Fiat with iPod

It was the small car that you could park in a narrowest space on the road. On its 50th birthday, the Cinquecento is back and according to Fiat , the car will become the iPod of cars.

Fiat is launching a new version of the three-door Cinquecento -- which means "500" in Italian -- at a ceremony in its hometown of Turin on Wednesday, with the car making its comeback after going out of production in the 1970s.



Fiat's chief executive says he wants to emulate Apple by making its cars as stylish as the US company's computers and electronic gadgets, including the mass-selling iPod portable music player.

"I want Fiat to become the Apple of cars," said Sergio Marchionne. "And the Cinquecento will be our iPod," he said, referring to Apple's hugely successful iPod.
Marchionne said he was working to make Fiat a nimble automaker after a successful restructuring.



It took Fiat 18 months to bring the new 500 to market.


"It's twice the time for a child to be born but half of what our competitors need (to make their own cars)," Marchionne said. Faithful to the spirit of the original, the Cinquecento will sell as a mass-market, rather than a premium, car.
Italian newspapers say the car will be priced at about 10,000 euros ($13,600). Its production target will also be small: an annual 120,000 units against a total Fiat output of about two million units.




And, it faces competition from cars such as Renault's revamped Twingo. Analysts expect the new 500 to help Fiat's image rather than its bottom line even though it will be built at a Polish plant to keep costs down.