Fiat Cinquecento 0.9

...I was interested in the Fiat 500’s and the 126, though they’re getting a little elderly now. The Cinquecento is a small car, ideal for learning to drive in and is also relatively new, but still affordable. My friend who is also 17 purchased one as his first car before me and when I was taken out for a ride in his I was incredibly impressed.

My Fiat is a Cinquecento SX model, which has a couple of added extras such as electric windows, ...
...when you climb into this Fiat is the space. You expect it to be a cramped and small car, when in fact it is a spacious and roomy car. It will comfortably seat 5 people. The most space is given to the passengers travelling in the front of the car. The driver has an excellent driving position. You really do feel as though this car has more space than your average family saloon. Fiat claim that this car was designed ‘from the inside out.’ With 58% of ... more

The small, BIG car! Yes that’s right, the small car, only 3.227 metres in length and yet 58% of the car's volume is available for passengers and objects carried in the car. Impressive for such a small and cheap car.

Being only 17 years of age this is my first car. I have always liked these tiny little cars. I was interested in the Fiat 500’s and the 126, though they’re getting a little elderly now. The Cinquecento is a small car, ideal for learning to drive in and is also relatively new, but still affordable. My friend who is also 17 purchased one as his first car before me and when I was taken out for a ride in his I was incredibly impressed.

My Fiat is a Cinquecento SX model, which has a couple of added extras such as electric windows, sunroof and central locking. It has an 899 cc, 5 speed, 41 bhp, 4 cylinder, fuel injected engine. The top speed of this little car is 87 mph, which is well over what the speed limit permits. It has an impressive turning circle of 8.8 metres, making it an excellent car for parking and manoeuvring.

It is extremely nippy and will easily get away quickly. It never feels as though it is lacking power or speed. It is a fairly quiet engine, you only really notice any noise when you are in fifth gear at high speed. The controls are well laid out. The accelerator is a little bit small though and the pedals do seem too close together. If you have big feet this could pose a problem, so I always wear my trainers when I drive my car, as my work boots manage to clip two pedals at a time!

The first thing that really hits you when you climb into this Fiat is the space. You expect it to be a cramped and small car, when in fact it is a spacious and roomy car. It will comfortably seat 5 people. The most space is given to the passengers travelling in the front of the car. The driver has an excellent driving position. You really do feel as though this car has more space than your average family saloon. Fiat claim that this car was designed ‘from the inside out.’ With 58% of the car being passenger space you can see how this claim is true. If you think about it, Fiat have condensed the engine into a very small unit that makes the front of the car short, with a steep gradient on the bonnet and the back of the car has been ‘cut off,’ making it shorter, though there is a fair sized book area. The rear seats can be folded down in several combinations providing a bigger load space.

The bonnet angle is very steep as I explained, which can make parking a little difficult as the nose of your car is not seen from the driving position unless you lean forward, as you can get out and find that you’ve left loads of space between you can the car in front! The rear of the car is nearly vertical, which makes the boot area short but still quite roomy. You can fit a lot of shopping bags in there and my tools from work fit in there nicely too. The only problem though with having such a short back to the car is that you feel vulnerable to rear impacts, due to the lack of space and cushioning between the car behind and you.

The instruments are well laid out within the car. There are the usual indicator, lights and windscreen wiper levers on the steering column. The indicator lever is on the left, with a longer lever for the main-beam headlight dip switch behind it, which is pushed down fro main-beam and up for normal headlights. On the right is the two speed windscreen wiper lever. The windscreen wash is operated by pulling the lever towards you. This is one small thing I am a little annoyed about, the windscreen wipers are only two speed, so intermittent flick wipe can not be enough due to the delay between wipes and the rain builds up making visibility poor, or the continuous wipe mode is too effective in lighter rain, as the wipers are so quick it can make the awful squealing noise as the rubber of the wipers is dragging on the dry glass. It can be overcome by just operating the flick wipe mode yourself, when you need to clear the screen just moving the lever each time.

The headlight switch is on the dashboard to the left of the heater control switches which are in the centre of the dashboard. The button can be pushed one click forward for side lights, then a second click for headlights. The rear windscreen wiper, rear window wash and rear window demister buttons are located here as well. The rear demister is incredibly effective, within a few seconds you can see the lines appearing across the fog in the window. Unlike many cars you only have to wait a couple of minutes, sometimes less as your rear window is clear.

There is a small digital clock located centrally at the top of the dashboard, which is illuminated in green. This is at a perfect level to glance at it instead of looking elsewhere for a clock, such as by the radio which is low down, distracting your attention from the road. The heater is also very effective and fast working. The demister works quickly and the fan is quite powerful with three speed settings for the airflow. It can become quite hot in the car and you end up turning the heater setting to cool, even in winter!

If you have a Cinquecento SX with electric windows, the button are found level with the radio under the steering wheel, which is a little bit out of the way and hard to reach sometimes. I was not really too worried about having electric windows, as they are only something else to go wrong.

In my Fiat I have a Grundig radio, fitted as standard I think. It is well designed and the two speakers in the front work well, though having not been a passenger in the car I wouldn’t know how well it can be heard from the passenger seat or rear of the car. My mum, (who has been my co-driver while I have been earning to drive!) has said that it is slightly hard to hear the radio from the passenger seat. I think it was an optional extra to have rear speakers and I think you had to get them fitted yourself. Under the radio is an ash try, which neatly conceals the cigarette lighter.

In front of the passenger is a huge area, where normally a glove box would be located. But in the Cinquecento it is left open, providing a very useful shelf, and there is a small tray beneath it for storing items out of view. There is also a small shelf to the right of the steering column for the driver. Here you can place items such as a mobile phone or items to keep handy, and they are also fairly well hidden from view when the car is parked.

There are two huge pockets on the doors. Where in the drivers door I have stored, a torch, a sponge, a pen or two, a cloth, an ice scraper and some chocolate and also all my fuel receipts. So plenty of room for bits and pieces to be kept handy in the car, another practical feature.

There is a boot release catch to the right of the drivers seat and the bonnet release is under the steering column, so too is the fuse box.

The display dials are nicely presented as well. The fuel gauge on the left with a bright orange low indicator light that warns you in plenty of time. The temperature gauge on the right and the speedometer in the centre, with the mileage set within this and the trip metre. At night the display is illuminated in a glowing green. There is a big angled cover incorporated into the dashboard that covers the instrument dials so that sunlight cannot reflect off of the plastic cover easily.

The steering wheel is fairly small, but quite chunky and fits the hand nicely. The steering is quite light and there would be no need at all for power assisted steering. You may think that this car is a tin can on wheels, well maybe it is, but it is a spacious and nippy little tin can on wheels. It is quite high off of the ground, but you do not notice any body roll really. The seats are extraordinarily relaxing and comfortable, while maintaining a fairly rigid structure that will keep you alert. There is a great deal of adjustment on the seats, so they can be adjusted to suit many different size and shape of passenger.

It is a pleasure to drive, and it does not damage the wallet too much either! It has a 35 litre fuel tank and will do around 42.8 mpg! I’m sure it is more than this, though I haven’t had time to work it out yet from my fuel receipts. It costs just under £25 to fill from empty, although this will vary from station to station due to different prices. It takes unleaded fuel with a minimum octane rating of 95. It is cheap to tax as well, as it is under one litre! The insurance should be cheaper too, in theory! (Read my opinion on Car Insurance in General if you like, as that is a completely different story!) The gear box can seem a little bit notchy, though you soon get used to this. It is very responsive and handles well, cornering is easy and you really get a sense of happiness driving this car.

One thing I have noticed though its that the car relies heavily on air cooling while in motion, so it can soon heat up when sat in traffic queues or while waiting at traffic lights, though if it does get too hot an electric fan will cut in and cool it down. When travelling a high speed you do notice a little wind noise on the far left of the car sometimes, though this may just be the air vents. Apart from that it is fairly quiet. The ride is excellent and very smooth, speed bumps and potholes are not too painful at all and it is a nice soft ride compared to may cars.

The fuel filler had a flap covering it, which blends in well with the bodywork as it is colour coded. The key is required to unlock the fuel filler stopper and cannot be removed until it has been replaced, which is a good safety feature. I do find that some nozzles are hard to insert into the filler pipe as the angle is a little sharp, but once you wriggle them around they seem to work. I understand this is another safety feature to prevent the wrong fuel being put into the car due to a different shaped nozzle for diesel and so on.

The car only has two doors, which is understandable for its size. The doors are quite long and heavy though and the release catch on the inside does seem a little flimsy. The front seats fold forwards to allow passengers access to the rear seats. In the back there are two rear quarter windows that open at the rear a few centimetres on a folding lever. These are good for providing ventilation, though you can accidentally forget them as it is not easy to see if they are visibly open or not.

The sunroof is operated by turning a knob at the front, near the windscreen. It only opens upwards at the back. It is tinted and has small black dots on it so that you are not blinded when the sun is overhead. There are some small clips on it, which I presume are so that you can attach an extra sunblind to it.

The interior does not at first glance appear to match in my car, though I have grown to like it. The dashboard it grey and the rest is black. The seats are grey on the edges and the pattern in the centre of the seats is coloured stripes or dashes. The front seats have two grey plastic, fairly soft head restraints. The top of the inside of the front doors and the area around the door pockets is the metal in the body colour, which at first appeared a little cheap and as though it would be cold. In fact I like this touch, as it means less wear on a fabric and unless they are scratches, you can wipe clean the most worn or used areas of grime.

The spare wheel is stored in the boot under the floor, where the jack and tool kit is stored. The jack includes a screwdriver and wheel wrench. This looks a handy little kit, though I hope I don’t have to use it!

"Cinque" is Italian for five and "cento" means hundred, making up five hundred, though due to the engine size it should actually be a novecento! (Thanks TallTone for correcting me on that one!)

The fuel tank is placed between the back wheels on the car and slightly forward, so that in a rear impact it should be well protected and there is also an automatic fuel cut off to prevent fire in a collision. There are not any airbags as standard, though you do feel safe in it, though I thought it would seem tinny and weak.

You can now pickup a cheap second hand Cinquecento, as they are not in production to my knowledge, for just over £1000. The first Cinquecento’s came out in 1993, on a K plate and production finished in 1997 which is P reg. If I am correct they were priced at £6273 when new for a basic model. My car was very low mileage when I bought it, so I paid a little more for it and it was in excellent condition. My car is M reg and is in Rosso Racing Red which looks very youthful and sporty, though being red it has faded slightly. The big black bumpers fit in nicely with the styling and protect it well. The front lights really give it character and make it stand out from other cars. There is a need in today’s society for city cars or super mini’s, well if you cannot afford one, or are looking for something a little more unique a Fiat Cinquecento is another option. You cannot really compare it to other cars, such as Mini’s, or Nissan Micra’s and so on as it is in a class of it’s own, as it more unique and has character.

No matter what build you are, age (well over 17!) or sex a Cinquecento would manage to get you from A to B. They are well built and Fiat have appeared to have learnt from their past history, as these cars are not rusty yet and should be quite well protected from rust. I find my car a pleasure to drive, it is comfortable, definitely not sluggish, unique, and well engineered, though quite fiddly to work on due to it being compact. I am VERY sorry about the length of this opinion, though I hope I have explained everything in an appropriate level of detail. Any questions, please email me on petefarrell4@ferrari.org.uk.

The cost of replacement parts is quite reasonable and can be even cheaper if you use the non-branded parts, but I have decided to use original Fiat parts. I go on the theory that if I treat my car well, it will hopefully repay me with many years reliable service.

I hope to get many years of happy motoring from my reliable little Fiat, as this winter it has started first time every time. They are a well-liked car and I was considering buying the 1.1 sporting model, though the insurance would have been even more of a shock! You can see some highly tuned and adapted Cinquecento’s on the road. Some with body kits that make them look as though they are going to take off! I hope you have enjoyed this opinion and have learnt something about this little car, as you may not have noticed these little cars before now.

One last thing, they are such a joy to park, as you can drive into spaces other cars cannot even consider attempting to squeeze into. I think Cinquecento drivers should only have to pay half price for parking as we only use half the space! :-0
 

...less