I admit, I'm a little intrigued. And I already loved the 500 just because. It's so tempting to go put a reservation on one- I don't really need it, but it just looks like so much fun....

I'd be curious to hear what others think of it, now that it's getting a bit closer to launch.

 

I like them. But then again I like quirky cars that get no real love. lol

 

Lol- I have the same problem!

 

I'm more or less planning on getting one. Black with black wheels. But, I'm a year or so away from replacing the 8 as a DD. A Focus ST or a Dart SRT might be nice too.

 

The Abarth brand hasn't been in the U.S. for over 30 yrs. I don't know how many people will relate it to performance.

 

They have been around in the uk for a while and there everywhere. there cute little cars. they do essesse version with 160 brake. i'd go for that one. even come in satin black with black wheels with a dark gray stripe!

There is an abarth garage close to me. every time i go past they have a new fleet of cars.

 

They aren't bad looking. My mom asked me what I thought of them, but in that way that kind of hinted she was unsure. I think a lot of people in the US will see it as a new brand and approach it with caution. They don't realize they've been established in other regions as a good company.

The thing I like most is that it's exposing the idea of smaller cars and giving more options. I think it would be good to slow down the "bigger is better" idea that many people have in the US. The fact that we (not literally, but close enough) all own our own car and all drive everywhere we go seems crazy to a lot of other countries. Then you add the fact that we prefer larger cars and it actually seems kind of ridiculous.

 

fwiw Jeremy Clarkson likes em'....

 

They are underpowered for the hill country. and I checked around. cant find one with leather interior. Sucks....not interested on getting one, just curious though if they make one in black leather.

 

FWIW I had an X1/9 in the '70s, it was kind of slow compared to the RX7, 240-280Z, and a few others, but it was the most fun car I ever had. And I've owned RX7, 911, Merkur XR4ti, and many others. If it has the soul of the Fiats of yore, I'm willing to bet it will be a blast.

 

They're worse than the direct competitor, the Cooper S, performance wise. The interior is nice but it's still based on a Fiat Panda. This makes the car extremely overpriced for what it really is.

 

I had the opportunity to drive a Fiat 500 sport on the race track this past weekend and I was pretty impressed with it. Mostly because it comes with options that I wish Mazda had built into the Mazda2 such as a rear sway-bar and 4-wheel disc brakes.

The car was pretty nimble and sports roughly the same weight and horsepower as the Mazda2. The car has around 86whp and weighs about 2,400 pounds.

I'm pretty sure the Abarth would be a riot to drive sporting more power and IIRC it had a few light weight parts on it.

The only issue for me would be price. The sport costs around $21,000 MSRP so I imagine the Abarth will be much more. Problem is you can get the Speed3 for a similar price which makes a lot more power, is much more practical and can be easily tuned for upgrades.

 

Honestly if I wanted a light small car right now it would be mini S or brz when they hit

 

I have my eye on that BRZ myself. Subie website says spring 2012, but the dealers I talked to don't know a thing about it. (big shocker, I know)

 

FIAT 500 is just lame, sorry. I don't see the attraction at all.

 

^ JLo drives em

 

Yeah in LA, and her body double goes to the Bronx to drive it

 

^ Me thinks you misspelled 'booty'... booty double

 

Same

Been eying this thing lately and while style wise it's o.k. with a wide body it looks quite good...plus check out this lil bugger....holy *bleep*!

http://tuningcarsblog.net/618-this-i...at-500-abarth/

I'd love to splurge on something like that

 

Speaking of Fiat. The new 500L. Yuck.

 

I owned a 850 Coupe back in the early seventies. Not a lot of power but fun to drive and I actually liked the interior a lot.

 

Yuck, not for me.

 

It was an amazing little car, I actually like it a lot but it's becoming pretty rare.
My mother had an x1\9 and several 500s in her youth, my mechanic and buddy owns another green x1\9 and several race prepped 128s.
Fiat made really interesting cars back then, even the Panda from the 80s is a model for reliability.
There's a lot of talk about Fiat's multi air engines but the blocks are incredibly similar to these units i'm talking about

I wouldn't own a fiat today though, be it a fiat, lancia or alfa.

 

The little car handled great because it was so light. I drove the hell out of it and never had a mechanical issue.

 

They were tough little machines. The scary part is that they were letal at speeds as low as 15mph!
I would probably like driving one as a daily driver just as much as a SUV would like to transform me into canned meat inside of it..