General My video review of the North American Fiat 500

[Milnoc]

It's all about meeting Canadian government regulations. Here's the latest list of cars that can be imported into Canada, and any changes required to make them street legal.

http://www.tc.gc.ca/media/documents/roadsafety/vafus.pdf

Some of the differences between Canada and US car specifications include the passenger restraint system, side reflectors, electronic immobilization system, and daytime running lights. There's also a requirement that the vehicle not have any outstanding recalls, or that any recalls have been resolved on the vehicle to be imported.

If the price difference between a Canadian and USA model of the same car is less than $2,000, that difference should be more than enough to cover the "Canadianization" of the vehicle. But when the price difference is significantly more than $2,000, something fishy is going on here.

All cars manufactured in North America fall under the NAFTA trade agreement, with no duties to pay for either import or export. What you DO pay however is the Canadian equivalent of VAT (GST, QST, PST and HST depending on the province), the $100 air conditioner recovery fee if applicable, and a few administrative fees to legally export the vehicle from the United states and import the vehicle into Canada.

It does sound like a complicated process to save some money. But with some Canadian vehicles costing as much as 40% more than their US counterparts, the savings can be significant.

The flood of Canadians heading to the States to buy cars dirt cheap has created a bit of a backlash. Some manufacturers will now penalize US dealers who sell cars to Canadian with the intention of importing them into Canada.

Also, Canada and the US have the world's longest undefended border (8,891 kilometers or 5,525 miles long), the Canadian population lives no more than two hours away from the US border, and most of the border goes over land. So geographically, Canada and the USA are basically a single gigantic land mass. And yet, as soon as you cross that imaginary line, the price of everything jumps a few digits.

Very annoying.

 

[loveshandbags]

It's all about meeting Canadian government regulations. Here's the latest list of cars that can be imported into Canada, and any changes required to make them street legal.

http://www.tc.gc.ca/media/documents/roadsafety/vafus.pdf

On the attachment it states...

All Fiat passenger car
models are​

inadmissible.
Does that mean you can't purchase a car in the States and import it ?

 

[Milnoc]

Exactly. Transport Canada will not issue a registration sticker for any Fiat 500 purchased in the United States. It makes you wonder how many corners have been cut from the US model.

 

[306maxi]

Montreal and Quebec City are huge markets for small cars. Many have to park in the street, and big cars are just too much of a pain.

As for the upcoming winter test, here are the conditions.

- Winter tires (required by law, brand new ones ok since all 500s are new here)
- Minus 10 degree Celsius weather with high humidity (chills your bones)
- The morning after the season's second major snowstorm (unplowed snow on pre-conditioned roads)
- Car left exposed outdoors and unplugged (i.e. no block heater), covered with at least a foot of snow

After clearing the snow, we'll see if the 500 can start on the very first turn of the key -- assuming the doors and locks haven't frozen over!

Anyone who thinks this a bit extreme has never lived here.

Yeah the snow we get here is nothing compared to what you get over there!

My 500 wears winter tyres in the winter and other than the depth of snow I doubt you'll see any problems.

Here are a couple of pictures of my car in the snow

The amount of snow in this photo would probably be about the cars limit. I did get out, but it was a little bit of trouble. Any more and I suspect you'd be getting a bit stuck.

In terms of handling in the snow it was really surefooted. As for starting in the cold, well it got down to lower than -10 a few times and the 500 started just fine But new car with new battery of course so it should.

 

[Milnoc]

There's some interesting tricks you can do with a car during winter. We'll see how "flexible" the 500 is with parking brake style parallel parking!

 

[306maxi]

There's some interesting tricks you can do with a car during winter. We'll see how "flexible" the 500 is with parking brake style parallel parking!

On the right tyres you can have a lot of fun in winter in a 500 In the worst of the snow I was overtaking cars rather easily.

 

[Milnoc]

A quick update. Montreal FINALLY has its first layer of snow in place! Now I'm waiting for the SECOND major snowstorm combined with low temperatures to properly conduct the winter driving test.

But from what I've seen on the streets of Montreal these last few days, the Fiats are handling the current winter weather just as well as every other compact car on the road. But it's only when I'm behind the wheel that I'll find out just how comfortable it really is.

It should be interesting to see what happens when I activate the Sport mode on the slippery snow covered Montreal streets. We have potholes deep enough to throw a car off course, and I'm not sure if the Sport mode or even the normal traction control can deal with these extreme conditions!

Gotta remember to turn off the traction control. I'm already used to this white crap!

 

[johnda]

I enjoyed your video review quite a bit. It was an honest look at the 500 and was very helpful when you described the stowage areas and fold down seats. Most of the reviews I've seen have been of 500's galloping around closed tracks so the performance in heavy traffic was of interest to me.

It might be better to kill the music and just let the driving sounds through, especially that A/C fan!

In any case, thanks. Nice work!

P.S. It's now late April, were you able to check how the car performed in cold weather and snow?

 

[donsmith]

I'm starting to wonder if the American Pop model is actually used for "bait & switch" tactics, especially if dealers routinely demand a couple of thousand dollars over MSRP for it, which is a common occurrence in the US with this car.

Your comment is close to a year old as I write this. Now, in May of 2012, I just bought a Lounge here in Dallas, Texas that was discounted $2500 before any negotiations began. That put it close to the USED Sport was I was considering! I didn't expect to walk out with a NEW Fiat 500 I could afford but I did.

Sticker on the Lounge was $21,070 with moonroof, B&M, Cruise, upgraded air conditioning, leather-wrapped steering wheel, backup sensors, steering wheel controls, .. and more I can't think of but it had a couple of 'packages' there. So, price was $18,570 before we haggled over my trade.

Now, at 600 miles, I'm extremely happy with this car. Like a previous poster, I was disappointed when I learned that Microsoft wrote the software for Blue&Me. And, it shows. I put a thumb drive into the USB port that contained my favorite music. Whenever I start the car, no matter what service I have selected on the radio, the car boots the thumb drive and starts playing its music. It got to be so annoying that I had to remove the thumb drive.

 

[Milnoc]

Sorry for the late response, been busy for a while trying to keep up with the bills. Launching a new TV channel is expensive.

For the interior sound in the review, I'm still working on that. The dash cam I used was a Kodak PlaySport Zx3 with a fish-eye lens. Unfortunately, the mic on the cam is pretty bad. I was planning to use one of my Canon camcorders for recording the interior sound since their microphones are pretty remarkable, but the cam had to be moved to the chase car when my associate's professional Sony camcorder broke down.

As for the winter driving test, that was a complete bust. Montreal simply didn't have anything close to the kind of winter I was hoping for. However, some other people were a bit more lucky on the weather factor, and were able to produce the following videos.





From what I've seen in the videos, the Fiat 500 is no better or worse at winter driving than any other small FWD car on the road.

It would have been nice to see what the 500 could have done on a closed snow covered track with the traction control turned off. That could be more fun to drive!

At the end of this month, and if the rental agency has it in stock, I'll be driving the 500 Sport to a work site some 600 kilometers away. We'll find out how well the sport tires and suspension treat my aging body, and how well the tiny car is received by the locals.

Interesting little piece of information. According to the dealer that lent us the car for the review, 80% of Fiat 500s destined for the Canadian market are sold in the province of Quebec. I do suspect his figures might be inflated just a bit, but probably not by much. You can spot the Fiat 500 in Montreal pretty easily, sometimes more than one on the same city block, and on occasion an Abarth 500.

Heck, I even saw a brown Fiat 500 with EYEBROWS around the headlamps!

 

[Ulpian]

Thanks Milnoc,

Interting what the ESP can, and can't, do.

Regarding the second video; it would have been far easier to get up that hill by turning the car around and going up in reverse. The weight transfer would have put all the weight over the driving wheels and, as long as the climb was steady and the wheels were not allowed to lose traction by spinning (driving gently in other words) , the car would have climbed easily. I did this once when everyone else was spinning uselessly at the bottom of the hill.

Of course, rear wheel drive cars would have gone nowhere

 

[Milnoc]

Got back from a five day business trip where I had rented a Fiat 500 Sport for a total of 1,619 kilometers of travel distance. I thought the Sport model with its low profile tires and firmer suspension would make the ride a bit uncomfortable. Boy, was I ever wrong!

A video is coming soon, with a drive down the twisty Highway 533 in Ontario, Canada. The car really shows what it can do!

 

[maddogmorg]

The weight transfer would have put all the weight over the driving wheels and, as long as the climb was steady and the wheels were not allowed to lose traction by spinning (driving gently in other words) , the car would have climbed easily. I did this once when everyone else was spinning uselessly at the bottom of the hill.

Of course, rear wheel drive cars would have gone nowhere

So by putting the driven wheels at the back the car was more capable, yet you say rear wheel drive cars would have gone nowhere? Didn't think that through did you.