Never driven one but are they "a million miles" from a 1.2 500 with regard to handling,brakes and power.They dont look bad on paper for around £13K new after discounts.

They are completely different, having had a 500 Pop for a week while some bits were fixed on my A500 after I bought it, I can say they are night and day, performance, ride, handling, noise, brakes, personality etc all very different.

Does anyone know why Arnold Clark has so many pre reg Abaths?

Cos that's what Arnold Clark do, they seem to mostly sell pre-reg cars.

I owned the base Abarth model, in normal mode it was ok, not really that special,in sport mode it was fantastic, it really was a joy to drive.
The ride is firmer than the normal 500, but the seats are very good. It is very refined car to drive you would really need to be a fool to put it in a ditch.

When i first went to the dealer to look at one, the salesman said you need to have a test drive,
It was quickly arranged and they just gave me the keys told me to put it in sport mode and i had to pay for any tickets i picked up.

When i returned to the dealer i gave the keys back to the salesman and told him that was the best sales pitch i had ever had.

And then i bought one
.

Ps my only regret,was not buying one with leather seats.

Pps don't buy this one
www2.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201506204484058?page=1&postcode=b775lu&radius=1500&channel=cars&colour=white&model=500&sort=atcustom&maximum-mileage=up_to_1000_miles&search-target=usedcars&maximum-age=up_to_1_year_old&onesearchad=used%2Cnearlynew%2Cnew&make=abarth&logcode=p

Then i can still dream.

I moved from a 1.2 lounge to a 160bhp and I love it!
Everything is better, ride (less bouncy), noise levels, power, braking, power (again).... But I would have bought it for the looks alone.
The only issue I have with it is that everyone wants to race me!

has been bookmark, this seems like a very interesting thread

Seagull said:

I moved from a 1.2 lounge to a 160bhp and I love it!
Everything is better, ride (less bouncy), noise levels, power, braking, power (again).... But I would have bought it for the looks alone.
The only issue I have with it is that everyone wants to race me!

Click to expand...

And that's a problem....not !

It is when you are a bit past the boy racer stage like me...
So I whizz off the line up to speed limit and then ease off and let the audis and bmws do 100 on the motorway

Seagull said:

It is when you are a bit past the boy racer stage like me...

So I whizz off the line up to speed limit and then ease off and let the audis and bmws do 100 on the motorway

Click to expand...

How are you finding the MTA btw?

Much better than the dualogic, but I do find that in my morning commute where I am often doing 50ish in traffic on the motorway I have to put it in manual to stop it hunting up and down between 4th and 5th. Lovely snappy gear changes though, and the gear selector buttons do attract a bit of attention when people look through the window!

As we like the 500 but not the 1.2 engine an Abarth could be my last chance with Fiat.I would say it must be the fastest new car for around £12 grand ish.
Maybe the Suzuki Swift Sport can be had for similar money.

Just beware the options list..... Lol

Well..from what i can say - its like a very angry mean machine. I'm inlove with the Abarth and will buy one as soon as i can

auditt said:

As we like the 500 but not the 1.2 engine an Abarth could be my last chance with Fiat.I would say it must be the fastest new car for around £12 grand ish.
Maybe the Suzuki Swift Sport can be had for similar money.

Click to expand...

The Abarth looks are amazing, you will love the drive especially coming from a 1.2. do it !!

We were very close to buying A500 with MTA last year but pulled out last minute as had to change the other car first. So we still have the TA, an older 4x4 and a new crossover on order for Sep, didn't go for the 500x.

Thanks for replies.If we go for one will be going for a pre-reg as dont want to be paying list plus options.There seem to be a fair number of 15 plates around so they should be even cheaper next month.

Seagull said:

It is when you are a bit past the boy racer stage like me...
So I whizz off the line up to speed limit and then ease off and let the audis and bmws do 100 on the motorway

Click to expand...

That's what I did when I had mine, but I had to change my front tyres at 8,000 miles.:devil:

I love our Abarth 500 but there are a couple of things I don't like about it.

Seating position is far too high. I sit higher in the 500 that I do my Jag or any other car I've owned.

Suspension is very, very hard. I like hard suspension, I had coilovers on my old Punto GT, but the Abarth 500 suspension is solid. More solid than my old 320d with M Sport suspension and runflat tyres. Great for a nice smooth track, not so much for British B roads.