The two-millionth new-look Fiat 500 rolled off the production line last month. To put that into context, that is enough examples for everybody in Abu Dhabi to own one of the teeny-tiny city cars, with a few hundred thousand to spare. It's not an inconsiderable achievement.
In Europe, it has just enjoyed its best quarter results, with 60,000 shifted in the first three months of this year. Eighty per cent of its sales are outside its native Italy. Numbers define the 61-year-old Fiat 500 in every sense, then, so what continues to make it such a dependable seller?
To find out, I am test driving a 2018 version of the model that first saw the light of day in 1957, albeit in a somewhat different form – the modern-day 500 took over the mantle in 2007.
Old or new, though, the car’s styling is legendary. Such was the popularity of the 500 F series, made between 1965 and 1972, that one of the cars made it into the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Much like fellow micro-made-big car the Mini, the Fiat has gained bulk compared to its early versions, and the 500 is rounder and larger than its predecessors from decades ago. Yet everything still seems to be designed with the Italian love of eye-arresting style in mind, while maintaining the functionality that you'd expect from a city car. It is adorable in the same way that fluffy baby monkeys make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, from the hopeful please-love-me "eyes" that are the headlights, all the way to the dinky boot, including the loveable little "500"-branded hub cabs on its fun-sized 16-inch wheels in between.
As if there wasn't already enough cute character on display, my test car is a 500C – that's C for cabriolet, and its roof, while not looking like the most hard-wearing ragtop, is typically idiosyncratic in the way it crumples itself back in the manner of opening your curtains. In a thoughtful design touch, when fully retracted, the roof fabric will automatically move slightly to allow access to the boot when you touch the latter's handle.
There is a potential deal-breaker, sadly, that rather spoils the joy of pootling around town, let alone perking up the little fella to highway speeds: the automatic gearbox. It isn’t just a bit frustrating – it’s a genuine stinker. Changing up at anything approaching alacrity feels like the brakes are being applied, as the car lurches through its shifts with all the smoothness of a punch-drunk boxer. When you put your foot down in a manual car, you lift off the accelerator while engaging the clutch on up-changes to avoid jerkiness. With this awful auto ’box, you have to second guess the shift points to ease off and even attempt to look like you have driven a car before. There is a sequential-shift option or paddle shifters, to wrestle back some control, but it doesn’t sufficiently fix the problem, unfortunately. The gearstick gate isn’t entirely intuitive, either – drive, in the centre, feels like it should be neutral, and at start-up, it is sometimes fiddly to engage drive instead of the sequential “manual” mode. Full manual is what you need, but that isn’t an option in the GCC, and that’s a real pity.
Inside, things are mostly fuss-free, with that eye for style extending across a shiny dash that mimics the car's exterior colour scheme and is endowed with a tablet-esque touchscreen. The overall effect will bring a smile to your face on every occasion you climb inside. The electric-window controls take a leaf out of supercar styling, positioned as they are on the centre of the dash – something that might have you scrambling for the first few weeks of owning a 500, eliciting more smiles, but this time wry ones.
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There are a few annoying auto resets each time you start the car – entirely at random, the air-conditioning fan sometimes goes back to minimum level and the stereo often reverts to radio input, which can mean being greeted by headache-inducing static via the tinny speakers after turning the key. As you might expect, storage space is at a premium in the cabin, with only the glovebox, a pair of cup holders, skinny door pockets and a little webbing indent by the front passenger seat to stash your stuff. And in the back, well ... let’s just say before squeezing in, you better go on a diet, preferably involving making your legs really, really minuscule.
The 1.4-litre four-cylinder engine isn't going to snap any necks, with 100hp and 131Nm of torque adding up to a 0-to-100kph time of 10.5 seconds, although it will propel the 500 on to 220kph. But this is, after all, a city car – meant for runarounds more than road trips, a fact backed by a relatively small fuel tank.
In that context, it's crystal clear to see why love for the Fiat 500 seems everlasting. With prices starting at Dh58,000, you won't get anywhere near as much spirit and verve for that kind of money anywhere else.
Fixtures
Wednesday
4.15pm: Japan v Spain (Group A)
5.30pm: UAE v Italy (Group A)
6.45pm: Russia v Mexico (Group B)
8pm: Iran v Egypt (Group B)
if you go
The flights
Fly direct to Kutaisi with Flydubai from Dh925 return, including taxes. The flight takes 3.5 hours. From there, Svaneti is a four-hour drive. The driving time from Tbilisi is eight hours.
The trip
The cost of the Svaneti trip is US$2,000 (Dh7,345) for 10 days, including food, guiding, accommodation and transfers from and to Tbilisi or Kutaisi. This summer the TCT is also offering a 5-day hike in Armenia for $1,200 (Dh4,407) per person. For further information, visit www.transcaucasiantrail.org/en/hike/
FULL%20FIGHT%20CARD
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Essentials
The flights
Whether you trek after mountain gorillas in Rwanda, Uganda or the Congo, the most convenient international airport is in Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali. There are direct flights from Dubai a couple of days a week with RwandAir. Otherwise, an indirect route is available via Nairobi with Kenya Airways. Flydubai flies to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, via Entebbe in Uganda. Expect to pay from US$350 (Dh1,286) return, including taxes.
The tours
Superb ape-watching tours that take in all three gorilla countries mentioned above are run by Natural World Safaris. In September, the company will be operating a unique Ugandan ape safari guided by well-known primatologist Ben Garrod.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, local operator Kivu Travel can organise pretty much any kind of safari throughout the Virunga National Park and elsewhere in eastern Congo.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
