(G) Best Hint yet at Abarth Price???

Whilst on the Autoexpress website I noticed this article about the new KA.

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/au...-is-ready.html

It talks about an ST version of the KA with 150Bhp based on the 1.4 from Fiat. Starting at £12K OH PLEASE BE TRUE!!!

price at bottom of article.

when AE first mentioned the 500 they qouted 6k as a starting price

Don't rain on my parade Mr Moderator

Whatever Auto Express says is always wrong.

Was in Sainsbury's this morning and flicking through Top Gear Magazine for June.(OK, I ended up buying it) There are 2 very positive articles about the 500. One is an article about the 500 diesel and the other is about the Abarth. They have quoted the asking price for the Abarth as being £12500.

They also reckon it was Ford's idea for Fiat to produce the Abarth, when they were working with Fiat on the new Ka.

Top Gear magazine gave the 500 Diesel 17 out of 20 and called it an absolutely fantastic car (as if we didn't know that already!)

What a load of BS. No manufacturer tells it's competitor to produce a car that they think will be genuinely successful. I think on that basis everything written in that article should be disregarded Auto Express style.

Oh dear . . . . . . .

If you were Ford would you tell Fiat to build a car you think would be successful?

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ... oh, sorry, did you say something. Oh, nodded off again. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

Yes if there was a common interest, for example building a car each on a shared platform where one manufacturer is building a car for the other. Both have to gain through development and sharing of information.

Fair point But still car manufacturers aren't in the business of doing each other favours if you get what I mean

On the contrary - the whole point of shared platforms is to do each other a favour at a corporate level.

The fact that Ford persuading Fiat to build an Abarth version would mean that they themselves gain access to the revised engine for their own purposes, without Fiat's interest in the development they themselves would get only the standard 3 engines (and the ultra economy when it arrives).

I think the expression is enlightened self-interest...

True enough but shared platforms is about shared cost. The t-jet engines used in the Abarth were already there and if Ford wanted to I'm sure Fiat would have put them in if Ford was paying the right amount of money. I doubt Ford will get the 2 cylinder engine for at least a year after it arrives.