| 2011 Fiat 500 vs 2010 Mini Cooper | November 16, 2009 | AUTORIVALS.NET |
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| The Mini Cooper has been without any competition for quite some time but with Chrysler's recent merger with Fiat, it might have the Fiat 500 to battle it next year. The 500 has been available in Europe for awhile now and will hopefully make it to our shores to increase the small hatchback segment. The 500 and Cooper are modern reincarnations of their former selves with a retro design and an added splash of adorableness. They're not the girly kind of adorable like the Volkswagen Beetle is, but more toy car adorable. | ||
| 2011 Fiat 500 | vs | 2010 Mini Cooper |
 The Fiat 500 is just effing adorable. The headlights are small and sized with respect to the car's dimensions and the smaller lights below them look like dimples. Everything is small in size but large in cuteness. |
 The larger headlights of the Mini look a bit bug-eyed compared to the Fiat and may be too big for the car. The Mini isn't as cute as the Fiat but maybe that's a good thing to some people. |
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 The main flaw with the 500's design is the front snout on the bumper. It's difficult to see it in white but other colors and angles show the crease in the bumper outlining the badge and chrome. |
 The Mini still looks adorable in ladybug colors. The overall look isn't as clean as the Fiat due to different color fender flares and side skirts but everything else falls into place handsomely. |
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| The Fiat is only 5 inches shorter than the Mini but looks a lot shorter. The key difference is the Fiat's steeply raked rear that gives the 500 a more appealing profile but less interior space. Both profiles look good due to their extremely short overhangs. | ||
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| The toy car resemblance is even more resounding with their center placed antennas. The Cooper's is unusually long compared to the stubby antenna on the Fiat which itself even looks cute. The Cooper's antenna looks like it was sourced from a remote-control toy car. | ||
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| If you squint hard enough, the Fiat looks like a mini Mini Cooper. The silhouettes, license plate placement, chrome accent, and more are all similar. Much like the headlights, the tail lights also resemble each other with gumdrop shapes. For some odd reason however, Mini chose the bumper to put the third brake light which looks out of place. | ||
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| The biggest difference between these two cars are their interiors. The Mini has an unorthodox layout with a tachometer in front of the driver and the speedometer in the center. Makes no sense to me and must make driving a bit more difficult for owners. The Fiat puts everything in multiple center gauges which can be confusing but at least you don't have to strain your neck looking back and forth. The center stack also looks better in the Fiat and looks user-friendlier compared to the Cooper's unusual layout with buttons placed too low. | ||
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PROS +Just so effing adorable +Toy car maneuverability CONS -Some (read: most) guys will be embarrassed to drive it |
PROS +Cute but a guy can still drive it +Go kart maneuverability CONS -Unorthodox dashboard layout |
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| Video Source: YouTube via Auto Express |
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