CarBrandLogos archive · Fiat · 2007

Fiat500

A retro revival that outsold the original idea by decades of persistence.

Photo: Ad Meskens · CC BY-SA 3.0

The story

A defining chapter in Fiat history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Fiat 500, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Reviving the Nuova 500 was an obvious idea that Fiat spent years getting right. Roberto Giolito's Trepiuno concept of 2004 established the proportions, and Frank Stephenson led the production design with Flavio Manzoni's involvement, arriving at a car that quoted the 1957 original — the domed roof, the round lamps, the moustache-shaped chrome above the badge — without copying it. Underneath there was nothing nostalgic at all: a front-engine, front-wheel-drive city car on the Panda's platform, built at Tychy in Poland.

2004 Fiat Trepiuno concept · Shkermaker at English Wikipedia · Public domain

Design and engineering

It launched in July 2007, fifty years to the month after the original, and it worked in a way retro revivals usually do not. The car was sold as a fashion item with a bewildering range of trims, colours and special editions, and buyers went along with it. It won European Car of the Year for 2008.

2008 FIAT 500 1.4 Lounge · The Car Spy · CC BY 2.0

In production

The engine that gave it character was the TwinAir, a 0.9-litre two-cylinder turbo with electrohydraulic valve control, which sounded entirely unlike anything else on sale. Above it sat the Abarth versions, which turned a fashion accessory into something genuinely quick and very loud, and rebuilt the Abarth name as a going concern.

1966 Fiat Nuova 500F and 2008 Fiat 500 · dave_7 · CC BY 2.0

Legacy

The 500 also carried Fiat's return to the United States, arriving in 2011 through the new Chrysler relationship after an absence of nearly three decades. That venture went less well than hoped, but in Europe the car simply refused to age out. Production continued at Tychy until 2024, with further assembly in Mexico and Algeria, and the model spent much of its life as one of the best-selling small cars on the continent. The battery-electric 500e is its successor, and the petrol car's seventeen-year run is longer than the original 500 managed.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

2007–2024

Engine

Petrol engine

Designer

Centro Stile Fiat:

Body

3-door hatchback

Technical specification

The 500, in detail.

Production: 2007–2024 (Poland); 2011–2019 (Mexico); 2023–2025 (Algeria)
Class: City car (A)
Body style: 3-door hatchback; 2-door cabriolet
Layout: Front-engine, front-wheel drive
Engine: Petrol engine; Petrol: ; 0.9 L Fiat TwinAir engine; TwinAir Turbocharger; turbo Straight-twin engine; I2 ; 1.0 L Fiat Global Small Engine; GSE FireFly Straight-three engine; I3 mild hybrid ; 1.2 L Fully Integrated Roboti
Transmission: 5-speed manual; 6-speed manual; 5-speed Dualogic automated manual; 6-speed automatic (Aisin)
Designer: Centro Stile Fiat:; Roberto Giolito (concept); Frank Stephenson (production) with Flavio Manzoni
Assembly: Poland: Tychy (Fiat Auto Poland); Mexico: Toluca (Toluca Car Assembly); Algeria: Tafraoui (Stellantis Tafraoui)
Manufacturer: Fiatefn; name=manufacturer; Fiat Group Automobiles (2007–2014) ; FCA Italy (2014–2023) ; Stellantis Europe (2023–2025)