Evening all the good last wants a small runabout but some giddy up too, looking at Abarth 595s anyone on here had one? Thoughts? I must admit to liking them, a 1000kg and 160 bhp sounds like fun
Cool buggy - future classic. In about 50 years when my kids are on hover bikes. They look an absolute blast. Go for it.
I have had a 595 Turismo (written off while I was stationary at some traffic lights by an idiot on his phone) and took the opportunity to upgrade to a 595 Competizione. I absolutely love these cars - I had a 981 Cayman alongside for 17 months but sold it because, although the performance was better on paper, and the handling was sublime, it just wasn't as much fun or usable as my 595. It's quick, makes a fab noise, and as it ostensibly looks like a Fiat 500, can be used to surprise those sporty executive German cars I have a Street Triple alongside my 959 too, and the 595 is similar to those bikes in that it's has usable performance, and bags of character without being silly. Although it's much cheaper to run than a Porsche, be aware that the high performance models have service intervals of 9000 miles. Get loads of admiring comments and questions about it too - makes me wonder why everyone doesn't have one, but I feel most people feel they have to go the premium car / SUV route, but they are just missing out on hot hatch fun. Can you tell I love it?
I had a comp. very cramped. Poor ride. Handles like a shopping trolley. In the race series most of them ended up upside down which probably tells you what you need to know. Fiat customer service is appalling and They’re not really ‘fast’. Get the brembos as the standard brakes are turd. servicing is unusually expensive for a 1.4 engine. fine for around town and short journeys though and generally pretty fun. I got rid of mine within 6 months, and none of the guys I know from the racing/dev world likes them either. It’s always the short straw.
My girl had one for a year. Not very comfortable. No room for anything in the boot. I didn't like it at all. You had to press a button on the dash to get full power. Fuel tank tiny and drank fuel. Future classic? Not a chance, it is just a mass produced Fiat and there are tons of them around.
I'm a big Mini fan, not so much the recent years but up to 2016 and I went in a mates Fiat 595 and I just found the road noise and rattles horrific even compared to the Mini, also the even shorter wheelbase seemed to make the car bounce more, not for me, but sure they are fun to drive.
Yes, the ride is 'firm' I've had new or nearly new BMWs and an Audi from official dealers, I've always found them arrogant, expensive, and BMW dealer forgot to put oil cap on and it sprayed engine oil everywhere. The Fiat dealer did exactly same with oil cap with our Fiat 500 TwinAir - so no better and no worse in that regard, but less expensive and less arrogant. The Comp has Brembos. My Turisomo had Pirellis, so bad as to be dangerous. Michelin Pilot Sports fantastic. As an aside, the Porsche dealer was a much better experience, with a price to match. Lexus were fab too.
I had a MINI too, R55 Cooper, and loved it - but they are just too big and eye-wateringly expensive for anything interesting these days. Neither of my 595s has had any rattles, and if it did, I would forgive it because it's a sub-£20K car that offers so much (I paid £18.6K new, 2 years ago). My Cayman did though.
I love my other halfs twin air. 105 throbbin horsepower! just been to fetch some petronas oil and a filter. It’s incidents like above that make me service it myself! Plus i don’t trust em to put correct spec oil into it.
yeah you HAVE to use the right oil on them otherwise it causes some pretty major issues amazingly. I won’t call the Abarth’s awful, because they’re not ‘terrible‘ but in the hot hatch world if you can class it as that they’re pretty crap at most things other than being a shiny town car. Totally useless on track. In a fairly humour inducing way to be fair.
Here's my Turismo (Campovolo Grey), and Competizione (Podium Blue) I totally agree, there are plenty of faster, more refined cars out there, but I choose an Abarth and they are a hoot. Oh, and the box containing a 50" TV (much larger box) fitted fine too ;-) Haters gonna hate, dislikers gonna dislike ...but I love it.
