Awards 2010 - City Car: Fiat 500

Date: 26 January 2010

Fiat looks like it's now secured this category for the long term, with the 500 comfortably taking the win for the second year in a row.

Thanks in part to a large fleet deal with driver training firm BSM, fleet registrations of the Fiat 500 were up 100% in 2009 over the previous year to about 4500 units. Registrations as a whole were up 50% to 22,000 cars.

Fiat owes its city car win to three things: first, the car looks great, so it's got kerb and user-chooser appeal. Second, it's efficient, courtesy of a super-frugal 1.3-litre diesel that gives a 110g/km CO2 output. As a result the car falls into the minimum benefit-in-kind tax band for diesels and it also qualifies for the best capital allowance tax band. To help economy further the diminutive Fiat comes with EcoDrive, which allows users to monitor and improve their eco-driving skills.

The final aspect that fleets like about the 500 is the strong residual value, which means running costs are also low.

It's a winning formula.

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