New Fiat 500

Developed by the Fiat Style Centre and manufactured in the plant in Tychy (Poland), the new 500 is a 3-door model with compact measurements: it is 355 cm long, 165 cm wide, 149 cm tall and has a wheelbase of 230 cm.

The range of available engines includes a 75 bhp 1.3 16v Multijet turbodiesel unit and two gasoline engines, the 69 bhp 1.2 8v and the 100 bhp 1.4 16v, all of which are available with five or six speed mechanical gearboxes.

The new Fiat 500 will be officially presented in Turin on 4 July 2007, exactly 50 years after the original launch of the "Nuova Fiat 500", in 1957.

The new model will go on sale immediately after the launch.

About the Fiat Nuova 500 (1957-1975)

The Fiat Nuova 500 is a true icon in the automobile history: during its 18 years-long life, from 1957 to 1975, i was built in 3,893,294 units and helped Italians and many Europeans to satisfy the need for individual mobility that raised up in the early 1950s.

The Nuova 500 also marked the end of the post-war emergency period for motorisation and the automotive industry in Italy, and the start of the striving for comfort, albeit minimal and economical.

It also concluded the rebirth of Fiat and of its product range, after the devastation of the Second World War.

The "father" of the Nuova 500 was engineer Dante Giacosa, who had already developed many other models including the 500’s predecessor, the 500 Topolino (509,650 units between 1936-1955).

In his book ‘Progetti alla Fiat prima del computer’ (‘Design at Fiat before the computer’), he said that with the Nuova 500 Fiat "realised its programme of renewing its models, to replace those born before the Second World War".

Fiat Nuova 500 – cutaway illustration	The father of the Nuova 500: Dante Giacosa (on the left)

To know more about the history of the Nuova 500, you can download the official document released by Fiat, which contains 30 pages of detailed information about this Italian icon.

(Source: Fiat)