has anyone driven a Fiat Abarth? If you did what was the experience like?

 

I owned one for a couple years. Fun little car. Hated the rear suspension and turning radius. Great little car for little money though.

 

The only good ones are the real ones and in Fiat land they were "spiders"

 

You're barking up the right tree.

 

Drove one for just a day. Loved it. A real hoot. Nice sound. This one had the cloth seats which I prefer over the leather as the leather seems over time to stretch and get "saggy."

I have an '06 MINI GP so I'm a big fan of the hot hatch category. The GP is a quantum leap over the Abarth in quality and performance, but at the Abarth's price point the fun-to-dollar ratio is hard to beat, if not impossible.

I keep coming back to the word "fun." Definitely puts a smile on your face. And here in So Cal there are some very aggressive deals to be had on these cars. Reliability would obviously be a question mark in my mind, but I don't follow these cars closely enough to know what ownership experience has been like.

 

I had a brand new 124 Spider in 1978. Beautiful car. Unfortunately it was almost impossible to repair because even the new factory parts were defective LOL!

 

The 78's had the 1800 engine but they also had the ugly and much heavier five mile an hour bumpers and unnecessary hood bumps and I think the fake wood dash. These cars were what we sold and my dad was an absolute wizard at repairing them, why his name was even Tony handy for the old joke. The Lampredi designed engines were ahead of their time with shim and bucket valve adjustment and twin overhead belt driven cams. As such many shops sucked at working on them, we repaired many a Fiat purchased elsewhere. Check this Abarth out, we wrenched on two of these, I wish I had one, today they are incredibly expensive; hand made Zagado aluminum body, often referred to as the "double bubble".

 

had a 74 914 2.0 in high school, my friend had a 2000 fiat the 914 was a superior car. I would take a boxster over a current Miata any day. Even a 718

 

914 was a great car, so was the much maligned 944, many Porsche purists hated that car for having four cylinders and a water pump, I loved mine wish I still had it.

 

I was a design student in Turin when these were being developed. On of my professors worked at Abarth and was involved (never figured out in what capacity), and he'd take us for drives in pre-production models. The thing was a blast around the old streets.

-Andrew

 

Steve let me know if you test drove one. I want to add something fun/inexpensive to drive around town and I have been focused on a Gen 1 Mini Cooper S but the Abarth is also on my radar. I see a ton of 2013 Abarth's on the market ranging from $10 - $13k which makes me wonder if people are dumping them due to being unreliable (out of warranty) or if they're just moving on.

 

I've owned a couple of later gen MINI S's (no Abarth experience) but while they were fun, I'd suggest looking at a Scion FR-S while you are at it. Cheap, stupid fun and reliable, at least in my experience.

 

I drove an Abarth expecting it to be a blast. Hated it.

 

The Abarth is a blast if you are in tight quarters. I rented one several times in SF and loved driving it in the city and around the surrounding hills.

Wouldn't be a great freeway monster but a ton of fun. Actually drove the oil out of one driving too hard around mountain roads.

Compared to the Abarth, the Mini is big and soft. Not impressed with its power at all. Engine feels like a de tuned 2.0T from VW. And don't get me started on that button below the accelerator on the auto models....

 

I have driven both Gen 2 and 3 Mini's and I didn't like either of them. The Gen 2 was ok but still not very sharp or light on its feet. The Gen 3 was downright awful IMHO, it felt like a marshmallow in every way. The shifter was sloppy and incredibly vague and the steering wasn't far behind. To say it was a disappointment is a major understatement. I'm thinking the Gen 1 is the one to have but I haven't driven one yet, I was suppose to test drive and buy one last week but it sold before I got to it.

I need to test drive the Abarth although if they can't handle any serious driving (mountain roads) that is a deal breaker for me.