The twin-air is certainly not gutless, . And, small they may be, but I find the rear/side visibility is terrible, still easy to park, but not as easy to see what's behind/around you when reversing.
Haha I have had a couple of 500s as hire cars and hated them. As a 6'6" chap, I found the visibility to be pap - agreed! (I could also hardly fit my head in and still see). Not driven a twin-air though - are they quite nippy? In the ones that I have driven, all the 'loud pedal' seems to do is just that - make the engine louder!
As a 500 owner, I disagree. The TwinAirs have plenty of nip, especially in town, and even the 1.2s are pretty quick off the mark. Yes, they're more limited on motorways (but still plenty happy doing 90), and I wouldn't want to go anywhere near one if I was 6'6"! Generally I find the 500 fun to drive, which is more than the boat sensation you get in a Saab 9-3... Admittedly I'll be getting an Abarth in a year or two, but for a small city car the 500 is pretty good.
Do you know I've never seen a bloke driving one of those cars. I've seen 2 abarth and women drivers got out of those too. Not that it makes much difference. I've seen plenty of men and women driving my car, all poor like me.
Nah, Fiat Panda, more practical I got my wife one to learn and drive, she wanted 5 doors and small city car. It's good fun to nip about with, but lacks power and comfort compared to my Mercedes. Tagging on this parking topic: For practical tests parking into the car park bay, can I go forward a few (1-3) times to micro-adjust?
Panda 100HP, drove one for a week loved it! no weight and a decent amount of poke it was like a go kart with a roof. And from what i remember yes you are allowed to adjust like that while parking. Im that old the didnt make you reverse into a bay in the test center. I just drove into the center and into the bay directly opposite the entrance.
500's look nice and make me smile, but my praktikal side had me buy a punto. Much cheaper and much more room than a 500, yet small enough for city's. I'd have gone for the even cheaper panda, but my wife refused to get in one Was surprised by the build-quality too. (it was fairly new)
I'd say "knock yourself out"... provided you don't screw up flow of traffic or hit any other cars. Still reckon a softop is easier to park than most of these shopping trolley hatchbacks. At least while the roof is down.
Recent(Ish) test passer here; Test is crap. Hazard Perception test is failable by being too good at spotting hazards, written test is basically a test of how well you memorise the highway code and some common sense (No wonder I failed it a couple of times). The actual test itself is not awful, IMHO, but I took it in Rugby, with lots of weird and wonderful junctions that I didn't get to experience in Northampton, that said; Since passing the test; My driving has changed a lot. I'm a lot more aware that some people honestly should not be on the road at all. Especially not the gentleman on his mobility scooter who rolls past work at night on his way back from the pub. Waiting for him to get DUI, since he is driving that little thing on the road with valid numberplates. I also do not understand how some people can muck up parking so much, admittedly, I'm driving a MKV Golf, with parking sensors, but those are used simply to give me a rough idea how far I am from "Something" behind me. Sometimes they completely fail to pick up Kerbs, and even car bumpers on oddly shaped cars, so I try not to rely on them. I do have a personal peeve with 500s, I had to try and parallel park on one, and getting the angles right on a car 2/3rds the size of anything else I've seen took a bit more effort than I would've liked, but that's just me being grumpy with change more than anything. The test itself, with regards to maneuvers, is a bit odd. You practice various different maneuvers (Bay Park, Parallel Park, 3 point turn, Reverse around corner) but you'll only get one of each on the test, plus an emergency stop, which is easy enough. The time I passed I had the Parallel Park and Reverse around the Corner, as well as the Emergency Stop, and I found it not-awful, barring having to take two stabs at the parallel park due to the vehicle being a Fiat 500. Best advice I can give is: stay Hopeful, and do whatever you can to stay calm, nerves actually caused me to stall in my test, because I was so twitchy my leg was jittering on the clutch, you can get away with 14 minors before they'll fail you, and majors are harder to pick up. Just do your best to avoid the bloody awful "Undue Hesitation" marks, which is a nebulous and awful way you can be failed.
Yeah, it's a proper turbo response, foot down, bit of a delay then your head gets thrown against the headrest, , then you have to change up. The ratios are a bit short, but work well for city driving. I don't particularly like the fly by wire throttle, and the steering feel isn't quite how I like it, but it grips really well, and goes well too. It won't do the advertised MPG though, most we've got out of ours is around 51Mpg on a long run down to cornwall, most of the rest of the time you'll be getting 40Mpg ish, depending on how you drive.
Hahahah, advertised MPG. Never happens. I think our lifetime is about 44mpg, but that's helped by long journeys. City is about 35mpg due to heavy foot syndrome. That is one thing the 500 does well is grip. You can literally throw it around like a go-kart and it won't complain. Plus the boot is larger than a Mini.
I've just returned from witnessing a pretty horrific parking attempt - I was behind a Fiat 500 attempting to reverse park on a narrowish street. First attempt left the driver at around a 30° angle to the kerb with a rear tyre on the pavement. A further half dozen or so subsequent attempts didn't go much better. Sensing the queue of traffic behind her was getting frustrated, the driver wisely decided to drive off and find another spot. I then proceeded to slip my 17ft vehicle in to the spot in one swift manoeuvre and exit the vehicle to discover a comfortable distance in front of and behind my car. With any luck the other driver is currently at a garage negotiating the sale of her car in exchange for a bus pass.
Going back to the subject of car parks, I try to park in the quietest area, especially in supermarket car parks. If I have to park next to a heap that someone left there nose first, barely between the lines and on full lock then I take a picture on the phone. Few things are more destructive than a stressed-out Mum with the tribe in tow trying to reverse out of a space.
BUT! Mr Tad, did she knock any of the other cars? I rest my case. People of the jury you will now have no choice but to rule in favour of us all buying fiat 500's. But not the 500xl's. Those things be nasty.
This. If there are no empty corners of the car park available, then try to find an end-space and park right on the end line. Failing that, actively avoid people carriers, SUVs, scrapes, sheds, car seats, sun shades and tusker/enterprise/arval/etc badges. Not on this occasion, but she certainly had previously on at least two corners I noticed. In other news, this disgusted me a while back. I actually snapped this to post it on the name and shame site that I can't recall just now. I mean, come on... And this, whilst all involved have demonstrated reference parking, generally tickled me...
