I'd say it's an 80-20 split in terms of male/female split!!

Got a fair few going out Jan but quite a few are waiting until March.

I've foudn it's mainly wealthy blokes who are after a bit of fun as a run about.

so what sort of things are people spending the extra money on, Im intrigued.

It's easy to spec a 500 up to £12000. Here's my spec which I think will come in at just over £12k:

(prices estimated)

1.4 Sport - £10,700
Metallic paint -£250
Automatic climate control - £270
Rear head restraints - £50
Stainless Steel exhaust - £74
Electrochromatic interior rear view mirror - £100
Red painted brake callipers & red centre caps - £110
Body coloured side rubbing strips with 500 logo - £75
Hi-fi system with subwoofer - £300
Sporty aluminium pedal covers and footrest - £80
Steel kick plates - £82
Carpeting mats with black border black graphics - £40

Total £12,131

The climate control upgrade is a bargain though, well worth it.

Hey! New Here just ordered my 500! so registered on here!, they havent told me a delivery date said he will be able to give me a date in 2-3 days time!

Ordered a 1.2 Lounge with the following extra's.

Auto Climate

ESP

Parking Sensors

Blue Mats with Logo

Rubbing Strip wih 500 logo

Dark Windows

Rear Spoiler

Italia Badge

Aluminum Pedals

Funk White

Why aint you lot all orderign from me? Is it summit I said?

I presume people are ordering from their nearest dealer

If people are spending 12K on these little cars it can only be a good thing for Fiat's profit margins meaning more money for developing new cars and making even better ones

... or lining their pockets I find it absolutely hilarious that people are spending 12k plus on a city car... I shall laugh at them when I pass them in my Panda!

Suasexed said:

If people are spending 12K on these little cars it can only be a good thing for Fiat's profit margins meaning more money for developing new cars and making even better ones

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Let's hope so! Who knows, having got the style right with this 500 when the 500 Mk2 comes out in 2012 or whenever they may even get the driving dynamics sorted...

Surely when the 500 is replaced its only right it should be by a new 126 or better still start making 126s again instead

You'll never see a car like the 126 produced again. It was an unloved replacement for the original 500 with none of it's charm. I had a 126 Black edition (original air cooled car not the BiS version) as my first car and at 6 years old it was already under serious attack from rust yet had been well looked after. It wasn't exactly a classic shape so not ripe for a revival and it's dimensions would be pretty terrifying on today's busy roads as your legs were basically the crumple zones. It wasn't exactly the best handling car either. A Fiat take on the Mitsibushi i city car would be more worthwhile as long as it looks nothing like the Ecobasic concept car which was a dog's dinner of a car IMHO

I wish, wish, wish Fiat went ahead with the EcoBasic concept car, I absolutely loved it. It was just fantastic.

The 126 was probably the worst car Fiat has ever produced. I know people like getting nostalgic about old cars but the 126 has no redeaming features.

It was cars such as this that bought Fiat to its knees and on the verge of extinction.

Suasexed said:

I wish, wish, wish Fiat went ahead with the EcoBasic concept car, I absolutely loved it. It was just fantastic.

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Somebody call Specsavers....quick! Each to their own but not Italy's finest styling hour I think and not one cohesive flowing line anywhere on it:yuck:

What do you mean, that beautiful car would sell like hot..................turds.

...ha...ha That flat bonnet looks like a birds beak
Not a car more like Donald Duck on roller skates.

ensonricky said:

The 126 was probably the worst car Fiat has ever produced. I know people like getting nostalgic about old cars but the 126 has no redeaming features.

It was cars such as this that bought Fiat to its knees and on the verge of extinction.

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the 126 had character, it had charm as it was the same as a 500 but with better steering and more space... it wasnt the worse car Fiat produced and for your information it actually helped to keep them going through the bad years, as it was the best selling car in Poland and much of Estern Europe for many years. Over 3 million were made from 1972 till 2000, and it made them money, lots of it. Anyone who doesnt like them will be the kind of person that loves much of todays sanitised cars and worries about the NCAP rating and all that rubbish. I sold mine this year after 9 years of ownership, and it was 21 years old, hardly any rust at all btw.

The 126 hardly had much competition in Eastern Europe under the Soviet bloc to be fair! A 126 or a Polski-Fiat? .... difficulty choice It wasn't a good car, just a cheap rehash of 500 mechanicals with a newer and less pretty body. It also didn't have much more room than a 500 either. The 127 was more responsible for keeping Fiat going than the 126 ever was but without the Uno in 1983 Fiat would almost certainly have either been bought out or closed. Rose tinted specs are one thing but the 126 was not a great car. As for NCAP ratings the 126 would simply disintegrate in a modest shunt nowadays. Compared to average speeds, traffic density and similar cars on sale when it was new then it was borderline safe when launched in the 70's and downright unsafe by the time it was withdrawn in BiS form and was being sold alongside cars like the Tipo, Tempra and Croma which were all engineered for much better crash protection.

If yours didn't rust you were lucky but being a 1986 model I'd have expected it to be better protected. Mine was a 1979 Italian built model and I have pics of it taken in 1985 with the dreaded tin worm clearly visible all along the bonet and arches. Unfortunately I don't have a scanner to put the pic on here. Yes it was fun but I'd never want another unlike the 127 1300 GT I replaced it with which was a cracking little car

I owned an original 600 and it was twice the car the 126 proported to be. If the 126 represented nearly 20 years of evolution the designers must have been sitting on their hands for most of that time.

If charm is represented by unreliability, poor design and rust by the bucket load your welcome to it. I am afraid it is those attitudes of producing cars for one man and his dog flying in the face of what people really want that has almost led Fiat to bankruptsy.