2012 Fiat 500

At first glance, the 2012 Fiat 500 that goes on sale this month in dealerships across the United States looks rather like the European model that launched in mid-2007. That car, in turn, is a puffed up doppleganger of the original 500 – or Cinquecento, as its Italian owners prefer. The original 500 isn’t well known to most Americans, but it was solely responsible for getting destitute post-war Italy back on its, er, wheels beginning in the late 1950s.

But the 2012 model we tossed into every corner in California has been extensively modified for American consumers. Built in a Chrysler plant in Toluca, Mexico, it required some changes to meet U.S. safety standards, as well as some improvements to sound insulation and switchgear to keep “stepping down” Americans happy. In addition, Fiat reworked the car’s rear suspension for an improved ride and vastly increased torsional stiffness. Oh, and they tossed in an automatic transmission and a modified four-cylinder with Fiat’s innovative MultiAir technology.

Typically, we’d use this space to kvetch about how the Italians were forced to water down their icon for American roads, but Fiat tells us that CEO Sergio Marchionne took one ride in a U.S.-specification 500 and ordered the implementation of the improvements into the European car.

The 500 based on the pedestrian Fiat Panda, a whimsically-named five-door subcompact, and it also shares its architecture with the European-market Ford Ka. Of course, none of those matter much to most of us on this side of the pond unless we are handed the keys to one at the Hertz location at Leonardo da Vinci airport in Rome.