 2013 Fiat 500 Turbo. Click image to enlarge |
The one option on our tester that I expected to be far more pleased with was the leather-trimmed bucket seats ($800). In just about every other vehicle I’ve tested this past year, leather seats are a slick upgrade from the base trim, and just look way better than any cloth alternative. Sadly, with the Fiat this wasn’t the case. As you can see in the photos, the leather on the seats in my tester looks like a rookie job at best. On a car with less than 6,000 kilometres on the odometer there is no reason why the leather should be all puckered the way it is. I’m hoping this was just one bad install job rather than something systemic of the production process or materials, but having driven other examples with the cloth seats I’d save the $800, but still spend half of that on the optional seat heating ($400).
The biggest thing I’m not missing in the Fiat Turbo is the previously mentioned boost gauge and shift light equipped on the pricey Abarth model. Being a production model forced-induction car, the turbocharger boost pressure gauge is such a useless contraption that I still can’t comprehend Fiat ever wanting to install one. I get that the Abarth is meant to be their all-out performance model, and maybe that 18–25 demographic might get a kick out of it, but it’s simply unnecessary cluttering of an otherwise fairly sleek and straightforward instrument cluster.
Storage space is always a fun point of discussion when looking at the city car segment. None of them do exceptionally well, but given the Fiat’s dimensions its available cargo space isn’t half bad. With the rear seats up there is still enough room available for a reasonable two-person household grocery run; however, if you’re like me and wind up shopping for a bulk pack of paper towels and a new upright vacuum you’ll be stuck dropping the seats down. I don’t suspect many Fiat buyers intend on regularly travelling with four people in the car so this should be a non-issue, and once the seats fold down there is quite a bit of usable space back there. The built-in subwoofer that comes as part of the Beats Audio upgrade does eat up a little bit of useful real estate but not enough to make a significant difference.
  2013 Fiat 500 Turbo. Click image to enlarge |
Once out on the road and not looking at those awful seats, the little Fiat Turbo starts redeeming itself rather rapidly. For starters, power delivery from the little 1.4L four-banger comes on strong from roughly 2,000 rpm and maintains well into the upper register. However, there is an odd drop in power just before reaching the Fiat’s 6,800 rpm redline, though the powerband is still very usable in day-to-day driving. Although not as powerful as the Abarth, the Turbo definitely has that bit of “oomph” the base model is sadly lacking. 135-hp and 150 lb-ft of torque doesn’t sound like much by today’s 300+ horsepower standard of performance, but in a chassis weighing a meagre 1,124 kg the Fiat 500 Turbo is certainly no slouch. Whipping in and out of traffic is a real breeze, and as long as you’re on top of your shifts there’s always just enough power on tap. Fortunately the Turbo makes use of big-brother Abarth’s shorter ratio five-speed gearbox so falling out of the powerband is rarely an issue.
