Fiat 500 / Abarth 500 owners on the forum?

[a340driver]

Another thread resurrection!

After a year or so looking at second hand, there seem to be many more manuals than autos about thank goodness. There's also a fixed glass half roof which cheers up the dark roof lining no end. The sun roof is ultra rare.

Leather is still quite rare. Sat nav and DAB don't exist.

Wheels seem to vary a lot, but they all seem prone to curbing considering it's such a small car.

They plummet in value for the first 15,000miles or 2 years. 11-12K seems to be the sweetspot for basic 500's just coming off finance deals and the standard varies enormously although strangely the prices don't. (new with finance they're around 18K!)

If you care about depreciation don't look at higher end models like 595's (it's a remap and a badge, optioning the minimal extra kit is cheaper). Although maybe the tributo editions hold their value better. Round here they sell those at the Ferrari dealership to people with Ferrari money.

Having driven a 595 manual today, I'm in love and I'm going to have to get one. There are so many different ones out there it may take a while to pick a pretty one.

If anyone is interested I'll post my experiences of the process.

If anybody has hands on experience of the cars I'd love to know more.

[pvr]

I have the Abarth 500C, but not the 595. Got a massive 8k miles on it now

Paid about 22k for mine, but is full leather, convertible which adds quite a bit.

[a340driver]

Very nice pvr.

The leather is a must for me, the canvas seats I've seen look very tired. I thought the basic seats were more comfortable than the sport seats in the 595 and they had height adjust!

I'm going to drive the convertible as well because I'm going to be driving on motorways and I need the sound level to be acceptable- I would prefer a convertible however.

I've owned several small Fiats before and the Abarth is the ultimate example of the marque. I've yet to see but the extra power of the 595 (160 vs 135) didn't amaze me. These sort of cars are more about handling than power surely? Today in and out of showers it certainly wasn't bothering the traction control too much, but it was huge fun!

Do you still enjoy it? Has it been reliable? What options do you wish you had bought and are there any that you wouldn't have bothered with?

I'd love to hear more from an owner

[El Taco]

Had a Abarth 595 imported by Radbourne Racing in the late 70s. Does that count?

[a340driver]

Ok, well the deed is done and I've already put 500 miles on it. Went against all my principles and bought a new one, but it was just so cool.
Introducing my 595C Turismo.......















We likes it, we does!

[pvr]

Looking good

One tip - when closing the roof. After you have closed it, press the close button once more. If you don't, the rear windscreen heater does not work. Yes, I know ...

[a340driver]

Ah, I've already spoken to the dealership about this. I was going to have to book it in but I'll try this first - Thanks.

I was also going to get them to look at why the passenger window will auto-down but not auto-up. Then I read the manual and found that it's a feature!!

Any other tips that you think of will be gratefully accepted!

[pvr]

When the roof is down, and you touch the boot open button, the roof will close half way so you can open the boot.

You can't close the roof above 60 mph (he says finding it out when it got freezing cold the other day on the M25 )

[a340driver]

Excellent, I discovered the same thing on the M4 yesterday!

Wasn't aware about the boot/roof interconnect though

[pvr]

You can't adjust the clock whilst driving hence me being still on winter time ....

[a340driver]

I tried messing with the menu button whilst moving and rapidly gave up...or I should say, My wife slapped me on the head. I suspect I'll be staying on BST.

[pvr]

Ah, you tried Blue & Me then

[pvr]

Not the convertible ones I think. I paid £22k for mine new, they were about £4k more than the hard top ones.

[a340driver]

Right! This is getting out of hand! I'm not driving my Zed anymore!

Since I bought the little Pearlescent 595c, Ive been driving it constantly (1030miles from 3) and I've been reminded how much fun FWD hot hatches are. This car is so much more controlled on back roads when you're making progress. It's twitchy but controllable in an entirely different way from the RWD cars I've driven for the last 15 years Of course 160bhp vs 340bhp is a big step down, but as it's such a small light car and you sit quite high, it feels really blooomin' quick! I'm really loving it.

Then of course there's the reason I wanted one in the first place. The SOUND. It sounds like a Dino at idle. When you start it from cold it sounds like an Aston Martin V8V then calms down to a small Ferrari after 3..4 minutes.

A friend with a Stag told me that his car's V8 sounded better than my Z4M's straight 6 and I had to agree.

Although I had to mention that mine sounded better at 8000rpm, a point he conceded!

Bottom line, which worries me, is that I haven't driven the Little Red Bastard since March. Other than taking it out from the garage for a clean and polish.

This is worrying. I thought the LRB would be my "keeper car", but maybe it's just the flush of new car love....

[projoy]

Hi sae the fiat 500 abarth is a grate little car didn't think I would buy a fiat but wife went out and bought the daughter a second hand a500

We all used this car and enjoyed driving it that much we went and got a brand new 595 competizione the ride is better with the uprated suspension stiffer and the sound from the record monza exhaust is fantastic if you on the tall side the sabelt seats do not adjust in hight