Fancy a Fiat? Or Elle Macpherson?

James Ruppert

Elle Macpherson snapped driving Fiat 500C!

Apparently that’s what counts as a news story these days, though there is a huge whiff of PR puffery about the story, which made headlines (elsewhere) last week.

Apparently, Elle ‘fell in love’ when loaned a 500C and will be taking delivery of her own soon. I am sure the multi-millionaire business woman will be paying for her car, too...

Quite why Fiat needs Elle to draw attention to the 500C is beyond me. Then again, quite why anyone would want any Fiat is something of a mystery to me.

That said, even though there have always been some difficult design periods for the marque, a Thema 8.32 would certainly be amusing and I’ve always wanted the dashboard of a Lancia Trevi as an object d’art. But that was a Lancia, wasn’t it?

No, I’ve never got on with Fiats. In fact, everyone I’ve ever known who had one has encountered problems.

I thought I loved the new Panda, until a friend got one and the head gasket blew. What’s more, the dealer could not have been less interested.

Then there is the Fiat Coupe that a close relative bought. It failed so spectacularly that they were obliged to replace it with another new one. It then depreciated at a spectacular rate – he paid £25k and was lucky to get £2995 for it with only 30,000 miles on the clock.

The new Punto is pretty, but I worry. Thinking back to 1978 I remember someone I worked with got a Supermiafiori - and he quickly renamed it a Crappymiafiori.

A man of my advanced years may well fancy a toned ex-supermodel, but I still need a lot of convincing to invest any of my hard earned into any Fiat shaped car.

How about you?

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nottsfiat07 said:

Utter n*bhead.

In future I am always going to base my buying decisions on something someone else bought in 1978. :tosser:

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306maxi said:

'79 Mirafiori

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Mr Berlusconi said:

Mates Dad had one of these as the household 2nd car, never any bother, went like stink for its year, never any problems!

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Mollie said:

Fiat wise I've owned; 1972 500L (first car, purchased in 1973), 1976 126(purchased new), and a 1973 850 van. My mum has owned a 1961 600 (late 60's), 1972 500 (early 70's), and a 1976 126 (mid 70's). All these Fiats were totally reliable, despite the era we're talking!

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jnoiles said:

To read the words of an article that features Elle Macpherson draped over a 500c is to miss the point entirely.

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Mollie said:

Are you saying that you didn't read the article?

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Ulpian said:

He demonstrated that he isn't a competent journalist, and that Autocar has become the Sun of motoring mags.

This is a real shame because once upon a time it was an honest compendium of automotive news and took its job seriously.

I also think there is another rather sinister angle to this. Fiat is doing very well again now, and the competition is running scared. At the moment Fiat's sales are holding up better than any other car manufacturing group in Europe. I'd not be in the least surprised if money has changed hands.

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nottsfiat07 said:

I think its the influence of Top Gear. Because they've introduced a sense of fun and "laddishness" to car journalism, everyone else thinks they can do it, but whereas TG generally pull it off, most of the others who jump on the bandwagon just come across as opinionated, annoying and ill-informed. It's a fine line.

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306maxi said:

The thing is Top Gear generally only criticise cars legitimately and overemphasise things to reinforce a legitimate point whereas this guy is just flat out making stuff up

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