Fiat 500 Immigrates to Japan
March 27, 2008

By Peter Nunn

TOKYO — Japan has become the latest country to welcome the Fiat 500, the new small-car phenomenon that's taken Europe by storm.

First sales of this chic Italian baby kicked off in recent week and Japan is also the first the world to see the 500 launch in 1.2-liter, two-pedal automatic form.

It's not shipping to the U.S., though Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne hinted in an interview with London's Financial Times this week that it could in the future. For now, Fiat 500 is a little car set to do very big things for Fiat in many other parts of the world, including Japan.

On one level, this new 500 is a bambino that cleverly revives the style and look of the classic tiny, rear-engined 500 built in Italy between 1957 and 1975.

At the same time, the 500, which won Europe's Car of the Year in 2007, is a completely modern front-engine design that mixes transport, fashion, retro and cutting-edge high-tech down into one very delectable, surprisingly affordable, high-quality package. It's a Fiat, Jim, but not as we know it.

If ever there was a car to symbolize the coming again of Fiat — from corporate Italian basket case four years ago to confident, money-earning business machine all over again (post divorce from General Motors) — the 500 is it.

Commercially, the 500 is a very important player, indeed. Built in Poland and based on the Panda, its underpinnings will also support Ford's new-generation Ka in Europe.

Here in Japan (Asia's biggest luxury market), the 500 is also a car that's set to transform Fiat's image and drive up sales in a big way. In a tough-to-crack Japanese domestic market worth 5.3 million units last year, Fiat sold all of 1,750 cars.

Fiat's local arm, however, is already looking to sell some 3,000 of the 500 here this year, then more when further versions, including the performance Abarth, become available. So it's really the start of a new era.

Fiat's ambitions for the 500 — a model that could have been tailor-made for Japan, with its fascination for boutique cars like this, its many narrow roads, tight parking lots and big enthusiasm for expensive designer goods — were evident in the lavish launch ceremony for the car.

Staged at the flamboyant Italian Centre of Culture in Tokyo, the event invited 500 people but more like 1,000 turned up.

Adding weight of the occasion, several top Fiat execs, including Managing Director Lorenzo Sistino, made the long journey to Tokyo.

Although Sistino is keen to pit the 500 against the BMW Mini, that British/German icon is in a different league; the Mini sold 14,000 units here last year.

It's the right idea, though, and the opening of a Fiat Café in Tokyo's trendy Aoyama district, complete with showroom and nightclub (!) is all part of making the 500 not so much a car but a brand all in itself.

And as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Rolex and others will tell you, Japan is absolutely the Land of Brand. Smart designer goods, like the 500 and Mini, are exactly what's Big in Japan. The fact the 500 has that alluring "Made in Italy" tag and a friendly face as well suggests this is absolutely the most perfect small car Fiat could ever have invented.

Starting at the equivalent of $21,880-$22,659, the Fiat 500 has been a smash hit to date. Though Fiat shows no signs of returning to America, you wonder how well the affordable, compact, eco-friendly 500 would work in cities like Los Angeles, Miami and New York. The answer might be "very well indeed."•

Photos by Peter Nunn

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