Now you may be wondering why we haven’t been posting Worst Car of The Week articles, the simple reason is that it may well come across as being a bit negative. Some have even suggested we don’t want to rock the boat when it comes to relationship management between them (automotive companies) and us (DCB). I can confirm we don’t operate on a ‘you scracth my back and I will scratch yours’ basis. To demonstrate this point let me randomly say this, screw you Henry Ford, you union killing, anti-Semitic, Nazi, hypocritical pacifist. You see only a truly independent voice can ever muster saying such substantive facts. You see negativity is never good but we have been forced to take action and as much as we hate to say it this time the Fiata 124 Spider is purely to blame. The original Fiat 124 Spider was in production from 1966 to 1980 and was designed and manufactured by Pininfarina. The original 124 Spider was just that, original it’s styling was original, the monocoque chassis and construction was original, the engines original, the interior design… original Italian flair. The 124 Spider was a thing of automotive beauty it was made for a purpose with style in mind and it endeared itself to those who bought one. It was and remains a classic. Replacing it had to be done right, just like the Fiat 500. So WHAT-IN-THE-HELL has Fiat done with the all new 124 Spider!! Oh bloody hell to be more precise. Where as the re-launch of the Fiat 500 can be considered a success this re-launched Fiata 124 Spider is a total mess and a disaster, a total styling disaster. This is what you get when you do joint ventures, Fiat tapped Mazda on the shoulders to ask if they could borrow the all new MX-5’s chassis. This partnership between Mazda and Fiat to develop a next generation 2+2 sports convertible sounds great on paper, accounting spreadsheets and will always keep the costs down and the boardroom happy. But in reality we are left with a strength and weakness. The strength is that Mazda seems to have got the better deal. The weakness is that Fiat screwed up the styling, the original 124 Spider was a classic with almost timeless styling, the all new Fiata 124 Spider looks like a third generation Mazda MX-5 with a moronic looking front bumper. The only bit of Italian flair to be seen are the rear tail lights everything else is about as original as plagiarism. The Fiat 124 Spider is awkwardly styled, I don’t blame the designers these people were probably locked in a room at gun point and forced to design by committee. In short the Fiata 124 Spider’s styling looks a little rushed, sure Fiat are going to shoe horn their engine into it but they may as well cut the floor pan out and instruct people to use their feet to provide propulsion, Flintstones style. However the Fiata Spider has largely been well received, we a but a few of the dissenting voices, heretics if you will. Copernicus and Galileo were considered heretics and now we can join these founders of modern astronomy in the collective hall of infamous heretics who were right all along despite the non-believing, industry flag wavers who want to convince you contrivance is just as good as being ignorant. Fiata 124 Spider, you are like artificial sugar, not one lump not even two. You Fiata 124 Spider are a desert mirage flowing into and out of view, abandoning your historical and styling past to segment your marketing ways with a creation that is not even second not even third best. That is why Fiata 124 Spider YOU are an MX-5 mash-up and the worst car of the week.