Yahoo Autos The 2017 Fiat 124 Spider Is a Great Car Made Into a Good One
THE CAR PICTURED HERE IS A MAZDA MIATA. It is built in the city of Hiroshima, at a Mazda assembly plant; it has a small four-cylinder driving the rear wheels; it has a top that goes down in a blink and a curb weight barely higher than what you get from a Lotus Elise driven by a fat guy.
Only it's not a Miata. It's a Fiat. Inasmuch as you can make a Fiat by dropping a Fiat engine and bodywork onto a Miata platform and then retuning the whole shebang. Also adding a nose badge so large it can be seen from space, which is not a sign of lineage insecurity, no, of course not, vaffanculo, I shrug my shoulders at you expressively and with great passion.
The original Fiat 124 Spider was built in various forms from 1966 to 1985. That car was a decent seller but no firecracker, a sort of Alfa Romeo for people who thought Led Zeppelin would have really gotten somewhere if Jimmy Page had only turned his guitar down a little. The modern 124 is intended to be a same-price Miata for people who drink less coffee, or who maybe think Mazda dealerships smell too much like an old Walmart. The Mazda-Fiat looks vaguely like a Sixties 124, in that it has flattish flanks and trapezoidal taillights and the mouth of a happy fish. It also looks much better in pictures, where you lose the lumpy curves and stop missing the Miata's clean lines.
The interior screams Mazda, right down to the identical knobs, satin finishes, and sans-serif Japanese fonts. The seats are new, and softer. The instruments have been redesigned and now look slightly more like a loud wristwatch. There's more leather and soft-touch plastic, plus a thicker rear window, more sound deadening, and an acoustic windshield. Fiat says the car is 5.5 inches longer, all in overhang, and around 100 pounds heavier than a base Miata. The last Miata we tested weighed 2313 pounds, which is relevant mostly because no one in history has ever looked at that car and allowed as how it should eat something, there's no meat on those bones, your nonna's worried about you.
Regardless, the big difference is under the hood. The Mazda's 2.0-liter, 155-hp four is gone, replaced by a 1.4-liter, 160-hp turbo four from the Fiat 500 Abarth. That engine is mated to either the six-speed transmission from an NC-chassis (2006–2015) Miata, or a six-speed, torque-converter Aisin automatic. The Fiat motor makes 36 lb-ft more torque than the Mazda and does so from just 2500 rpm (the Mazda's torque peak is 4600). Redline is 6500 rpm, but peak power comes at 5500 rpm, to the Mazda's 6000. Partly because of all this, the Fiat manual offers slightly wider gearing and a taller, overdrive sixth to the Mazda's 1:1 cog.
IF THE MIATA DIDN'T EXIST AND THE 124 DID, THE STAFF OF THIS MAGAZINE WOULD BE DOING CARTWHEELS. AND THAT'S THE RUB: THE MIATA DOES EXIST, AND THE FIAT MOSTLY SERVES TO REMIND YOU HOW GOOD THAT CAR IS.
This engine is shipped fully assembled from Italy to Japan, where it is bolted into a platform originally designed to be as transparent and responsive as a good pair of shoes. The result is odd, if you know the Miata. (Cue Lloyd Bentsen–Dan Quayle jokes: "Senator, you are no Miata.") Turbo lag makes the throttle annoyingly sleepy below 2000 rpm; past that, it's less irritating but still a tick behind your right foot. You rarely rev the four to redline, because shove falls off noticeably above five and a half. The engine sounds far from special, just thrummy and quiet. You get a Miata's straight-line speed, minus the giddy laughter after snapping the driveline through a perfect shift.
Suspension differences follow the pattern. The main thing you notice is the Fiat's slower pulse-it doesn't twitch when you sneeze or pivot when you blink. Pleasant enough, as sports cars go, but without the nervy, tame-hummingbird vibe of a Miata. The overall vibe is more stereotypically American. Unsurprisingly, the 124 feels more complete with the automatic, which blunts some of the engine's perceived lag and makes you relax a little. It's occasionally slow when shifted manually, but if you're buying a Miata-ish car and didn't pick a clutch pedal, you probably don't care about that anyway.
Not that there aren't pluses. An optional Abarth trim fixes the noise-a quad-tip exhaust adds a growl like a Ferrari with a head cold-and sharpens the suspension a bit. (The exhaust and a retune produce an extra 4 hp.) In any trim, the new sound deadening makes a difference, as does the extra length. Freeway conversations with a passenger are no longer difficult, and the trunk is usably larger.
All told, this is a great car made into a good one. If the Miata didn't exist and the 124 did, the staff of this magazine would be doing cartwheels. And that's the rub: The Miata does exist, and the Fiat mostly serves to remind you how good that car is. Perhaps this makes you ask yourself what kind of jerk moans about another rear-drive roadster on the market. But when you shave off the focused edges of a special, thoroughly considered car, you end up with something less than special.
Albeit unique. The media launch program for the 124 was held in San Diego, near Carlsbad. This is relevant only because Carlsbad is perhaps the most culturally homogenous town on the planet. Charmingly, in the closing stages of the Fiat's press presentation, a company rep used the words "Italian craftsmanship." In a program for an Italian restyle of a Japanese car retuned for this country by Americans, working for an American firm that's owned by an Italian one.
On my way home, I found myself doing the math for payments on a Miata. And wondering how much trouble it would be to take delivery in Japan. Which has been wonderful every time I've visited, and has only ever felt like itself.
2017 Fiat 124 Spider Classica
PRICE: $25,990
POWERTRAIN: 1.4-liter turbocharged I-4, 160 hp, 184 lb-ft; RWD, 6-Speed Manual
WEIGHT: 2450 lb
ON SALE: Now
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