Fiat 500 Review & Prices

Italian cars are known for being stylish, and the Fiat 500 gives Ferrari and Lamborghini a run for their money when it comes to desirability. After all it’s a very easy car to live with, looks great and it’s cheap to run - but it’s far from the last word in practicality.

There aren’t many small cars like the 500 anymore, as even the Mini Cooper has grown into a Renault Clio- and Peugeot 208-sized hatchback. The only real city cars for sale are the Kia Picanto and Hyundai i10 - but neither of them can hold a candle to the 500 when it comes to badge pedigree.

It’s like a teacup terrier. No, it’s not as family friendly as a labrador or as clever as a cat, but it looks at home on posh city streets - as much a fashion accessory as it is a car.

And its retro-inspired styling really is head-turning, with a soft, rounded silhouette and big, friendly headlights. The Fiat badge at the front is flanked by chrome trim, while the thin LED taillights look ace. Park it next to the original Fiat 500 of the 1960s and you can see a strong family resemblance.

It’s a similar story inside, where the 500’s simple dashboard is dominated by a big, body-coloured trim piece. Okay so the new all-electric 500e’s cabin is nicer still; the petrol 500’s 7.0-inch infotainment screen and climate control panel look a bit old-hat, but it’s a stylish cabin nonetheless.

A downside to the 500’s small footprint is a lack of cabin space, because while a pair of adults up front will be just fine, you’ll struggle to fit four people comfortably - even on short journeys. A trio of kids or teenage passengers will be fine, but the 185-litre boot is so small that you’ll struggle to load in a big grocery shop.

However, as a commuter car to chuck around tight city bends and into narrow parking spaces, the Fiat 500 excels. It’s a bit bouncy over bumps, but the light steering and excellent all-round visibility make it a breeze to manoeuvre in town. It’s not all that composed on the motorway though, with noticeable wind and road noise at high speeds.

It’s far from sporty, but the 500 does a decent job of keeping body lean at bay on a country lane. The Fiat isn’t as much fun to drive as a Mini Cooper or a Renault Clio, but you can make swift progress on a B-road with little fuss.

Check out used Fiat 500s for sale on Carwow, or other used Fiat models for sale if the 500 is a bit too small. If you’re after a cute, funky yet brand-new Fiat model, there are Grande Panda deals to consider, as well as electric 500e deals. Carwow can even help you sell your car when the time comes to switch.

You can’t buy a new, petrol-powered Fiat 500 anymore, but there are a huge range of used models for sale through Carwow with numerous engine options - and in various trim levels. They all look near-identical, but the earliest versions do without LED lights and touchscreen infotainment, while there are some posh limited-edition models you should keep an eye out for, too.

The Fiat 500 is great to drive in town, but feels out of its depth when venturing on to the motorway

In town

The urban jungle is where the Fiat 500 feels most at home. Its compact dimensions make it easy to thread through gaps in traffic, and you sit surprisingly high up for a small car giving you great all-round visibility.

The steering is also nice and light, and it can be made even more effortless by pressing the city button on the dashboard. This combined with a tight turning circle makes it a doddle to negotiate tight car parks.

If you want an automatic gearbox to take the strain out of stop-start traffic, then it’s bad news. The Fiat 500 is only offered with a six-speed manual gearbox, so you’ll have to look at something like a Toyota Aygo X if you want two pedals. On the plus side, the clutch is light and easy to use, and the gear shift is precise as well.

The suspension does a pretty good job of absorbing bumps in the road, although particularly large potholes will send a thud through the cabin. The only thing disturbing the peace inside is the 1.0-litre engine, which you need to rev out to get any sort of performance from it. On the plus side, the mild hybrid system will save you fuel when coasting.

On the motorway

Things start to unravel when you hit the motorway though. Being a cheap city car there’s not much insulation, which means wind and road noise are pretty intrusive. You may find yourself having to raise your voice to hold a conversation.

The suspension also becomes unsettled at speed, with the body wobbling over bumps, and you’ll find yourself making constant steering adjustments to stay on the straight and narrow. There’s no option of adaptive cruise control either, although normal cruise control does come as standard as a consolation prize. A Renault Clio will be a better bet if you do a lot of motorway miles.

On a twisty road

Adequate is the best way to describe the Fiat 500 on a twisty road. It doesn't roll too much through the corners and the steering is precise. The suspension may do a decent job of mitigating body roll, but it can get jiggly over bumps and undulating surfaces making it feel quite unsettled. A Kia Picanto is more comfortable for back-road commuting, and a SEAT Ibiza is more fun to drive. If it’s hot hatch thrills you’re after then check out a used Abarth 595, a sportier and more raucous version of the 500.

Even for a tiny city car the Fiat 500 isn’t particularly spacious, however kids should be fine in the back

The Fiat 500 is a very small car, but most people will be able to find a comfortable driving position. That said, the steering wheel only adjusts for height, and even then it doesn’t move much, so you’ll need to try one out to make sure it suits you.

There’s plenty of adjustment in the seats, although you are perched pretty high up so especially tall adults may struggle for headroom. The seats themselves aren’t particularly supportive, and you may find yourself with backache after a long stint behind the wheel.

Interior storage isn’t great either. You get a pretty below-average glovebox, some tiny door bins and a couple of cupholders which aren’t really deep enough for a lot of drinks. There’s also a weird slot behind these cupholders which looks like it should house your phone while it’s plugged in, but unless you’re still using an iPhone 4 it won’t fit. This means you end up with nowhere to put your phone if it’s charging.

Space in the back seats

Things don’t improve much in the rear seats, where only children will find themselves with enough space. Legroom is especially tight and headroom isn’t great. There are also only two seat belts back there, not that you’d want to try and get three across the bench anyway.

You won’t find much space for your bits and bobs either. Both rear passengers have to fight over one central cup holder, and there are no USB charging points in sight.

Fitting a child seat is a mixed bag. Unlike many alternatives, the 500 is only available as a three-door. This makes the process tricky to begin with, but the front doors do open nice and wide - provided you have enough space around the car. Once you’ve threaded the seat through then locating the ISOFIX anchor points is easy, however you will have to move the passenger seat forward to accommodate bulky rear-facing chairs.

Boot space

You may be thinking that Fiat has sacrificed rear seat space to give the 500 a cavernous boot, well sadly not. You get a pretty meagre 185 litres of space with the rear seats up, 70 litres down on the Picanto’s luggage capacity. If you need a lot more space for the money then the Dacia Sandero has a much more generous 328 litres on offer.

Fold the rear seats down and you have up to 550 litres to play with, which is just over half what you get in the Picanto. The load lip is pretty high as well making loading heavy items a chore, and there’s a big ridge in the floor when the seats are folded to try and haul things over.

The Fiat 500 has a super stylish and colourful interior, but it’s let down by sub-par material quality

The 500’s cabin carries over some of the retro design cues of the exterior to make it look and feel totally unique. The splash of colour across the dashboard is a nice touch, and everything is logically laid out.

The entry-level car gets physical knobs for the climate control like you might find on a car from the 90s, but they’re really simple to grab on the move. Higher-spec Top models get climate control with small displays showing the temperature which also works well.

Being on the cheaper side of things you can’t expect the material quality to rival something like a Volkswagen Polo, and it doesn’t. Everything is hard and scratchy, while some of the controls such as the steering column stalks feel a bit flimsy. The Hyundai i10 feels more solidly screwed together.

In terms of infotainment, all models get a 7.0-inch touchscreen as standard with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. It’s good to have the smartphone mirroring, because the native Fiat system is pretty tricky to navigate and the screen isn’t very responsive to your inputs.

Range-topping cars get a small digital driver’s display behind the steering wheel, and it shows you everything you need to know in a clear and concise way. It’s not particularly customisable, but it’s better than the displays you get in an Aygo X or i10.

There’s a wide range of engine options to choose from when looking at used Fiat 500s, from a dinky 0.9-litre two-cylinder unit to the last-of-the-line 1.0-litre mild-hybrid version in the run-out models. They’re all highly fuel-efficient - and they’re all more suited to driving in town than on the motorway.

As you can’t buy one new there is no first-year Vehicle Excise Duty to pay - and no luxury car supplement either. Road tax is cheap on all model versions, regardless of engine option.

The Fiat 500 scored three out of five stars when it was tested by Euro NCAP back in 2017 - and it’s expired since, meaning it’s not the safest small car out there.

The 500’s main downfall was on driver assistance tech. There’s no lane-keeping assist, adaptive cruise control or autonomous emergency braking fitted here, which leaves it lagging behind most new cars today.

Fiat came a poor 21st out of 31 manufacturers entered in the 2025 Driver Power survey for owner satisfaction; hardly rock-solid.

Unless you buy an example from a main dealer you won’t get any new warranty cover with a used Fiat 500, but you’re best off avoiding a model with the automated manual gearbox - as they’re not known to be all that reliable.