Fiat 500

At a glance

Кому подходит этот автомобиль?

One or two travellers staying in Kotor, Budva or Herceg Novi — where parking is tight and distances are short.

• Solo travellers
• Short city stays
• Photographers

The Fiat 500 on Montenegro roads

Behind the wheel

The Fiat 500 with the 1.0-litre mild-hybrid three-cylinder is a postcard rather than a car in many ways. 70 hp is modest by any standard, the five-speed manual is short-throw and a little notchy, and the mild hybrid system smooths stop-start rather than adding meaningful performance. What it offers instead is a 3,571 mm length, a turning circle barely wider than a bicycle’s, and a cabin that makes every other car feel overweight. The ride is firm on broken tarmac, the noise level is high above 90 km/h, and the driving position is upright and friendly rather than sporting. It is a car built to be parked somewhere photogenic.

On Montenegro roads

Montenegro rewards the 500 in very specific places. The medieval perimeter streets of Kotor — the alleys between the Sea Gate and Trg Od Brašna that technically allow residents’ cars — are navigable in a 500 the way they are in almost nothing else on the fleet. The low stone-walled lanes of Perast, the waterfront at Prčanj, the narrow climb to Stari Bar’s old town: all trivially simple. It is less suited to the Kotor–Lovćen hairpins (70 hp fades fast above 800 m), to the Bar motorway (wind noise becomes dominant at 120), and to the long Piva canyon run where a three-cylinder works audibly for an hour straight.

Space and load

The 185-litre boot is exactly as small as it sounds: one cabin-size hand luggage case, or one day’s groceries for two from Voli, or a single backpack and a beach bag for Plavi Horizonti. Folding the rear seats more than doubles capacity but eliminates passengers; in practice the 500 is a two-person car with token rear seats useful for bags. It will not take a pram, a pair of skis, or two sets of dive kit. For couples travelling light, often hotel-to-hotel with laundry stops, it is workable; for anyone packing for variable weather it is not.

Best journeys for this car

The 500 belongs to the couple spending four days in Kotor Old Town, one day touring to Perast and Risan, and one day to Njeguši and Cetinje — distances under 80 km a day, parking always a constraint, fuel a non-issue. It suits cruise passengers hiring for a single day out of the Port of Kotor who want an experience as much as transport. It also works for a solo traveller doing short coastal hops between Herceg Novi, Tivat and Budva across a week. It does not work for airport transfers from Podgorica with luggage, for mountain trips, or for any route that involves sustained 120 km/h cruising.

Practical notes

Fuel economy hovers around 5 L/100 km in gentle use, which helps balance the 35-litre tank — you refill more often than in other cars here. Parking is the whole point: Kotor’s bastion bays, Budva’s pedestrian-zone perimeter, and Herceg Novi’s stepped town all open up at 3.57 m. Porto Montenegro valet parks it for free as a fun novelty. Winter use above Kolašin is inadvisable — the car has short travel, summer-biased tyres and no traction control philosophy that helps in snow. Summer AC is adequate in the small cabin and cools fast precisely because the volume is tiny.

The verdict

Choose the 500 if your Montenegro is short, coastal, photogenic and parked more than it is driven. Skip it for anything that involves mountains, distance or more than one carry-on per person.

Полные характеристики

Inside the car

• Compact Size
• Easy Parking
• Sunroof
• Bluetooth