Don’t Blame Us If Your £1000 Fiat Boat Marriage Proposal Goes Wrong

The basic, mild-hybrid powered Fiat 500 is a chic, stylish, cheap-to-run city car, albeit one that’s getting on a bit at this point, and it starts at a very reasonable £16,800. For that, you’re getting one whole entire car – not a very big one, but one capable of doing most of the things most people require from four-wheeled transportation.

But, we hear you ask, what if I want something that looks like a 500, but need it to cut about at 24mph in gentle coastal waters, and cost almost six times as much? Well, good news: your prayers have been answered. You strange individual.

This is the ‘Car 500 Off-Shore’ and it’s not, despite what it looks like, the result of a terrible accident between a Fiat 500 and a pedalo. It is in fact a bespoke boat dreamt up by young Italian entrepreneur Antonio Pietro Maria Galasso, which takes the 500’s styling and makes it a bit more… seaworthy.

It makes 113bhp, which is actually a good chunk more than any current petrol 500 bar the Abarth versions. The nature of a small watercraft like this, however, means top speed is limited to 24mph. Which is probably enough.

Inside, it features a more water-resistant interpretation of the 500’s retro dash layout, as well as lots of leather and stainless steel. It seats up to five, and you can get it in two colour schemes – the blue-and-white Puglia Edition, or peachy pink Miami Edition. Staying true to those locations, you can rent a Car 500 Off-Shore in two locations – Positano, Italy and Miami, Florida.

Should you find yourself on a romantic getaway on Italy’s pretty Amalfi Coast, you can even book a marriage proposal package, in which you and your beau can motor away from the shore with champagne, music and a professional photographer to capture the moment you pop the question. That costs €1200, or around £1000, so you’d better really hope they say yes. Or that it’s refundable.

Should a rental not satiate your thirst for a small boat that resembles a small car, you can buy one of the 500 planned units yourself – for £96,780. Or a couple of hundred quid less than a brand new Porsche 911 Carrera. Look, we can’t tell you how to spend your money, and at any rate, 60 have apparently already been sold, so maybe we’re just not the target market.