AS poor as they have been at making big cars, the Italians are past masters at knocking out cracking small ones.

Fifty years ago, on July 4, 1957, Fiat introduced the Nuova Fiat 500, which became an icon of our times, and with which Fiat completed a revival that had begun immediately after the Second World War.

In a career lasting 18 years, from 1957 to 1975, exactly 3,893,294 were built, making it one of the most successful European small cars of all time.

This summer, exactly 50 years later, and once again in Turin, the company will unveil the spiritual successor to that car, once more called theFiat 500, which will go on sale immediately after the launch.

And the dinky Fiat's success could once more see the famous Italian company complete an unlikely revival.

So what is it? Developed by the in-house Fiat Style Centre and manufactured in Poland, the new 500 is a three-door city car that's just 355cm long, 165cm wide and 149cm tall.

There will be three engine options: a 75bhp 1.3 16v MultiJet turbodiesel and two petrol engines, a 69bhp 1.2 8v and a 100bhp 1.4 16v, with five or sixspeed manual gearboxes.

Sadly, UK buyers look as though they won't get a chance to buy the cheapest models. Fiat wants the 500 to challenge the Mini for small-car cool over here and a poverty-spec model doesn't fit into those plans.

So we get the higher-spec models and, eventually, a sports-performance Abarth model.

If it's not a shopping trolley, where is Fiat aiming to position the 500? Right up alongside the Mini, the Renault Twingo and the forthcoming small Audi. Prices, although yet to be officially confirmed, are likely to start well north of £10,000. In Europe, the cheapest will be around £2,000 cheaper, albeit correspondingly less well kitted out.

Fiat reckons the 500 is good enough to command a ten per cent price premium over the bog standard Panda city car.

On looks-alone it deserves to succeed.

It looks great. The exterior styling of the 500 is nearidentical to that of the Trepiuno concept car shown at theGeneva motor show three years ago.

The interior is different, although the eye-catching circular headrestraints are carried over. The dash is a lift from the Panda, but the 500 gets a new centre console and an all-in-one speedo incorporating a rev counter, fuel gauge and clock.

Are there any other similarities with the Panda? Plenty. In fact the Panda's DNA runs throughout the little 500, which runs on a modified version of that model's platform, albeit one that is both longer and wider. It also borrows the Panda's suspension - cheap and effective MacPherson struts at the front and a torsion beam out the back - and even the Panda's brakes.

Mind you, the 500's track is wider and it sits lower on the road, hinting that the little city car should be a hoot to drive out of town as well as in it.

The need to add safety features to the short overhangs have added weight but the upside is a stiffer bodyshell.

How about emissions? The Fiat promises to be a mean green machine.

The entire engine line-up is compliant with the latest Euro5 exhaust emissions regs that come into effect in 2009. Fuel consumption should be outstanding.

Anything else I need to know? If you can't stretch to a 500, why not hang around for the new Ford Ka?

Beneath the skin both models are the same. They are even built in the same factory.