Styling New steering wheel and radio! - Converting a Pop into a Sport.

[Rocco Reviews]

Last night I ordered a brown steering wheel from a 2012 500 Sport and an XTRONS radio with Android Auto to put into my '14 Pop Automatic. This will be the start of converting my Pop into a Sport. With the brown wheel being the first mod, you guessed it, I'm going to swap in a 500 Sport brown interior over time. I'm excited to do this project and share with you the process of converting a Pop into a Sport. As for the radio, this is something that I should've gotten a long time ago.. better late than never!

For parts that I know I need:
Front and rear sport bumper
Foglight kit (all Sport's have foglights)
Rear spoiler (Will get the Pop Manual's bigger spoiler as the little Sport spoiler is known to fly off and the Abarth spoiler doesn't look as good imo.)
Sport chrome shift knob
Brown sport seat skins
(Maybe) Black headliner and pillar trim
(Maybe) Sport muffler

Here's the stuff I bought and a current pic of Piccolo.

 

[varesecrazy]

What are you doing about wiring for the power connections of the different parts?

 

[Rocco Reviews]

What are you doing about wiring for the power connections of the different parts?

For the steering wheel, the U.S. Pop has the Bluetooth and cruise controls standard.

As for the radio, the XTRONS unit has a plug and play harness and a CANbus adapter for the steering wheel controls.

 

[steveras57]

Admire your labour of love! but its gonna cost ya! would have been easier (and cheaper) just to go buy a sport in the first place! as for the auto box -good luck with that! will watch you updates with interest! best of luck! at least you will have a unique car thats all "yours" once your done! just dont look at the bills to often!

 

[Piccolo Nero e Bella]

Admire your labour of love! but its gonna cost ya! would have been easier (and cheaper) just to go buy a sport in the first place! as for the auto box -good luck with that! will watch you updates with interest! best of luck! at least you will have a unique car thats all "yours" once your done! just dont look at the bills to often!

Bear in mind the US version has a proper auto box, not the pretend one in the EU cars... Not that I'd ever consider an auto in a 500.

 

[steveras57]

Bear in mind the US version has a proper auto box, not the pretend one in the EU cars... Not that I'd ever consider an auto in a 500.

cant imagine how sluggish a "normal "auto box must feel in a 500?? but the guys doing what he wants to his car so all power to him and that!.

 

[Rocco Reviews]

Admire your labour of love! but its gonna cost ya! would have been easier (and cheaper) just to go buy a sport in the first place! as for the auto box -good luck with that! will watch you updates with interest! best of luck! at least you will have a unique car thats all "yours" once your done! just dont look at the bills to often!

My car only has 90k miles on it and we're the first owners and that stripe I've looked everywhere for and it doesn't exist so I'm gonna keep it. The automatic here is an Aisin-Warner transmission and besides a transmission fluid change a few thousand miles ago, it's needed nothing for maintenance. They really should've put the 6-speed in the Europe.

 

[Rocco Reviews]

cant imagine how sluggish a "normal "auto box must feel in a 500?? but the guys doing what he wants to his car so all power to him and that!.

It's about the same at least 0-60 wise and that extra gear actually helps with passing power on the highway. The ratios are like the 6-speed manual that your 1.4 100hp has over there (we get the 1.4 MultiAir with a 5-speed manual).

 

[steveras57]

An overdrive gear on the highway sounds like a good idea! glad it works for you-!but cant imagine a 500 in auto trim!, half the fun for me is hooning it through the gearbox!(even though theres no actual power!

 

[Rocco Reviews]

An overdrive gear on the highway sounds like a good idea! glad it works for you-!but cant imagine a 500 in auto trim!, half the fun for me is hooning it through the gearbox!(even though theres no actual power!

It does have a manual mode that I use about 60% of the time, but it auto upshifts at redline which is pretty annoying.

 

[steveras57]

Good enough!