2012 Fiat 500 TwinAir Plus Review: Deceiving Looks And All

Is the Fiat 500 the Susan Boyle car equivalent? Possibly a little dubious for an opening line question, but allow me to explain this random thought splurge without using the idiom "appearances can be deceptive" (using it once before on Car Throttle is enough for me).

You see the cinquecento is slight and it's design principles hail from a bygone motoring era. Yes the dinky nature of the Torino "Topolino" and the rounded bubble roof may cast you back to 1957 when the Fiat 500 was first introduced as a city car. So not too unlike the famous Scottish spinster then.

And then there's what happens when the car opens its mouth. You would probably expect a raspy 1.2-litre petrol-esque noise to bellow from its tiny chrome exhaust pipe. And you would of course be completely unsurprised first to realise that this 500 tester has a 0.9-litre TwinAir engine jammed into its rather tiny nostril out front. What this means for you non-technical laddie, is that this 970kg car is powered by only 2 cylinders. Si, solo due! Taking into account something like my Mark I Toyota Yaris has a 3-piece petrol and you might be left to wonder how the 500 manages to gain speed enroute from "A to B".

Once the engineers have had their say and you find out that the TwinAir squeezes in a turbocharger with an intercooler you'll again be gobsmacked to learn of its power - 85bhp at 5,500rpm! From a 0.9-litre engine this is seemingly inconceivable and the Italians must be applauded for their ability to squeeze juice out of such a small block.

But back to the topic in hand - the noise. Upon treading on the fast pedal, a voice is heard under the bonnet of the Fiat 500 TwinAir Plus, "put-put-put-putter". And that my friends is where we draw a line under Boyle versus 500 in the similarities stakes; both we can conclude have a appearance harkening back to times of old and their voices are truly deceptive. Erm, I mean beguiling.

Watch Car Throttle's Fiat 500 Video Review

Take a step back and breathe. What exactly are we looking at here? According to Fiat's marketing reams this car has the "everyday fun factor". It's all well and good jotting this down on some laminated paper and sending it out to dealerships across the world, and it's easy to pop a few million in Jennifer Lopez' rear pocket (or hard, depending on how you're looking at it cough), but is this phrase justified from everyday 500 driving?

The answer as you may have guessed from my fanboy-ish opening is a resounding yes. From the looks alone, and our tester came in Electroclash Grey paint with 16 inch Matt Black alloy wheels, the car looks classy and noticeably Italian. There's a short front overhang in front of the 875cc block and the car squeezes in between the posts at 3.5 metres in total length. Which means that parking the thing is a piece of cake.

And the flair continues inside the car. Bright red leather seats greet your eyes if you happen to spec it up as an option which does come in at a lofty £775, and there is 500 branding abound including in front of your lucky co-pilot's eyes. Given the low starting price of this car - £9,960 for the base 1.2 Pop - the fixtures and fitting feel remarkably solid and there are cute features such as the all-in-one instrument cluster which the driver is greeted with upon assuming piloting position. The orange backing lights could be replaced with more modern blue LEDs, but it's a minor quirk I'm happy to live with at this point in time.

Don't forget the Blue & Me system powered by Windows. Unfortunately we were unable to get ours working despite attempting a sync with an iPhone and even a Windows Nokia Lumia, but alas both phones were found to be unloved and unwanted by the Bluetooth-compatible system. Oh well, who needs radio when you can listen to the putter about the town?

And speaking of, how did your author find the sound after spending a week with the car? If I'm totally honest, and this will go against nearly every auto journalist that's ever breathed, I found the sound a little grating after a while. Maybe it's because I chose to go on longer motorway journeys and found the insulation to be predictably lacking from this cheaper vehicle, but the putter eventually becomes a drone of noise which you attempt to scramble out via the stereo, which incidentally wasn't great. On the plus side, you will always travel in comfort and space which can be deceptive from the outside. There's that darn word again.

And what of the power? Well 85bhp from something that weighs less than your kitchen components is decent and makes the car feel pretty nippy. You can tick off 0-62mph in 11 seconds and you're good for a top speed of 108 miles per hour. And you wouldn't expect that kind of performance from your domestic dishwasher. What you must bear in mind is that power doesn't come through in the same way as something normally aspirated. The turbocharger may only be small, but to get the most from this unit you need to build revs and let the boost come in and power you up through to the redline, which is in itself an enjoyable exercise.

However don't expect to be saving money on top of your lack of need for road tax. 95g/km aside, which is in part achieved through the "Eco" button on the dash, you will never hit the advertised combined economy figure of 68.9mpg. And that's a near Car Throttle guarantee. Even on an extra-urban cycle around Surrey roads I seldom managed to crack 45mpg and on fruitier drives, the number dipped to around 40 miles to the gallon, which meant I was filling up more than I would have liked.

Whilst that does compromise your bank balance and the fun you of course get when counting the lack of zeroes at the end of your HSBC report, the notion of "everyday fun" certainly isn't compromised. Where else can you rag the tits of something and not be in a seedy joint underground off Tottenham Court Road?

What Fiat have done here is re-create an icon. The 500 was one of the first cars to introduce the concept of city driving in style and with the new model, which has sold like hot-cakes since rebirth in 2007, your average schmuck can now cruise around in stile, con classe and without looking like a total idiota.

2012 Fiat 500 TwinAir Full Gallery