The Fiat 500 has just achieved the prestigious Euro NCAP five-star crash safety rating, (with a total of 35 points), so taking over top spot in its segment for safety. This important award adds to those assigned recently to the Fiat Bravo and Grande Punto, and confirms the special attention Fiat Automobiles SpA pays to all aspects of driver and passenger protection.

This is the first time that a car of this size has achieved five stars and the 500 is now one of the safest vehicles on today’s roads. To achieve the rating, Fiat designers examined every possible type of accident: front and side impacts, roll-overs and rear-end collisions. The different speeds at which collisions take place, different types of obstacles and the protection of occupants with widely varying physical characteristics, were also taken into consideration.

The Fiat 500 offers, as standard, two dual stage front airbags, two front side airbags for chest/pelvis protection, two window-bags and a driver’s knee airbag. Front seat-belts with a double pretensioner and load limiter are also standard equipment.

As well as incorporating a high performance braking system, the Fiat 500 features ABS anti-lock brakes with EBD (Electronic Brakeforce Distribution) and ESP (Electronic Stability Program). This sophisticated system is standard on the 1.4 16v version and an option on the other two versions (1.2 and 1.3 MultiJet).

The Fiat 500 is a car designed and built to achieve the highest levels of quality, as the safety award by Euro NCAP confirms. This total protection feature has contributed to the sales success of the model – since its launch this summer the car has already won over Italy and France, with around 70,000 orders to date.