Fiat resurrects a nameplate not seen in the U.S. since the 1980s with the all-new 2017 Fiat 124 Spider convertible, a car that shares its platform with the redesigned 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata. But there's a lot more changed than just the name.
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(car engine) Fiat resurrects a name plate not seen in the United States since the 1980s with the all new 124 Spider convertible, a car that shares it's platform with the redesigned Mazda MX5 Miata.
But there's a lot more that's changed here than just the name. Now you can see some similarities to the Miata in the rear quarter view of the 124 Spider, but Fiat actually says the two cars don't share any actual body parts on the outside. The 124 Spider for starters, five and a half inches longer, and a very different face up front here, much larger, kind of perkier looking headlights with lighting elements, LED lighting elements on this car here at the auto show. Hexagonal grill that hearkens back to the history of the 124 Spider and power domes in the hood. Now what's underneath the hood also matters. There's a 1.4 liter turbocharged, four cylinder multi-air engine. That's in place of the two liter engine of naturally aspirated four cylinder from Mazda. The difference, an extra five horsepower and 36 pounds feet of torque. That's very important in this car versus the Miata. Now inside the 124 Spider has obvious similarities to the Miata, especially with the multimedia system, which has a similar interface and even screen and controller here. I gotta say though, I like how Fiat trimmed out much of the interior here, a nice soft touch piece of material here on the upper doors, where your arms and your elbows rest versus kind of the painted plastic piece in the Miata. Pretty nice for what could be just sort of like an entry-level luxury roadster. Now Fiat says mostly cause of that new engine, curb weight up around a hundred pounds versus the MX5 Miata. You throw that in with the extra power, we don't really know how this is gonna drive, but we should closer to the cars on sale date in summer of 2016. (trunk slams)
