Hello all. Like many who have joined recently I have benefitted from your experiences this year as i decided to look at buying a 500...good work.

Convinced it was for me and especially having seen a few on the road I decided to take the plunge....then saw an early picture of the 500 Abarth and as soon as I could, put a deposit down.

Now I'm worried that the 500 Abarth may become/or appear a boy racer type car...I may be being a bit OTT here but do worry that many will "miss the point" and not get the heritage angle I am looking at.

Limited numbers may offset some of this but I can't help but think it may get bracketed with some of the "hot hatches" in the eyes of those who see it on the road, with this goes assumptions as to who will be behind the wheel.

Not an "age issue" and quite frankly I think you should drive what the hell you want, but.....views?

Not that you should worry about it but the perceptions of the motoring mases will inevitably be as you say.

Personally, I don't like to 'judge a book by it's cover', I know a lot of people who drive sensible cars like idiots, and vice-versa, people who drive quite sensibly but feel the need to have 'chav-mobiles'. I suppose you will always run the risk of being labelled a boy racer in certain types of cars, but those are more likely to be the VXR drivers than the 500 drivers.

I think generally most other non-fiat (read ignorant) drivers will be more taken with the overall cute factor of the 500 and will most likely not even realise you have an Abarth

who cares with 135hp you'll be out of sight and mind in a jifi

You should get what you want.

Whatever vehicle you drive you will be judged, even by people on here. Same with clothes, houses, jobs, etc.

The 500 is classed as a girls car, a gay car, ugly, etc. Just ignorance. Look at the cross section of 500 owners on here, one thing in common, we all liked it and to hell with the stereotype.

[email protected] said:

You should get what you want.

Whatever vehicle you drive you will be judged, even by people on here. Same with clothes, houses, jobs, etc.

The 500 is classed as a girls car, a gay car, ugly, etc. Just ignorance. Look at the cross section of 500 owners on here, one thing in common, we all liked it and to hell with the stereotype.

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Totally agree, buy whatever you want. We are far too image & 'label' conscious in the UK. Do chav's exist on the continent? :idea:

vindaloo said:

Totally agree, buy whatever you want. We are far too image & 'label' conscious in the UK. Do chav's exist on the continent? :idea:

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Well, where I originaly come from (used to be Yugoslavia, now sadly only Serbia) there are stereotypes aplenty: only criminals and people with murky sources of income drive Audis, 20-30 old Mercs are driven as taxis, idiots drive Hummers and ridiculously overpowered cars for city with medieval streets, everybody else drives old bangers (usually rusty Yugos). Not many types you could class as chavs though...

littlepip17 said:

who cares with 135hp you'll be out of sight and mind in a jifi

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unless you have a 197clio/ mini cooper.s /vxr corsa/ vts saxo/ fiesta st behind you that is^^^ all favorites of the boyracer brigade^^^ who are most likely to try to push for a race..
it will probably be the Abarth500 for me ( in white of course ) to match the other one, and as soon as a dealer appears near sheffield i'll be test diving one with a view to ordering ..
if thats what you want get it!! who cares what other people think. driving an abarth500 most people will only say "cooool" or "lucky bugger" anyway..

Whilst i dont fancy VXR types up my chuff everytime i head anywhere i do think the 500 does the go faster look nicely.
I was in Paris last week and saw several 500s looking very cool indeed as they whizzed about their business.

I think i will leave my deposit where it is. Thanks...

I wouldn't worry about it. People will generally like it. It looks good. There aren't going to be too many around, so it'll never really be a standard boy racer car in years to come.

Honestly, do you really worry about what other people think?

Remember to assume is to......

In all honesty, I'm not convinced of the heritage angle at all really. It seems like its mostly a marketing ploy, despite Fiat's attempts otherwise. But i don't mean to say its a bad car, far from it.

A boy racers car is your typical self modded corsa/clio/KA/MG zr (+rover equivalent) They put wheels on that look too big, BLACk their windows instead of tint them and stick a whacking great bodykit on that looked like it came as a free gift in a cereal box. Then to top it off the get it sprayed some gordy colour.

Now the Fiat 500 Abarth :yum: is a little hot hatch yes but none of the above is true. The styling is hardly subtle but its not IN-YOUR-FACE. The exhaust may not be quiet but it won't be the size of an industrial size tin-of-beans.

Boy Racer:


500 Abarth:


Easy to see which is a boy-racer-mobile and which is a piece of Italian Heritage



I say go for it

I think Fiat are going down the Abarth route the right way now... it certainly is a heritage thing, unlike the cynical Abarth bodykits of the 90s which were awful. They are doing exactly what Carlo Abarth used to do, take a small car and make it faster...

doe's anyonw know if there is to be an abarth showroom in the sheffield area or at a push anywhere in south yorkshire ??