Pink Fiat 500 for Barbie is the Ultimate Chick Car

(MoneyWatch)  Fiat has made the ultimate "chick car," if you'll pardon the throwback expression.

The chick car in question is a lipstick-pink Fiat 500, built for Mattel's Barbie doll, in honor of Barbie's 50th birthday this year.

Fiat built an actual car for the occasion, which will appear at various Barbie birthday celebrations, starting with an appearance earlier this week in Milan, the world capital of high fashion.

Cute cars are a serious topic in the U.S. market nowadays, as I stated earlier in this space, due to concerns about gas prices and the recession. By necessity, car shoppers are downsizing their budgets, but they are having more trouble downsizing their expectations.

Americans in particular associate "small" with cheap and inexpensive. Car companies are trying to get around that by introducing small cars with expressive styling and upscale options. The hope is that Americans will be willing to pay more of a premium price for them than they're used to paying for small cars.

There are plenty of recent examples, such as the Nissan Cube, the upcoming Chevy Beat, the Smart fortwo, the Volvo C30, the Mini Cooper, the entire Scion brand, not to mention the Volkswagen Beetle. Now that Fiat is entering a partnership with Chrysler, maybe the Fiat 500 will come to the United States, too.

To use the male-chauvinist term, there's a danger that these could all be "chick cars." That is, a quote-unquote "real" man wouldn't be caught dead driving them. You might think that's OK, but the other auto industry truism associated with the "chick car" phenomenon is that "Chicks won't drive chick cars, either." That is, getting pigeon-holed as "too" cute can be bad for both sexes.

For myself, I like most of the cars that fit the cute-car category, except the Beetle. That's because the Beetle has a huge dashboard I don't like. It could accommodate two extra-large pizzas. I wouldn't buy the C30, the Mini or the Smart, either. I would love to own any of them, but for me personally, they're too expensive for what they are.

If ever there was a car you could safely call a chick car, the Barbie Fiat 500 is it. Besides the glossy, pink exterior, it has glittery, plush, pink upholstery; floor mats with silk yarns; lip glosses stored in the glove compartment; crystals on the hubcaps, outer window moldings and antenna; and an outline of Barbie's silhouette on the pillars.

If you look at the attached photo, that's an actual, living model, who looks an awful lot like the Barbie doll. All I will say is, those shoes don't look very comfortable. Toy cars modeled on the original will go on sale, "at a retailer near you," to coin a phrase.