Fiat 500: Italians Are Studying SUV And SW Derivatives

Fiat’s is determined to capitalize on the momentum by planning to introduce several derivatives of the recently introduced New 500. The Italian firm has already announced that it will unveil an Abarth performance version equipped with a 1.4-litre Turbo engine at the Tokyo Show in October and a convertible in 2008 (most probably in Geneva, March). Now, Fiat is considering whether it should plan a full-head attack by developing two more variants, an SUV/Crossover obviously based on the Panda 4x4 mechanics and a Station Wagon (pic above).

“By the end of the year, we expect to decide on the New 500 Station Wagon and SUV,” a Fiat executive told Automotive News Europe under condition of anonymity. From the looks of things, Fiat is pretty darn serious about it as they showed the Station Wagon version in a video during the New 500’s media introduction last week. In the clip, Fiat 500’s designer Roberto Giolito displayed the station wagon version, giving journalists a taste of what they should expect if plans go ahead. Sounds like Fiat Group’s CEO Sergio Marchionne has learned his lesson well from BMW’s MINI renaissance. Now if he could just find a way to get the 500 into the North American market...

Via: ANE

Carscoop Poll: If Fiat Brought The 500 To The US, Would You Buy It?

You’ve seen it and you like it a lot but the question is, if it were to be imported to the States, would you actually go ahead and sign a check to buy Fiat’s retro styled Nuovo 500? Although this is based on pure speculations, think of a price range between $12k and $19k. Moreover, just to set things into perspective, we’re talking about an intermediate alternative to sub-compact cars like the tiny Smart Fortwo, Honda Jazz, Toyota Yaris and the more upscale VW Beetle and MINI and not to larger or sportier cars in the same price range. Tell us what you think. -See the Fiat 500 here

Fiat 500 Abarth: Official Presentation At The October Tokyo Show

Surprised? So are we. While most of us were expecting Fiat to unveil the turbocharged version of its 500 minicar at next year’s Geneva Show, yesterday, during the worldwide media presentation in Torino, Italy, Fiat Automobile’s CEO (not Fiat Group) Luca De Meo, announced that the 500 Abarth will make its public appearance at the forthcoming Tokyo Show this October!

We talked to several journalists that attended the media presentation in Torino, but unfortunately no one managed to dig out any information concerning the Abarth’s powertrain. We suspect though that the rang-topping 500 will wear the Grande Punto’s 1.4-liter turbocharged unit that’s available in 120Hp and 150Hp guises. Check out a video featuring a prototype 500 Abarth at the Nurburgring race track here.

New Fiat 500: 100 High-Res Images

We’re inaugurating our newly bought image space here on Carscoop -can’t have everything for free!, by presenting about 100 high-res pictures of Fiat’s highly anticipated Nuovo 500; a car that Fiat’s CEO Sergio Marchionne believes will become the Italian carmaker’s iPod. "I want Fiat to become the Apple of automobiles. And the 500 will be our iPod," Marchionne said in an interview published Wednesday on the Italian newspaper Turin daily La Stampa. With all the commotion surrounding the 500 in Europe, don’t be surprised if he actually manages to succeed in doing so. Later on we’ll add the full English press release, but for now, follow the jump to check out our humongous Fiat Nuovo 500 image gallery. -Click “read More…” below

Via: Autoblog.it , Source: Fiat