The Fiat 500 has arrived in America: intrepid small Fiat adventurer Jim Magil from Northern Ireland has hit the chaotic streets of New York as he sets off on a marathon journey right across the United States this week in the tiny car.

The Fiat 500 has arrived in America: intrepid small Fiat adventurer Jim Magil from Northern Ireland has hit the chaotic streets of New York as he sets off on a marathon journey right across the United States this week in the tiny car. Fiat has ambitious plans to sell, and possibly build, the Car of the Year award winning Fiat 500 in the United States in the future, but this is the first time its small wheels have turned on that continent's soil.

Jim Magil from the Northern Ireland Italian Car Club has a long history of dramatic adventures at the wheel of small Fiats. Two years ago the Fiat enthusiast drove a Panda across the United States, and he has also driven Pandas across Africa and Turkey on other occasions.

This year's journey started back on 25th May 2008 with a drive from Belfast, Northern Ireland, to Liverpool, UK, via Stranraer on the Stena Line Ferry. Six days later the Fiat 500 left Liverpool on it's journey across the Atlantic to New York, and on Tuesday 10th June the 500 arrived in New York. After a few days of customs and paperwork checks, the 500 rested up in the New York area.

Sam Germana, a Director of the Fiat and Lancia owners' club in the US collected the car from the docks at New York. The security guards wouldn't let him and his son leave in the 500 until he'd checked off the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) against the documents that Sam had brought. So a pain staking search of the car to find the VIN plate was called for, and in the end they found it under the carpet in the boot! Anyway, they unearthed the elusive code and the car was soon on it's way, but due to Jim not having left much fuel in the car before shipping it out from the UK its first appointment was with a petrol station.

Last Thursday (10th July) Jim flew out from Dublin to New York's JFK airport to be reunited with his 500. On Friday the car took part in a photo shoot in downtown New York City before, over the weekend, Jim and the 500, attended the Fiat & Lancia US Motor Club's 25th anniversary Fiat Freak Out event held at The Inn at Pocono Manor in the beautiful Pocono Mountains of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Starting yesterday the 500 set off on a hectic trek which will take it through Chicago, De Moines Denver and Salt Lake City to San Francisco, for a total of 2,900 miles, with its expected ETA on the West Coast being on Thursday (17th July). From Friday (18th) to Sunday (20th) the 500 will take part in the The West Coast Fiat Group Mirafiori.com's meeting near Ashland, Oregon. The busy pace will continue from Monday (21st) to Saturday (26th) with a route that will take the 500 from San Francisco, down Highway One to Los Angeles and then on to Death Valley, Las Vegas, Monument Valley before heading back to Hollywood.