The Mini is different... its used the name of a British icon, a car that most people in the UK have owned or been in. Its made by a respected manufacturer and it is fast (ish) and handles brilliantly, its sold from flashy showrooms with an amazingly cheap aftersales service.

The 500 isnt a British icon, most car buyers wont even know what one is, its made by a company that arent respected by the general public, isnt fast and IS just a Panda underneath. It will be sold from second rate dealers who couldnt care less and consistently come last in every survey and who never reward customer loyalty, that charge a fortune for servicing and spares.

Im not rubbishing the 500, or Fiat... but they really need to get their act together before this goes on sale here. Look what happened to Alfa with the 156, loads of new customers bought them, suffered at the dealers and went elsewhere.

The 500 is more like VWs retro Beetle, another car based on an older platform (Golf) and they havent exactly set the world on fire have they?

The 500 is nothing like the Beetle that analagy is clearly flawed. The Beetle for a start was introduced to this country as a left hand drive model the company stating no right hand drive models would be imported to the UK. This was a clear sign that the car was intended as a low volume novelty model sold at a premium price.
Although VW did then import a RHD version this only alienated existing owners who were left with unwanted LHD cars with a plumiting market value. This in turn depressed the marked for the car that was written off by the critics from day one.

The Panda has been discounted in the UK because demand had been poor. However Fiat could not let the car fail to sell in this country because until the introduction of the Grande Punto the Panda was the only model keeping the marque alive here. In Italy where the car sells by the bucket load the car still attracts premium prices and second hand values are still high.

As eluded to by pwig the UK discounts on the 500 are reflected in the lower than anticipated opening prices. Simple economics dictate a car that has sold 90,000 of its years allocation of 120,000 in basically 2 countries will not be discounting any time soon. Do not underestimate the power of design in the modern world, this is why the 500 will outsell the Panda massively in this country. The young upwardly mobile who would not be seen dead in a Panda will love to show off their 500 outside the local cafe.

What else do the Mini and 500 have in common, Frank Stephenson. I don't believe he was involved in the white elephant otherwise known as the Beetle rehash.

Ms_Cinq said:

Statement by Piccadilly Motors main Fiat dealers in Knaresborough in their 500 advertisement.

"Please bear in mind that the initial UK stock is now sold out until April 2008 and future orders are by allocation only."

Is this fact or bullshine?
If true we arent goin to get discountsfor a while.

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Tis true.

So anyone now looking and who has not ordered a new 500 yet, will be waiting until at least April 08?

(Except for the odd demo car or cancelled order or one bought by a speculator to be sold-on at above list price where you'd be the 2nd owner.)

Correct.

hello everyone, i am from cyprus so this info might be irrelevant,
but here it goes: we are in the process of ordering a 500 and this is what we were told:
they allocated about 40 of them to Cyprus (we are RHD here) for 2008, and delivery will start in 8 months. the base model costs 7200 Cyprus pounds and from what i have seen the specs are quite similar if not identical to UK. the demo they had was LHD 1.3 diesel Lounge pearlescent white, and the dealer told us it was put together as a showroom car and was not to be driven because it could fall apart!!! it was in working order (engine, electronics etc) so i dont know if the guy was making it up to stop us from testing it.by the way i dont know if you resolved this yet, but the drivers seat was proper height adjustable, not like the panda.
All in all a great little car-and it is really small!!!

Thats good to hear of an honest dealer regarding the falling apart bit, btw 8 months is a long time eh?

nuovapanda said:

Thats good to hear of an honest dealer regarding the falling apart bit, btw 8 months is a long time eh?

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i know but we are suckers for that car...

nuovapanda said:

Thats good to hear of an honest dealer regarding the falling apart bit, btw 8 months is a long time eh?

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That'll be why Steve Cropley wrote in this weeks Autocar of their long term test 500 "Much has pleased us all about the Fiat, but the biggest surprise has been its unimpeachable solidity; the body resists twist as if it's made out of granite, and the door slam sounds like an Audi".