I was talking to my local Fiat dealer about the Abarth 500. He said he wouldn't bother with the A500 and that he'd save his money, get a 1.4 sport and get the turbo pack which Fiat will be offering later this year. Now i'm possitive he wasn't talking about the essesse upgrade to the A500. This seemed specific for the 1.4 sport. He didn't know how much this pack would cost or when exactly this was coming out but he was certain it was happening. He talked about performance on par with the standard A500. Also, the work carried out by Fiat would be covered under warranty.

Has anyone else heard about this? Do you have any info? Do you know how much the kit would cost?

Now why would Fiat release a turbo pack for one of there cars to make it direct competition with one of there other cars? They wouldnt so imo hes chatting bullsh*t and is getting confused with the SS kit for the abarth.

punto_matt said:

Now why would Fiat release a turbo pack for one of there cars to make it direct competition with one of there other cars? They wouldnt so imo hes chatting bullsh*t and is getting confused with the SS kit for the abarth.

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:yeahthat: Also i wouldn't want to dump that much power though a standard car without suspension and brake upgrades it would be just too looney - i wouldn't have thought Fiat would sign up to it on safety grounds.

i hope they do it not all people want the "steel me/chavy"(in my opinion) looks of the abarth but would like similar level's of power, along the lines of the tjet punto stock looks but only 0.8 of a second slower to 60 than an abarth, the abarth 500 has the same brakes as the 1.4 doesn't it ? and just has an anti roll bar and is lower ?
::edit:: just checked the abarth has larger front disk's.
suspension is lower and it has a rear anti roll bar

LOL, the A500 is selling well and I bet he doesnt have an Abarth franchise.. so he wants to sell you a 1.4 Sport and get his bonus TBH, I d buy the 1.4... youll get a good discount as they are slower sellers than the other 500s and its a nicer looking car with more colours to choose from

He wont have an abarth franchise because 1 Fiat garages in notts and mansfield are crap and 2 there is already one in chesterfield which is 30-45mins away.

punto_matt said:

He wont have an abarth franchise because 1 Fiat garages in notts and mansfield are crap and 2 there is already one in chesterfield which is 30-45mins away.

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yeah autoworld who will try there best to steer you away from an abarth and into an alfa

Didnt when i went down to "buy" an abarth.

we went to try the abarth's didn't like the 500's interior plus salesman refered to them as a "toy" so moved onto the punto and the salesguy said "to be honest mate for this kind of money you'r better off buying a new mito" so we didn't buy either.

who did you speak to? Because Jonathan who is the only Abarth specialist there ( went to Italy to be trained) is very good. Maybe the other non abarth sales people tried to steal you away from him. in any case what happened isn't good and I'll let him know on Sunday.

alainmengoli said:

who did you speak to? Because Jonathan who is the only Abarth specialist there ( went to Italy to be trained) is very good. Maybe the other non abarth sales people tried to steal you away from him. in any case what happened isn't good and I'll let him know on Sunday.

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They send you to Italy to be trained as an Abarth salesman? How does that work? Do they put them in a car park full of 500's and direct them to the one with the body kit/wheels/chequered roof and say 'that's the Abarth one, now repeat after me....'

It is easy to be positive about all those cars. For salesmen to be so dismissive just to try for any old sale is dispiriting to the buying public, who can normally see through such childlike tactics, and bad for Fiat, the motor group.
Unfortunately this sort of thing is all too common.

alainmengoli said:

who did you speak to? Because Jonathan who is the only Abarth specialist there ( went to Italy to be trained) is very good. Maybe the other non abarth sales people tried to steal you away from him. in any case what happened isn't good and I'll let him know on Sunday.

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don't think he was an abarth specialist so you could be right he was just wandering round outside, were still thinking about a punto abarth so may be returning so jonathan is the guy to ask for then ?.
the salesman did refer to the 500 as being a "toy" and "only built for trackday's" in general the guy we saw had no interest so that did put us of a bit, we ended up speaking to robbie in the alfa bit who was very helpfull but we do like the punto abarth so as i said we may return...

I'd be hugely impressed if Fiat did release a turbo kit for the 1.4. I'd be all over that in a heartbeat. I'd love Abarth power without the boy racer image. I wonder if you can spec down the Abarth to have no body kit?

I thought the 'nose' on the Abarth was to house intercoolers and things, so how to include these without the proboscis? And the suspension would need at least spring and damper mods to go some way to sorting the ride for the faster car??

If you do without the stripes on the Abarth it looks smart I reckon. The body mods just enable the widened track to 'work' and look fine - no? I don't like mucked about cars normally, but the Abarth without the decor looks pretty cute.

i hope this is true, would be in the true spirit of Abarth

however if you want to do this conversion the parts already exist and an evening on ePer would come up with a list

alternatively find someone that had an esseesse kit fitted to an Abarth Grande Punto and buy the bits that came off it

white 500 said:

don't think he was an abarth specialist so you could be right he was just wandering round outside, were still thinking about a punto abarth so may be returning so jonathan is the guy to ask for then ?.
the salesman did refer to the 500 as being a "toy" and "only built for trackday's" in general the guy we saw had no interest so that did put us of a bit, we ended up speaking to robbie in the alfa bit who was very helpfull but we do like the punto abarth so as i said we may return...

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Doesn't really sound like him. He went to see the new factory near Fiat where they are assembled and drove the cars etc... I don't know what he had for lunch.

For the cost of converting your NA 1.4 to a turbo you might aswell go and buy the abarth as it will be cheaper to buy and cheaper to insure. Its not just as simple as getting a turbo and manifold from a Tjet and bolting it to the NA block all compression needs to be changed, injectors changed, fuel pump changed etc etc. Gonna be at least 4k for that little lot.

punto_matt said:

For the cost of converting your NA 1.4 to a turbo you might aswell go and buy the abarth as it will be cheaper to buy and cheaper to insure. Its not just as simple as getting a turbo and manifold from a Tjet and bolting it to the NA block all compression needs to be changed, injectors changed, fuel pump changed etc etc. Gonna be at least 4k for that little lot.

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I agree just look on the supercharger kit which is available and how much it costs?

punto_matt said:

For the cost of converting your NA 1.4 to a turbo you might aswell go and buy the abarth as it will be cheaper to buy and cheaper to insure. Its not just as simple as getting a turbo and manifold from a Tjet and bolting it to the NA block all compression needs to be changed, injectors changed, fuel pump changed etc etc. Gonna be at least 4k for that little lot.

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What he said. There is no way you're going to go from the 100hp of the 1.4 to near Abarth levels without some seriously expensive work being done to the engine and on top of that if you don't put an intercooler on you'll get very little gain in power and if you do put an intercooler on you have to buy all the front bodywork and the assorted pipework. I call BS on the salesman's "package"