An Italian sports car, a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, is the most valuable car in the world. One just sold for over $70,000,000. Yes, that’s seven zeros. Most new Italian sports cars aren’t cheap, either. You can’t touch a new Ferrari or Lamborghini for anything under $200,000. Even the four-cylinder Alfa Romeo 4C starts around $56,000.
But then there’s the 2018 FIAT 124 Spider. It’s not only the least expensive Italian sports car for sale in the United States, with a base price around $25,000, it’s also the most affordable turbocharged two-seat convertible sold in America. Small, powerful, and sexy, the new FIAT 124 Spider was designed in Turin, Italy, and closely resembles the classic 124 Sport Spider from the 1960s and 1970s. Those early cars, although beautiful, weren’t exactly known for their quality — so this time the Fiat roadster is built in Japan, sharing its rear-wheel drive platform with the Mazda MX-5 Miata. The result is a fun-to-drive two-seat droptop with impressive build quality and improved reliability. And that makes the FIAT 124 Spider a consistent favorite in the convertible sports car class, where it competes against the Nissan 370Z and its Mazda cousin.