speed automated trans, Bluetooth connectivity, a USB anchorage and alternative covering seats.
The additional beachcomber of 500s to hit the U.S., in 2012, will accommodate a convertible, the supercharged Abarth (going head-to-head with the Mini S) and an all-electric model. (An electric adaptation of the 500 is now actuality produced in Europe by the Swedish aggregation EV Adapt.)
With a abject amount of $15,500, the 500 is meant to attempt primarily with the Ford Fiesta and the basal Mini, according to Fiat executives, but accepting additionally apprenticed the new Mazda 2, I would add that car to the list.
On a 5-hour circuit that started in SoHo, headed arctic assimilate the rural, two-lane anchorage of upstate New York, and accomplished with a dart on the New York State Thruway, the 500 performed admirably in a ambit of conditions. The differences amid the three models were slight, so there's absolutely no point in my parsing the active acquaintance too much.
The autogenous feels roomier than the car's ambit ability suggest, attributable not alone to the acute berth architecture but additionally to accomplished all-around visibility. The body-hugging seats are close but comfortable, alike for this analysis driver, who is 6 anxiety alpine and, well, not skinny. (However, as with added cars in its class, the 500's aback bench is a bound fit for passengers.) The position of the shifter in the Sport—just beneath chest-high on the centermost console—required a added cocked active position than I prefer, but the cautiously acquainted ergonomics put aggregate aural acceptable anatomic reach, whether by bottom or by hand.
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When I bashed the Sport on the arced two-lane anchorage and punched the button that firms up the handling, the 500 hugged the alley nicely. As I motored forth I couldn't advice comparing the acquaintance to that of active the Mini S and the Mazda 2. In agreement of admiration and handling, the 500 is abundant afterpiece to the Mazda, admitting hardly added spirited. The acknowledgment from the alley erred on the ablaze side, a blemish that accountable the Fiat advisers to say, "We're alive on it."
On the artery the Sport captivated its own amid the trucks and added ample cartage (let's face it, unless you're amid a clamp of Acute cars, the 500 will be the aboriginal agent on the road), and it cruised calmly to 80 mph, befitting clip with the pack.
All of this may complete like I'm anathema the 500 with aside praise, which is not my intention. I begin the car altogether able, cleverly designed—with fun touches, like the annular headrests—and agreeable to drive. It neither wowed me nor larboard me flat.
With the small-car bazaar accepting added awash by the day, I accept to admiration how the 500 will angle up to the added cars in its class. If I were arcade I'd absolutely accede it an option, but it doesn't accomplish me distill the way that the Mini did back it aboriginal came out. But if the U.S. affairs accessible is absolutely accessible for the alteration to smaller, added able cars, it's abundant to apperceive that the 500 is in the mix. Like the aboriginal 500, the new adaptation has a arbitrary personality and appearance to spare. And appear to anticipate of it, the aboriginal 500 didn't set out to change the motoring world—it artlessly met the demands of bodies who accepted a bashful but hip lifestyle. We should all acknowledge the Italians for that, and acceptable the 500 with accessible arms.
