Retro review: Fiat Barchetta

This review was originally published in issue 128 of TopGear magazine (2004)

A half-forgotten car on half-remembered roads. Tiny roads, really. And definitely not for going quickly on. You can never quite see what’s around the next corner. Usually, there isn’t anything. Usually, the road just opens out again for another lonely, empty mile. For long stretches, this could be motoring before the war. The scenery and the few villages passed through do little to give the game away. Well, not if you don’t look too hard, anyway. 

It’s funny how you mellow out sometimes when there’s not another car in sight, funny how you relax, content just to trundle along. Odd too, how opinions can change, flux from a ‘snap the sunroof blind shut’ mentality, to a deep conviction that open-top motoring is simply the only way to go – all in just a few traffic-free miles. Mind you, it is quite the day for it. The scent of wood fires and freshly turned fields on the air and each leaf seemingly lit by its own individual shaft of sunlight. 

Careful, though. After all, we’re talking about a car that didn’t exactly storm to victory on its first group test, and that was eight years ago. We’re talking about the Fiat Barchetta. 

It could prove a little too easy for the little front-drive roadster to worm its way into our affections on a perfect day like this, a day when the defences are down and the cynicism’s left at home. Ah, but surely it would be a cold heart that didn’t fall for the Barchetta’s looks? At least a little bit. It was always pretty, always cool and now it’s even more so, thanks to a tidy facelift. But the revised Barchetta can do the sensible bit as well as tug at the heart strings. It now costs just £10,995. 

OK, so it’s left-hand drive. But that’s part of the charm – it endows it with a little foreign mystique. All right, those alloys cost another £320 and on another day, a harder, more confrontational day – with maybe a Mazda MX-5 and a Toyota MR2 in tow – the Fiat’s foibles might feel more like faults. But for now, the gruff note of the none-too-powerful 130bhp 1.8-litre engine sounds just right, even if its pace is far from lightning fast. The slither of the tyres on the wet mulch of fallen leaves feels just fine the way it is, without any interfering electronic assistance. The steering and chassis might not always answer every single question the road throws at them, but today, at these speeds, they get enough of them right. 

So, back-to-basics open-top motoring then? Well, in some respects, yes, but not totally. For a start, a CD player is now part of the standard package, as are electric mirrors and twin airbags. There are anti-lock brakes too, although rally ace Gilles Panizzi is unlikely to drag his chief engineer over and say, “See? Here. These are what I must have on my car for maximum late braking!”. The brakes are OK. Not perfect, not ultra-strong, but OK. Same with the five-speed manual gearbox; it’s fine, but not a patch on the way, say, a Mazda MX-5 snickety-snicks so satisfyingly between gears. 

But then you can’t have a Mazda MX-5 for less than £16,000. This car – and it does bear repeating – costs only £10,995. It costs £2,800 less than it used to and that’s without taking the extra kit into question. What it doesn’t have is an electric roof. But you don’t want that. Get off your ass and do it yourself. It only takes a minute to fold the hood – with its admittedly plastic rear window – completely out of sight. Anyway, the Barchetta is not the most macho-looking thing in the first place. Bright Broom Yellow paint certainly doesn’t help, either. The last thing you’d want is to be sitting there in a little baseball cap with an electric motor whining away as the hood inched slowly upwards. 

Alas, though, up that hood must come. It’s getting dark and there’s a week’s worth of rain coming in one evening. So batten it down tight against the night, brave the motorway crosswinds and head back to the war zone of south London. A well-remembered car on all too familiar roads. 

Rivals: Smart Roadster, Mazda MX-5, Toyota MR2, Lotus Elise

Verdict: May not have shone first time around, but stands the test of time better than most

1.8-litre 4cyl 16v
130bhp
FWD
0-62mph in 8.9secs, 124mph
£10,995

Words: Angus Frazer