Popped to Thames Fiat the other night and most of the launch stock is still there apart from the Red One, some now with miles and being sold as used.

The grey one is now essesse specification and on sale for £17995 - OMG it is just gorgeous

Also a bunch of Abarth GP on sale, some used

so much for waiting lists?

Also a Green and a Black 500byDiesel in stock

The dealers are only supposed to sell their demos when they can get a replacements so some of them are reluctent to part with them. Not really a wait list as such but personalised orders are taking 10-12 weeks if you want it SS'd they are being a little longer to get the kits in. But they do seem to be running at full production, safest jobs in a car factory in the world? .

And you're right the grey is fantastic

Ive only seen one Abarth out on the road, a black one. However, Ive only seen two of the new KAs which were launched in January now that IS slow selling!

Emma's Dad's is grey, the colour is growing on me, but still wouldn't be my choice, he's off to test the Rockingham SS demo car today to see if he wants to get it. He's not sure how the ride quality will be as its for him just about acceptable on the Abarth standard, without lower harder springs and bigger wheels with lower profile tyres that the SS kit adds, though its looks soooo much better Though it is a big improvement on the 500 1.4 Lounge he had before, its ride qaulity was very poor.

Taking away fact I get to see Emma's Dad's car often, and a guy in work has had a white GP Abarth since the launch when he traded in his orange GP Sporting, I have yet to see any others on the road anywhere and I travel a lot of miles.

Last time I spoke with someone from Fiat, they had only just sold over 100 GP Abarths in whole of UK since launch, and had taken about 300 orders for 500's, some way short of the projected 300 GP's last year and 700 500's this year that Fiat wanted to sell.

I've already seen a few 500 Abarths selling for well under list with a few miles on them much like the stock Rob saw, but its just a reflection of overall market being slow, not a refelection on the car which is if anything bucking the trend slightly.

Have to admit I have seen a fair few new KA's about now, for every 2 500's (which of course have been on sale for much longer) I see at least one KA, though the numbers are small compared to new Fiesta which I seem to see loads of, probably at least one everyday now.

KAs are cheaper, and Fords , and have a gazillion dealers.

Abarths are quite expensive, and Fiats , and have only three dealers, and none anywhere near me.

So people who might like to buy one can't anyway

You're right about the new Fiesta, and is it only me or is familiarity making it look a lot less attractive - too fussy. It makes the GP look even more like a design classic?

J333EVO said:

Last time I spoke with someone from Fiat, they had only just sold over 100 GP Abarths in whole of UK since launch, and had taken about 300 orders for 500's,

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That must have been quite early on, that figure has been surpassed by a considerable margin now.

The other thing to remember is the Abarths aren't mass market cars, they will always be massively outsold by the standard variants. Their relative rarity was one of the things that appealed to me. I like the fact that outside of Brooklands and my Dealers I've only seen 1 on the road, if I wanted to see the same car as mine everywhere I looked I'd have bought a Fiesta.

With such a high value item, people will be more likely to want to buy a car built to their specification than take a demo car. I'm not suprised to hear they still have their launch stock.

I know I'd want one in the right colour, with the right spec.. and wouldn't be happy with a demo car given the nature of the beast.

olopboy said:

That must have been quite early on, that figure has been surpassed by a considerable margin now.

The other thing to remember is the Abarths aren't mass market cars, they will always be massively outsold by the standard variants. Their relative rarity was one of the things that appealed to me. I like the fact that outside of Brooklands and my Dealers I've only seen 1 on the road, if I wanted to see the same car as mine everywhere I looked I'd have bought a Fiesta.

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I know what you are saying, but they are mass market, they are produced on same lines as the other 500's and KA's, and Fiat would like to sell as many as is possible, as it means more profit.

The UK has traditionally been the best market in Europe when it comes to selling hot hatches, you only have to look at Renaultsport cars which are all produced in Dieppe on completely different lines from any other Renault and are accepted as a different manufacturer, and the UK is there biggest market with nearly all Clio Trophy's been sold here as they were developed for us.

Seat Cupra products sell more here than all other Euro markets added together IIRC. I recall reading when Abarth was launched these been sited as examples of what Fiat would like to emulate in terms of sales and consumer perception.

All standard variants of cars always outsell the hotter ones, but it is the halo effect of hotter models which help sell the lesser examples.

Fiat need a mid engined 3.2Alfa V6 GP Abarth Extreme along lines of the Clio V6s :devil: OK maybe not but I'd like to see it, give the engineers something to actually work on and help Fiat distance the Abarth products more from run-of-mill stuff as in the publics eye (and TBH mine) they are still just Fiats.

Last true Abarth was the Lancia integrale, when the WRC side was disbanded most Abarth engineers left to got to Astra Racing where you can still buy genuine Abarth Lancia integrale products to this day, how does a Abarth 6 speed WRC gearbox at £15K grab you, or carbon fiber drive shafts at equally eye watering prices, you can even pick up Abarth turbo boost gauges as well from them. Others went on to other companies competition departments.

And the old Abarth road car production facilities were torn down after the Strada Abarth 130TC, Fiat have in many ways been very poor at understanding there own history, though they have been quick to admit this. You could until maybe 10years back buy genuine Abarth exhaust systems (this was how Abarth made his name) for BMW E30's, lovely looking system it was as well, but who would ever have thought of Abarth products on BMW's

To answer the original question apparently no they aren't, Abarth UK has had to ask for an increase to the number of production slots originally allocated to the UK.

As to the whole true Abarth statements in J333EVO's post this whole thing is wrangled over in most car clubs, when an old name is used on a modern car (love it in Alfa circles) and I just go for the simple what does it say on your V5? New cars will never be like old cars we just have to live with it. I don't care I love my car and if you just want to label it a 500 with knobs so be it, al though I would retort it's a panda with a shed load of knobs

I test drove the 500 Abarth and Essesse on Saturday just gone. On arrival at the dealership, a couple had come to collect their Abarth Essesse in White.

Before driving either, I expected to prefer the Essesse so I thought it best to try the 500 Abarth first.

I took the car down a road known extremely well to me, a country road with a national speed limit. The surface is quite rough with lots of undulations, off camber bends etc, in other words a good test for any car that promises to deliver in the handling stakes.

First impressions were how jiggily the ride was for the standard car and how the throttle required a little more input to pull away than you would first expect. The car certainly had some poke, not in the way an old school hot hatch might have, think Uno Turbo i.e. or Punto GT where there is some lag before things get going, a spiky power curve. This car definitely felt like a small turbo car in that the lag was minimal and the turbo did not make itself overly present when going through the rev range. Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable drive.

Stepping into the Essesse and before heading off down the same road, the salesman told me to expect the ride to be firmer and the car a lot quicker. Immediately obvious from the off was the stronger idle, making the car much easier to trundle around in the Saturday morning town traffic. Once on the open road, yes the car was faster but the extra firm suspension I had been warned about was not making a nuisance of it's self. On reflection, the only explanation of this could be the difference in unsprung weight between the ultra light Essesse wheels and the 'standard' 17" Abarth wheels.

So in summary, the Essesse kit does appear to offer a noticeable difference. In practice, I would/will be purchasing a 500 Abarth and considering upgrading over time. After all, £2500 is a lot for what is effectively springs, wheels and a remap. Give it 6 months or so and their will be an array of tuners in the UK offering the same or more for less, as has happened with the Mini Cooper S. Some have already mentioned that the Germans and Italians have begun producing ecu products.

In terms of slow selling, the order book I sneaked a look at certainly looked very healthy.

Interesting.

J333EVO said:

Taking away fact I get to see Emma's Dad's car often, and a guy in work has had a white GP Abarth since the launch when he traded in his orange GP Sporting, I have yet to see any others on the road anywhere and I travel a lot of miles.

Last time I spoke with someone from Fiat, they had only just sold over 100 GP Abarths in whole of UK since launch, and had taken about 300 orders for 500's, some way short of the projected 300 GP's last year and 700 500's this year that Fiat wanted to sell.

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Maybe that is what prompted Fiat to add Abarth to the scrappage scheme. :chin:

I spent a lot of time at the Abarth stand at Brooklands, had a good look at both specs.

The 'lovely' people took my number to arrange for back to back test drives …… I am still waiting to hear from anyone.

They are not going to sell many cars that way. Especially as I was really trying to 'PERSUADE' my other half 'WE' want to trade up from a 1.2 Pop! He was quite keen at the time and a good salesperson could have clinched it, get him behind the wheel – it would definitely have clinched it I am sure.

My approach worked when we had a Smart Pulse - we eventually ended up with a Brabus. ..... In the meantime - I am still waiting for the call .....

J333EVO said:

You could until maybe 10years back buy genuine Abarth exhaust systems (this was how Abarth made his name) for BMW E30's, lovely looking system it was as well, but who would ever have thought of Abarth products on BMW's

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me

Got to love that BMW/Abarth pic

J333EVO said:

Got to love that BMW/Abarth pic

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Ye it's got a lot of use already on this forum... and probably will pop up in threads to come.

I love the state of the bonnet of the 159 I'm in... we'd only had the car on hire for 2 days.

grimwau said:

Maybe that is what prompted Fiat to add Abarth to the scrappage scheme. :chin:

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As Fiat had signed up all the marques under the company have to as well, this is why Bentley are in the scheme too

olopboy said:

As Fiat had signed up all the marques under the company have to as well, this is why Bentley are in the scheme too

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I didn't know that, still I don't suppose that many potential new Ferrari, Bentley and Rolls Royce owners have old bangers. LOL.

Super500 said:

Once on the open road, yes the car was faster but the extra firm suspension I had been warned about was not making a nuisance of it's self. On reflection, the only explanation of this could be the difference in unsprung weight between the ultra light Essesse wheels and the 'standard' 17" Abarth wheels.

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Just to prove I'm a complete saddo:

- 16" standard wheel 8.4 kg
- 17" 5 spoke wheel 9.2 kg
- 17" 10 spoke wheel 11.9 kg
- 17" esseesse wheel 10.0 kg

SS isn't the lightest wheel Also are you sure the 500NP was in sport mode, I could understand the throttle input comment in normal but not sport, scalded and cats spring to mind.

I have to agree that their not really trying very hard to sell the Abarth, the website is unusable, and the several requests I have made for some info (just the CO2/tax and such would be a start!) have gone unanswered.

Just heard word of mouth that Thames Slough are now Abarth dealer so might stop down their one day and check it out in person. But I have to say as a consumer experience the Abarth side of the business is pathetic!

Oh, and you don't want a mid-engined Alfa V6 version as since they shut the Arese factory all the Alfa 3.2V6 units are half GM based, very heavy and thursty, not what you want in a small light car. Now the MiTo engine...

Yeah the Abarth UK site is a bit of a waste of net space, but the italian site just had a major over haul so we hope to see that mirrored over here. Thames is indeed now an Abarth dealer but that is common knowledge both in the car magazine adverts and is one of the few things updated on the site (unlike even acknowledging the 500 is released)

Co2 is 155Kg/km easy enough info to find and as to the Mito engine, which engine are you talking about? The current 1.4s are all derivatives of the 1.4 FIRE engine which the Fiats/Abarths all currently use or are you talking about the new 1.8 GTA engine which again is a Fiat based engine? I wouldn't expect it to be too long before a fire breathing GP is released from either stable. Won't see it in the 500 though, just wouldn't fit .