MotorMouths

The 2012 Fiat 500 coupe is an eye-opening double-shot of espresso to the subcompact segment. It should also be a wakeup call to any automaker who thinks it can still get away with selling dull, poorly equipped small cars.

Inexpensive, stylish, unique: these are all reasons to love the 500 Cabrio, but our favorite reason is that while it has acquired a convertible top, it has retained the fun-to-drive nature that we loved so much in the Coupe.

The bellissima Fiat 500 didn’t mind getting dirty, and instead of having a light appetite, it swallowed big portions of gear. Overall, it proved more than capable of handling the needs of this active urbanite.

Even after fourteen hours behind the wheel in miserable Manhattan traffic, I want a Fiat 500, badly. Almost everyone we spoke to wants one, too, just because of the way it looks.

Few cars handle the city streets with as much fun as the 500c. It mixes agility, bursts of speed and one of the most friendly exteriors available.

The longer I drove the 500, the more I got into the spirit of the thing. If you zip around Manhattan as if you’re in a congested European capital — revving, weaving, shifting, darting and perhaps honking, Italian-style — it’s like being on holiday on the Continent.

While a sliding canvas roof may not provide the transformative style that a true convertible does, the Fiat 500 has plenty of style already.

If we’re going to save the planet by taking less space and using less fuel, let’s do it in Fiat 500s — almost impossibly stylish, and graced with an engine that loves to run hard and doesn’t use a lot of fuel doing so.

I love the Fiat 500 Sport. It is a commuter designed for playing hooky, a sparkling bean of a car seemingly more toy than passenger conveyance, yet one serious in all respects of an automobile.

Engine displacement is not the reason museum curators want to hang this design trophy on their wall. Rather, the 500’s innate sense of style defines the car, not its performance.

If you’re interested in style at a price, the 500 is where it’s at. And the smiles-per-mile quotient is easily tilted in favor of the open-roof 500C, despite its paltry 53-pound weight penalty.

Even if the FIAT 500 Lounge isn’t especially fun to drive, it is nevertheless thoroughly fun. The styling is engagingly cute yet also elegant. In Lounge form the car’s easygoing driving character fits.