Gadgetory

hey everyone it's Emmie hall with CNET here at the 2015 Los Angeles Auto Show and 2017 promises to be a very cool year for those of us that love rear-wheel drive convertibles that's right I am talking about the 2017 Fiat 124 spider if you don't recognize that good thing when they thought in the new fourth generation Mazda mx-5 but here they've given us a 1.4 liter turbocharged four-cylinder which is good for 160 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque now those of you that are keeping a score yes that is more than the mx-5 but it's just right about in line with the Fiat Abarth powers going to the rear wheels via a six-speed manual transmission or a 6-speed automatic and unfortunately this is not the same six-speed as in the mx-5 so we can't wait to get our hands on it to see if Fiat has been able to give us the same crisp short throws that we've come to expect in a small convertible roadster now on lookers surely are not going to confuse the 124 spider for the mx-5 as the sheet metal is quite different it really has a throwback more to the original 1966 versions the headlights have definitely a more rounded appearance to them as well as the horizontal oval grille in the centre and the rear I've just got a modern take of the rectangular simple taillights from the 1960s of course it's what's under the sheet metal that makes this car fun to drive the thing that's got the same multi-link setup in the rear as well as a double wishbone suspension in the front as the mx-5 and it has an electric power steering system set up and Fiat chose to keep it simple using the same manual soft top as the mx-5 the interior of the 124 spider is pretty much a carbon copy of the mx-5 safer a couple of fiat badging it uses the same seven-inch touchscreen with blind spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alerts no pricing has been announced yet but we expect to see this little baby in showrooms in the summer of 2016 so mark your calendar you