Our readers are always on the lookout for cool cars even very early in the morning. James, just caught 2 Fiat 500->ke1708s testing in Charlotte, MI. Both cars are tagged in Michigan with manufacturer plates, so no doubt those are official testers. Aside of the two tone white and black matte paint, both cars seems to be ready for the US launch later this year. The Fiat 500 will very likely be the first Fiat to be introduced to the US market. Keep in mind that the Italian car maker only took over Chrysler last year. Will they actually be able to launch this Fiat in 2010, that remain to be seen.

Anyways, back on the pictures, the only visible difference between those two seems to be the front bumper trim, one chrome and one painted and as you can see there is a piece of tape on the corner, may be for some park assist system testing. Let us know if you can find others!



On the back you can see that the rear hatch still got the wide European plate enclosure, so we expect this gap to be filled with some 'bumperette' similar to the one seen on the rear bumper of Porsche 911's. As for the parking sensor speculation, we can only see a backup camera but no sensor in the bumpers.



Our reader was daring enough to get closer and take a snap of the interior. The cars were equipped with a computer system on the passenger side for data collection, but aside of that, everything seems to be ready for production and without any camouflage at all. The first car was a manual, the other appeared to be an automatic.

Thanks James for the tip.

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