Not an official review, but the Fiat dealer by me just received their first shipment of them today so I called them up to see if I could take a test drive.
Special thanks to Mike and Cammy at Westbury Fiat for letting me take one out for a spin on such short notice.
The car I got to drive was a Rosso Red Classica automatic. Not my first choice unfortunately, but as we all know the first batch was only automatics and I am most certainly manual bias.
Exterior:
By now, most of us have seen the exterior of the car in person or at least enough pictures on the internet to gather what it looks like so I won't waste any time here. The only thing I will say is the top is incredibly easy to put down. It is just like the Miata, but if you haven't operated one of them, to put it down there is a single lever on the inside that pops the top off its secure location, and then you simply push it back behind you and it snaps in to place. To put the top up, there is a lever in between the seats you pull up, the top pops up, you pull it over your head and secure it with the latch you originally released to put the top down. Super quick and easy.
Interior:
The interior was surprisingly roomy for a two seater. Honestly, I did not feel cramped at all. I am only 5'10", but i'd imagine anyone under 6' would feel the same way. You really don't feel like you're crunched in a tuna fish can at all, I was pleasantly surprised by this. The one I drove had the cloth seats, but the one in the showroom had the leather and I can say both seats were equally comfortable to sit in. The cloth is your standard cloth, however the leather had a more high class feel to it than that that comes in the 500's. The soft touch bits on the interior also kept surprisingly accurate to their name, we're not talking pillow soft here, but much softer and better looking than your standard plastic trim. The climate control buttons, as well as the knob to control the entertainment display were all well within reach with no issue reaching anything. The 7" display is plenty big and the navigation is fairly intuitive once you get the gist of how it works. The sound system for me was perfect, I have most certainly heard better, but unless you are an audio junky the stock non-bose system will do just fine in my opinion. Let me also mention that with the top down and the windows up, I was surprised that I could have a normal conversation without yelling. I did not drive it with the top up because it was 90 degrees, and I did not drive with the windows down since the dealer sticker was already on it, so you're mileage may vary with different window/top combinations. The only quirk on the interior that I could see getting annoying is the placement of the snap in cup holders. If you decide to go for a manual, they may get in the way, but I'm assuming that's why Fiat has made them removable. For the auto though, you don't even notice them. Overall the interior is very simplistic, it really fits this type of car well with no fancy gadgets or unnecessary buttons. If you're buying this car for the trunk, then you need to reconsider your priorities, but with that being said, it really isn't all that small. Id say you could fit three, maybe four duffel bags in it without an issue.
Test Drive:
Before I took it out for I drive I had expected the automatic tranny to be awful, and the suspension to be soft and cushy with no steering response as that is what i essentially expect from most base model cars. Let me tell you, I was wrong. Even for a base model the cars suspension is pretty firm, and the steering response also gives nice feedback and is very precise. It makes me excited for the Abarth as an improvement on any aspect of the handling or suspension is going to make the car that much better. The automatic shifts and rev matches flawlessly and it is actually a pretty fun car to drive. Even though I had to stay calm while driving it since it was only a test drive, I did get to test the 0-60 acceleration. I obviously dont have any numbers, but the acceleration is pretty much on par with a stock 500 Abarth. Overall for it being the base model, and an automatic, I was very impressed. It almost made me consider not waiting for the Abarth and just waiting for a manual classica.
Overall, I was very impressed with the car inside and out. Getting to examine one up close and drive it really erased any doubts I had about whether or not I wanted to go through with purchasing one. If a dealer by you has them in stock, I highly recommend making it over there to test drive one.
Obligatory pictures, sorry I didn't get any of the trunk or engine bay, but I was more focused on driving the thing then taking pictures. I am also by no means a professional or even amateur photographer.
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Special thanks to Mike and Cammy at Westbury Fiat for letting me take one out for a spin on such short notice.
The car I got to drive was a Rosso Red Classica automatic. Not my first choice unfortunately, but as we all know the first batch was only automatics and I am most certainly manual bias.
Exterior:
By now, most of us have seen the exterior of the car in person or at least enough pictures on the internet to gather what it looks like so I won't waste any time here. The only thing I will say is the top is incredibly easy to put down. It is just like the Miata, but if you haven't operated one of them, to put it down there is a single lever on the inside that pops the top off its secure location, and then you simply push it back behind you and it snaps in to place. To put the top up, there is a lever in between the seats you pull up, the top pops up, you pull it over your head and secure it with the latch you originally released to put the top down. Super quick and easy.
Interior:
The interior was surprisingly roomy for a two seater. Honestly, I did not feel cramped at all. I am only 5'10", but i'd imagine anyone under 6' would feel the same way. You really don't feel like you're crunched in a tuna fish can at all, I was pleasantly surprised by this. The one I drove had the cloth seats, but the one in the showroom had the leather and I can say both seats were equally comfortable to sit in. The cloth is your standard cloth, however the leather had a more high class feel to it than that that comes in the 500's. The soft touch bits on the interior also kept surprisingly accurate to their name, we're not talking pillow soft here, but much softer and better looking than your standard plastic trim. The climate control buttons, as well as the knob to control the entertainment display were all well within reach with no issue reaching anything. The 7" display is plenty big and the navigation is fairly intuitive once you get the gist of how it works. The sound system for me was perfect, I have most certainly heard better, but unless you are an audio junky the stock non-bose system will do just fine in my opinion. Let me also mention that with the top down and the windows up, I was surprised that I could have a normal conversation without yelling. I did not drive it with the top up because it was 90 degrees, and I did not drive with the windows down since the dealer sticker was already on it, so you're mileage may vary with different window/top combinations. The only quirk on the interior that I could see getting annoying is the placement of the snap in cup holders. If you decide to go for a manual, they may get in the way, but I'm assuming that's why Fiat has made them removable. For the auto though, you don't even notice them. Overall the interior is very simplistic, it really fits this type of car well with no fancy gadgets or unnecessary buttons. If you're buying this car for the trunk, then you need to reconsider your priorities, but with that being said, it really isn't all that small. Id say you could fit three, maybe four duffel bags in it without an issue.
Test Drive:
Before I took it out for I drive I had expected the automatic tranny to be awful, and the suspension to be soft and cushy with no steering response as that is what i essentially expect from most base model cars. Let me tell you, I was wrong. Even for a base model the cars suspension is pretty firm, and the steering response also gives nice feedback and is very precise. It makes me excited for the Abarth as an improvement on any aspect of the handling or suspension is going to make the car that much better. The automatic shifts and rev matches flawlessly and it is actually a pretty fun car to drive. Even though I had to stay calm while driving it since it was only a test drive, I did get to test the 0-60 acceleration. I obviously dont have any numbers, but the acceleration is pretty much on par with a stock 500 Abarth. Overall for it being the base model, and an automatic, I was very impressed. It almost made me consider not waiting for the Abarth and just waiting for a manual classica.
Overall, I was very impressed with the car inside and out. Getting to examine one up close and drive it really erased any doubts I had about whether or not I wanted to go through with purchasing one. If a dealer by you has them in stock, I highly recommend making it over there to test drive one.
Obligatory pictures, sorry I didn't get any of the trunk or engine bay, but I was more focused on driving the thing then taking pictures. I am also by no means a professional or even amateur photographer.
