Fiat Is Rude As Hell for Bringing the Europe-Only 500 to the NY Auto Show

The New York Car Clearly show was bleak this yr, with lots of key automakers not in attendance and pretty significantly every new debut just a facelift of an current design. But in the corner of the Stellantis stand there were two shining rays of mild: A pair of new Fiat 500s. The only catch is, the 500 is only offered in Europe and is not going to appear to the US. What the hell, Fiat?

The new 500 was unveiled in March 2020 right as the pandemic was wreaking havoc on the vehicle field (and the planet), so this was my to start with time seriously having to see and working experience a person in human being. And man is it great. A floor-up redesign with a fully electrical powertrain, the new 500 manages to seem way extra modern-day and upscale though still remaining as stylish and retro as it need to. Its interior is so a lot nicer than the previous 500, with an enhanced infotainment procedure, greater-finish products and some clever specifics.

Both hardtop and cabrio designs ended up on screen at the display, with the hatch painted in a stunning rose gold and the convertible one particular of the Undertaking Red special editions. But it was the hardtop that seriously grabbed my notice, for the reason that the new three-in addition-a person product provides a tiny suicide door to the passenger side of the automobile. Even with its compact measurement, the addition of that added door and the lack of a B-pillar makes it considerably less difficult to get into the 500’s back again seat.

Stellantis doesn’t genuinely have an explanation for why these 500s have been at the automobile display. It appears like the cars were already brought more than to the US for CES before this calendar year, where by Stellantis showed off its world wide electrification attempts, and the company just determined to provide them to New York to have a thing on the stand. There are info sheets in the windshields that communicate all about the motor vehicle, and they only have 1 sentence in a pretty modest font about how the 500 is not available in the US.

Producing the presence of the 500s even additional troublesome is the state of the Fiat brand name in standard. With the discontinuation of the 500, 500L and 124 Spider, the only Fiat sold in the US is the 500X crossover, which is now eight a long time outdated and not superior at all. (It has a great new Yachting trim with a rollback roof, at the very least.) With the loss of life of the BMW i3 and Fiat’s primary competitor Mini heading fully electrical, I think you can find certainly a market place for the new 500 in the US, even if it would have to have to wear a extra high quality cost tag. Viewing the automobiles at the car clearly show just made me even sadder and madder that it won’t materialize.