Gas prices rise. You scowl at your Lincoln Navigator: “I live in Lakeview, not Lake Tahoe. Why do I need four-wheel-drive in the summer? I’m paying an arm and a leg per fill-up, and I can’t even park this tank!”
Maybe you need something for quick hops?
Think sexy, cute and very Italian.
Think open sunroof and passersby pointing and waving as you pass in your suave Fiat 500.
Think $8,895.
Think just over 10 feet long, 4 feet high, 4 1/2 feet wide and 1,200 pounds with 10-inch wheels.
The Navigator gets 10 to 15 miles per gallon in the city. The Fiat gets 50 to 55 miles per gallon of premium gas with its 650-cc, air-cooled 2-cylinder engine.
“I wasn’t exactly thinking `practical’ when I began importing the Cinquecento [Fiat 500],” said Philip McCaleb, the man behind Tinymotorworks.com, the exclusive U.S. importer for these mini-cars. McCaleb founded Scooterworks USA in 1990 to indulge his passion for vintage Italian motor scooters, mainly the Vespa. He’s confident Tinymotorworks.com will introduce Americans to Italy’s other working-class ride–the Fiat 500.
“They’re purely intended as a fun, warm-weather toy,” he said. “You wouldn’t drive these cars through a Chicago winter, and you probably wouldn’t feel secure on the Kennedy Expressway in rush-hour traffic. It’s a great weekend car for buzzing down Lake Shore Drive in July with the sunroof pulled back or for a quick jaunt to Dominick’s or the golf course.”
The Fiat 500 remains practical transportation throughout Europe 26 years after the last models rolled off the assembly line. Families pass them down from generation to generation. An estimated 3.2 million 500s were produced between 1957 and 1975, creating a pool of cars ripe for restoration.
McCaleb works with Fiat-trained artisans in Italy who spend 10 to 15 days on each car. Every car is stripped to its platform, with barely enough of the chassis and firewall left to maintain pre-1975 registration status.
“Cars built before 1975 are considered antiques and are exempt from Department of Transportation and EPA requirements.” McCaleb said. “They are technically considered `antiques,’ though practically everything on each 500 imported through Tinymotorworks.com, except for the dashboard and steering wheel, is new. Parts still are produced in Italy, by Fiat or aftermarket suppliers. A new bumper costs $70. The complete sunroof assembly is less than $100. Look down here at the headlight assembly. This light and chrome bezel together cost $29. The only things that are not being re-made are the dashes, steering wheels and the little vent window.
“We’ve also upgraded the motors to produce more power. Power wise, you should think of a 1963 VW Beetle cut in half. You won’t win any races. Top speed after they are broken in is about 55. It’s a simple air-cooled engine that almost anybody can work on or exchange in two hours. We’re also using an upgraded transmission that Fiat had on more current models, so there can be a synchromesh [that can be downshifted to first gear without coming to a complete stop].”
Tinymotorworks.com is partnering with AutoSprint LTD of Chicago, which specializes in Italian sports-car restorations and maintenance, for servicing.
Owner Giovanni “John” D’Avola works on Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Alfa Romeos, Maseratis and Lancia. But he has a soft spot for the Cinquecento.
“My dad owned a 500 back in Sicily,” he said, patting the fender of a navy blue one. “This was the worker’s car. Like a Beetle. For the workingman? You understand? The French had their own in the [Citreon] Deux Chevaux. The British had the Mini. We drove the Fiat 500, or Cinquecento as we call it.
“My uncle bought one in 1968 and still drives it every day back home. The people, they don’t go out to eat very much or for other entertainment. But they wash and wax their cars to make them look always shiny and new.”
But before Fiat left the U.S. market in 1982, their cars had a reputation for rusting out.
“Rust was always a problem,” said D’Avola. “Back home, if you lived by the sea, the salt air would rust out your floor pan, too. The Fiats you see here are restored from cars that were babied by their owners. The gentlemen who do these restorations for us in Italy are cherry-picking the cleanest low-mileage 500s they can find. Any little bit of rust they see is cut away and replaced with new steel, and all of these body skins are still made so it’s all new.
“If you keep the Cinquecento dry, it’s fine,” said D’Avola. “Just don’t let water stand on the finish. Wipe it down and store it in a dry place and it won’t rust.”
McCaleb added: “You wouldn’t drive these cars in Chicago during the winter. . . . You’d never get down one a side street. This is a warm-weather toy.”
And, because of its simplicity, the 500 seems to have escaped the quality woes for which Fiats are known in this country. McCaleb says there was a fuse problem in several cars early on, but the restorers changed suppliers to solve it.
McCaleb and his Tinymotorworks.com partners don’t promote the Cinquecentos. The Web site and word-of-mouth referrals have kept the mini cars on back-order. They’ve imported two dozen four at a time.
“At 10 feet in length, I can fit exactly four cars in the bottom of a two-tiered, 40-foot cargo container we use for importing motor scooter parts for Scooterworks,” he said. “I never meant for Tinymortorworks.com to become my main business. This is almost a hobby. I love these cars. Mine makes me smile when I’ve had a bad day.”
The half-dozen 500s sitting at AutoSprint are spoken for and awaiting dealer prep.
D’Avola tells about CTA riders passing on the Addison bus, pointing at the cars and waving. Neighborhood police have stopped him on test drives to look under the rear hood and see he’s selling at AutoSprint.
Vin Buonanno, owner and president of Tempel Steel in Chicago, saw one of the 500s parked in front of Scooterworks USA on Damen and remembered being a student and traveler in Italy in the early 1960s.
“The Fiat 500 is an Italian icon the same as Vespa,” he said. “I remember the car slugging it out with Vespas in the traffic circles. I was there 15 years after World War II ended, and this was the one everybody owned. Families of six, seven and eight people would squeeze into a 500 and head out to the beach from Rome. It’s all they could afford, and they made them run and they made them last.
“Mine is the dark navy blue one with a red interior, like about 75 percent of them I remember. I’ve had people stop me and ask if they could take a picture, ” said Buonanno, who has had his 500 for about a year.
Karen McCaugherty is a public school social worker; she bought her mint green Fiat 500 from Tinymotorworks.com on a whim. She was looking for a vintage Vespa, and, like Buonanno, noticed one of the 500s.
“Philip [McCaleb] drove me around in it and showed me a couple of other cars, and I had to have the green one,” said McCaugherty, who also owns a Ford Explorer. “It reminds me of the old Beetle in many ways. I guess it is the Italian Beetle.”
But you’re 6-feet tall. How do you fit in the 500?
“I put the seat back, and I’m comfortable,” said McCaugherty. “There’s a lot more room here than you would guess.”
Tinymotorworks.com has a three- to five-month waiting list for the restored mini cars.
“If I lived in Lincoln Park or Lakeview, I’d use nothing else from March 15 to Dec. 1. You don’t get this sort of reaction with a BMW or a Lexus.”
