Well, with the Ka going and the platform being 11 years old now, Fiat are going to have to do something at some point. Mini didn't stand still.....
Looking closely at the original post it appears all cars pictured have 5 doors, you can just see the rear door shut lines, the handles are hidden in the back of the window.
What I'm saying is people who want 5 doors will look at Twingo, while people who want 3 will go with the 500.
I would have thought those who want 5 doors will look at something completely different and those who are happy with 3 will decide between a 500 and a Twingo
Twingo is only available as a 5 door though.
What I'm saying is people who want 5 doors will look at Twingo, while people who want 3 will go with the 500.
I would imagine the 500 would've been more thoroughly renewed by now had it not been such a massive sales success. Even now I don't think Fiat need to do much, if anything to the exterior.
Where they need to look at is making the interior feel more upmarket (at it's originally list price the interior was fine, but with top models now going for circa £15k, it needs to feel nicer). Their biggest task is underneath. It's fun to drive, but not that good to drive. The amount of road noise on rough surfaces is too high, the steering doesn't weight-up enough at speed and the worst offender is the suspension - I've never driven a car which needs you to slow down for speed bumps as much as the 500 - even at under 20mph it still rocks back and forth violently as you drive over.
The new Twingo certainly looks more interesting than the other new contenders - Aygo/108/C1 & Up/Mii/CityGo, but I dunno if it's overall as nice a design as the 500. The 5 door in particular looks awkward in profile to my eyes. The Renault TCe's are good engines though, and rear engine, rear wheel drive is certainly quirky, especially in this class of car.
Will be very interesting to see (a) how the Twingo sells and (b) whether Fiat are going to take it on price-wise or just keep going as they are.
I doubt it'll make a lot of difference to the 500- the 500 is virtually in its own little bubble. Might hit the panda more.