Fiat 500-60th edition

How many Fiat 500-60th cars do you think they’ll be making to celebrate 60 years of the Fiat 500 – sixty, or 500?

The answer, of course, is neither: it’s 250.

As you can see from the picture gallery, Fiat has a long history of special edition 500s. Some of them, like the Blackjack and the pleasantly retro 1957 Edition, were quite appealing. The Abarth 695 Tribuno Ferrari was pretty sexy too, but then again it did cost £29,600 – a far cry from the sub-£500 price of the first proletarian 500.

The jury’s out on the 500 hot pink cars Fiat released (though that might be a gender thing) and on the 500 ByDiesels created in collaboration with fashion brand Diesel. More than one of those had to be recovered when the owners got confused and put diesel in: it was petrol only.

Anyway, this new limited-to-250-run 500-60th (sorry about all the numbers) is distinguished by its exclusive two-tone paintwork and matching alloys, twiddled logo, and vintage Fiat badges. A red vinyl dashboard gives the interior a suitably Fifties look, although in keeping with the modern zeitgeist, the matching piping finds itself on voguish leather seats rather than sticky plastic ones.

You can only have your 500-60th in semi-convertible 500C form, which is not that much of an imposition. Look for it at the top of the 500 range, where 500-60th prices start at £19,240 for the entry-level 1.2-litre engined car. That’s a £140 premium over the regular Riva range-topper, not bad when you consider that you’re getting lots of additional equipment in the commemorative car like sat-nav, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. If you really want to push the boat out, throw £21,000 at your grateful Fiat dealer for the 104bhp 0.9 Twinair-engined variant.