“Taken in isolation, the fuel consumption of the Fiat 500 is a outstanding achievement,” says Andrei Zaitzev, General Manager for Fiat in Australia (above). “But the Fiat 500 is not a stripped basic car built only for fuel economy, nor is there a massive price penalty up front to own Australia’s most economical car."

As fuel prices rise and fears about global warming increase, all sorts of claims have been made for the abilities of different cars to save fuel or reduce emissions, but there is one, undisputed fact: When it comes to fuel economy, the Fiat 500 1.3 JTD has the lowest fuel consumption of any car sold in Australia.

Taking the legal benchmark figure, the combined average fuel consumption, the Fiat 500 1.3 JTD achieves a remarkable figure of 4.2 litres per 100 km. This places the Fiat ahead of every other car sold in Australia, bar none, and including a host of cars that place fuel economy as the primary purchase motive.

“Taken in isolation, the fuel consumption of the Fiat 500 is a outstanding achievement,” says Andrei Zaitzev, General Manager for Fiat in Australia. “But the Fiat 500 is not a stripped basic car built only for fuel economy, nor is there a massive price penalty up front to own Australia’s most economical car. Not only is it a four seat car, with a reasonable boot, Fiat designed the 500 to be stylish, fun to drive, extremely safe with an outstanding five star EuroNCAP rating and then threw in market leading economy as a bonus feature. The Fiat 500 is a car you want to own for every reason, not just because it achieves great fuel economy, it’s a car you can feel happy and virtuous to own, a car that enables you to do the right thing by the planet and your budget, while having fun doing it!”

The Fiat 500 has proven an outstanding success for Fiat. Despite boosting production by more then 20 per cent, there is still a 100,000 strong waiting list to own a Fiat 500, another feature that none of its rivals can match. Fiat’s environmental impact is further enhanced by the fact that the 500 is just one of a range of highly economical cars that provide Fiat with lowest range average fuel consumption across all the cars it builds. Fiat’s advanced diesel engines even contribute to other car maker’s low consumption vehicles, with Fiat providing its technology and engines to a car makers.

“Its often been said that the most difficult job in the car industry is not building the greenest possible car, its building the greenest possible car that people want to buy,” says Mr Zaitzev. “If a car maker builds a super economy car any only die-hard environmentalists and fuel savers – a tiny proportion of the total market – buy it, then it will have little impact and the exercise has been largely futile. What Fiat has done is produce a car that everyone loves and wants to own and provided it with a supreme level of fuel economy with, thereby, low emissions. This means that thousands of people who don’t place fuel economy and low emissions at the top of their priorities are, nevertheless, making a contribution to the planet and that has to be good for everyone!"