has anyone got a500 abarth essessee yet???

Hello all ,,,,
Has anyone got a Abarth 500 ???
Will any one bother to get one ????
Will anyone bother in the B/Ham area

Just an up date for anyone interested in the 500 Abarth ,,,

Way back in 2008 we looked at all the adds for this lovley little car
and asked our friendly Fiat service center about the Fiat Abarth 500
we were told that it can only be test drive from a Abarth dealer and to reserve a car and get your test drive we would have to put £500 down
to fiat uk ,,,
So as we were at our local service center and show rooms and they kindly offered to pass our interest and our £500 on to a sales center for Abarth which they did ( with no fuss )

TIME LINE
As i say £500 was paid to Fiat uk in about Oct/Nov 2008,
14/3/2009
Did we get invited to the launch of the 500 Abarth = NO
Did we get a call asking us for a test drive = NO
So we went in to the show rooms last Saturday for a look around
and ask for a test drive the answer was `yes` from the sales `lad`
when we said we had put £500 down for this he said `O` ye didn`t think anyone did that any more !!!!!!!!!!!!:bang:

So on to the lovely 500 Abarth she looked so good and a SS tooo,,,
Mmmmmmmm,,,,,,,

When i was given the key i was told that the test drive route was just down to the M6 and back !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
all of about 4 mil`s in road works

I was not happy

Well i here you say, just drive it up and down the M6 ,,,,,,,

That was what i was going to do ,,,,,
But on starting the lovely little thing and getting out on to the main road my better half said
`look the low fuel light is on `

So will we get back ???? she said ,,,, `FFS`:bang:

So we sit in the road works ,,,,,,,,,,,,
then open the little SS up WOWWWWW
So good well happy now even with the red light full on fast or what

I,m now happy

Then Sue had a very little go on the way back , also happy
We both had just about 2 mil`s each ,, good or what
as we returned the little fiat popped a bit , as it would with no fuel ,,,,
But not on full chat but on tickover
Anyway we got back to the dealers and we were then given a Std Abarth to try,,( with 1/4 tank ) all i can say is it was a Std Abarth o/k worked o/k got us to the M6 and back and was ok in the road works ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
we did go into the ind est and that was much better ,,,,

but still not what i would call a test drive at all ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

On our return we asked,
as we live in Walsall can we take the car to our local dealer for servicing ,,,,,,,,,,,,

The answer was NO you have to come to us in Nuneaton CV10 7RF,
only 34.01 miles away,,

and it looks like we can go to a Fiat Abarth dealer at
Stoke-on Trent ST3 4JG and thats just 39.95 miles away
Our local fiat dealer is 4 miles from our door

So will we be getting the 2 Abarth 500 ss we wanted

I will let you answer that one ,,,,,,,,,,,

lovely car (only thing,, it would be better is if it had the 6 speed box )

As for the dealer network wast of time in the B/HAM area
( get real fiat u/k )

This is from someone that own`s,
4 Fiat`s, also 1x1969 Fiat 500 & 2 Alfa `s

ps, do i need a show room with Abarth all over it and Isuzuu next to the main door ??????? when my Fiat Service center has service Fiat and Alfa for years ,,,,,, i don`t think so ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Ricambio ,,,,,,,,,:yum:

You're lucky, stoke on Trent is my nearest dealer and that's a 180 mile round trip for a service. If you live in Wales, you have to travel to get anything decent, nearest cinema 50 miles, nearest shopping mall 50 miles, nearest Abarth dealer 90 miles, but it has it's benefits too like nearest speed camera? yep 50 miles!

Don't think i'll bother upgrading to the esse esse kit, fast enough for me and £2500 does not justify half a second of my time, nor 25 extra BHP. That £100 for every 1 BHP! And the ride is stiff enough too, especially on these bumpy Welsh roads.

I'm waiting to test drive my dealers SS before I decide either way. I might give them a call tomorrow to see if they have a SSed there demo yet.

What spec did you go for mutsey?

Ultimately Turin must be to blame for the utterly crap dealerships Fiat has in the UK. Yes, you can blame Fiat UK, but they must be inculcated with the British philosophy that rubbish service is good enough. Treat the punters like **** and they'll keep on flocking back seems to be the attitude...sadly there seems to be no escape if you want one of the cars. All I can say is, the cars must be pretty good if punters keep on coming back for more neglect, ignorance and, sometimes, abuse.

DraigFlag87 said:

You're lucky, stoke on Trent is my nearest dealer and that's a 180 mile round trip for a service. If you live in Wales, you have to travel to get anything decent, nearest cinema 50 miles, nearest shopping mall 50 miles, nearest Abarth dealer 90 miles, but it has it's benefits too like nearest speed camera? yep 50 miles!

Don't think i'll bother upgrading to the esse esse kit, fast enough for me and £2500 does not justify half a second of my time, nor 25 extra BHP. That £100 for every 1 BHP! And the ride is stiff enough too, especially on these bumpy Welsh roads.

Click to expand...

Hi Ya ,,,
Just some info for you the Std Abarth had the esse esse ( ss ) wheels on but not the springs and was not good at all very `choppy` `ride`.
the esse esse ( ss ) was much better but that was on a very poor Tarmac road lots of road noise , but not as bumpy as the Welsh roads ,,
Good luck with the 180 mil`s round trip , make`s me sound like a wuss ,,,at only 62 mil`s,

Ricambio

black , red abarth stripes , red leather , climate and esseesse kit , took out standard abarth in aylesford kent , good enough but decided on esseesse version will let you know what its like , it will be differant from my grande punto sporting though !!!!