Fiat 500

The Fiat 500 - with 11,000 kilometers.

I rent cars pretty regularly throughout the year and I like to try as many different vehicles as I can. The nice thing about European rentals is that they have manual transmissions - meaning that I can get my driving chops even though I'm stuck in America where everything is automatic.

The Fiat 500 was an interesting choice. It's a small car. Very small. Quite small. The fit is tight and I have to adjust my balls to get comfortable. But the steering wheel and shifter are placed just right and the shift pedal and left foot rest are adjacent making the transition super smooth.


The dash - functional, compact and missing cruise control.

On initial review, the car is peppy and the short wheelbase makes it quite nimble. The downsides are the slightly cramped interior and the wide B-pillars, which obstruct your view but the car is so short that it's really not that much of an issue. The area that you cannot see behind the B-pillars are actually observable in the mirrors.

But there's still more driving to be done before I know if I really like this car, but so far, so good. Now if it only came with GPS...



A Windows USB port?





Cruising north along the A1 Autodstrade.





Arrival: Burgo di San Lorenzo.