Small cars for young drivers = cheap car insurance, yeah?

Well, yes. A one litre engine in a three year old Fiat Panda will put you in the ultra-cheap, group one insurance bracket, and if you do a little hunting around for a good online car insurance provider you could end up spending a lot less than you imagined.

But (and it’s a big but), who wants to drive a 54bhp tin box that takes half a year to do 0-60 and feels like your fillings are going to drop out if you go anywhere near its break-neck top speed of 93mph? Still, small Fiats and young drivers could well be a match made in heaven.

“FIAT!” I hear you cry, “Fiat can’t be cool.” Yes, I see your point, in fact when my mum very generously offered me her T reg 126 rustbucket recently, as she no longer drives it, I nearly choked on my fettuccini.

No, what I’m talking about is the chic-hot retro styling of the super-cool new Fiat 500, and it has been pointed it out by some of the more style conscious motoring journos out there that the 500 is THE car to be seen in – but only if you’re a girly and you have a sense of humour.

I’m both of the above and I love the Fiat 500, there’s a powder blue one that drives past me every day on the way to work and I’d swap my Astra clunk-wagon with it any day of the week. However, I have it on good authority that there’s a 500 out there for the blokes and it goes by the name of – ABARTH!

With a pedigree founded on the iconic tuning firm of the 50’s and 60’s that turned run-of-the-mill fiats into supercharged racing cars, the Fiat 500 Abarth has been likened to a ‘yoof’ “wearing a hoody, sporting a flick knife”, and has quickly been touted as the 500 with attitude. One critic even said, and I pause for effect here, it made the Mini Cooper look boring!

The Abarth’s styling is edgier than the cutesy-tootsy production line model, with the trademark scorpion badges being a high-vis reminder that this is the car of a bloke who knows his motoring.

Sporting 16” alloys, wide wheel arches and sills, the lowered ride height and mean, moody air intakes offer little touches of ‘oomph’ that when combined with the 1.4l engine, delivering a cool 135bhp, your top speed of 127mph lifts this little bundle of fun above your average small car.

According to press reports, only 5,000 of these little beauties will roll off the conveyor belt of desire and a mere 1,500 will be trundling their way to the UK in 2009. Demand is likely to be high and probably out of range for your average Uni Joe who picks up shifts at his local Wetherspoons to supplement his student loan, but give it a year or two and Fiat 500s will be hitting the second-hand market, ripe for souping.

So, I rest my case. Yes, it is possible to be a cool young driver in a small car and no, you should never accept a second-hand car from your mother – no matter how cheap the car insurance will be.