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REVIEW: Take the Fiat 124 Spider for a spin

You know what’s really Italian? Sushi. Wait. That’s not right. However, it is what we have here: a Japanese-made two-seater roadster wearing a badge that hearkens back to a little yesteryear la dolce vita.
Fiat
The 2017 Fiat 124 Spider hearkens back to the sprightly little car of the same name that offered Italian flair and suspect reliability for adventurous drivers. The peppy and agile new version shares a lot of its design with the popular Mazda MX-5, making the reborn Spider a much more reliable machine than its predecessor. photo supplied Fiat

You know what’s really Italian? Sushi. Wait. That’s not right.

However, it is what we have here: a Japanese-made two-seater roadster wearing a badge that hearkens back to a little yesteryear la dolce vita. There are those who will remember the Fiat 124 of the 1970s as a sprightly little drop top that offered a taste of romance-language driving at perhaps a more accessible level than an Alfa Romeo. If so, there may be a little confusion as to why everything here from wheelbase to instrumentation looks suspiciously like the Mazda MX-5.

But what is the MX-5 anyway, other than a reliable Japanese interpretation of the classic British roadster? And, if you cast your mind back, are there not some pretty direct similarities between the British and Italian motoring experience? Walking, for instance. Flatbed trailers. Oil leaks.

With the modern 124 Spider, Fiat is leveraging Mazda’s well-regarded platform to provide a hint of the classic without the fix it again Tony drudgery. On paper, it makes perfect sense. In person, does a serving of sashimi bolognese actually work?

Design

Uh oh. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the beholder of the 124 may not immediately be pleased. The design of the current ND-chassis MX-5 that underpins this Fiat involved a great deal of work in shaping a low nose and short overhangs. Making it all work with modern pedestrian impact requirements was a huge pain for the engineers, but the team managed to create a car that was actually shorter than the original Miata from the 1990s.

To this hard-won delicacy, Fiat has added a big dollop of pesto. You can see what they’ve tried to do, but whether or not it’s worked seems to be polarizing to onlookers. The new front end is massive, and in profile gives the car a big beak. The badges are huge, almost self-consciously so.

Next to the fiercely scowling MX-5, the 124 looks a bit cartoonish: Jimmy Durante hob-nobbing with a ninja. However, the public seemed to enjoy the 124’s friendlier demeanour, with plenty of onlookers happy to come up and chat about it. Most were surprised to find out that Mazda had anything to do with the car.

Environment

If you put someone who owns a CX-5 or Mazda3 in the driver’s seat of this car, they’d immediately know something was up. Sure, there’s a Fiat badge, but everything from the centre rotary dial to the instrument panel is identical to the rest of Mazda’s range.

If you’ve driven a Fiat 500, this is doubtless good news. While the little Cinquecento’s interior is cheerfully retro, it’s also dated and a bit plasticky. Mazda’s interfaces make sense, and are easy and intuitive to master.

So on one hand, Fiat leaving the MX-5’s interior recipe alone is a good thing. On the other hand, it also feels like they simply haven’t tried hard enough to create a difference.

While the MX-5 is a very good car for multiple reasons, it does have a few interior quirks that the Fiat version could have corrected. Mazda’s obsession with keeping the weight down involved installing cheap-feeling sun visors and questionably useful cupholders. The 124 has a torquier engine than the MX-5 (we’ll get to that in a minute), so a few kilograms of weight penalty could have been used to inject a little luxury back into the cabin, without a noticeable performance loss.

Performance

Under the hood is where Fiat properly diverges from Mazda, offering a 1.4-litre turbocharged four-cylinder making 160 horsepower at peak, and 184 foot-pounds of torque from 3,200 r.p.m. Compared to the MX-5’s 155 h.p. 2.0-litre naturally-aspirated engine, this is an improvement of 36 foot-pounds, which is especially noticeable down low.

My tester was equipped with theoretically the best feature to find in your sunny-day runabout: a six-speed manual transmission. As the Fiat engine makes more torque, Mazda has used the six-speed from the previous generation car to handle the extra grunt.

If you’ve never driven the current MX-5, the Fiat is delightful. The manual top can be dropped in seconds, and the car feels small, lively and light. The steering is very well executed for electric assist – first-generation Miata owners with unassisted racks will miss a bit of feel, but everyone else will be pleased.

The engine and transmission are a bit more of a mixed bag. While the 124 doesn’t have a lot of curb weight to haul around, the small-displacement engine has a slight lag on tip-in as the turbo spools up. It’s only really noticeable off the line, but it’s a less seamless performance than the MX-5.

The manual transmission shifts well, and nailing a heel-toe downshift will make you feel like a proper Italian sports car driver as you zip around town. However, it’s just that little bit less sweet than the newer gearbox in the MX-5, which is optimized to work with the 2.0-litre engine.

As with the interior, the 124 feels like it could use a little more softness here for added differentiation. While we enthusiasts need every manual transmission we can get as the breed becomes more and more of a rarity, the automatic is possibly a better pairing for the 124.

But where tossable handling and fun-to-drive factor is concerned, the 124 doesn’t let you down. Approaching it slightly disappointed by the puffiness of the styling proved to be the perfect way to come at this roadster, as it wriggled all over the place with an eagerness to please.

For track-rats, the 124 will probably lose a few tenths of a second around a circuit to the MX-5, and its turbocharged power delivery is a little less precise if you’re looking to finesse a couple of corners. But if your only concern is a delight in driving, then there’s good news to be had with the 124.

Just as the MX-5 doesn’t have quite the same charm as a Lotus Elan or an MGB, the modern 124 isn’t quite as coquettish as the original from which it steals its badge. However, after a week in which I didn’t have to push it to the side of the road even once, it’s hard to hate those Mazda underpinnings. The sun shone, and the blossoms fluttered, and I put my daughter in the passenger seat where she stuck her hand out the window and let the breeze tickle her fingers. Who cares what country the recipe comes from? We need more cars like this.

Features

Starting at $30,995 plus freight, the 124 Spider is relatively cheap fun. Kitting it out with features like the nine-speed Bose audio and parking assist can drive prices up to $40,000 and beyond. That’s still not too bad compared to convertibles from the luxury brands.

Official fuel economy figures are 9.3 (litres/100 kilometres) in the city and 6.5 on the highway. If you’re really miserly, the Fiat’s turbocharged engine is a little thirstier than the MX-5’s in real-world driving, especially as you dip into the boost. Over the course of a year, you’re probably looking at less difference than a night out at Olive Garden – make the choice based on the drive.

Green light

Peppy turbocharged engine; agile chassis; plenty of fun at sane speeds.

Stop sign

Small trunk; polarizing styling; interior lacks individuality.

The checkered flag

Not particularly Italian, but particularly good.

Competition

Mini Cooper Convertible ($28,490): Obviously the real competition to the 124 is the MX-5, which is why I’ve spent the entire review talking about it. But let’s throw an oddball into the mix. The Cooper convertible is lightly powered, has a folding top, and is both practical and impractical.

Never mind the rear-drive vs. front-drive argument: around town, both these little cars are a hoot. Sure, the Cooper S comes with a more powerful engine, but the regular Cooper’s three-cylinder turbo has gobs more offbeat charm.

Further, the Cooper has a bit more of a unique personality. BMW owns Mini, and there are a few clues to the parent company, but overall the Cooper feels like its own car. Long-term the 124 will likely be less costly to own and maintain, but the Mini may engender a little more affection.

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