live in gloucestershire and want an abarth? bad luck!

after emailing abarth, i was informed that the nearest abarth dealer will be in Nuneaton!!!! thats about 50 miles plus away. i was expecting gloucester or swindon to get one, but no.

no way am i trekking that far - as i imagine servicing and more importantly warranty work will need to be done at an abarth dealer rather than regular fiat dealership. its something to bear in mind, its not just the purchase travelling distance.

pretty much rules the car out for me, not practical to travel that far. maybe if they allocate more over the next year or so might be different.

Give Wessex a call, they have an Abarth dealer in their group.

there will only be 1500 Abarth 500s available per year and if you are a true enthusiast a 50 mile journey will not be an issue

So where are all the Abarth dealerships then: anyone know?

This doesn't help you very much, but Rockingham Cars in Corby have their Abarth showroom completed and are just waiting for the cars. The red/white paint scheme looks good and the photo displays showing "old" Abarth models are worth a look. The interactive configurator widescreen needs a software upgrade but is working (sort of) and the red leather "racing" seats around the sales desk are excellent.

if it were just for the purchase then fine, but how about making trips like that during the week for a breakdown under warranty when you need the car for work?

and with fiat not exactly having a great reputation for customer service at the best of times, i dont want to add in the complication of this sort of distance for sorting out problems with a potentially highly strung car like the abarth.

not sure as in a list, but if you go to the abarth site listed a few posts above this, you can email them with your address and they'll tell your nearest - thats how i found out about nuneaton being the closest to cheltenham - what a joke!

Ha thats my nearest dealer!!!!! Mwahahahaha lol. Wish i had waited so i could have had one! Might go and have a look and post some pics up! nah nah!!!!!

Oh and another thing! The Abarth has just the same top speed and that of a 1.4 sport! And that has a higher BHP! hmmmmm now how does that work? Yeah it looks nice but for 4 grand less you can get a 1.4 6 speed that can do 120mph in 5th. does look sexy though i must admit! off i pop to look at one! hehe

7000 RPM is the same speed with 50 bhp as it is with 50000bhp. The difference is how quickly you get there.

i would love one! but im quite happy with my baby. if i had waited like i was going to then yeah, i would have had one as theres not much of a price differnce between mine and the abarth!

and the other thing to remember is that bearing in mind there'll be no discounts on this, then with options you'll be looking at least £14k for one, probably more.

...and for that money with the new car discounts now available, you can pick up a clio 197 cup, brand new, and have change, or a corsa vxr - brand new ive just picked these two out as ones that wipe the floor performance wise, probably even with the ss pack fitted at yet more expense. but you could pick out any car that retails for anything up to about £16k and get a new one of them instead of the abarth when it launches.

in fact, clio 197 cup is going for £12,444 on broadspeed right now, brand new! have to be a fool to pay £2k more for the abarth 500 over one of them lol


not saying i want either of them, but the fact is these cars are in a completely different league to the 500 abarth, however nice it is in looks and styling!

ok so maybe im looking for a silver lining to the cloud now ive decided not to get one, but thats a pretty damn big one

1.4 100HP Sport top speed = 113mph
500 Abarth top speed = 127mph

1.4 100HP Sport 0-62 = 10.5
500 Abarth 0-62 = 7.9secs

The Abarth will feel a lot quicker than the Sport, I had a Punto GT (130HP) and it was far quicker than my 500 Sport.

120mph??!! and in 5th? Man your pushing your car too far! Mine screams at 60mph in 5th!!!

Si

Gib, popped into the ABARTH dealership in Nuneaton this evening. Spoke to a guy called Martin whom on first acqaintance seemed as excited as we all are on here, which is encouraging. Its 5 mins from J3 of the M6, know its a long way from you but thought the info may be helpful.