Fiat achieved a major milestone this week by building its one-millionth Fiat 500 hatchback. The car in question was actually a 1.2-litre ‘Lounge’ model finished in Funky White and built at Fiat’s Polish plant (Fiat also manufacture 500s in Brazil and Mexico). With production of the ‘New 500’ starting in 2007, it’s taken Fiat just over five years to produce a million units of the popular city car.
Part of the sales success of the Fiat 500 is down to the host of variants and special editions offered by Fiat nowadays. The Fiat 500 is sold in more than 100 countries around the world and although the 500 got off to a slow start in most markets (South Africa included), thanks to a price repositioning and introduction of the convertible 500C model and hotter Abarth models, sales have continued steadily. 2009 was the fashionable car’s most successful year worldwide, with 186 000 units sold before the banking crisis took hold of Europe.
Some food for thought, however, the original Fiat 500 produced between 1957 and 1975, managed to stack up an impressive 3.4 million sales during its 18-year production run. There is still some ways to go then for Italy’s modern day Mini.