Blast from the past 5 - Fiat 500

The Fiat 500 - seen here on Fiat's stand at this year's Geneva Salon d'Automobile. The 500 was built from 1957 to 1975 (although the estate version carried on a little longer) and was replaced by the less visually appealing 126. This 500 is sometimes referred to as the Topolino (or little mouse), although that name is more usually applied to its front-engined predecessor which was launched in 1937.


Of course, the 500 was on display at the Geneva show to promote the forthcoming Nuova 500, which borrows many of its styling themes. Not particularly convinced by most of these retro reinventions of old cars. Only the Mini (or MINI, as BMW insists on calling it) really works, and that's more because it's great to drive and all of the financial numbers stack up, rather than because it represents a true successor to the original Mini.