Fiat 500 advice and info?

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Originally Posted by Daniel

That said when I was little, my parents carried myself and my 2 older brothers around in a little Honda Civic.

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I remember squeezing into the back (and I mean behind the back seat, under the rear window) of my parents Bug/Beetle with my younger sister. My older siblings shared the back seat.

Hold on. Alfa is set to return to N. America soon ;)

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Originally Posted by Daniel

But I think people choose to take loads of crap with :) You can fit a pushchair in the back of the 500, the rear seats on most of them are 50:50 splits so you can put larger stuff in that way. I'll admit you won't be doing any cross continent journeys with a child in the back, but for shopping journeys and days out it's fine. I admit if it was an only car then you'd definitely need something bigger. That said when I was little, my parents carried myself and my 2 older brothers around in a little Honda Civic.

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Its not that you can't have kids and a 500 it's most likely that you just can't be bothered with the hastle especially if you have a limited number of car seats that you need to swap between vehicles. My nieces are 4 and 18 months and I always find it much more of a hassle faffing around with the car seats in the back of my fester compared to when you put them in the other half's 5 door car. Thats all before you try and get the kids in and out of the said car seats. :p :s

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Originally Posted by odykas

Hold on. Alfa is set to return to N. America soon ;)

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Yes, and how many times before has Alfa been returning to the US before? ;)

I think I trust Bernie more than I trust Sergio :D

I hear what you're saying GG, if you've got a 5 door car you're not going to faff about with the 3 door car. I just find it silly that someone would buy a 3 door car and then goes and sells it and take the depreciation hit just because of the hassle. But then again I'm just tight :p

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Originally Posted by Daniel

But I think people choose to take loads of crap with :) You can fit a pushchair in the back of the 500, the rear seats on most of them are 50:50 splits so you can put larger stuff in that way. I'll admit you won't be doing any cross continent journeys with a child in the back, but for shopping journeys and days out it's fine. I admit if it was an only car then you'd definitely need something bigger. That said when I was little, my parents carried myself and my 2 older brothers around in a little Honda Civic.

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Where do you put the kids if you need to fold the rear seat to put in the stroller?
I've no kids but few years back I used to keep company to a friend of mine when he was taking the kids for a days journey and believe me a Fiat 500 is useless for 2 adults and 2 kids plus some stuff.

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Originally Posted by Firstgear

I remember squeezing into the back (and I mean behind the back seat, under the rear window) of my parents Bug/Beetle with my younger sister. My older siblings shared the back seat.

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:eek:

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Originally Posted by ioan

Where do you put the kids if you need to fold the rear seat to put in the stroller?
I've no kids but few years back I used to keep company to a friend of mine when he was taking the kids for a days journey and believe me a Fiat 500 is useless for 2 adults and 2 kids plus some stuff.

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Of course in that situation a city car really isn't practical. I'm sure you could jam a stroller in somewhere but it would just be silly.

I'm not against big cars at all :)

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Originally Posted by schmenke

That's all well and good airshifter, but still doesn't explain the need to use one of those brutes as a daily driver for someone who works in downtown office building :mark: .

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I think most of that has to do with cheap gas. Even with the recent price hikes, gas is cheap here in the US. Rather than own two vehicles, most will commute in a large vehicle especially if they need the room/towing/hauling on occasion.

We have three vehicles and two drivers, so we can have the size/comfort/safety of the larger ones when needed and keep a third commuter that gets decent MPG. But all three have long been paid for so it made sense to keep the smaller car. If we could only afford to keep two, I'd likely have to get rid of the small one. When I need a truck I really need a truck so that would stay. The other is a mid sized SUV and the gas penalty would be worth it on trips and such vs the small car.

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Originally Posted by Daniel

I would be really interested to see what someone like yourself or airshifter thought of the 500 as people from North America so if you do see one in a dealership do pop in and have a peek.

A few people over on the fiat forum I post on have a child or two and don't have any problems with space, but a few people who've had a newborn have gone the typical route and bought an articulated lorry to carry them and their 2kg bag of flour sized child :p

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IMO very few people in the US market will even consider a car that small. The SMART sold ok for a couple of years and then sales tanked. People over here just want a larger car for the most part. Not to say that a 100 HP car can't make a decent commuter over here, but most people will pay the gas penalty for more size and/or more power.

The majority of cars in the UK have less than 100bhp!