Hello everybody!

So, in short I am looking at buying a 2009 Abarth 500. I will link the car below. I don't have much experience with the brand, so I am asking for any advices on this particular model. Any specific faults I should be looking for ? Does anybody have any idea as to future costs ? The owner claims the car has now 54000 km, is willing to get it checked anywhere and the engine is the 1.4 - 160bhp. Any advice would be much appreciated. Have a good one!

This is the car I am looking at :

https://www.autovit.ro/anunt/fiat-500-ID7GGwQb.html#xtor=SEC-81

That's a lot of money for an 11 year old car.

Thanks for posting the link. The ad isn't written in my native language*, but you may need to do quite a bit of "Negociabiling".

Rusting rear beams have been reported quite frequently; pay particular attention to the area around the bottom of the spring pans. Also check that the climate control system is working properly; these are known to fail and the repair is incredibly difficult and expensive.

Given the age of the car, and the price, consider paying for an independent inspection by a competent automotive engineer. If you see anything suspicious about it, just walk away. For that money, it needs to be perfect, with full service records and no damage history.

*this is the first time I've knowingly tried to read something written in Romanian; I was surprised how much of it I understood; it bears a striking resemblence to Latin (which I am familiar with from my schooldays).

Thanks for the tips! I compared the prices with some from Germany and actually 7800 is pretty ok.


Yeah, Romanian is kind of based on Latin

mirciukk said:

I compared the prices with some from Germany and actually 7800 is pretty ok

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Out of interest, what's the best price you could negotiate if you bought a brand new one in Romania?

I don't think there is any way to go below 19-20k for base model. There is usually not much room to negotiate at the dealers here, especially for "niche" cars.

mirciukk said:

I don't think there is any way to go below 19-20k for base model.

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Thanks for replying to this.

So, around 40% of current list price for an 11 yr old car. This just doesn't sit comfortably with me; most new cars will depreciate by that percentage in 3-4 years.

If that really is the current market value, I'd be looking to buy something completely different.

jrkitching said:

Thanks for replying to this.
This just doesn't sit comfortably with me; most new cars will depreciate by that percentage in 3-4 years.

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You are thinking in UK Terms.. where our
'Company car..and PCP culture' makes nearly new cars 'two a penny'

French FIATs do far better than UK ones..

A friend at work bought an 8 year old Opel in Geneva.. drove it back to Georgia for Christmas holiday and sold it
Was worth 4 x what he paid in Geneva