• Unusually lofty driving position
• Compact body means cramped rear seats
• Boot is small but well-shaped

How much space is there?

The Fiat 500 isn’t a family car. But while rear seat space is compact and the boot is small – which means it’ll struggle to transport young children an all their accompanying detritus, especially if you’re asking it to carry some shopping or luggage at the same time – you can get adults in the back, which for a car this small is remarkable. And, if you do need to use it to transport infants, there are at least Isofix points in the back as well.

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Head and leg room up front are acceptable but, the 500’s seats are mounted quite high. This is popular with shorter drivers, as it gives you a surprisingly commanding view of the road ahead, which can promote a feeling of safety. But if you’re much over six feet tall you may have the converse issue of having to duck slightly to see a decent way ahead.

Boot space and storage

The 500 has a 185-litre boot, which is 66 litres less than you get in a Volkswagen Up. And 70 litres smaller than the Kia Picanto. In other words, it’s tiny. While not impossible to find a folding pushchair small enough to fit, you will have to go looking very carefully. And probably won’t be able to put much else in the boot at the same time.

There’s not much cabin storage, either. The door bins are quite narrow, the cupholders small and shallow (which risks drinks tipping over) and there isn’t anywhere safe to store your phone, which is a problem when you’re using Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.

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You’ll end up either leaving your phone on the passenger seat or, if someone’s sitting there, they’ll need to hold it for you or be careful not to tread on it as it rattles around in the footwell. That’s not ideal if you’ve just spent £1,000 on the latest handset.

Is it easy to park?

Very. It’s one of the smallest cars on UK roads, so you shouldn’t have a problem zipping it around tight multistorey carparks or cramped city streets. It only measures 3,571mm long and 1,893mm wide – and, if you opt for the most expensive trim level, you get rear parking sensors as standard.

Rival city cars like the Kia Picanto and Toyota Aygo X are available with reversing cameras. You can’t have this tech on the 500, but we think you don’t really need it. The 500 has large windows, flat sides and short overhangs, which makes it easy to judge where the corners are when parking.

That tall driving position pays dividends when manoeuvring at low speeds around town. Because you’re sitting up high looking down on the road, you can easily spot and avoid potholes. You’re almost at eye-level with cyclists, too, which makes it easier to interact with them.

Safety

• Three-star Euro NCAP safety rating
• No autonomous emergency braking
• But all feature seven standard airbags

When it was first crash tested in 2007, the Fiat 500 achieved a five-star safety rating. But Euro NCAP has tightened up its regulations since then and, when the car was re-tested in 2017, it left the firm’s facility with a three-star safety rating.

This is primarily because the 500 does without a lot of the safety technology expected of modern city cars. For example, it doesn’t have autonomous emergency braking, lane-keeping assist or adaptive cruise control – all of which are fitted as standard to the Toyota Aygo X.

As a result, the 500 is a little more expensive to insure than it should be for a car of its size and power. It does feature seven airbags as standard, including curtain airbags and a knee airbag for the driver. However, Euro NCAP found that, in the 500’s frontal full-width crash test, the head of its driver dummy exceeded the critical limit for deceleration. That means, if the dummy was a human, the crash would have caused serious injury.

Watch: Fiat 500 Euro NCAP crash test