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Fiat gets smart with Piccolo Bello?

By Stéphane Schlesinger on 21 June 2005 | Commentaires (0) Comments | Permalink

Piccolobello1 Last year, at the Geneva Motor Show, Fiat unveiled the lovely Trepiuno, a kind of 3^rd millennium 500, which was enthusiastically greeted. At last, Fiat decided to exploit the extraordinary sympathy conveyed by the 500. Of course, everybody found it logical that Fiat produced the Trepiuno. Everybody but Fiat… It would have been too simple. Arguing that it’d be too expensive (£10,000) and too close to the Panda, Fiat decided to shelve it and began studying the Piccolo Bello. Why not. Given that the Smart Fortwo meets a considerable success in Italy, replacing the 500 in people’s hearts, Fiat thought it a good idea to take up the same concept and to improve it. In the same way, Fiat had tried to imitate the VW Golf and launched the Stilo… When did you last see one?
Like the Smart, the Piccolo Bello is a rear-engined minute car. But the Italian engineers have been trying to find a solution to offer accommodation for four people instead of two, in a car that’s not more than 270cm long. As a matter of fact, the rear bench will be mounted over the engine. So, to provide decent headroom, the height could reach 170cm. Various storage spaces will be scattered throughout the cockpit: beside the rear bench, above the glove box or under the front bonnet. Besides, the driver will enter the car opening a sliding door, just like in the Peugeot 1007. There will be just one though.
The Piccolo Bello will be built alongside the Panda, in Poland, at a rhythm of about 150,000 copies a year. Some say the basic price will not exceed £4000 when it's released in 2007.