While sitting (cowering, really) outside the bathrooms at Baltimore-Washington International Airport during a tornado warning, I pondered my day driving the 2014 Fiat 500L.

It was no surprise in 2009 when large swathes of America's Fourth Estate, Automotive Division, practicing a sort of misguided car nationalism, moaned and groaned about Chrysler's takeover by Fiat. How, they wondered, could an Italian company run an American one -- by government edict no less -- especially after they'd spent so many years dismissing Italian carmakers as hopeless automotive romantics, sharp-suited, socialist incompetents with a flair for snappy shoes, snazzy camshafts, and doing lunch?

New For 2013

Americans get one Fiat 500 Abarth model while Europeans get two: the 135-horsepower Abarth and 180-horsepower Abarth Esseesse. Fiat thought the lesser Euro-market Abarth was too wimpy for the States so it only sent the high-performance model here. However, that makes a major gap in horsepower (and in price) between our Abarth and the second, er, sportiest 500 sold here, the Sport. Porca vacca! But the solution was simple enough: send over the 135-hp Abarth from Europe, and market it as something that fills the space between Sport and Abarth.

Fiat gave us our first look at the new 2013 Fiat 500e electric vehicle earlier this month, but as the elettra-Cinquecento is now making its formal debut at the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show, we now have a better idea of what lies beneath the skin.

All Fiat 500s should be cabriolets. The 500 is so awkward to drive that you might as well peel the roof back, slow down even more, and let in the scenery. I cannot get past the seat height/clutch pedal relationship in any 500, so I'd like to try an automatic transmission. This car can't get much slower, right? At least the folding cloth top distracted me from the ergonomics for a little while.

Technically, the new Fiat 500e electric vehicle will make its formal debut at the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show later this month, but since the electro-Cinquecento will also appear alongside the "green carpet" of the American Music Awards this weekend, Fiat decided to release a few images ahead of schedule.

"I think once the novelty of having a Fiat wears off, this car will rapidly stop accumulating miles," predicted senior web editor Phil Floraday twelve months ago, just days after the Fiat 500 showed up at our old office.

Elon Musk merely dreamed of building rockets and electric cars, the front-passenger air bag wasn't yet mandatory, and the euro currency didn't exist when Americans last had Italian speed on the cheap. Long past its Graduate-fueled prime, the Alfa Romeo Spider bowed out in 1994, and that was it for reasonably accessible Italian driving pleasure. Fiat had made an ambivalent effort to vend its wares before abandoning these shores a decade earlier, and the truth was that its cars hardly kept up with the Alfas even when modified by exhaust systems and other speed parts from the Abarth performance division.

The 1970s ushered in the econobox, and of all the cars that fit that descriptor, one was the true pioneer of the small cars we drive today: the Fiat 128. Although the Mini was the first popular transverse-engine, front-wheel-drive car, its gearbox was located in the engine's sump, a less-than-ideal arrangement that has not been used since. The Fiat 128 was the Italian automaker's first mainstream front-wheel-drive car, and its mechanical layout proved enduring, with the east-west-mounted engine driving the transmission off the driver's side.

A niche car, like the Fiat 500, doesn't have a lot of candidates for simple and straightforward comparisons. You can stretch to compare it to a car that's a little bigger or more expensive, or you can look at it next to some cars you'd usually skip, such as the Fiat's stable mate, the 500C.

It would be easy to leave the Fiat 500 in the box it was built for, labeled "a-freaking-dorable city car," but we keep things interesting by pushing the little critter to do tasks outside of its intended regimen.

The Fiat 500 is the archetypal city car, but can it double as a comfortable highway cruiser? If spaciousness isn't a main concern, the Fiat is actually pretty good after going down an on-ramp.

The 500 Abarth has 58 percent more power and 73 percent more torque than the 500 on which it's based, but halfway through my evening with the Abarth, I was not thinking that the car was 58 percent better than the base model. I was wondering if Fiat had made the car better at all.

For us, there are few better ways to relieve stress than by taking a car to the ragged edge of its abilities.

Were you thinking that a high-performance, Abarth variant of the Fiat 500 might render the 500 Sport model superfluous? Yeah, so were we. But we wanted to withhold judgement until we had a chance to drive the Abarth and the 500 Sport back-to-back. Now we have, and opinions are divided.

Smallness is a key aspect of the Fiat 500's attractiveness, the same way no one would think a Papillion the size of a mastiff was cute. But spend half a year with a car this petite, and you're bound to notice the nitpicky inconveniences that go hand-in-hand with extreme downsizing.

Maybe you've admired the plucky little Fiat 500, with it art-object design and European sensibilities. But if you've also found it a little too cute, too soft, or too slow to seriously consider, then you'll want to know about the Fiat 500 Abarth. The Abarth addresses each those reservations in a very convincing way.

The Fiat 500 may be a spunky and convenient hatchback, but its Achilles heel is that, well, it's quite small. No more: Fiat has unwrapped a new, larger 500 at the Geneva Motor Show, called the 500L.

What’s small, yellow, and vaguely looks like a 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth? That would be the new 2012 Fiat 500 Mopar Stinger, which is available by way of two dealer-installed packages offered through Chrysler’s Mopar parts and service brand.

There's more to the Fiat 500 than stylish sheet metal and a tiny footprint. It also has an attractive interior.

Things that are fun usually aren't completely safe: playing with fire, messing with Sasquatch, skydiving, hanging out with West Coast editor Jason Cammisa, and bull fighting are all prime examples.

If you've been following our Four Seasons Fiat 500's assimilation into our fleet, you read last month that the cutesy car started stirring up some pretty negative comments.

That Fiat was looking to bolster its two-car North American portfolio with the high-performance 500 Abarth wasn't a secret, but there was one mystery surrounding the car: exactly what model was coming stateside: the standard car, or the hopped-up 500 Abarth esseesse?

The retro movement in car design has been going strong for the last several years, buoyed by the success of such cars as the Mini Cooper and the Chevrolet Camaro. The movement's newest member is the Fiat 500, a tiny Italian car that harks back to the original 1957 model. The new Cinquecento (which is Italian for 500) has managed to keep the classic look even as it has grown larger and been updated for modern drivers. The American 500 is a lightly massaged European model with what Fiat calls necessary tweaks for American customers: a stronger suspension, wider seats, and more cupholders. Inside you'll find modern technology with a retro feel: behind the two-tone dash is available Sirius satellite radio and a voice-activated Bluetooth-linked infotainment system. Under the hood is Fiat's 1.4-liter four-cylinder MultiAir engine, which is good for 101 hp. That may not sound like much, but the engine only has to move about 2400 pounds, so the 500 has relatively brisk performance and returns decent, if not stellar, fuel economy. For drivers who don't want three pedals, the optional six-speed automatic can be manually shifted, and it has a sport mode that adds a little bit of spice to the driving experience. Although the 500 is designed to seat four passengers, rear legroom measures just under 32 inches, which means space is tight. The benefit is that, at 139.6 inches, the 500 will fit into almost any kind of parallel parking spot.