Hi

I'm really anxious to find out the on sale date for the new 500 Abarth. Ive tried making a few phone calls and sending couple of emails but to no avail. I mustn't be talking to the 'right' people.

Cud anyone please tell me the expected date of sale and whether there is likely to be a waiting list (plus which dealers to get in touch with).

Its a cracking little car and I wud luv to at least see one in the flesh before the summers out.

Thanks

I was told by my dealer that only certain dealers will have the privilege of demoing/selling these particularly ones in London.?

Gill
@Sinclaire

10 dealers for the UK.

Mark Elvin said:

10 dealers for the UK.

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Thanks Mark. Wud you be able to direct me towards a list of them.

Having trawled the net and made a few enquries, Im none the wiser as to sale dates and likely demand (ie waiting list)

Cheers again

It may be worth havin a word with Simon Kerr at Wessex garages, GLOS

Mark Elvin said:

It may be worth havin a word with Simon Kerr at Wessex garages, GLOS

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Thats great. Will giv him a bell so. Thanks.

theAtoZ said:

Hi

I'm really anxious to find out the on sale date for the new 500 Abarth. Ive tried making a few phone calls and sending couple of emails but to no avail. I mustn't be talking to the 'right' people.

Cud anyone please tell me the expected date of sale and whether there is likely to be a waiting list (plus which dealers to get in touch with).

Its a cracking little car and I wud luv to at least see one in the flesh before the summers out.

Thanks

Click to expand...

If you want one this year I suspect you might be **** out of luck

The UK gets everything later. I reckon you'll see them here early next year or late this year

306maxi said:

If you want one this year I suspect you might be **** out of luck

The UK gets everything later. I reckon you'll see them here early next year or late this year

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Thanks for the info.

I'm hoping your wrong by about 6months...how reliable are your sources...!

If its the case, than its a kick in the teeth....

theAtoZ said:

Thanks for the info.

I'm hoping your wrong by about 6months...how reliable are your sources...!

If its the case, than its a kick in the teeth....

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This is one site I've seen.

http://abarthuk.com/category/uk-abarth-dealers/

To be fair it was only a month or so ago that the 500 Abarth debuted in Geneva so to be expecting it in Summer is perhaps a little ambitious although I'd be happy to be proven wrong

Some people are even talking about the 500 Abarth only being out in the new year in LHD and RHD forms. The problem is no one really knows. There are people saying that they heard that the head honcho at the Tychy plant has said Abarth's won't be rolling off the lines till next year. Lots of rumours and no official statements from Fiat or dealers mean we're all just speculating

theAtoZ said:

Thanks Mark. Wud you be able to direct me towards a list of them.

Having trawled the net and made a few enquries, Im none the wiser as to sale dates and likely demand (ie waiting list)

Cheers again

Click to expand...

As stated in the link I posted above Mangoletsi seems to be one as well.

306maxi said:

As stated in the link I posted above Mangoletsi seems to be one as well.

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Cheers for that man.

Appreciate the help. Im free from college for the summer, maybe i shud head off to the factory and giv them a hand to get things moving. Failing that, i'll just steal the show car..!!

Hi, Production of the Abarth version has been delayed, due to the large
volume of sales of the general 500 models. Even Fiat seem to be surprised by
the initial high sales figures !

Alfie500 said:

Hi, Production of the Abarth version has been delayed, due to the large
volume of sales of the general 500 models. Even Fiat seem to be surprised by
the initial high sales figures !

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I'm guessing that Fiat is making enough of a profit out of 500 sales considering the price of the options and the fact that a lot of the cars on this forum seem to be specced out and options are where the real profits are on cars.

theAtoZ said:

Wud you be able to direct me towards a list of them.

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They've not been announced yet, so unless someone that works at each of the ten happens to read this thread and posts their dealership's details you won't get one

(Although if suitably bribed I could tell you of at least two that are definitely going to be... )

306maxi said:

I reckon you'll see them here early next year or late this year

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Most likely the former

306maxi said:

I'm guessing that Fiat is making enough of a profit out of 500 sales considering the price of the options and the fact that a lot of the cars on this forum seem to be specced out and options are where the real profits are on cars.

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The price of options is very reasonable. The profit margin is obviously small and they make money on volume...sorry but £250 for CC and £200 for hill holder esp etc plus other similar options is very very reasonable. Especially when you take a look under the hood and see the quality, solid build of the compact little engine.

I've seen these options for double, triple the price at other marques.

Baerius said:

The price of options is very reasonable. The profit margin is obviously small and they make money on volume...sorry but £250 for CC and £200 for hill holder esp etc plus other similar options is very very reasonable. Especially when you take a look under the hood and see the quality, solid build of the compact little engine.

I've seen these options for double, triple the price at other marques.

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With all due respect that's rubbish

£50 for a leather gearknob? You could get a nice momo one for less
£100 for side stripes? Hmmmm
£100 to paint the calipers? £5 of hammerite would do the job just as well.
£50 for chrome mirrors?
£40 for key covers?
£40 for two badges for the side strips
£400 for a car cover. It is a cool idea but £400!!!!

And so on Now I'm not saying they're not worth it or anything as that's all up to personal preference but you're kidding yourself if you think that any of those things (bar the car cover) cost Fiat more than £10 to manufacture.

The leather and ESP are among the cheapest options available on any car. We can all propose diferent examples to suit our differing standpoints. This does not make an opposing point of view rubbish when siting different examples so lets hold fire on the emotive language..

A summary would be that the lifestyle options are not particularly cheap whereas the other options represent relatively good value

I suggest anybody who is convinced the 500 options are habitually overpriced checkout the Bini options catalogue

ensonricky said:

The leather and ESP are among the cheapest options available on any car. We can all propose diferent examples to suit our differing standpoints. This does not make an opposing point of view rubbish when siting different examples so lets hold fire on the emotive language..

A summary would be that the lifestyle options are not particularly cheap whereas the other options represent relatively good value

I suggest anybody who is convinced the 500 options are habitually overpriced checkout the Bini options catalogue

Click to expand...

I wasn't talking about the options being overpriced as that's a matter of opinion Some people might think £40 for two badges is a steal. But the profit margins will be obscenely high for that sort of thing.

If you read my post properly I was talking about profit margins and the fact that the cars that are being bought aren't just 1.2 pop's with no options which is why it's quite profitable at the moment for Fiat to keep on churning out the current range rather than putting the Abarth which one will assume will be a higher margin car into production.

Why is it that whenever you say something isn't
A) The 500 is great
B) Isn't the 500 the best?
C) Mini's suck
D) The 500 is the best car
E) Mini's suck
F) Isn't the 500 just great?

People think you're somehow attacking the 500 or something?

306Maxi The thing is as you have pointed out some of the options do appear to have huge margins in them but not all of them leather and the ESP as already pointed out are very reasonable when you compare them to other marques.

I don't think you were being attacked but you did point out some of the options where a big margin is there all Ensonricky did was point out some of the options where the margin was considerably smaller.