[SubVette]

Has the Technology Collection
NAV
keyess entry
back up camera
7" display

Sticker was $27285 w/o NAV

I wanted NAV so that became a deal breaker. So they are going to install the Nav when service gets the download

So I traded a 2013 SLK350 with 46Kmiles key to key plus I get back $2250 extended Service Contract on the Benz. whic was the same as the stock Fiat warranty, Win Win.

I did not want the Abarth after driving it. Too stiff and loud. I don't need all the suspension stuff and I hate black wheels. I then drove the Classica and the ride was much better. Acceleration was good enough,

I bought the Manual because I will like driving it more. The car is very nice. Yeah it don't have the expensive upgrades like leather (fixed easily with slip ons) Blind spot, fog lamps (never use them) rain sensitive windshield wipers.....I will decide when to use them. No climate control or heated seats. Not needed here. I just could not see another $4000+ Less to go wrong.

The Abarth was fun but I could see me getting tired of the engine noise. The soft top is the only downside. But I can wait for a Retractable coupe later on. I like that everything is simple. Manual roof. Not so much to go wrong Plus I get $2250 back that I paid for the Mercedes extended coverage out to 2020. That will go into the 124. 4 years 50K is already built into the Fiat,

I only had the SLK for about a month LOL. But they came down a lot as I did not want to put anything down. So we swapped keys and off I went.

 

[JFernald]

Congratulations! Its a beauty. I notice that you joined in July. What took you so long to decide to buy?

 

[SubVette]

Congratulations! Its a beauty. I notice that you joined in July. What took you so long to decide to buy?

I had my heart set initially on a Miata. I had a couple Vettes but the Miata was fun at street legal speeds. So I took my 2012SE to the Mazda dealer to look ay new NDs I decided I did not see $10000 MORE! So I decided to punt. THEN I saw used values on ND GTs in the low 20's. So I was not about to buy new....But I still did not like the NDs catfish front. When I heard about the Spiders, I though now there is an "exotic" I can love.

However, there were no dealers within 100 Miles so I would wait for a used RF and buy the Benz. The local Chrysler Dealer picked up Fiat. I went there to look at a Lusso. But the Classica had all the tech the Lusso had as far as the 7" screen. SO I bought a certified 2013 SLK350 about three months ago. The car needed the center LCD as it went out. Being certified they fixed it $1795 for the part!!!!! I started thinking the Benz had 46700 miles. So I bought an extension of the warranty for $2250.

I ran some numbers in my head and though I should be able to make a key to Key deal for the Classica. (plus get all $2250 of my Benz warranty back) The car had the 7" beacuseScreen I wanted. But no NAV. I was ready to leave when I noticed that, as I wanted the NAbecause I had the screen for it. So they charged me $200 for the NAV. So I was able to drive away with a Key to Key deal. I did drive the Abarth but I don't need the rougher ride and noisier exhaust and pay extra for it. As long as I could get the 7" screen

The Spider cost me $27000 OTD minus $2250 for my Extended Service contract on the Mercedes,. The market for a used SLK with high miles is nil. I wanted to trade out while I could. I bought a manual even though I would have preferred an Auto......after driving it...Yeah, I'll take the 6 speed.

So It took me awhile because the Spiders were not here and I instead was waiting for a Miata RF. The Spiders showed up and good-bye Mazda

Now I get to collect the $2250 I paid for the extended warranty further lowering my price for the Spider. Plus I am Italian and had one years ago. Love the Turbo.....

I realized I did not need heated seats, leather, auto rain sensors and dimming,17" I did not care for the HIDs on the Merc. LED is cheaper to deal with. The only thing I miss about the Benz is the inside was very nice. Had a great sound system. But it was a bookmark car until the one I wanted was available. The Fiats don't have the room inside.

 

[Fiatbreath]

Ha , I just traded my 2012 mercedes slk350 for a white classica , manual. I love the look and feel of the car. A true sports car with a manual tranny. I paid $25000 , no nav or sat radio. Love it and adding lowering springs and 17 rims in the next two weeks. Congrats on your purchase .

 

[LongBeachJim]

Congratulations. Interesting that you refer to the ND as having a "catfish front" as that was my association when I first saw it at the L.A. Auto Show a couple of years ago. I'm not a big fan of the tail either. The Miata has never been on my radar over the years because I perceived it as too 'cute' and lacking the sexiness of 1960's British roadsters. The 124 is sexy. I'm a former Vette owner as well. I find the Fiat to be more fun and WAY less expensive to purchase and maintain. The last set of brakes, rotors, and tires on my Grand Sport cost $4,000. I just retired and don't want to run such extravagance. Have fun.

 

[JFernald]

Congratulations. Interesting that you refer to the ND as having a "catfish front" as that was my association when I first saw it at the L.A. Auto Show a couple of years ago. I'm not a big fan of the tail either. The Miata has never been on my radar over the years because I perceived it as too 'cute' and lacking the sexiness of 1960's British roadsters. The 124 is sexy. I'm a former Vette owner as well. I find the Fiat to be more fun and WAY less expensive to purchase and maintain. The last set of brakes, rotors, and tires on my Grand Sport cost $4,000. I just retired and don't want to run such extravagance. Have fun.

That caught my eye as well. I had not been able to identify what it was that I was thinking when I saw the front of the ND. Now I know.

 

[PDX.124]

I had a couple Vettes but the Miata was fun at street legal speeds....

I'm a former Vette owner as well. I find the Fiat to be more fun and WAY less expensive to purchase and maintain....

I'm curious, what year Vettes did you both own?
The comment about the Miata/Fiat being fun at street legal speeds vs the Vette is truly enlightening. Please elaborate on it.

 

[hefbadr]

PDX.124, like Subvette and LongBeachJim, I also had a Vette. Traded in for the 124. It was a 1998 C-5 with 26,000 miles. Torch Red aka ticket red.

You can keep a much lower profile in the Fiat while scooting along at "slightly" higher than the speed limit and have a lot of fun exploring the car's limits and capabilities. To explore the Vettes characteristics you need to go much faster, and risk catching the attention of the law...don't ask...The same applied to a 1997 911 I had (also red!). That car will come around
if you lift around a corner, but will do it at speeds over say 60 or 70...trailing throttle oversteer is fun if you can control it, but at high speed there is a big risk factor. My Fiat X1/9 can be made to come around at 30 or 40 mph. A lot of fun, and much safer. A lower powered, smaller, lighter car is much more fun on "the street". A more powerful,heavier car really needs to be on the track to be fully explored and appreciated.

 

[PDX.124]

PDX.124, like Subvette and LongBeachJim, I also had a Vette. Traded in for the 124. It was a 1998 C-5 with 26,000 miles. Torch Red aka ticket red.

You can keep a much lower profile in the Fiat while scooting along at "slightly" higher than the speed limit and have a lot of fun exploring the car's limits and capabilities. To explore the Vettes characteristics you need to go much faster, and risk catching the attention of the law...don't ask...The same applied to a 1997 911 I had (also red!). That car will come around
if you lift around a corner, but will do it at speeds over say 60 or 70...trailing throttle oversteer is fun if you can control it, but at high speed there is a big risk factor. My Fiat X1/9 can be made to come around at 30 or 40 mph. A lot of fun, and much safer. A lower powered, smaller, lighter car is much more fun on "the street". A more powerful,heavier car really needs to be on the track to be fully explored and appreciated.

I appreciate your helpful insight.
Since I was a kid, I've wanted to own a Vette & while I like the 1980-82 C3 best, their age & lack of power have me craving my second favorite Vette, which is a 2001-04 C5. I currently have a '15 Camaro 2SS/RS convertible, which definitely has the 'wow factor', but there aren't many opportunities for me to open it up & enjoy truly driving it.
I was taught to drive stick in an X1/9 & through that experience I learned, that a slower car that feels fast, is more fun than a fast car driven slow. It also created my appreciation for Italian cars, such as the X1/9, 124 Spider & Alfa Romeo Spider. It all makes me wonder if in getting a Vette, I'm simply chasing a rainbow.

 

[SubVette]

I'm curious, what year Vettes did you both own?
The comment about the Miata/Fiat being fun at street legal speeds vs the Vette is truly enlightening. Please elaborate on it.

I bought an 05 Z51 Manual Convertible with 24K. Sold it to buy a pristine 08 from an older guy who bought a 2017 Z06. I paid $33500 for his Vette 16K He had all the stuff under the hood painted. Lots of extras. I decided I might like the Miata so I replaced the tires, belts and hoses and sold the 08 for $37900. Made a couple grand on that deal. Bought a 2012 SE for $19K drove it thinking I would buy the new ND...........Until I saw it.....The design seemed like it was from a few different cars. I did not see the extra money and decide to try an SLK. NICE car but with 46K and the Fiats coming local it was easy to trade for the Classica. I always buy the top of the line or near it. But in a sports car like this I did not need or want anything but the 7" screen and the tech.

I like the Vettes but did not care for Chevrolet Service and there are no speed shops here so I drove a Miata and found it was much more fun around town. That lead to me 'the 124 because it looked more like the classical Roadster and the 1.5 Turbo is sweet. I found one as I would have ordered and the rest is history...and it was white like all of out vehicles.

 

[dp0001]

At the risk of reviving an old thread, I'm fascinated that both Subvette and Fiatbreath swapped an SLK 350 for a 124. I'm seriously thinking of doing the same.

(thread here)

Potential newbie UK buyer with some 124 questions

I just bought my Abarth. You have to choose the trade off point between age, mileage and price. I limited my options because I specifically wanted a all black example but feel like I was fortunate with the example I bought. It has 16k on it, full service history with most recent just done and...

www.124spider.org

I currently have R171 SLK with all the toys and am seriously thinking of swapping over to a Fiat 124. The main motivation is the SLK seats hurt after driving an hour and then there's something else going on that I can't put my finger on. Logically it makes no sense, swapping out a supposed quality car for a Fiat and paying a chunk of money to make it happen seems to make no sense.

So question to Subvette and Fiatbreath, any regrets, do you still have your 124s or did you move on again? An remorse selling the SLKs?


I drifted into awareness of the 124 via looking at Barchetta adverts (I used to have one 20 years' ago) then thinking why fight to find a good one then have a slow hood with foggy plastic screen and LHD when there are lots of unloved 124s up for sale with low mileage. Just missed out on a Classica with 900 miles and 25% off the original sale price. Ie prectically new with warranties and stuff.

 

[Brexit !]

Hiya from Cornwall, UK........Lovely clean looking 124 Classica you have yourself so well done there, I read your thread through and see that the dealership will fit Nav at service....Is that FREE ? as "IF NOT".....don't bother; My dealership wanted £350 to install on my Classica (7" also) but the boys here said No,No,NO ! get on ebay and buy a SD card for FIAT 124 NOT the Mazda MX5 one (does not work /update) so £28 later I slipped the SD card into the little slot ahead of gear stick and got SAT NAV, and you get 3 x annual updates FREE with the SD card due November ; December each year.If you type into search "124 Spider Basic Ownership Rules...some of" that thread (put together by the more experienced lads here) will assist you in getting started............If you start thinking about upgrades there are many threads to help but take a look at "Brexit Mods" about my upgrade journey with my Classica, again much assisted by the crew here as to Best Buys and easiest way to do, or not ! Certain you will love the experience of owning / driving your Spider and having the Friendship and Support offered by many here, Cheers
ron

 

[Aldo]

Congratulations!

I have an Abarth; I love the exhaust sound. To me it is one of the car’s best features. I even got an aftermarket exhaust to release more of that sound goodness. And thank goodness, too, because the Mazda sound system is merda.

 

[Jesus Santa]

Congrats, hope you enjoy the car as much as we do over here

 

[celbii]

At the risk of reviving an old thread, I'm fascinated that both Subvette and Fiatbreath swapped an SLK 350 for a 124. I'm seriously thinking of doing the same.

(thread here)

Potential newbie UK buyer with some 124 questions

I just bought my Abarth. You have to choose the trade off point between age, mileage and price. I limited my options because I specifically wanted a all black example but feel like I was fortunate with the example I bought. It has 16k on it, full service history with most recent just done and...

www.124spider.org

I currently have R171 SLK with all the toys and am seriously thinking of swapping over to a Fiat 124. The main motivation is the SLK seats hurt after driving an hour and then there's something else going on that I can't put my finger on. Logically it makes no sense, swapping out a supposed quality car for a Fiat and paying a chunk of money to make it happen seems to make no sense.

So question to Subvette and Fiatbreath, any regrets, do you still have your 124s or did you move on again? An remorse selling the SLKs?


I drifted into awareness of the 124 via looking at Barchetta adverts (I used to have one 20 years' ago) then thinking why fight to find a good one then have a slow hood with foggy plastic screen and LHD when there are lots of unloved 124s up for sale with low mileage. Just missed out on a Classica with 900 miles and 25% off the original sale price. Ie prectically new with warranties and stuff.

Just to join the club of this 3 year old thread, while not a 350 I've had a 171 55 many years ago but I missed it so much I now have another 171 55 and a 124 They are both two completely different cars while both achieving two seater top down bliss.

Both of mine are fairly modified but I've also driven both stock. What a hard comparison to make for one another. I think it also depends manual vs automatic. The slk is much more suited to automatic "grand touring" style cruising, while the 124 you would def want a manual for the more sport car feel (the slk is a pig compared to the 124). Though I'd argue if you wanted to cruise around in an auto spider it could be nicer simply just by being a newer car. The slk, other than its beautiful body lines, is dated and it shows. My 124 can never match my tuned 55's loud almost straight piped v8's roar and just pure raw power it is putting down, just like the slk cant touch the 124 in its sport car nimbleness and turbo spoolin fun.

Also no airscarf in the 124 for winter driving. The Slk is way nicer in winter top down driving with the power hard top and airscraf blowing hot air on your neck, if winter top down driving is your thing.

Ultimately the biggest thing for me is that if I had a non 55 R171, the 124 would probably be the funner car. 280/300/350 I would probably say the 124 for sure. Toss on a stage 1 tune and recommended basic support parts and for not much money it will be even more fun. If modifying and tuning cars is your thing, the 124 for sure as well. Being basically a miata with a motor that has good support, you can wrench on it and modify it like any JDM car. The SLK not so much.

Feel free to ask any questions I will do my best to answer them. I have the recaro seats in my 124 and they are certainly comfortable.

 

[dp0001]

Feel free to ask any questions I will do my best to answer them. I have the recaro seats in my 124 and they are certainly comfortable.

Thank you Celbii. How do you find the SLK seats in comparison?

 

[celbii]

Thank you Celbii. How do you find the SLK seats in comparison?

Its hard to compare because of the different variety of seats and your weight and height, but I find the recaros more comfortable than my SLK seats, especially as I have lost alot of weight the last 8 months after being sick, I am down to 120Lbs as of today. The SLK seats hurt my butt because I don't have any padding there at the moment. The recaros in my 124 hold me alot better and have more cushioning feel to them than the SLK, but I also haven't drove my 124 in 4 months since I've had it torn apart working on it off and on, where as I have daily driven my slk the last two months while the weather was nice. I can't speak for the non recaro seats in the 124 other than when I originally test drove a Miata and sat in its seats, I certainly did not like the leather seats in the Miata GT as I slide around in them. I can however recommend a recarro equipped 124 over slk seats. Though there seems to be a limit to where people find them comfortable. You might also try asking this question on Miata.net as there is surely a larger audience over there who has both had an SLK and a Miata, just don't tell them youre looking at the 124

 

[dp0001]

thanks