The original suspension on the FIAT 500 is very crude. Basically the same as the Panda's with stiff springs and a twist beam between the two rear trailing arms. When Ford used the 500 as the basis for the Ka, it inserted a torsion bar into the rear twist beam, softened the rear springs and installed progressive rate rear dampers. These improvements were adopted by FIAT for the 500 Abarth and then for the 500C and were promised for 2010 500 production. I asked another reader who took delivery in mid October to check and his car still had the old suspension. I think the new suspension may come as a package with ESP and a price hike.