After four or five years of faithful service with our 500 Lounge (2008 model, 127,000km), I'm looking at an Abarth 500C tomorrow. It's quite a bit younger (2014) and lower kms (33,000).
I know there is an Abarth forum, but I wondered if any early Lounge drivers might have had the experience of the Abarth 500C and will know whether the suspension and ride quality is generally better, generally worse, or about the same?
We use our 500 for a mixture of around town and also some relatively long trips (now that we have moved to NZ's Bay of Plenty/Tauranga/Papamoa Beach), including a few fairly steep and winding roads where the 1.4 Lounge is working hard in 3rd gear.
The 'C' wouldn't have been our choice, but unfortunately a manual gearbox is not acceptable for us. The MTA (the Abarth name for Dualogic) appears to be only available in the C and not in the tin-top. Unless, of course, we tripled the price to get one of those Tributo versions.
I've read that supposedly the C has softer suspension than the standard car. I'd appreciate a bit more refinement on the somewhat rugged roads we have, but I guess the pitching and bouncing would be best removed as well, so just having soft suspension wouldn’t work.
Anyway, if anyone here has driven both the Lounge and the Abarth 500C, I'd appreciate your thoughts
Thanks,
-Alex
I know there is an Abarth forum, but I wondered if any early Lounge drivers might have had the experience of the Abarth 500C and will know whether the suspension and ride quality is generally better, generally worse, or about the same?
We use our 500 for a mixture of around town and also some relatively long trips (now that we have moved to NZ's Bay of Plenty/Tauranga/Papamoa Beach), including a few fairly steep and winding roads where the 1.4 Lounge is working hard in 3rd gear.
The 'C' wouldn't have been our choice, but unfortunately a manual gearbox is not acceptable for us. The MTA (the Abarth name for Dualogic) appears to be only available in the C and not in the tin-top. Unless, of course, we tripled the price to get one of those Tributo versions.
I've read that supposedly the C has softer suspension than the standard car. I'd appreciate a bit more refinement on the somewhat rugged roads we have, but I guess the pitching and bouncing would be best removed as well, so just having soft suspension wouldn’t work.
Anyway, if anyone here has driven both the Lounge and the Abarth 500C, I'd appreciate your thoughts
Thanks,
-Alex
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