We've seen this movie before. Car company revives storied marque, moves a chinchillion units then works up a more spacious variant. But Mini's conservative approach to its brand in the US (it took two years to crank out a convertible and six years to get the Clubman within a hair's breadth of production) may not be Fiat's style. According to Automotive News, the house that Topolino built already has three 500 models in the pipeline — hardtop, convertible and Abarth-tuned runner — and a three-door station wagon and a four-wheel-drive SUV based on the wagon could already be queuing up. Neither wagon nor four-by has been approved, says AN's source (though porting over the Fiat Panda Cross's 4x4 clockworks is a likely option). The currency exchange rate makes a US version of the 500 a likely nonstarter, but if all this 500 stuff blows big in Europe, we could be looking at an energized Fiat with the cojones to revisit the Americas next decade.

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More on the Fiat 500 [internal]

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