Hello. Do you know if I can actually inport, register and drive a 1959 fiat 500 bianchina. I know that if the car is older than 25 year does not have to comply with any safety and pollution requirements (it does not even have safety belts). However someone told me that based on the 6 hp engine, it cannot even go on highways. Can anyone help me? Thanks Giulio
Check with your State Dept of Motor Vehicles. I would start with the FAQ on their web site. My guess you can. Going on the highway doesn’t sound safe, as I am sure you already know!
There are lots of old foreign cars registered in the US; some of them are Fiat 500s. Check Hemmings Motor News. Maybe you won’t have to import one.
I knew a couple of guys that owned Fiat 600s in the early 70s. They never drove on the highway. The two links below indicate that it is possible to buy a Fiat 500 in the USA. There were many more references for Canada.
A couple of years ago, I spotted one of these cars parked across from the Old Court House in my County Seat. The middle-aged grounds crew from the Court House were not familiar with the car, so I gave them a little background.
One of the crew members stated that the owner of the Fiat had told him that, on a cross-country trip with the 500, he had used “only two tanks of gas”!
Among the information that I provided the crew members was some reality on the typical gas mileage of those cars, as well as that the car’s owner was either daft or prone to tall tales. Fiat 500s were really economical, but the owner of that car was stretching the truth by a HUGE extent.
Anyway, assuming that the owner of the little FIAT wasn’t a complete liar, if he did make a cross-country trip in the car, that would seem to indicate that it is legal for highway travel.