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Since the gravel roads we have to travel to get home and to get out can be bad, the Fiat 500's barely over 4-inch ground clearance would make it a fair-weather-only car for us. Our 2015 Mirage actually has a bit more ground clearance than the 6-inches our Scion XA had.
Confirmed yesterday...
Arrivederci: the Fiat 500 will no longer be sold in Canada
https://driving.ca/fiat/500/auto-new...sold-in-canadaQuote:
The little runabout, the brand’s best-selling car, will be departing showrooms across North America at the end of the 2019 model year
Some U.S. sales figures...
Year ... Mirage ... 500
2019 ... 12,901 ... 1,692 (through June)
2018 ... 24,316 ... 5,370
2017 ... 22,386 ... 12,685
2016 ... 22,226 ... 15,587
2015 ... 21,515 ... 25,084
2014 ... 16,708 ... 33,708
The 500's best year was 2012, its first full year of sales @ 43,772
Thats too bad, my friend from work has a manual 500 and it was fun as hell to drive. Plus the Italians know how to do interiors, the leather stitching on the seats were superb. The stick shifted nicely, didnt stall out once on me, and had good power. Downside was that backseat was a joke, you couldnt fit a toddler back there.
I do believe the first year 500's sold for about $12k, give or take. Base model. I was attracted to them for that reason.
However, after renting one I wanted nothing more to do with it. The doors were very heavy and would slam on your legs when parking facing uphill. It was a pain for my kid to crawl in and out of the back seat.
It had a severe understeer issue when pushed. The tail would swap ends with the nose in a blink around hard corners. No other small car I rented and drove like a Porsche 917 had such bad manners.
Finally, fuel mileage. There was none. Case closed.
Something about the Mirage/G4 that I think is really underrated is the ground clearance, which I *think* is 6.3 inches. That's actually pretty darn decent for a car. I definitely notice NOT scraping like I did with my 96 Corolla or 13 500 Abarth.Quote:
Originally Posted by DonkeyPal
How long did you rent it? Do you remember the MPG? I had my 500 Abarth for 6 years. When doing delivery (lots of stop/go) I'd get about 26 mpg (vs about 33 in my G4) and when not delivering, but just around town I'd get closer to 29. Road trip MPG was always mid/upper 30's. And I always drove that car like it was meant to be, fast and hard. My mom has a 15 Pop and she gets 30's around town and 40's on road trips.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wallythacker
The doors...one of my favorite/least favorite features. While I appreciated the solid feel of the door when shutting, when I parked on an incline, I knew how to do the little 'dance' to fling the door open and hop out in time for it not to swing back and hit me. It only took a couple of times for that to happen before I figured out that 'little dance'.
A surprising about of parents have used their 500's with little or no complaint. I think it's a case of 'where there's a will, there's a way' lol. I have ridden in the back of my FIAT before, while it wasn't horrible, it certainly was not great. In fact, I felt more comfortable in the back seat of the first gen Mini Cooper. The 500 isn't for everyone, but I'm certainly glad/grateful I had my experience!
Everytime I see your screen name I think for a second it says Goth lol and I envision you in all black with an Edgar Allen Poe tshirt on listening to Bauhaus in your black Mirage.Quote:
Originally Posted by Go4th
I had it for almost 4 days in the early summer. I put close to 800 miles on it.
I think the mileage was in the mid 30's (Imperial measure) so I wasn't impressed. I have clue what model it was. It was pretty fancy IIRC, maybe with wood accents? It did go like h*ll though.