ED209
[Purist]
7307
A week with the Fiat 500
During my last vacation in Honolulu Hawaii, I was in a situation where I had several options for my rental car to take around the beautiful Oahu island. Our original reservation was for a basic Toyota Prius but the rental agent at Enterprise mentioned that we have several choices on the lot: A Volkswagon Passat, Ford Mustang, Chevy Malibu, Nissan Altima and the very cute looking Fiat 500. Actually there were several Fiat 500's available in multiple colors. Since we've never driven the Fiat 500 we thought go with it because of the fun and cute looking car that matches the vibe of the relaxing and laid back atmosphere of Hawaii. My favorite color is blue, so it was an easy choice which one we're going to take.
Now normally I would never consider this type of car for a daily driver. Why? Because of the anemic specifications: Our little Fiat 500 has a 1.4 liter 4 cylinder engine that produces 101horsepower and 98 ft/lbs of torque. I'm used to driving a much faster and more powerful car. But I thought it about it for a few minutes and realized that there's no real place for a high displacement engine while we were cruising around Hawaii. I had to keep in mind that we're here on vacation and be like the locals and slow down a bit. So with this in mind we went ahead with the Fiat 500 and went through the inspection looking for any blemishes from prior tourists.
Overall it's in good shape, the only things I notice was the 'curbed' wheels and all the little scratches someone must have messed up during parallel parking. Besides this everything was fine and as I glanced over the car I keep thinking how fun and cute the Fiat is. It just looks happy.
The interior was pretty basic and I was expecting a more refined cabin. There are blue color matched painted panels that matched the exterior, but most of the dash was a plasticky material that reminds me of a Honda Civic or Toyota Tercel. But overall layout of the instrument panel, radio and air conditioning system was fine and easily reached by the driver.
There were some nice little details in the cabin trim, like a chromed 500 logo on the passenger dash and matching chrome door handles. I have to say that the door handles were in a good position and felt natural to open the door. I've been in cars that I it took me a second or two to figure out where the latch is, but on the Fiat 500 it was located in a great spot on the door.
Behind the driver's wheel the visibility was excellent and it's definitely a small car. From what I understand our little Fiat 500 is almost 2 feet longer than the original 1957 model and is actually 7 inches shorter than a Mini Cooper. This thing is tiny! But there are lots of benefits of having such a small car. It makes it easy to drive around and fit into parking spots all over the congested streets of Waikiki. In fact the size is great for tourists because it really makes the car easy to drive and move around places. I wasn't expecting sports car handling but our Fiat 500 did fine for it's intended purposes, not floaty but fairly precise with some road feel.
We spent a whole week with the Fiat 500 and really enjoyed taking it around the island of Oahu. We got lots of compliments from people saying how cute the car is, especially for the North Shore area where we would pull up to the side of the road to hit some of the beaches there.
Just like the blue color of our Fiat 500, this is the second blue stop sign that I've seen in Hawaii. That's right, a blue stop sign! The other one was at the Turtle Bay on the North Shore side, this one was near Pearl Harbor while we were visiting a shopping center.
We were also pleasantly surprised at how comfortable our little Fiat 500 was. For two passengers, there's plenty of room to stretch out and place our suntan lotion, beach blankets and of course our snacks and drinks. The luggage compartment easily fit our two 22 inch roll aboard suitcases and a backpack. We spent several days out at our favorite beach in Kailua. We were lucky to have sunny blue skies and a few slow moving clouds and crystal clear water.
There's plenty of places for dining in Hawaii but on our way back from Kailua beach we noticed there signs at Taco Bell where they had special Kalua pig menu items. I'm not a fan of Taco Bell (have you all seen DRMW's pics of the Doritos Locos Tacos? LOL). But we were in a good mood and made a u-turn to park our Fiat 500 to try it out.
I have to admit that it was pretty good! A nice snack before we head back to our hotel at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.
Overall we had a great time driving the Fiat 500. The small engine ended up not being a concern since we were just casually cruising around the island. The best part was the fuel economy, the specs show that it was rated at EPA 30 city and 38 highway but I could have sworn it got even better gas mileage than that. It's easy to drive and simply a fun car.
On our last day we noticed a shiny grey Fiat 500 Arbath Edition. It has a turbocharged 1.4 liter engine that produces 160 hp. Hmmm, maybe I'll have to request this on my next vacation.
So has anyone else driven the Fiat 500? What are your impressions of the car?
Regards,
ED-209
This message has been edited by ED209 on 2014-01-31 13:35:23
A week with the Fiat 500
During my last vacation in Honolulu Hawaii, I was in a situation where I had several options for my rental car to take around the beautiful Oahu island. Our original reservation was for a basic Toyota Prius but the rental agent at Enterprise mentioned tha...
Auto or manual ?
Hi ED ... was this a manual ? Last month i also got a Fiat 500 in Israel, they wanted to give me a Kia (or was it a Hyundai ?) until i spotted a nice little white 500 standing at the parking lot. Our Fiat had the 1,2 automatic ... with an amazing 69 hp .....
It was an auto
Very cool you got a Fiat 500 to drive around. This was a automatic transmission version (most places in the US are auto). I think the Arbath would be fun to drive with the extra hp. Regards, ED-209
Cool blue!
I don't recall blue stop signs on Oahu, will have to look for them the next time I'm there. HAGWE ED-209! -MW
I've driven it quite extensively.
I've actually had at least three Fiat 500 Rentals. First I had a white one for a couple days. Then I rented a gray one for the Ferrari Hublot watch launch in Monterey for a few days. Then was a red one that I had for over a month and about 3000 miles (500...
Driving impressions
Thanks for sharing your impressions of the Fiat, didn't realize that you had seat time in 3 rentals. I haven't driven the Smart, it seems way too small for me especially around LA traffic. Mini Cooper is a fun car too. My first experience was in the UK se...
I have a 500c for two years now and I absolutely love it!
Living in Germany where streets are narrow, parking garages are a lot smaller and a gallon premium unleaded is about $7.25 I purchased a 500c TwinAir about two years ago. I absolutely love the car! I don't know if the TwinAir is on sale in the States but ...
The 500c
Thanks Chefcook for sharing your in-the-seat impressions of your 500c. Very cool. I agree with you that it's definitely a fun car and fuel economy is excellent. Looking forward to seeing (and reading) about your new 500c with the 105hp engine! Can't wait ...
What kind of Panerai is that?
Is that a 112 or a 390? It looks great on that strap and is right at home on your wrist in the Fiat.
More fun than one would think...
I get to drive one quite often at work and it is lots of fun. Space is no problem either. The TwinAir is an outstanding motor, the highest tech motor is mass production these days. The last time I looked it had the best efficiency/lowest consumption of al...
I agree
Very cool Don that you get to drive one at work. I agree with you it's more fun driving the Fiat 500more that I original thought. I just found out from a colleague at work who was considering the new Fiat 500e which is the all-electric version. If she get...