OH HAI! Wow, guess I haven't been on the forums for a few days. Work got a tad busier and I'm trying to finish a library book (new title, 2 week loan with no renewal). Also, wife and I picked up an unwholesome addiction to Orcs Must Die 2. For instance last night we stayed up until almost 2am doing an endless map. First try on that map, and got to level 28. Anyways, here are some of my random thoughts on the Fiat 500 Abarth.
We have had it now for a few days past 2 months, and we still like it. The best part of the purchasing decision was that the primary driver (wife) likes it. IMO that trumps all other recommendations or "better on paper."
Just a reminder of the exact stuff we got, which is a 2013 Fiat 500 Abarth in Rosso (red) with these options:
1) Leather seats in red/black
2) Beats Audio
3) Comfort/convenience group (auto AC, heated seats, SiriusXM 1 year)
4) Black mirror caps with body side stripes
5) Hyper Black 17" forged wheels
It was a car that was already on the lot. What we had envisioned was the same thing, minus #3 and #4, plus with the white wheels and not black. In retrospect we feel black to be a better wheel color choice, and the comfort/convenience group isn't bad either. The black mirror caps with body side stripes? Still think it a waste of money. We negotiated to $23,200 (inclusive of delivery fee) before tax/title. We financed it with 0% down for 48 months at 1.79% APR, or something like that. Bought it from Ziegler of Shaumburg (some Chicago suburb). Dealer was... meh. Salesperson was really pushy and wouldn't even let us test drive an Abarth (but would the normal and Turbo models). That is normally a complete turn-off, but we had already test driven it previously. We just wanted to listen to the Beats Audio. Ziegler apparently orders all Abarth models with Beats Audio, but we've found some other dealers who do not order ANY with Beats Audio. why we ended up buying was their willingness to deal as long as it was something they already had on their lot. Feel free to hit up
Fiat's web site to build with our options. I get $27,250 for our zip code.
Seats are comfortable, but the seating position is odd compared to most other cars. You sit fairly upright, more like an SUV. I'm accustomed to sporty sedans. Wheel doesn't telescope, and feels a bit far for me. Clutch pedal (remember, currently only available in manual) is really light - makes the WRX clutch feel super heavy. Shifter is strange, mounted up kind of high on the dash and with the pivot point really high. Short shifter or shifter weight kits are popular cheap'n'easy mods to make it feel better. We may do that some day. Rear seats are actually okay. We've had a rear seat passenger a number of times already and no complaints since they aren't tall.
😀 Fiat does not include rear floor mats. Would cost around $40 for custom fit ones, so I spent $10 for a generic set and trimmed them to fit. Rear hatch area is super small, made smaller by the Beats Audio subwoofer (strangely looks like an 8" sub with a 6" grill - for reals!). Still can hold a number of grocery bags. Climate control works well, and our first satellite radio is quite novel. Aux radio inputs (3.5mm, USB) are in the glove box. One quirk with the driver seat is that it sometimes doesn't stay clicked in place. Seems to be some design issue as I've read about it in Fiat forums, and the local service department confirmed it an issue that can't be "fixed." The "fix" is to readjust it until it no longer "clicks" under acceleration/cornering. Doesn't happen every time, and it is only because we change drivers often so we are often fiddling with the adjustments. Once it is "fixed" it stays that way unless someone adjusts the seat again.
Power is decent. I have come to appreciate the "slow car driven fast" idea. I still like MOAR POWAH but it isn't bad. Some of the faster published times put it in the mid to high 6s range for 0-60. There are some outlier 7s range numbers published, but I'm wondering if those reviewers didn't know about the "Sport" button. It makes a huge difference in how the car drives. Steering gets a bit weightier and supposedly torque goes up by 20lbs/ft but HP stays the same. Also, throttle response improves significantly. Speaking of, a popular mod for this vehicle is an in-line throttle response modifier. Most evident in normal mode, basically the first 1/2 of the gas pedal travel feels (to me, who normally drives a MS6/WRX with more than 100HP over the Abarth) as if it does absolutely nothing. I'm exaggerating, but only slightly. "Sport" mode seems to reduce the dead zone to 1/4 pedal travel. The pedal modifiers
(example) doesn't increase power, but just makes the vehicle feel more responsive. I'm considering this mod. Another mod is an ECU piggyback.
Supposedly the Abarth engine can put out around 200HP safely with nothing more than the ECU upgrade. Think about that - 200HP in a 2500 pound car! I think about it all the time. :$
Our ownership experience has not been 100% perfect. Besides the seat "clicking" issue mentioned earlier, we had a CEL a week ago just driving down the freeway. Tried to take it back to Ziegler after phoning them and making an appointment, only to be told they didn't have a record of my appointment. That's after driving over an hour and paying tolls! I was sooooo pissed off. Made a phone appointment for our local dealer and they were really good about getting me taken care of. Ziegler owes us a free oil change (they give first one away) but I don't think I'm ever going back. Regarding the CEL, it supposedly reported that it momentarily lost communications with sensors, whatever that means.
Other interesting info and thoughts... really short wheelbase and rough ride (Abarth is also slightly lowered from other 500 models) means it handles as you would expect, with all the good and bad that it implies. Highway driving is actually not bad, but it has a tendency to follow grooves in cement highways. Might be the tread on the stock run-flats. I remember experiencing that in the past with certain tires. Speaking of run-flats, you don't get a spare tire. You get an electric pump and a tube of TPMS-safe goop. Supposedly a replacement bottle of goop costs $75 from the dealer.
😱 The exhaust noise. Love it, but it can drone. It would appear that the Abarth does not have a muffler. I looked underneath the car and a pipe goes from the engine to the "Y" right before the tips. Car
can be quiet when not under boost. Actually, when it was new it ran noisy all the time, with a happy burble even idling. That went away after the break-in period. Rather, I got tired of babying it (keeping it under 4000RPM-ish), and I floored it. After that it ran a heck of a lot better. :sneaky: So, that's anecdotal evidence in favor of NOT bothering to break in a modern engine. I've read many internet arguments in favor of or against a "break-in" period. I think manufacturers are tacitly acknowledging that it isn't really needed these days by only recommending a few hundred miles of break-in. That's like the ol' 3000 mile oil change. The Abarth requires synthetic and the manual says "don't go over 10,000 miles between oil changes." And yes, we got our first oil change at 3500 miles because the oil wasn't looking clear anymore, and the dealer put a sticker for our next one at 6500 miles.
😡 Supposedly the car will estimate your service schedule based on the first 500 miles after an oil change, and pop up an oil change reminder message somewhere between 3500 and 9500 miles. It doesn't actually know the condition of the oil, but only estimates it based on how hard (or not) you drive during that initial period. You still need to check the oil periodically, especially for levels.
Fiat is trying to build some excitement over the brand. Next week I'm going to the
Autobahn Country Club for a
Fiat track day. It is free for Abarth owners, and they provide a fleet of Abarths to drive, along with food and instruction for the day. They also mail out a welcome kit, which includes an Abarth scorpion USB drive. It is merely 1GB and USB 2.0, but it looks nice and has a metal housing. In fact, for some reason we got mailed TWO of the welcome kits, so we have two USB drives. They look like this:
Hmmm, that picture seems to show USB 3.0 since it has the extra contacts, but ours do not have those. Maybe they're just trying to get rid of the old versions?
Last thing I want to mention for now is gas mileage. It has a 10.5 gallon tank and EPA ratings of 28/34. Low fuel indicator comes on around 9-9.5 gallons. Fiat says 87 octane minimum, 90 (or was it 91) required. We're accustomed to getting 93 octane premium at our local Sam's Club so that's what we use in it. AFAIK Sam's/Costco doesn't do mid-grade. We use trip-B for our average gas mileage, and tend to reset it every fill-up. The estimate we are given seems a reasonable ballpark. I've seen under 20MPG (for several miles ongoing) through, ahem, enthusiastic driving. I've also seen several miles of around 55MPG for being stuck behind a truck going a constant 40-45MPH in 5th gear. My wife usually averages around 33-34MPG for an entire tank of gas with liberal use of the Sport button, and 34-36MPG sans Sport button. Her driving is 90% highway. With similar 90% highway I usually see closer to 31-32MPG. I usually do more city driving than she does, however, and I usually get 26-30MPG with more like 90% city driving. I have gotten a really nice 36MPG once for an entire tank of 90% highway driving, with the first 20 miles averaging 42MPG! I got that because of traffic flowing at around 50-60MPH and without the Sport button. Highway mileage can be that variable, depending on speeds and speed fluctuation. Whenever you have to accelerate of course, you go into boost (there is a boost gauge). ALSO, if you go over around 60-65MPH you go into boost. Under hard acceleration it can boost to... dunno, around 15-20 on the gauge. At 60MPH constant speed there is zero boost. At 70MPH there is steady "6" or so boost. Thus, if your highway speed is higher, your mileage will suffer greatly. On the flip side if highway speed is low, mileage can be significantly higher than EPA rating. It all comes down to staying out of boost.
tl;dr 9/10 Would purchase again.
