Our Cinquecento Suite!
The 899 cc Suite!
Black Suite!
This week we sold our trusty Panda and replaced it with a '93 Cinquecento Suite! This one has got a big advantage: It's got Air Conditioning as standard! A great bonus at these hot sunny days... With a small price to pay, though... Performance deteriorates slightly when using the A/C, but comes... right back after switching it off! Don't imagine that it has any electronic or automatic climate control feature, though! There are two more buttons on the central facia, just above the rear windscreen wiper switches, which are of the on-off type. The left one, recirculates the air into the car, enabling the cabin air to cool quicker. The right button just switches the A/C compressor on or off.
the Big bro! The price on performance is sometimes serious. Yesterday afternoon, I did a small 100 km round trip which included 20-25 km's of hiway, 40-50 km's of fast backroads and the rest in light city traffic. At the traffic lights Grands Prix you leave the starting grid dead last if you have the A/C on! The non aircon Cinquecento 900 does 0-100 km/h in around 20 secs! This one must do it in a minute and a half! If you turn the A/C off you can approach that 20 sec figure, bearing in mind it carries the extra weight of the aircon which is about 30 kgs. Once moving, anyway, there's no big difference in the in-gear acceleration times, provided you keep the throttle floored almost all the time! At least you can be right there with the rest of normally moving traffic.
On the hiway, all's fine until it's time to pass slower traffic. Then, sometimes you just turn the A/C off and pass, while at other times you keep your speed and just pass! The max I could see with the A/C on was 145 km/h, while without it I saw 160+ :-)) on a level straight! Fuel consumption seems to be lighter than that of the Sporting, even with the A/C turned on.
The car was bought used. It is a Black first generation Suite model (the one with the large "emblem" on the front hood), made in the summer of '93, and with the 145/70R13 tires (newer models wear 155/65R13). It has all the usual standard accessories of the range (power locks and windows), plus some from the previous owner. He has added a Cobra alarm and a Cobra radio/tape unit with only front speakers. There's also an important mod he's made: He has put Monroe GasMatic shocks and Eibach springs allround! This mod has lowered the car by 4 cm! (The Sporting is only 2,5 cm lower than a normal 900!).
A Yello Standard Sporting!A Black lowered Suite!

Check the difference in height!

Low!!!


For more photos, check our images gallery!
Also, I have made a trip to the local Sporting tuners, to see what they have in hand!
Stay tuned! We have some pretty good Cinquecento links here.
Go back to Cinquecento main page
Preview the Cinquecento replacement.
Here's some more info on the Seicento(?!?!).