European car of the year 2008

unkel

You guessed it, the FIAT 500. Well deserved imho

It wasn't supposed to be announced until next Monday but the news was leaked. Can anyone confirm this with any link?

mike65

Oh well that the kiss of death then!

Mike.

C_Breeze

WOW now i definitely want to get one!



*sarcasm*

drdre

It looks weird.I dont like it at all and at the end of the day its a fiat

Stephen

I like it. Abarth version should be fun! Reviews of the Punto Abarth have been very positive too.

Guy:Incognito

Is it not a dearer, smaller panda? Surely the panda is more deserving so?

astraboy

Stekelly wrote: »

Is it not a dearer, smaller panda? Surely the panda is more deserving so?

Yep! According to EVO magazine, it was a huge disappointment and ruined the excellent Panda 100(for 100bhp) great chassis.

E92

Stekelly wrote: »

Is it not a dearer, smaller panda? Surely the panda is more deserving so?

Thats exactly what it is. A dearer, smaller Panda. Good to see our continental friends think that the car industry hasn't moved on at all in the past 4 years:rolleyes:. Ah well, I never liked Fiats anyway.

pburns

The press have wetted themselves over this car but it's a retro design based on the mechanicals of a 4-year-old design.

I do like it's looks but surely excellence is all about progress. The retro thing is soooo 1999 - MINI, new Beetle etc.

ciarsd

drdre wrote: »

It looks weird.I dont like it at all and at the end of the day its a fiat

At the end of the day, your out for your post count judging by some of your replies in this forum!

Fiat 500 is/will be a huge success - I like it for what it is regardless of whether it had a BMW/Skoda/Toyota/Porsche badge.

alias no.9

pburns wrote: »

The press have wetted themselves over this car but it's a retro design based on the mechanicals of a 4-year-old design.

I do like it's looks but surely excellence is all about progress. The retro thing is soooo 1999 - MINI, new Beetle etc.

It's origins may lie in the panda, but it's not just a panda in drag. The chassis may be 4 years old but it's been tweaked, the body is much more rigid, rivaling the mini. Some models will have a far more compliant ride than the panda, while hot versions will have the much sharper handling setup from the panda 100hp. On the engine front, it's going to have versions with the brand new 1.4 t-jet, not available in the panda, and also the new a brand new 900cc 2 cylinder turbocharged motor, developing up to 110bhp while keeping still fuel consumption and emissions in check.

Marcus.Aurelius

When Fiats win "Car of the Year" anywhere, you start to wonder if its all above board.

Hmmmmm

RobAMerc

maoleary wrote: »

When Fiats win "Car of the Year" anywhere, you start to wonder if its all above board.

Hmmmmm

drdre wrote: »

It looks weird.I dont like it at all and at the end of the day its a fiat

Just because your bashing a Fiat don't think you'll get loads of people agreeing with you ( making you feel like you know sh*t about cars) :rolleyes::rolleyes:

I have seen these in the flesh - cracking looking little car and a proper homage to the motoring icon its predecessor was.

Sabre Man

So how do they decide which car is car of the year anyway?

I find it hard to believe that a Fiat is more deserving than anything Japanese or the German.

Having said that, it does have more style than a lot of cars out there.

Idleater

Sabre Man wrote: »

So how do they decide which car is car of the year anyway?

all the motoring journalists get to vote

http://www.caroftheyear.org/

:rolleyes:

E92

I would have like the Ford to win it, the Mk4 Mondeo is meant to be as far ahead of the competition as the original one was back in 1993.

If Autocar think its a better car than the E90 3 series, then it must be a good car.

IrishRover

Fiat have won European car of the year a lot of times. In recent history, they won it for the Uno in '84, Tipo in '89, Punto in '95, Bravo in '96 and Panda in 2004.

Looking back I don't know if those cars could all be considered as significant or as worthy as perhaps some of their contemporaries, but then again I've never been sure what the scope of the competition is and what criteria it uses.

As for the New 500, I think they have done a brilliant job of modernising a classic design while keeping it instantly recognisable for what it is.




I don't think it's the car for me, but I think it might be for a lot of people. A lot of people see cars like these as fashion accessories and it certainly is stylish. If it is a reliable car then I don't see why anyone looking for a car of this type would want to go for anything else really! I certainly hope it does well for Fiat as I'd like to see the company survive long term. They seem to be recovering financially.

Our man in Havana

Surely they should wait till the end of the year to pick the car of the year just gone?

Stephen

The next year's models typically come out in the autumn of the current year in the car business, so now would be a reasonable time to do it.

gurramok

nereid wrote: »

all the motoring journalists get to vote

http://www.caroftheyear.org/

:rolleyes:

So they give the car maybe a couple of test drives and decide it there and then!
That don't give any mechanical clues to the reliability of the winning car.

Regarding the Panda in '04, my missus bought one of them at the time, a couple of years later, the shocks fail. Now the Fiat people here say 'we don't have new shocks on hand as Fiat themselves didn't expect them to fail with such a short time'. So they had to order parts from Italy which resulted in a long wait...A joke!

Another relative had a fuel pump gone at about the same time. All very low mileage cars.(<20k)
Has anyone noticed the '04 Panda's starting to disappear of the roads lately??

Not bashing the Panda, its a good car to drive but way too soon to decide if its a 'car of the year' at the time.

Point being, you can't decide if a car is mechanically sound nevermind a good drive for a good few years based on a few test drives and looking at a few stats on paper.

pburns

gurramok wrote: »

So they give the car maybe a couple of test drives and decide it there and then!
That don't give any mechanical clues to the reliability of the winning car.

Regarding the Panda in '04, my missus bought one of them at the time, a couple of years later, the shocks fail. Now the Fiat people here say 'we don't have new shocks on hand as Fiat themselves didn't expect them to fail with such a short time'. So they had to order parts from Italy which resulted in a long wait...A joke!

Another relative had a fuel pump gone at about the same time. All very low mileage cars.(<20k)
Has anyone noticed the '04 Panda's starting to disappear of the roads lately??

Not bashing the Panda, its a good car to drive but way too soon to decide if its a 'car of the year' at the time.

Point being, you can't decide if a car is mechanically sound nevermind a good drive for a good few years based on a few test drives and looking at a few stats on paper.

The opinion of car journos is only useful in gleening information about the dynamics of a car - handling, performance etc, comarison with opposition etc. Re reliability and real-world issues - you have to use your own knowledge.
FIATs, Renaults and Peugeots are crap until proven otherwise.

maidhc

E92 wrote: »

Thats exactly what it is. A dearer, smaller Panda. Good to see our continental friends think that the car industry hasn't moved on at all in the past 4 years:rolleyes:. Ah well, I never liked Fiats anyway.

Fiat are hardly the first to offer "a dearer, smaller, older" anything. Think New Beetle, think anything from VAG, think Volvo...etc.

500ml

CAR Magaizne, that well respected tome of motoring journalism, has also made the Fiat 500 it's Car Of The Year as well, see the video:

http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/video.php?illustration=261

Also, the Panda is held in high regard for it's reliability as illustrated by it's 8th place in the Top Gear Survey of 2006, we'll see how it does this year!

http://www.topgear.com/content/carsurvey/2006/fiat/panda/

Good job Fiat.