2012 Fiat 500c

As fortune would have it, the 2012 Fiat 500 Cabrio came to me for review one year to the day after I handed my vintage Fiat Spider convertible over to its new owner. That's right: I owned a Fiat, for 11 years. That might make me a Fiat expert. Or possibly just a moron.

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Upon the hardtop 500's introduction, Kelsey Mays published a full review, which allows me to focus on the Cabrio convertible version and give my first impressions of the modern Fiat.

I have my doubts about the 2012 Fiat 500, but I have no doubt about the Cabrio version: It isn't worth the extra $4,000 you'd pay for it.

Not a True Convertible

First off, the Cabrio isn't a true convertible. All its pillars are fixed, and the powered soft-top slides back along the roof's side rails, fan-folding, leaving the glass rear window raised when in its default open position. As you'd expect, occupants aren't as exposed to the open air as they would be in a full convertible. Pressing the roof button a second time runs the top down between the C-pillars and drops the rear window flat. This opens things up further, but it's best appreciated by backseat passengers.

To provide some background, when I briefly drove a hardtop Fiat 500, I struggled with the seating position. The driver's seat's bottom cushion has an uptilt in the front that I found uncomfortable, and like most cars nowadays there's no means of adjusting its tilt. It was particularly problematic because that car was a manual, and the cushion fought back against my leg when I operated the clutch. I'd hoped the automatic Cabrio test car would be more accommodating.

The 500c's seat was equally oddly pitched and awkward, and the only way I could achieve marginal comfort was by jacking the seat height lever as high as it would go. Even then, I sat with my arms straight out in front of me because the steering wheel doesn't telescope and, though it tilts, it doesn't come down as far as I needed. Having done my best, I then looked up to find the rearview mirror blocking my forward view. Down the seat went, along with whatever concessions the 500 had made for my comfort. I was then sitting with my elbows locked and my arms extended and parallel to the ground. But at least I could see again. Sort of.

Even when the top is raised, the side and rear pillars are quite thick, frustrating attempts to check blind spots over either shoulder. When the roof is lowered to its bottommost position, the folded top sits so high it blocks the rear view, both in the rearview mirror and when looking back directly. Someone of my height (6 feet tall) is arguably in the best position to see over the folded top, but as I explained, I couldn't sit as high as I wanted to without blocking the forward view.

As if the problem couldn't get worse, our test car had an optional navigation system in the form of a portable TomTom, whose cradle mounted into a port atop the dashboard, powering it. I like the idea of portables as factory or dealer options as an alternative to in-dash systems. They're cheaper ($400 in this case, which includes the integration), they can be shared among other cars, and they're easily updated or replaced. (Expensive in-dash systems can receive map updates, but the technology itself ages quickly, and the feature consistently depreciates in the used-car market faster than its host vehicle.)