The Fiat 500 is heading to Australia

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The Fiat 500 is heading to Australia after the Italian car manufacturing giant announced that its Bambino is back in the game. The new generation of the tiny Italian icon will be relaunched on July 4 — exactly 50 years after the original little car burst on to the scene.

"They have been very clever in how the car has been designed and built," says Edward Rowe, of Ateco Automotive, Fiat's Australian importers.

"It is not a pastiche of an original model where the essential look of the car is paid homage, as in the VW Beetle or the Mini ... but the car is repositioned at a much higher level.

"Like the original Fiat 500, this car is true to its history as a people's car."

As unlikely as it may seem, the original Bambino was voted the "sexiest car" last year in a poll in the British magazine Top Gear.

Beating out super-priced supercars such as Aston Martin, Ferrari and Maserati, the minute Fiat 500 had the magazine judges raving: "Everyone, from strapping blokes to fainting flowers of womanhood, looks sexually charged behind its wheel. Even a nun in a 500 seems to telegraph a faint tingle of the procreative urge."

With first photos of the production version of the new car released this week, it is obvious that the designers have stuck to a winning formula.

Even the interior of the new 500 retains the painted metal and Bakerlite ambience of the original.


Australian fans of the car will not be disappointed, with plans to have it on sale here by early next year.

"The car is definitely coming to Australia and we hope to have it at this year's Sydney International Motor Show (in October)," Rowe says.

"It is too early to talk about exact pricing, but the 500 would have to be positioned below the Fiat Punto."

That would indicate the entry-level 500 could carry a price tag of between $17,000 and $18,000. "We will most likely take the two larger engines, a petrol and a diesel," Rowe says.

Developed by the Fiat Style Centre and manufactured in the plant in Tychy, Poland, the new 500 is a compact three-door model.

It is a mere 355cm long, just 165cm wide, 149cm tall and has a wheelbase of 230cm. There were three engine choices being offered to prospective buyers at launch in Europe.

These are are a 56kW, 1.3-litre 16-valve, Multijet turbodiesel, a 51kW, 1.2-litre, eight-valve petrol and the livelier 75kW 1.4-litre, 16-valve petrol.

All of the beaut-looking little Fiats come with a standard five-speed or an optional six-speed manual gearbox.