[tfenwick11]

Ok so I apologize for this rant but I had to vent about my experience this week with Fiat in general. So to start this rant off I am not a person who buys new cars I always buy cars and fix them up. But I recently watch the latest episode of Grand Tour and saw Hammon review the Abart 124 Spider. Within that moment I said I must have that exact car I just absolutely loved everything about it. So begins the week, Monday hits I go to the Fiat website and see the exact car on the home page (white with black bonnet and trunk and red mirrors). So I build the car and get everything almost perfect except there is no option to have the red mirrors. So then I use the websites search function. I tried every combinate I could think of for every state zip code as well. No results came up for an edition with the stripes. So Tuesday comes around I call my local Fiat dealership, talk to sales guy give him my speel about wanting the exacta car I tried to build....all I get was crickets, guys like uh yea ill have to call you back. So Wednesday afternoon rolls around still no phone call, so I tell all the guys at work about the car there like you have to get this car its amazing blah blah. So I tell them I can't find the car anywhere and so we proceed to look at everystate via autotrader for the specific edition, no results returned. So Friday rolls around I call Fiat corporate sales division, give the guy my speel and hes like ok i need to transfer you to a specialized dealership in indiana. So finally get ahold of sales guy in indiana and im like ok will you please please help me get this exact car and the guys is like your like the thousand person to call about this edition. So the guy starts off like ok so we are having tons of trouble just getting an abarth base manual edition. I'm like ok can thats great to know, so i ask the guy why is there no edition anywhere that have the look as the Grand Tour edition or on the website, and hes like well let me tell you what corporate told our devision. His exact words "Corporate told us to order a base manual edition and build it in-house. Which mean order the luxury edition headlights, brimbo brakes and monza exhaust. Then they told us if a customer wants the additional racing stripes they must be through a valid shop that does *vinyl wrap not paint". So I am sitting here utterly shocked and i said but on the website it literally lists the stripes option as hand painted and hes like yea what we do here is take money off for that since its a wrap job and its $1000 bucks. So after all this **** headache and my heart broken I have decided to give up.........also on a side note why in the **** would Fiat have this amazing advertisement on Grand Tour of an amazing car that you know **** well everyone wants but they make it utterly vague and impossible to find details let alone get the **** car??????

 

[JFernald]

Ok so I apologize for this rant but I had to vent about my experience this week with Fiat in general. So to start this rant off I am not a person who buys new cars I always buy cars and fix them up. But I recently watch the latest episode of Grand Tour and saw Hammon review the Abart 124 Spider. Within that moment I said I must have that exact car I just absolutely loved everything about it. So begins the week, Monday hits I go to the Fiat website and see the exact car on the home page (white with black bonnet and trunk and red mirrors). So I build the car and get everything almost perfect except there is no option to have the red mirrors. So then I use the websites search function. I tried every combinate I could think of for every state zip code as well. No results came up for an edition with the stripes. So Tuesday comes around I call my local Fiat dealership, talk to sales guy give him my speel about wanting the exacta car I tried to build....all I get was crickets, guys like uh yea ill have to call you back. So Wednesday afternoon rolls around still no phone call, so I tell all the guys at work about the car there like you have to get this car its amazing blah blah. So I tell them I can't find the car anywhere and so we proceed to look at everystate via autotrader for the specific edition, no results returned. So Friday rolls around I call Fiat corporate sales division, give the guy my speel and hes like ok i need to transfer you to a specialized dealership in indiana. So finally get ahold of sales guy in indiana and im like ok will you please please help me get this exact car and the guys is like your like the thousand person to call about this edition. So the guy starts off like ok so we are having tons of trouble just getting an abarth base manual edition. I'm like ok can thats great to know, so i ask the guy why is there no edition anywhere that have the look as the Grand Tour edition or on the website, and hes like well let me tell you what corporate told our devision. His exact words "Corporate told us to order a base manual edition and build it in-house. Which mean order the luxury edition headlights, brimbo brakes and monza exhaust. Then they told us if a customer wants the additional racing stripes they must be through a valid shop that does *vinyl wrap not paint". So I am sitting here utterly shocked and i said but on the website it literally lists the stripes option as hand painted and hes like yea what we do here is take money off for that since its a wrap job and its $1000 bucks. So after all this **** headache and my heart broken I have decided to give up.........also on a side note why in the **** would Fiat have this amazing advertisement on Grand Tour of an amazing car that you know **** well everyone wants but they make it utterly vague and impossible to find details let alone get the **** car??????

You are only beginning to discover that Fiat has different versions in the U.S. and Europe. You may also discover that in Australia, you can only get the Abarth, not the Classica or Lusso. Badging on the U.S. cars is different and the engine is different power set up is different. Seat options are different. Many in the U.S. who want the red mirror caps, red tow hook cover, the red lower facia and the black hood and trunk have purchased them from vendors other than the dealer. You save a bunch by getting the wrap, rather than the paint. Enough more to cover the other items you want. None of the items are impossible to find. This forum has links to every source you need, some of which are Mopar.

Two things you won't find on the European version of the Abarth: A free outing at the Bondurant school and a much lower price. Just do it.

 

[RBH58]

It's a good question. The car can be nearly built and doesn't seem to be a too much of a drama getting the bits. I believe they were going to paint the Matt Black bits but have settled on a wrap solution....and I can see why. They've done the same thing here in Aus.

If you are after a fantastic little roaster though, don't give up on it. It's worthy of the hype.

 

[kjcolv]

Feel your pain. I've spent the last two months trying to get the same car. Been down the same road as you. Luckily I was able to use an inside connection and get what is supposedly the first factory painted stripe off the line. It's on the way to me now. Apparently, they have been having issues with the stripe and the dealers have no idea which car they are getting until they show up. You are much better off to find one at a dealer you like and get it, than to try to find the exact one you want. The other tip I learned when searching is to change the zip code on the search, even though it says more than 200, it isn't searching the entire country. When I changed the zip code to California, a bunch of other cars popped up. Good luck if you keep looking.

 

[LongBeachJim]

No reason to give up, look at my avatar photo. I put it together myself to look like the EU version. In the scheme of things, it wasn't all that expensive to do, and it was a rather fun project. There are plenty of people here on the forum, including me, to guide you.

 

[TomM]

Yeah, sorry dude. That's the way it is. They're hard to find, so getting a car with the basic options like what you want is tough enough on its own. Anything beyond that you're going to have to do yourself. If you want one just like Richard drove on GT, get a white Abarth with the option packages you want, then do all the rest of the cosmetic changes on your own. Welcome to the club.

 

[2naCanDan]

When my GF and I bought our Abarth we ran into similar issues with packages, options, availability and this was in December, before there were rumor of the 124 being on Grand Tour. We wanted a Red or Back Abarth with Luxury Package and Brembo brakes. We basically got it down to 3 options:
1. Take the one on the showroom floor. Red manual with Luxury package, no Brakes
2. Transfer one of 3 cars that had Brembo brakes. They were not in the color we wanted and were base models
3. Order a 2018 year model. The sales team said orders for 2017 were closed and delivery on the 2018 model would be in or around September...

So we decided to take the one on the showroom floor. Unfortunately compromises need to be made somewhere along the line, and now that the car has been featured on the greatest car show ever, I expect the demand to go up.

Hang in there and Don't give up. You may have to order one or build it yourself, but as everyone else already said it's worth it!

 

[Greg]

JFernald's post is spot on!

You have to keep in mind the price difference between the US and Euro 124 Abarth. Taking that into account it's very easy to accept having to make some changes to bring the US car in line with the Euro car's appearance. LongBeachJim has done it, and so have others.

Greg

 

[Hapster]

Hey man, I was in your situation too, I'm from Indiana as well. What it sounds like is the one you want is the European model which is absolutely not available here.

Furthermore, while I was looking around for one I learned that dealers cannot even get specific models and customizations, you just have to wait until you see one you want somewhere in the country. The dealer on 96th and keystone was willing to trade their only spider at the time for a red abarth, w/ red interior, automatic, and lux package in Ohio, which I then purchased.

The bonnet paint is unavailable in the U.S. right now, and brembo brakes are hard to find. Manual is difficult as well. If that's what you're looking for, and you're not willing to settle on at least one thing, you will be waiting for awhile.

 

[MotoPete]

We wanted ... Brembo brakes.

Sorry to go off topic, but that's easily solved!

http://shop.500madness.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=528_538

 

[SJWhiteley]

First off, easy there, cowboy! Secondly, I understand your frustration.

I had similar problems getting exactly what I wanted. However, remember that the build page is just a glorified brochure. It seems that some combinations have simply not been built.

Some have noted that FCA have done a poor job of promoting this car. Maybe, maybe not. This care is essentially a Miata, and I can't see Mazda allowing this car to up-stage the best selling sports car of all time. So the marketing and sales have been extremely conservative.

Also, there are some dealer/manufacturer laws and rules which do not help the customer at all.

Take heart, though. Browse around, get close to what you want. Add the black stripe as a vinyl wrap (which I think allows for a bit more customization - we will see a few more unique and tasteful wraps in the near future) and add the mirror caps and lip.

My opinion, the standard brakes are very, very good for spirited highway driving - brembos are really cool but may not be fully advantaged in daily driving. There are better, bigger, brake options.

It takes work to get what you want, but it's achievable. Just stay focused and don't let others spoil your goal of owning exactly the car you want!

 

[LongBeachJim]

Sorry to go off topic, but that's easily solved!

http://shop.500madness.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=528_538

500 Madness is located right up the road from me. They installed the red 6-piston Wilwoods. Great high performance brakes. Appearance wise, it's the same look. Wilwoods are made in California so it's easier than Brembo to get parts, so they say.

 

[Stelvio]

Ok so I apologize for this rant but I had to vent about my experience this week with Fiat in general. So to start this rant off I am not a person who buys new cars I always buy cars and fix them up. But I recently watch the latest episode of Grand Tour and saw Hammon review the Abart 124 Spider. Within that moment I said I must have that exact car I just absolutely loved everything about it. So begins the week, Monday hits I go to the Fiat website and see the exact car on the home page (white with black bonnet and trunk and red mirrors). So I build the car and get everything almost perfect except there is no option to have the red mirrors. So then I use the websites search function. I tried every combinate I could think of for every state zip code as well. No results came up for an edition with the stripes. So Tuesday comes around I call my local Fiat dealership, talk to sales guy give him my speel about wanting the exacta car I tried to build....all I get was crickets, guys like uh yea ill have to call you back. So Wednesday afternoon rolls around still no phone call, so I tell all the guys at work about the car there like you have to get this car its amazing blah blah. So I tell them I can't find the car anywhere and so we proceed to look at everystate via autotrader for the specific edition, no results returned. So Friday rolls around I call Fiat corporate sales division, give the guy my speel and hes like ok i need to transfer you to a specialized dealership in indiana. So finally get ahold of sales guy in indiana and im like ok will you please please help me get this exact car and the guys is like your like the thousand person to call about this edition. So the guy starts off like ok so we are having tons of trouble just getting an abarth base manual edition. I'm like ok can thats great to know, so i ask the guy why is there no edition anywhere that have the look as the Grand Tour edition or on the website, and hes like well let me tell you what corporate told our devision. His exact words "Corporate told us to order a base manual edition and build it in-house. Which mean order the luxury edition headlights, brimbo brakes and monza exhaust. Then they told us if a customer wants the additional racing stripes they must be through a valid shop that does *vinyl wrap not paint". So I am sitting here utterly shocked and i said but on the website it literally lists the stripes option as hand painted and hes like yea what we do here is take money off for that since its a wrap job and its $1000 bucks. So after all this **** headache and my heart broken I have decided to give up.........also on a side note why in the **** would Fiat have this amazing advertisement on Grand Tour of an amazing car that you know **** well everyone wants but they make it utterly vague and impossible to find details let alone get the **** car??????

I was lucky to find a manual Abarth with the only two options I wanted, Brembos and Recaro seats. Like I have said before, I would have preferred red as the color because red ones are always a little faster. I did decide to add Navigation, but I went to the WWW to find that for a WAY better price than the dealer option. BTW, the other feature that you can't buy as an option that I think matters is to upgrade the brake fluid from DOT 3 to DOT 4. IMHO, all these cars should have been delivered with DOT 4 to begin with.

 

[sleepy]

I've been looking for a White or Red base manual Abarth in my area (Missouri) for a month with the help of the local dealer. No luck... asked about getting a base Classico Meteor Gray and nothing.

Told if I settled for an auto I can get anything I wanted for 3 or 4 thousand off because many of them have been sitting on lots for 6 months.

 

[ThatsASeamus]

Told if I settled for an auto I can get anything I wanted for 3 or 4 thousand off because many of them have been sitting on lots for 6 months.

With the 124, I've heard several dealers frustrated that FCA got the target US market for the car dead wrong regarding the desire for manual transmissions.

That said, the dealer I've worked with hasn't been able to keep *anything* on the lot other than the 500L's that have been there for several months.

 

[Greg]

As others have said, the standard brakes are actually pretty good. For autocross or light duty track action I would upgrade the fluid and pads and that's about it. For more serious duty, or for the appearance, I would skip the Brembos and go with Wilwoods. Many vendors have them, and they are a great choice.

Greg

 

[kpoling]

Sleepy, Landers in Shreveport has a white manual Abarth. Should be reasonably close to Missouri.

 

[tfenwick11]

Thanks everyone for the advice and encouragement. Glad to know im not the only thats been discouraged. Sounds advice though! Great forum...also on a side note..dont hate me haha but with thr spider abarth edition maxed out its roughly 37 grand. Wouldn't it be best to spend that much money on a luxury 5.0 mustang? Dont get me wrong I have a 1997 miata and a 1972 240z so I like the small cars. But for 37 grand it seems a little steep....could possibly get a 97 acuras nsx LOL

 

[RBH58]

Totally different cars. And the Mustang is a great car. Your call

 

[tfenwick11]

I totally agree its like comparing apples to oranges just thought it was interesting. Also did anyone see the new miata rf man it looks so good to. Almost wish I could afford both haha