Road Trip: 2010 Fiat 500 1.4 Sport

[svgallery name="2010_Fiat_500_road_trip_pics"]

Driving la dolce vita

Touring Tuscany in the Canadian-bound Fiat Cinquecento

Story and photos by John LeBlanc SIENNA, Italy – Zipping by the vineyards that cover central Italy’s Chianti Hills like designer shag carpet, our Fiat 500’s tach freely swinging to its redline, we’re trying to coax the most from the small, Italian four-banger. I make a quick cog swap from fourth- to third-gear, passing a local farmer meandering in his blood orange Husqvarna tractor at the edge of the undulating mountaintop road in the process. I then cast a steely eye on the next blind curve, of which after three days of driving here in Tuscany, there’s almost an unwritten guarantee would soon follow. There’s only one word for driving an Italian car like small-yet-roadworthy Fiat in Italy—bellissimo! And if you love to drive, you also have to love the Italian ministry of transportation’s road engineering policies in this area. Based on the unrelenting roller coasters called “roads” connecting the walled, Medieval towns we visited on a four-day road trip in the Fiat, the road making process seems to only involve pouring pavement down the side of a hill, and letting Mother Nature do the rest. Fiat left North America in the mid-1990s. But ever since Italy’s largest automaker took a controlling interest in Detroit's then-bankrupt Chrysler in June 2009, Italian car fans have been curious what may actually go on sale in Canada. So far, we know Fiat will supply the nuts and bolts for future Chrysler and Dodge small cars, starting around 2012. There are also undefined plans to reintroduce Fiat’s sporty Alfa Romeo cars. Of more immediate interest, though, is the Fiat 500—or Cinquecento to Italophiles. It’s scheduled to start being produced in a Mexican Chrysler plant later this year, and go on sale in Canada shortly after that. To get a better feel for what we can expect from the first Fiat to be sold in Canada in over a decade, I spent almost a week in Italy driving an Italian-market Cinquecento. Our road trip was simple: From the outskirts of Fiat’s Rome press fleet office, we would drive north to Sienna, spend a couple of days bopping around the Chianti region between there and Florence, then drove back to Rome to catch a flight home. With the desire to try out the Fiat in more varied road conditions on the first day’s drive to Sienna, instead of the A1 autostrada that runs north-south down the main calf of the boot of Italy, we took the older No. 2 route, a combination of two- and four-lane roads that skirts along the eastern shore of Lake Bolsena, one of the larger volcanic crater lakes in central Italy. In its native land, initial impressions of the Fiat came easy. Launched three years ago in Italy, the four-seat, front-drive, three-door 500 city car is essentially an Italian Mini Cooper; yet taller and shorter. There’s plenty of room for two up front. But the Fiat’s rounded-off rear styling cuts into headroom normal-sized adults. Like the Mini, you still have to pack light. Our pair of overnight carryon bags just fit into the 500’s rear cargo space with the pair of fold-down rear seats up. Fiat hasn’t confirmed Canadian pricing. Bt if our midrange Sport 1.4—which came with a 100 hp and 97 lb.-ft. of torque 1.4-litre gas engine—were sold here, I would expect it to cost about $19,500. By late afternoon, we entered the welcoming tree-lined drive of our accommodations for the next three nights, the Borgo Scopeto Relais, a traditional Tuscan winery estate overlooking the city just 8 km east of Sienna, near Vagliagli. As you can tell from my opening, driving in the hills of Chianti, north east of Sienna, is a special experience. The topography lends itself to routes that can be mistaken for tarmac rally stages. The population is sparse, and traffic is light, made up mainly of local farmers and adventurous tourists. The pavement is smooth. And most of the towns are tiny, fortified hilltop Medieval villages, which you have to drive up and up and up, to get too. One of which, Volpaia, was our scheduled stop for lunch, after a brisk drive following some earlier shopping in Sienna. After a wonderfully simple yet satisfying meal at Ristorante La Bottega (licensed since 1707), we spent the late afternoon hours driving north up to Radda, a small wine village between the valleys of the rivers Pesa and Arbi. From there, we ventured north to Greve, just south of Florence, then headed south through the town of Castellina, before returning to the Borgo Scopeto Relais to try some of its house wines. Now in our second day in the small Fiat, we discovered that despite its diminutive size, its driving position is bang on. Our tester (one of the rare 500s we saw in Italy that wasn't painted in iPod white) came with a neatly finished two-tone brown and black leather interior. Visibility was excellent. The short-throw, dash-mounted shifter was quick and accurate. The Fiat weighs less than a Mini Cooper by almost 200 kg. That alone makes it a blast to nip through traffic or clip mountain road apexes. Matched to a six-speed manual transmission, it was able to handle the usually-brisk Italian driving pace—zero to 100 km/h takes about 10.5 seconds. With our final day in Tuscany scheduled to be an autostrada run directly back to Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport, our penultimate day’s drive in the Fiat  took us in the opposite direction from Chianti. Still north, but this time west to the walled towns of San Gimigiano and vampire populated Volterra. San Gimigiano—San Jimmy Jimmy to us—can be easily spotted even kilometres away. Resembling a Robin Hood movie set, its seven large towers only hint at the extensive medieval architecture hidden behind its walls. Our next stop, Volterra, actually has some legitimate literary street cred. Although nearby Montepulciano was employed as a set in the film versions, fans of the Twilight series of books will recognize Volterra as the home of the fictional Volturi vampire coven. Less frightening was the Fiat’s road worthiness. Although the roads weren’t as dramatically steeped as we previously experienced further east in Chianti, the 500 was still a treat to drive. With weighty and accurate steering, the diminutive Fiat was easy to place on twisty roads. It didn't comer as flat as a Mini, but the Fiat's handling was balanced, with minimal understeer, and begged the driver to explore its limits. At the same time, it delivered a more comfortable ride than the BMW subcompact. After four days driving an Italian-market 500 not on Canadian roads, I can say a definite, “perhaps.” And the small car field is getting crowed, fast. When it arrives next year, the 500 will not only compete against fun-to-drive small cars like Mini Cooper and Honda Fit, but also new competition like the Ford Fiesta, Mazda2 and even a future Volkswagen Polo. Of course, Canadians will gravitate to the Fiat, as they do any small car. Yet the Canadian 500 price, drivetrains, equipment, and build quality has yet to be determined. The biggest question may be how well the diminutive Fiat sells in the U.S., where most Chrysler dealers only see minivan and pickup customers walk through their doors and Fiats are still known as a punch line about automotive reliability. But as I discovered on my own, none offer the 500’s la dolce vita driving appeal.

Comments