Fiat 500C opens up

It's the topless cutie that Fiat Australia is hoping will give its stagnating 500 a swift kick in the class.  Deliveries of the soft-top Fiat 500C began last week and with more than 100 customer orders in the wings Fiat Australia is hoping the renewed interest in the re-born Fifties icon will help arrest a slide that saw the car's sales tumble from 584 in 2008 to just 342 last year.

Over the same period class competitors like the Ford Fiesta and Hyundai Getz increased sales while other light passenger rivals like the Honda Jazz, Mazda 2 and Smart held their ground significantly better.  "When you are selling a car like this it is very important that there is something fresh and new (on a regular basis)," Fiat Australia spokesman Edward Rowe says.

"As luck would have it the cars have come out of order for us. We are still hoping to have the Abarth later this year. It is definitely not off the future planning menu."

While the Abarth model may yet make it to Australia, Rowe wouldn't comment on suggestions that the next stage of Fiat's global plans to keep the 500 fresh and exciting is a wagon version which could make its public debut at the Paris Motor Show in October and pay tribute to the tiny 500 Giardiniera wagon from the early 1960s.

In a bid to re-ignite interest in the 500 Fiat Australia set pricing for the 500C ($28,990 manual and $30,990 DuaLogic automatic) last year and started taking orders at the same time.

"We started forward selling it last year because we knew the numbers were going to be limited and we wanted to make sure the first cars that arrived were going to be the colours and trims that customers wanted," Rowe says. "Those orders are already well into three figures and we will probably be able to get two or three hundred this year."

The 500C has the same 74kW engine featured in the 3-door hatch version coupled to either the five-speed manual or five-speed DuaLogic automatic. The electric soft-top is a dual stage affair with the cloth roof folding back between the fixed rails to be either partially or totally open.

Seven airbags are standard, including a driver's kneebag, along with anti-lock brakes and electronic brakeforce distribution. Electronic stability program and traction control along with a hill hold function are also standard.

"The Fiat 500C has to be the car to be seen in this summer," says Andrei Zaitzev, General Manager of Fiat in Australia. "But the 500C is much more than a stylish body. It shares the same technology as the 500 and that means it is as economical as it is cute, it has a five star EuroNCAP safety rating.

"Like the 500, the 500C is as clever as it is beautiful and fun to drive."  Rowe also downplayed suggestions that Fiat's distributorship arrangements in Australia currently held by Ateco Automotive, importers of Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Citroen and Great Wall could be up for reassessment following the Fiat and Chrysler amalgamation. That joint venture is aimed giving Fiat greater distribution reach within the United States while Chrysler will win through access to Fiat's small car platforms.

"It is not an issue of any sort," Rowe says. "Nothing is going to change here. Neville (Ateco owner Neville Crichton) has the contract to import Fiat to Australia ... that's that."  Rowe says that news reports out of the United States that Chrysler Australia will import the Lancia Delta into Australia has fired the latest round of speculation.

"I think that where people have become confused is that they do not understand that it is not uncommon around the world for the same car to be sold as a different brand, even within the same market. Lancia, as a brand, will not come back to Australia ... rather the plan will likely be for a Lancia product to come to Australia as a Chrysler-badged product."

Fiat 500C

Price: $28,990 (manual), $30,990 (automatic)
Engine: 1.4L/4-cylinder 74kW/131Nm
Transmission: 5-speed manual, 5-speed DuaLogic automated manual
Economy: 6.3l/100km combined (supplied)
Performance: 0-100km/h 10.5 seconds, top speed 182km/h