Top 3 Fiat 500 trims head-to-head: here’s our winner

First introduced locally in 2008, the Fiat 500 appeared to pick where its iconic Cinquecento predecessor left off by providing a timeless exterior and interior design in a frugal, compact, and dependable package. Despite Fiat’s relative struggles in the local market, the 500 has been a beacon for the Italian marque, securing a respectable market share and keeping the brand in the minds of consumers as a result.

For our purposes today, we will be looking at three trim levels available across the 500 range locally, namely, the Cult, the Sport and the Dolcevita. This will help us discover the differences between the 500 models and will help you decide which one suits you best.

Powertrain

There is just one engine and two gearbox options in the 500 range, an 875cc 2-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine paired with either a 5-speed manual or 5-speed automated manual gearbox. The latter is only available on the Dolcevita models and endows the car with a better claimed fuel consumption figure of 3.8 L/100km and a lower CO2 emissions figure of 88 g/km, but it loses out in terms of acceleration, with a 0-100km/h time of 11.5 seconds. The manual models sip fuel at a claimed rate of 4.0 L/100km, have a CO2 emissions figure of 90 g/km but will allow for a faster 0-100km/h time of 11.0 seconds.

Exterior 

The 500 is all about style, so the three derivatives selected for this comparison are all very distinctive in terms of their exterior styling. The base model Cult is characterised by its steel wheels with hub caps, black side mirror caps and headlamps with halogen globes. The Sport model can be differentiated by its model-specific 16-inch alloy wheels, fog lamps, sportier bumpers and side skirts, “Sport’ badging and a small rear spoiler. The flagship Dolcevita is immediately recognisable, with exterior chrome additions, two-tone paintwork and model-specific 16-inch alloy wheels.

Interior

Like the exterior of each model, the interiors differ quite a bit too, with the base model Cult coming with a dashboard that matches its exterior colour, or optionally with the so-called “Techno Blue Matt” dashboard. The Cult comes with cloth seats finished in blue and has the smaller 5.0-inch infotainment system and manual airconditioning as standard. The Sport model is more distinctive, with a matt grey dashboard that matches the grey seats, both contrasted by red 500 badging. The Sport also gets a digitised TFT display in the instrument cluster, a 7.0-inch infotainment system and a fixed glass roof and automatic airconditioning.

The Dolcevita is again rather distinctive, with a leather-wrapped steering wheel with gear shift paddles, model-specific fabric seats with matching dashboard and the larger 7.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system and digitised instrument cluster.

Specification

In base model Cult guise the 500 cokes as standard with 7 airbags, airconditioning, electric windows, ESC and ABS with EBD, a multifunction steering wheel, an infotainment system with Bluetooth and USB functionality, rear ISOFIX child seat anchor points and LED daytime running lights. The Sport and Dolcevita get all the Cult’s features but add alloy wheels, a fixed panoramic roof, a 7.0-inch infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto functionality, automatic airconditioning, cruise control, rain-sensing wipers, partial cloth/artificial leather seats, automatic headlights, fog lamps and rear PDC.

Pricing

Fiat 500 TwinAir Cult R 219 900

Fiat 500 TwinAir Sport R 269 900

Fiat 500 TwinAir Dolcevita R 274 900

Conclusion

Looking at the three Fiat 500 trim levels, we see that both the Sport and the Dolcevita are near identical in terms of specification, with the real difference in price between the two coming down to gearbox in the Dolcevita. The lower specified Cult model is some R40 000 and R44 000 less than the Sport and Dolcevita respectively, while capturing the very essence of what the 500 stands for, basic urban motoring, granting the Cult the victory in this comparison.