Fiat wants you

Fiat is counting down the days to the launch of the reborn Cinquecento, or 500, and the Italian car-maker wants you to help design the car.

Well, that's a slight exaggeration, as the car's design has been largely signed off already -- it will resemble the Trepiuno concept unveiled at the 2004 Geneva motor show -- but a new website (www.fiat500.com) enables you to customise the car to your taste and offer suggestions for sports and lifestyle accessories.

Visitors to the site can enter the "Configuration Lab" and tweak and fiddle with Fiat's concept car, and record their ideas. There is also a space dedicated to activities for designers, including a competition organised with Designboom (an independent web magazine for the design world) and an opportunity to create and customise the home page of the site.

The site also enables you to voice your opinion about the modern-day Cinquecento's overall design. The car unashamedly recaptures the spirit of the original 1950s Fiat 500 -- in much the same way the current Mini and Volkswagen Beetle are reinterpretations of their ancestors.

The vehicle is being co-developed with Ford, which will use the same platform for the next-gen Ka baby car.

Looking at the big-picture scenario, Fiat sales in Europe have plummeted in recent years, but the new Grande Punto, which will spearhead the brand's return to Australia within weeks, has been a big hit with Euro buyers.

The Cinquecento, which launches internationally in September 2007, also has a big job to do if Fiat is to be restored to a sound financial state.

General Motors had bought a 20 per cent stake in Fiat in 2000, but last year it opted to fork out $US2 billion to get out of a deal that could have forced it to buy the Italian car maker outright. However, Fiat continues to supply diesel engines (an area in which it has considerable expertise) to GM.