Fiat 500

Postage-stamp city car for a short Podgorica stay, slots between delivery vans

City

Tiny footprint, sunroof, hybrid-assisted 1.0, the pick for a two- or three-night Podgorica anchor when multi-day drives are not on the schedule.

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At a glance

Seats

Gearbox

Manual

Fuel

Petrol

Luggage

1 bags

Boot

185 L

Economy

52 mpg

Who is this car for?

Two or three nights in Podgorica with short afternoon hops to Perast and Prčanj, the 500 parks where mid-size cars wave and drive past.

Short city-base stays
Solo visitors on a shoestring
Photographers doing short hops

Best regional use

The 3.57 m length is the deciding factor: it fits the stepped terrace parking on the nearby villages waterfront and the shoulder-wide gap outside the Sea Gate that a Clio cannot. Underpowered for the Lovćen climb, so pair with cable-car transfers or keep within bay limits.

On the road

Behind the wheel

The current 500, the petrol mild-hybrid still in production, not the BEV successor, is a tiny, stylish city car that Podgorica Airport renters choose for reasons unrelated to driving. At 3.57 m long and 1.63 m wide it is shorter than a Smart, narrower than most modern hatches, and genuinely fits gaps that 95 percent of rental cars cannot. The 1.0 BSG 70 hp mild-hybrid three-cylinder is noisy, slow, and perfectly adequate for the 13 km M-2 hop from TGD into Podgorica. The cabin is cramped, the boot is a glove-box, the ride is fidgety. None of that matters when you are landing for two or three nights and a small footprint at the city-centre hotel is the entire point.

On Podgorica roads

The 500 is the car for the short TGD city break. The 13 km airport-to-city run on the M-2 is covered at 100 km/h in fifth at 3,000 rpm, returning about 5.5 L/100 km in real use. Once in Podgorica, the streets behind Stari Most, the stepped lanes of the old Turkish quarter, and the narrow blocks around the Pod Volat market accept the 500 without mirror anxiety. A short evening hop south on the M-2 to Skadar Lake at 25 km is comfortable; the Albanian border at Hani i Hotit, 30 km east, is also within easy reach. It is emphatically not the car for Ostrog, the 70 hp struggles above 700 m, nor for the motorway up to Žabljak, where cabin noise at 120 km/h becomes unpleasant.

Space and load

The 185-litre boot is genuinely tiny, smaller than a lot of shopping baskets. One cabin-size case fits flat; a second stands on its end but blocks the rear window. That is awkward at a TGD kerbside handover when you have just landed with checked luggage; most short-stay 500 renters fly cabin-only, which works. A weekly shop from the small Aroma supermarket on Bulevar Save Kovačevića fits if you forgo wine by the case. For longer rentals or anyone with a pushchair, checked bag, or hiking kit, the 500 is the wrong tool and a Clio or C3 is the step up to make.

Narrow Cijevna waterfront lane in Podgorica — The Cijevna waterfront past the ferry dock, the 500 slots into gaps the rest of the fleet drives past.

Best journeys for this car

The 500's TGD customer is the short-stay visitor who has done the maths and realised that 90 percent of their drive time will be the 13 km M-2 hop and the Podgorica city centre. Weekend city-break couples, business visitors flying in for two nights, solo photographers chasing the blue-hour shot from Gorica Hill or the Millennium Bridge, the 500 fits all of them. It also works as a second car for multi-week TGD renters using a Golf or 308 for main-family duty and the 500 for one-person grocery runs. It is the wrong car for anyone over 6'1", for four-up loads off the TGD carousel, or for inland day-trips above the snowline.

Practical notes

Petrol economy settles around 5.5 L/100 km, the mild-hybrid motor assists from stop but does not move the fuel bill meaningfully. The 35-litre tank delivers around 600 km between fills; 95-octane is on every M-2 station, including the Jugopetrol two minutes from the TGD access road for the morning of a return flight. Parking is the car's whole point: 3.57 m fits the central €0.60/h bays without effort, threads the alleys behind the cathedral, and slips into TGD short-term parking (€1/h, €15/day) for a 30-minute hand-back. Free cancellation and full insurance ship with local provider bookings. AC is adequate rather than generous on a 40 °C July afternoon at the airport handover.

The verdict

Choose the 500 when parking footprint in the city is the single variable that matters most and your drive time is measured in short M-2 hops from TGD. Skip it for any itinerary that includes Ostrog, Durmitor, sustained motorway, or more than two people with checked luggage.