Fiat Reviews
Fiat deliberately relaunched the 500 on 4 July 2007 — exactly 50 years after the original. Here's what independent road tests say about the modern range carrying that name.
A Genuinely Deliberate Piece of Timing
The original Fiat 500 launched in 1957 as an affordable, practical city car for post-war Italy, and went on to sell close to four million units before production ended in 1975 — genuinely earning its status as a cultural icon, not just a small car. When Fiat brought the name back in 2007, the launch date wasn't a coincidence: 4 July 2007, exactly fifty years to the day after the original's debut, deliberately leaning on that heritage while updating everything underneath. It worked — the modern 500 has been sold in more than 100 countries, passing two million units built by 2018, and it's since spawned an all-electric version continuing the same small-footprint, city-focused philosophy.
Reviewers consistently praise that same charm and character in the modern cars, alongside genuinely strong efficiency in town driving, while being honest about the trade-offs that come with a design built primarily around cities rather than motorways — rear space and long-distance comfort are recurring weak points reviewers flag against larger rivals. The summaries below cover what several independent testers actually found behind the wheel of each model.
Every Model, One Place
Rather than picking a single opinion and running with it, each review here pulls together several independent road tests and highlights where they agree — and where they don't. Pick a model below to see the full breakdown.