Would you buy a McDonald’s burger meal, repackage it and then serve it on a expensive hand-painted porcelain platter (which was gilded by under-aged workers in the backstreets of Calcutta) and serve it to customers at your Michelin rated Dorchester based restaurant? If you are a Michelin starred chef then of course not. Would you walk into a Tiger enclosure wearing a blind fold and expect to walk out the other-side without being attacked? No of course you wouldn’t. But if you work at Fiat you would, blind folding your self and serving a 99p burger in a 5 star restaurant would be a walk in the park. That’s what Fiat have done with the god forsaken 124 Spider, they blind folded themselves and killed the spirit of the original and what we essentially have is a plaster to cover a gaping wound. The wound is Fiat’s lack of self-belief. A lack of self-belief that Fiat can design and build a two seater sports car from the ground up and pay honour to what the original 124 Spider represented, a purity of Italian design and engineering at its best. The 2016 124 Spider is a re-bodied Mazda MX-5, the 124 is even built in the same production plant alongside the MX-5 in Japan. And you know what? I would rather be served that £1 McDonald’s burger at the Dorchester than ever get behind the wheel of this corporate entity. Fiat is now ruled by the law of accountants and its products are sold by marketing departments and the story of how great it is, is told by PR departments. The 124 has lost the essence that marketing and PR can never hide, that ‘something’. That ‘something’ is undefinable but when you see the 1960’s 124 Spider it has that ‘something’ you don’t need a brochure or a stupid PR man telling you (or in the case of Fiat shouting) how great it is you just know by looking at. And even if it isn’t great your mind will over look the faults because of that ethereal ‘something’. The new 124 Spider has lost that ‘something’, it looks stupid, it’s marketed by stupid people and it’s story is told by stupid people. And the stupidest thing is motoring journalists are telling you a story in their reviews that this Frankenstein creation is brilliant. In reality motoring hacks don’t want to upset Fiat for fear of being blacklisted and not having a press car for a week. The truth is the 124 Spider is brilliant thanks to Mazda. The 124 Spider is a cost cutting exercise, it’s as about Italian as a Nazi invasion force or Russian Ultras. The 124 Spider’s heritage has been blemished by accountants and it’s story has been miss-sold and that’s why it is the worst car of the week.