Fiat 500 Hatchback 1.2 Lounge (Start Stop) 3d Owner Review

Smooth and comfortable with a solid feel and quality trim, the Lounge model has off the scale equipment, is fairly good on fuel, but nowhere near what either Fiat or the on-board computer claim, (about 35 round town is achievable) peanuts to tax and insure, stylish, retro looks, but hopelssly underpowered when climbing hills. The 1.2 is fine off the mark, fine on the flat and brilliant on the motorway, but seriously struggles up hills and needs a gear downchange with the accelerator pushed hard into the carpet on steep hills, so if you live in a hilly area, be prepared to struggle and for your fuel cost to be high. It is reliable, and if regularly serviced it should provide many years of trouble free motoring, which is what any perspective buyer should be looking at, as the resale value is poor, so hang on to it or be prepared to haemorrhage money in depreciation if you don’t keep it long. All in all a reasonably good car, but it really is a case of style above substance when compared to the much more versatile 5 door Mk3 Panda (which is equally underpowered), but a pre-tweak Mk2 Panda is a far more satisfying drive and can be bought for a fraction of the cost of a 500. You may be paying £140 a year for road tax rather than £30, but It’ll drive much better, feels more powerful and returns 40 MPG round town easily, so with usage, the additional £110 will be recovered at the petrol pump, but when you factor in the initial cost difference, it would take about 30 years of ownership to rack up the same outlay cost in additional road tax. Apparently, the much smaller 875cc turbocharged ‘Twinair’ version offers 1.4 performance, but being a two cylinder, it isn’t as quiet or refined as the 1.2, but if you can live with this, it looks like a good engine and of note, it is £0 road tax and exempt from the London congestion charge, but again, the ‘official’ fuel figures are complete fantasy. A good car, but there are better.