But this tiny little wagon says life is a joke, big cities are too crowded, you people are all far too fast and you're going to have heart attacks, so you might as well have a laugh because it's all a silly game anyway. It's 37 years old and it still makes people, not just kids, point and laugh everywhere it goes.

Recognise it? There are only a few in the country. It's a 1961 Fiat 500 Giardiniera, or stationwagon. The Bambina saloon on which it is based is common enough but the wagon is most uncommon. The Nuova 500, the proper Fiat name for the Bambina, replaced the much-loved Topolino, or 'little mouse', and was made between 1957 and 1973. The wagon ran from 1960 to 1968 with three more years being built by a Fiat associate company, Autobianchi, who also built a beach buggy version of the Bambina. The Topolino was a big car shrunk to fit, with a four-cylinder motor at the front and rear wheel drive, but the Bambina and Giardiniera are rear-engined with only two cylinders. The Bambina's motor is upright, but Fiat tipped the wagon's motor over sideways to fit under the rear floor, giving a useful load area. The wagon's wheelbase is also a bit longer, giving perfectly adequate legroom for back seat passengers.

The sunroof is just the coolest thing on a summer day, unfolding over the front and back seats so everyone gets a tan. Big dogs can stick their heads out and you've got to stop children from climbing all over the thing.

Brian Mazey, who owns this little toy, also has three Bambina saloons but it's the Giardiniera that gets taken to work, to the lake, to the cafe -- out just for fun. He's had it 11 years, spending the first couple of years rebuilding it and getting it ready for the road. He overhauled the motor and took the opportunity to hot it up, from 500cc to 540cc. Doesn't sound like much? The extra capacity gives the Fiat the power to keep up with city traffic, to climb hills reasonably well, and to almost keep up with other cars at open road speeds.

When the Bambina was current, several firms offered tuning kits, bigger motors and so on. Abarth is the best remembered, along with Nardi and Steyr-Puch, and many owners worked on the cars themselves. Brian explains that he could have taken the motor out even bigger but stresses would have meant damage to axles and other mechanicals, so 540cc was enough of an improvement. Standard power and torque figures are 16kw at 4600 rpm and 35Nm at 3200 rpm, about as much as a good lawnmower. Brian's mini-hotrod wagon gives more, but hasn't been on the dyno or the drag strip to prove any points. Like Rolls-Royce used to say, the power is 'enough'. The gearbox is a real throwback to prewar days, with no synchromesh. In almost any other car this would mean double declutching with every gearchange, but the Fiat's revolving masses are so light that changes are quite simple and learning downward changes is only the work of a minute or two on the first drive. The wagon's doors are of the 'suicide' type, hinged at the rear, whereas the Bambina saloon changed to front- hinged doors during the model run.

And it's a small world. When we parked the Fiat at the cafe for our photo shoot, the proprietor first asked for the car to be shifted away from the tables, then he got chatting. It turned out that he was an Italian, and had worked for Fiat for 25 years, including on this very model. He said he was going home for a holiday shortly, and asked if Brian needed any parts for the Fiat, and offered to bring them back to New Zealand in his luggage. [You could just about bring back a complete car in a big enough suitcase.] But no thanks, Brian has two sheds full of parts, enough to fix or replace anything that might go wrong.

Decades ago, advertisements for several models of Fiat included the slogan "I'm having an Italian love affair". You could too.

Practical daily transport? Why not, the Giardiniera is seriously economical, with fuel consumption less than a medium-sized motorbike. Fashion statement? Definitely. Fun? Nothing gets as many laughs.