KEY POINTS:
The new Fiat 500 is expected to cost around $27,000 when it lands in New Zealand next March.
This price is based on the likely A$25,000 it will sell for in Sydney and the £9000 Fiat is expected to ask for it in Britain.
Lawrie Malatios, the general
manager of Fiat importer Ateco Automotive NZ, says he has yet to finalise the price and specification of the three-door car for the New Zealand market.
"I will be going to Australia soon to meet with Fiat executives from Italy to work out the price and specification," he said.
Two models will be available, one using a 1.3-litre turbodiesel engine and the other a 1.4-litre petrol unit.
"I can't talk price yet because I don't know," he said. "But it won't be a cheap car. It might be small but it has been built to meet five-star crash standards."
Fiat dealers in New Zealand have been "inundated" with inquiries about the new 500, says Malatios. So has Ateco's Mt Wellington office.
"We have had radio stations, advertising agencies, hotels and entertainment and promotional companies asking when the car will get here and how much it's going to cost," he said.
"All we can say at the moment is that it will arrive in March. We expect to announce the price then."
The 500 has already gone on sale in Europe and likely demand might delay right-hand-drive production, which is down to start in November/December.
Ateco has devoted part of its www.fiat.co.nz website to the 500, using it as a promotional tool counting down to the car's appearance next year.
The new "Cinquecento" (Italian for 500) was launched in Italy last week - 50 years to the day after the original Fiat 500's appearance in Turin in 1957.
It arrived to what was described by as "probably the largest national celebration ever seen for a new car, with street parties, fireworks, concerts and parades - not just in Fiat's home town of Turin but right across Italy".
Streets were blocked to all cars except Fiat 500s in 30 Italian cities.
Fiat presented the president of Italy with a new model.
The 500 will be built in Poland and spearhead a push by Fiat to produce cars with the lowest average CO2 emissions among European carmakers by 2012.
Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne did not give any details of the new emissions aim but told analysts and journalists at the launch that it was part of the company's greener strategy.
City cars like the 500 are becoming more popular in Europe's congested cities as new emissions regulations come into force.
The new model has its engine in the front, unlike the original which had its 9.7kW, 479cc, two-cylinder, air-cooled unit in the rear.
The new car seats four; the original was a two-and-a-half seater at best.