The Fiat 500 is an economy / city car that was manufactured and marketed by Fiat Automobiles from 1957 until 1975. It was sold as a two-door semi-convertible or saloon car and as a three-door panel van or estate car.

Launched as the Nuova  500 in July 1957, as a successor to the 500 “Topolino”, it was an inexpensive and practical small car. Measuring 2.97 metres  long, and originally powered by a rear-mounted 479 cc two-cylinder, air-cooled engine, the 500 was 24.5 centimetres smaller than Fiat’s 600, launched two years earlier, and is considered one of the first purpose-designed city cars.

In 1959, Dante Giacosa received a Compasso d’Oro industrial design prize for the Fiat 500. It was the first time when it was awarded to an automotive industry.

In 2007, the 50th anniversary of the Nuova 500’s launch, Fiat launched another new 500, stylistically inspired by the 1957 Nuova 500, featuring a front-mounted engine and front-wheel drive.

In 2017 Fiat celebrated the 60th anniversary with an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and received one of the Corporate Art Awards by pptArt at an event hosted by the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinal Palace.

Despite its very small size, the 500 proved to be an enormously practical vehicle with large sales throughout Europe. Besides the two-door coupé, it was also available as the “Giardiniera” estate.

Production of the 500 ended in 1975, although its replacement, the Fiat 126, was launched two years earlier. The 126 was not as successful as its predecessor in Italy, but sold well in the Eastern Bloc countries, being assembled and manufactured in Poland as a Polski Fiat.

In 2006 the magazine Top Gear voted the Fiat 500 “the sexiest car”!