The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds
  • print
  • alert

Cloud storage: Lower cost and increase uptime

Well equipped interior

Basic equipment levels are pretty good too, with even the entry-level Pop model coming with ABS, electric windows and a more than decent six-speaker entertainment system as standard.

Fiat 500 TwinAir

Spot the Windows logo
Click for a close-up

Inside and out, the 500 feels pretty well bolted together and a far cry from Fiats of not so many years ago, which tended to fall apart if you looked at them the wrong way or left them out in the rain. The dash is largely painted metal, but that’s all part of the car’s charm.

The only slight glitch I experienced was the oft-reported flashing odometer, which seems to have been a recurring fault on the 500 since launch. It’s about time Fiat nailed that down.

If the current TwinAir doesn’t sound frugal or fast enough for you, Fiat plans to release 65bhp naturally aspirated and 105bhp performance versions in the not too distant future. But, like Wee Bear’s porridge, I suspect the 85bhp model will be the model that’s just right for most people.

Fiat 500 TwinAir

Hoot if you WOOT

Verdict

RH Recommended Medal

At just shy of £11,000, the 500 TwinAir is the most fun you can have in a small car with your clothes on. The clever and eager power plant just begs to be exercised, which can hamper economy but will leave you with a big grin on your face. Calm down and use the various economy aids to their full, and you can cover a truly impressive distance on each gallon of unleaded. So you are almost getting two cars in one. ®

More Car Reviews

Honda
Jazz
Hybrid
Ford
Focus
Toyota
Auris
Hybrid
Vauxhall
Ampera
Honda
CR-Z
Hybrid

Customer Success Testimonial: Recovery is Everything

95%
Fiat 500 Twin Air

Fiat 500 TwinAir

A cracking turbo-charged two-cylinder engine makes the Fiat 500 TwinAir a bargain for excitement-loving drivers on a budget.
Price: From £10,665 OTR RRP

Could be worse

It could have an Apple logo, then it would cost twice as much and would only run on fuel approved by Apple and priced well above market rates. And you'd probably need a rubber bumper over the steering wheel as you're surely holding it wrong :-)

But worst of all it will only come in one color and if you don't upgrade yearly you'll be ridiculed for driving such an obsolete vehicle.

19
2

wow, that's quite aggressive and personal

compensating much?

17
0

You are all missing the point here....

There is no IT angle, but there is an engineering angle, and we geeks love good engineering. Fact is this is the most radical departure in the way a petrol engine is built in decades, they really havn't changed all that much since the birth of the combustion engine.

I applaud FIAT for the multiair, it's a potent little engine.

Mine's the Alfa Giulietta 1.4 170hp :)

7
0

More from The Register

New material enables 1,000-meter super-skyscrapers
Before you read on, see if you can guess how the new stuff will be used
 breaking news
You've seen the Large Hadron Collider. Now comes the HUGE Hadron Collider
International Linear Collider ready to rock and roll
 breaking news
Latest NASA ASTRONAUT class is HALF FEMALE
Newbie 'nauts include lady Marine fighter pilot, male doctor
Boffins find evidence Atlantic Ocean has started closing
'Embryonic subduction zone' that flattened Lisbon headed for Blighty
Google launches broadband balloons, radio astronomy frets
A careless Loon could blind the square kilometre array
Headbangers have a gas, gas, gas in mosh pits
Boffins say heavy metal crowds behave like The Vapours
Hubble spies unlikely planet being born in hostile neighborhood
Hoovering a cloud of sand 7.5 billion miles from a tiny star
 breaking news
Jaguar to open new car-making factory in Blighty (virtually)
Britain still makes stuff, it's just not real any more...
 breaking news
Spin doctors brazenly fiddle with tiny bits in front of the neighbours
Quantum computer address bus just nanometres wide
 breaking news
China's second woman 'naut blasts off for coupling in HEAVEN
Wang and pals test the cosmic waters for Chinese space station