Originally Published: 2007-09-30

The Fiat 500 car is one of the most famous designs associated with Italy’s design boom of the late 20th century. Unlike other more exclusive designs, however, the Fiat 500 was intended for the average wage-earner – Fiat produced more than three million units of the economical compact between 1957 and 1975. Recognizing its enduring image as a slice of la dolce vita, the automaker debuted a new 500 two months ago at a spectacular party on the banks of the River Po in Turin.
The story of the Fiat 500 began in the 1930s, when staff designer Dante Giacosa created the original version of the car, nicknamed Topolino for its resemblance to the Mickey Mouse cartoon character. Although a popular car through the 1940s, post-war Italy, like the rest of Europe, was re-building from the ground up and Fiat (Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino) made its contribution to national recovery by re-designing the 500 as an affordable family car. Giacosa was again given the task of designing this new car.
The Nuova 500, as it was marketed in 1957, was a natural progression for Vespa scooter-riding youth who were now settling down and starting families. The first model was a two-seater, but a four-seater was soon available. The jaunty canvas-roofed Nuova 500 became popular with wealthier Italians as well, who purchased them as second cars for city driving. Early models of the car had aluminum detailing, but plastic was used for these components by the mid-1960s. In 1965, the 500’s rear-hinged “suicide” door was changed to the more familiar standard of today.
British design critic Penny Sparke has written that Giacosa’s design achievement with the Nuova 500 was truly remarkable. Giacosa, Sparke noted, “understood the cultural and socio-economic imperatives that determined the evolution of the modern automobile. His was an approach shared by only a handful of other car designers in the 20th century and one that enabled not mere evolution but radical change to enter the world of automobile design.”

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