Fiat, Tom Tjaarda and Pininfarina got it right back in 1966 with the 124 Sport Spider. But did the DNA transfer?
By Wallace Wyss
New 2017 Fiat 124 Spider Announced at LA Auto Show: Time will tell if it’s better than the Mazda it sprang from…
Photos courtesy Fiat
Lately I have been straying from cars and messin’ with horses…thoroughbred horses, and the most important thing you can say about a thoroughbred is its pedigree…its DNA.
Now I know carmakers have a burning need to establish identity to pull in new customers but the big fat Fiat badge on the nose is a tad big for my taste, I could live with it being 1/4th smaller, because this one is so big, about the size of an apple, it makes the whole car look smaller.
So when Fiat announced they were coming up with a sports car to recall the late great 124 Spider, I was glad to see it is cloned atop one of the most satisfying sports cars of the last 30-plus years—the Mazda Miata MX-5. Fiat saved a bunch of money by using the Mazda body underpinnings, and spending their money on the outside styling.
Now the car is not going to have a lot of electronic gimmicks, nothing new and space age, but rest assured it will be a fun driver. Congratulations to Fiat.
Now as far as the lookalike bit, if you squint, it does indeed look like the Fiat 124 of several decades ago, almost like they attached a Fiat 124 grille cavity onto a Mazda in the clay model design stage. But they blackened the grille and to me – maybe it’s only me – but I am damned tired of blacked out grilles. I think blacked out came about the time of the Vietnam war when photographers didn’t want to be targets when the sun lit up their cameras to they started blackening cameras and soon even the officers began blacking out their rank insignia. Then it spread to cars but I am tired of it.
Chrome should be used to highlight the lines of a car. The Brits do it best, knowing just how much to use, like makeup on a beautiful woman.
If the new Fiat 124 looks familiar it is because the body is based on the Mazda MX-5.
So I guess since the Italians still are stuck in “if it’s black it’s cool” then we will have to have the aftermarket come up with different shinier grilles and grille surrounds. The taillights are modest, almost as demure as the ones in the MX-5. A feature straight off the 124 are the power domes, so it’s those and the grille cavity that give it the 124 look. In this case it has an over and under grille cavity that looks a little Aston Martinish.
The engine is a Fiat 500 Abarth-sourced, 160 hp turbocharged 1.4-liter four. Inexplicably an L.A. Times reporter said the drivetrain was Mazda based! (I wrote him and he dutifully retracted his mistake.)
After we wait the long wait (the car will not be available until mid-2016 as a 2017 model) we will find the same 1.4-liter MultiAir Turbo four-cylinder found in the 500 series, but this time used in a rear-wheel drive mode. A six-speed manual transmission is standard, with a six-speed automatic available as an option. The engine is rated at 160 hp (119 kW) with 184 lb-ft (249 Nm) of torque. For those comparing horses to horses, that’s about 15 more horses and 12 more lb-ft over the MX-5, but this car is a bit larger and heavier than its Mazda stablemate, so probably won’t be faster. Hope abounds that an Abarth version –the Alfa Romeo 4C’s 1.7-liter turbo-four (237 horsepower and 258 lb-ft of torque) – will be on the option list eventually.
There are two trim levels — one called Classica and the other called Lusso. I think when you order the Lusso it’s going to have a bit higher trim level as the term translates to “luxury” in Italian, although I’m not so sure what Classica would mean in “classic” equipment. It does have a few modern gimmicks such as a 7-inch touchscreen with the latest FIAT Connect 7.0 system, with the option of a Bose premium sound system. Safety features probably on the option list include adaptive front headlights, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross path detection, and a rear backup camera.
DESIGN COMMENTARY
FRONT
The best front pictures are those with the headlight in semi-lit modes where the LED headlight surrounds really give its own personality, in this case one different from the Mazda source car. It’s less “evil warlord from other space” than the MX-5 which I find a little juvenile and Darth Vader-ish for my taste. I like the power domes in the hood of the new 124 that bring to mind the Tom Tjaarda-designed Pininfarina-sourced styling of the original “124”. I like the turn signals down low in the front being white-lensed, I’m sure owners will try to get Euro lenses to make their car stand out. Just put some bling in the grille, hey, fellas?
SIDE
The side is pleasant, but does not break new ground. The many-spoked mag wheels have the flash and adventure of wire wheels but without all the problems of old time spokes snapping. The windshield, just like the MX-5, is too tall and prevent the car from ever having classic proportions like say the larger Jaguar F-type. But what can we do, drivers come in certain sizes, generally 5 to 6 feet, so they need the windscreen to protect them, when what it really needs is to be as much as 4” shorter to make the car look better. The roll bars above the headrests stick up too tall as well, but I guess if you are turning over, you will appreciate that.
REAR
The horizontal taillights are gently curved, like the profile of a bar of soap. Not exciting but not trying to be all space-age and rocket ship either like the MX-5. In short the car is very conservative, which I think bodes well for it lasting a long time in the market without having to be restyled.
INTERIOR
Plastic city. Maybe the one I looked at didn’t have the Lusso option but I want to see more leather on the dash or wood, or at least brushed stainless before it you can convince me it’s luxurious. At least one of the views showed some leather on the dash matching the seats, a great touch, now I want matching luggage (hey, I am old enough to remember what the “grand” in grand touring is…). Remember the first Audi TT, the one with the “baseball glove” interior? They would be smart to offer packages like that to make this a fashionable car. Get together with Schedoni, a firm that has been an official supplier of made-to-measure leather suitcases to Ferrari since 1977. Italy has the best experts in cloth and leather in the whole world. If Fiat wants to get this car used in VANITY FAIR fashion ads, they have got have some high line interiors.
COLORS
According to CNet.com the color palette isn’t overwhelming, only six colors — red, white, black, gray, dark gray, and bronze. In a nod toward the days of pearlescent, there’s also an extra pearl-white option available for the higher of the car’s two trim levels. Cnet also says the first 124 cars rolling off the assembly line will be limited-edition models sporting blue paint and a brown leather interior, but oddly they don’t list blue as a paint color (mysteries to be solved in the fullness of time). An Italian website, Smartworld.it, doesn’t give fancy names for the colors just listing them as rosso, bianco, nero, grigio, grigio scuro e bronzo. It might be mentioned that one of the keys to Starbucks’ popularity is the tricky pseudo-Italian names they have for concoctions like Frappuccino, Caramel Macchiato, Caffè Latte and whatnot which allow the customers to act like they just got off the plane from heir weekend at Lake Como. I think if Fiat wants to score with the oh-so-trendy ladies that imbibe at Starbucks they have to rush ahead a plan to fling around a lot of Italian color names like rosso brillante , rosso Valentino – (Valentino red ) carminio or how about “diventare rosso per la vergogna/per la rabbia – (to be red with shame/anger)?
SUMMING UP
As of November, 2015, we know very little about pricing. The Italian website SmartWorld.it says the price will be on the order of 25,000 Euros which, with the fall of the Euro of late is only $26,400 or so.
But I would pay more for Italian influence in design in a car I bought than for an all-Japanese car (sorry, but I have spent time in both countries and Italians have it way over the Japanese as far as color, and shape…)
A lot of people go ga-ga for any Italian influence so I hope that every few months they highlight the Italian influence by offering ever more to individualize the car. Such as: fitted matching luggage, some wild color fabric tops in colors like red, and maroon and special paint jobs (like flat finish), a grille that’s dripping with chrome or mesh, and I’m game. And by the way, it looks stunning in black—and it’s damn hard to get a short runty car attractive enough to call “stunning.”
THE AUTHOR: Wallace Wyss, a former prize winning ad copywriter on automotive accounts in Detroit, is the author of the Incredible Barn Finds series of books, which are available one at a time or as a set of three from Enthusiast Books, Hudson, WI.
Finally! Thank you so much Wallace for presenting an objective non-oriental viewpoint. As I read this there were so many times I pounded the desk and said, “Exactly!” or “Right on!” I lost count. I’ve owned a few 124 Spiders and still drive the one I bought in 1972 and I agree with the highs and mild lows of this new offering. I’m encouraged that they will be sporting only the 6 speed manual at the offset instead of the automatic they tossed at us in so many 500’s since 2012. The original Spider was a success because they threw in some very upscale appointments. Wish they’d have taken just a couple more cues from those early models. Wood on the dash being one of them. Nothing says Euro better than that. I won’t hold my breath for the luggage though….
Thanks again for the well best article I’ve seen on my precious 124’s successor.
I think this will work quite well for them. Absolutely correct they need a more luxurious Italian designed interior. The arrival of an Abarth derivative will cement the performance for the model line.
There is only so much design skill to go around in the small world of car design and when marketing with zero design skill dictate to the designers that have less than stellar skills this is what you get, unfortunately Mazda have more money to spend and got a slightly better pick from the small pool.
Look at the mess of the current Ferrari crop where marketing hold sway, they all look like they have been stepped on by a giant, I suppose if your market is new money then design taste is a negative asset.
Nice article however I must point out that the power bulges that Mr. Wyss likes are not part of the original design. I believe they were introduced only when the later 1608 engine was offered as it was taller.
Yeah, it makes perfect marketing sense to base a new car body design on a 42 year-old design (Pininfarina Corvette Rondine), when the target audience/buyer more than likely has never seen or heard of the original Fiat 124 Spider, let alone driven one!
@ Stephan
It was the Spider 2000 (with the 2 liter) that had the taller black and needed the power bulges.
The 1608’s with dual Webers, as delivered in Italy, had the “mini” bulges. I discovered that when I looked closer at my owner’s manual images after I converted my US car to dual carbs, and couldn’t close the hood.
I’ll take the new MX-5 over this design. The Fiat front end leaves a terrible taste in my mouth and I loathe to call this model a 124. So would Pinninfarina! This model should have a different designation. Then, maybe, I would have less objection.
Beautiful little car. Let’s hope you don”t fall through the floor in five years.
Having had several Spiders in the past and still owning a 1982 Spider, I feel that the new 124 is going to be a Fine Sports Car. However, I agree with the article’s writer on the “Lusso Concept”, because there is not a better smell in a car’s interior than “Pure Italian Leather” and a shinning grille. Of course, the color for me has to be Rosso Brillante.