Its been a huge hit across Europe since its summer launch and won the prestigious Car of the Year award, now the Fiat 500 has made its first appearance in the colours Amsterdam police.

Its been a huge hit across Western Europe since its mid-summer launch and won the prestigious Car of the Year award amongst a whole host of important accolades; and now the new Fiat 500 has made its first appearance on the streets in 'police' colours.

With eye-catching red and blue flashes splayed across its sides and bonnet, and a flashing light on the chequerboard roof, the Fiat 500 was recently used by the Amsterdam-Amstelland police in a road safety demonstration. The Amsterdam-Amstelland police force comprises the municipalities of Aalsmeer, Amsterdam, Amstelveen, Diemen, Uithoorn and Ouder-Amstel. This region covers 357 sq km and has a population of 900,000. The force consists of 5,800 officers and has an annual budget of some 394 million euros.

Launched in a huge fanfare in Turin on 4th July, exactly 50 years after its iconic predecessor made its market debut, the new Fiat 500 has proved immensely popular already and Fiat plans to raise next year's production to 190,000 units at the Tychy factory in Poland where it is built, while consideration is also being given to a second line at the Termini Imerese plant in Sicily.

Dressing Italian cars in police colours has become very popular in recent years, a fashion that was typified by the Italian police's blue-and-white Lamborghini Gallardo. Last year the Metropolitan Police (London) finished a Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 in their famous luminous 'Battenberg' colours to highlight a safe driving campaign while earlier this year a police-liveried Ferrari 612 Scaglietti led out the Ferrari 60 Relay during its UK leg, which also demonstrated a safe driving programme.

Photos: Autoweek