Published:
19 February 2024How much performance does a city car like the Fiat 500 need? In our view, there should be enough low-down eagerness to nip assertively through traffic, and sufficient reserves to keep up with the flow on the occasional trip further afield.
In those respects, Fiat’s mild hybrid engine has certainly made the 500 a better car to drive than it ever was with two cylinders. Much as the old TwinAir motor was easy to like in principle, it was also quite rough-running and laggy, and hard to coax really good efficiency from; whereas this three-pot is smoother, more flexible - and quite a bit more frugal.
Fiat claims 30 per cent fuel consumption savings for it in mixed running; and in practice, it makes for mid-50s miles–per-gallon without any particular effort.
Keep an eye on energy flow in and out of that pint-sized hybrid system and you’ll notice that it only really seems to assist the engine as it pulls between about 2000- and 3000 revs; and in doing so, while you don’t really feel it working, it does seem to boost drivability a bit.
So it doesn’t make the motor any keener to get to peak power, nor make this car feel anything other than quite short-geared and very modestly powerful when you find yourself in a hurry. Which, we should remember, is how cars this size typically feel. Keeping the car moving in quicker flows of traffic keeps both feet, and your left arm, occupied; you do plenty of downshifting to make progress on the motorway; and the hybrid system can do little to make easy work of steeper gradients.
Mechanical refinement is quite tremulous at times. While the car's 1.0-litre engine isn't as rough as the old TwinAir, you can certainly feel it vibrating through the car when it's revving hard - while rougher surfaces can make both the chassis and steering column vibrate a little. In terms of refinement at the very least, there are now much plusher, smoother prospects than a Fiat 500.
