Fiat 500 1.2 8v Lounge Dualogic - First Impressions

[Steve Webb]

Picked the 500 up today, here he is

http://www.berlinasportivo.org/forumpics/new500.jpg

First impressions are good, really well put together, good standard of materials inside, and great service from the local Fiat dealer.

The dualogic gearbox is a big step forwards from the previous selespeeds i have driven. Once its put into auto mode, it stays there, even when you turn off and restart. If you are in auto mode and want to drop down a gear it lets you do this whilst still remaining in auto mode.

There is plenty of space inside, I'm 6'2" and 16 stone, so not particularly small. No problems with headroom and no shortage of leg and shoulder space.

Economy should be good as well. I filled up the tank this evening (?36) and the trip computer came back with an estimated range of over 700km's !!

Anyway there will be a full report soon, once I grapple the keys back off the missus.

Steve

[AlfaJack]

It looks fantastic, glad your happy with it :)

[Xti]

Enjoy it, Steve. Beautiful car indeed.

[Steve Webb]

A few more words on the new addition.

Handling and comfort - Its been a while since I've driven a small car, the last one being a 205 XS (F311 MFP where are you now?) and it is good to be back in one. The 500 feels solidly planted on the road, it sits on 185 section tyres so there is plenty of rubber on the road, but nice and nimble with it. Definitely chuckable. The ride is good, not too bouncy, not too harsh and it doesn't roll as much as I'd thought it would.

Performance - The car only has a few hundred km's on it at the moment so i'm trying to keep the rpm's and engine loads down at the moment. However already the car feels nice and frisky. Just need to get some more km's under its belt before getting more closely acquainted with the red line.

Gearbox - This one is the interesting one. The dualogic gearbox is on the whole pretty damn good. You can still catch the gearbox out, coasting up to a junction can see the gearbox change up a gear when you really want the car to stay in the same gear.
Also if you pull away sharply, the dualogic gearbox fuzzy logic assumes you are going to be driving quickly, so instead of changing up through the gearbox, the car sits in second gear spinning away at 3k rpm. Of course you can always press the economy button, and have the car change up through the gears at 1500rpm.
As with all semi-auto boxes the upshifts are a little on the jerky side, but deft use of the right foot can smooth these changes out. Also using the car in semi-auto mode you can really smooth out the upshifts.
Downchanges are a different matter, smooth and almost unnoticeable.

Interior - There is loads of space on the inside, and it is really well put togther. There are also loads of little cubby holes , shelves etc.

So there you go so far so good, I love driving the little car, and try to grab the keys whenever I don't need a bootful of tools or the trailer.

Steve