Review: Fiat 124 Spider 1.4 Classica

Fiat’s link-up with Mazda has produced a retro model of excitement and beauty

(Fiat)

The Fiat 124 Spider is a curious creature. Curious and gorgeous that is. Like everything Fiat seems to do now it is very, very retro. The name recalls a roadster of the 1960s, a sort of Italian answer to the MGB, and, in truth, in its day it was nothing that special in looks or go. Still, from today’s perspective the original 124 Spider looks just as special as the original 500 that inspired today’s ubiquitous take on that original. Whereas once there was a boxy Fiat 124 saloon that the 124 Spider was based upon (and which later on became the basis of a Lada), today there is no “124” saloon, so the badging is, again, purely nostalgic. What Fiat will do for an encore to all these 1950s and 1960s designs I’m not sure, but then again they produced some quite attractive and distinctive models in the 1970s and 1980s, so maybe we’re due a rehash of the Fiat 127 hatchback (1971) or the futuristic Strada (1978). The slow-selling current Tipo certainly needs a bit of inspiration.

Imitation game: the original 1960s Spider, right, and its 2017 reinterpretation

The biggest difference, of course, is that today’s Fiat 124 Spider isn’t based on another Fiat but on a Mazda instead. They may well give you all the dolce vita stuff in the ads, but It is actually made in Hiroshima by Mazda, on the same assembly lines as their MX-5, with which the Spider shares a good deal of its underpinnings. The differences, though, are quite significant. Crucially they send engines over from Turin, a 1.4 litre turbocharged unit running on petrol, which is more tractable than the revvy Mazda units of 1.5 litres and 2.0 litres you’d consider as alternatives. It’s rear-wheel drive, naturally (though Fiat is firmly a front-driver for the rest of the range), and the roof is manual and fabric rather than the more usual electric and folding metal job you get nowadays. The advantage there is a great reduction in weight. As a strict two-seater, and pretty snug with it, you can easily lift over to pull the Fiat’s hood up, and fix it to the windscreen with one lever. It’s light and very quick in use.

East meets West: the new Fiat is made in Hiroshima by Mazda (Fiat)

Which brings me to the spirit of the car. There’s nothing snobby here, you understand. More than three decades ago Mazda did the world a huge favour by reviving the small roadster, a breed of car that had just about disappeared by then. The original MX-5, and to a degree today’s evolution, was a bit of a pastiche on a 1960s Lotus Elan, which you might recall as Mrs Peel’s car in The Avengers. That is if you’re old enough to be able to afford a new convertible, I suppose. The Mazda has always been a fine vehicle, still is, and brought to the genre an unfamiliar reliability not previously found in the Alfa Romeos, Lancias, Triumphs, Lotuses, MGs and BMWs of long ago.

The spec

Fiat 124 Spider 1.4 Classica

Price: £21,630

Engine capacity: 1.4 litre petrol 4-cyl, 6-speed manual

Power output (hp @ rpm): 140@5,000

Top speed (mph): 134

0-60mph (seconds): 7.5

Fuel economy (mpg): 44.1

CO2 emissions (g/km): 148

Still, the Fiat is an extremely enjoyable driver’s car of that old school, even though the Italian bits on it may not prove as long lived as the Japanese alternates. You sit low, you feel very much in control, it demands to be pushed, it sounds properly rorty and it’s far more tenacious on the road (sophisticated suspension at work) and faster than anything from the golden age of the roadster half a century ago. It’s not perfect, the Spider; the rump looks a bit too chunky, the overhangs a little too long, and some of the Mazda-sourced switchgear and cabin trim not as elegant or stylish as you might wish. Yet this Spider does perform the remarkable feat of being a retro design that looks even better than the vehicle that inspired it. Mazda MX-5 or Fiat 124 Spider, though? In the end it’s really a choice about whether you’d rather a new Fiat that looks like an old Fiat, or a new Mazda that looks like an old Lotus. The Fiat’s about £1,000 dearer than the Mazda equivalent, by the way, and if you really want to get into the concept there’s an Abarth-badged version that can take you past £30,000.

Even better than the real thing: the Spider’s design outdoes that of the original (f)

Years ago, another Italian brand, Alfa Romeo, went into a joint venture with Nissan and they came up with the Alfa Romeo Arna, which was also sold as the Nissan Cherry Europe. This was a working automotive, a definition of “the worst of all worlds”; the boxy, dull-looking bodywork of the Nissan was retained, but it added unreliable Alfa mechanical parts and was built with predictable consequences at a factory in Italy rather than Japan. This time it’s different: the marriage of Fiat and Mazda has produced an entirely lovable bambino.