A diminutive car with just four seats, four cylinders and a price tag under $20,000 is not the sort of vehicle likely to grace one of Leo Bunnin’s Ventura County GMC, Cadillac or Buick showrooms.

But it just might be the car that turns Bunnin’s impending purchase of a Santa Barbara County auto store into a lucrative venture.

The car is the Fiat 500, Europe’s Car of the Year for 2008 and a formidable compact competitor to the Mini, the Honda Fit or anything that Toyota wants to throw at it. And it appears to be part of the reason Bunnin has reportedly reached an agreement with owner Jim Crook to take over the Santa Barbara Jeep-Chrysler-Hyundai franchise in Goleta.

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