Want one. Want one of those. Want one badly.

[James Smith]

4Car Roadtest of the Fiat Nuova 500.

I've been waiting for this car for a loooooong time. Heading over to the continent in August with my parents (down to their place in Villelongue, Southern France) so I'll have to pop into the Fiat dealer in Perpignan and see if they have one Dad and I can crawl over!

It's based on the Nuova Panda platform, Dad has the diesel version of that car and it's great to drive. With the new Cinq being wider and lower than the Panda, it should be a riot ;D

[CaptainPierce]

I was actually lucky enough recently to be able to buy a car I'd wanted badly, the Chrysler PT Cruiser (not sure if they have these outside the States or not):



Of course, I had to total out my old car in an accident with a deer and borrow a bunch of money to do it...

[James Smith]

captainpierce said:

I was actually lucky enough recently to be able to buy a car I'd wanted badly, the Chrysler PT Cruiser (not sure if they have these outside the States or not):

Yep, we get the PT over here. When I worked in the local pub, one of my colleagues there had a purple one (he still does, come to think of it, so he's had it a while). They aren't generally well-regarded by UK motoring journos, but most of that is probably down to the age-old story of "OMGWTFBBQLOL TEH AMERICANZ SUCKZ0RS @ BUILDING CARZ!!!!11111111oneone"....an attitude that remains firm despite some wonderful stuff coming out of Detroit right now.

Mind, it isn't just Detroit's products that run up against that kind of attitude. Fiat are building some great cars right now - the Panda, the Grande Punto, the Multipla - but they still have this reputation for being unreliable. Which is ironic, given the number of Audis and BMWs and Toyotas and Fords and Mercedes et al that I see broken down every time I drive any kind of distance. Yet the Seicento I have sat outside has only had one new exhaust, one gearbox seal and general consumables (brake pads, tyres, oil, coolant etc) in the best part of seven years.

Hell, I even saw a Bentley parking up the other day with what looked like fairly terminal smoke pouring out of one of the exhausts (not a proper Bentley mind, but the the Continental GT - the one based on a Skoda concept car ;D).

[CaptainPierce]

I think we in the US used to have that sort of concept about foreign (and by foreign, I mean Japanese ) cars back about the 70's... but now, since most Japanese cars have better reliability than most American cars, all we can bitch about is the fact that they're not "American."

Of course, the problem with that is that my Chrysler was probably mostly made in Mexico, whereas my parents' Toyotas (a Camry and a Corolla) were made in Kentucky.

Hey, James--are they still selling the Ford Fiesta over there?

[James Smith]

captainpierce said:

Hey, James--are they still selling the Ford Fiesta over there?

Yep, though it's getting rather large in it's old age.

Linky

[CaptainPierce]

Cool. My family wound up owning four Fiestas over the years, despite the fact that they only imported them here from '78 to '80. We bought a '78 brand new, traded it in on an '80, and then later bought a '79 and another '80 (very) used. My dad and I loved those cars.