Small. Loud. Italian. Quick. These are the ingredients to a zesty Italian sports coupe, right? That’s at least what I thought when I walked into that Fiat dealership on a rainy night in September of 2014.
See what happened was my 991 had been the victim of a terrible hit and run. The driver side rear quarter had been destroyed along with the driver rear wheel, all while I was at work. No note. No nothing. I remember getting into my car in the darkness after work, turning on the car, and having the tire pressure monitor going nuts saying there was an issue on the driver rear wheel. That’s weird, I thought to myself, and hopped out and saw carnage.
My insurance gave me a rental car, but I didn’t like the idea that my daily driver was such a nice car and wanted something inexpensive that I could zip around in and not be left anxious leaving parked for a minute. I decided to go car shopping and somehow ended up in a Fiat dealership.
I had very little experience with Fiat, except for driving one in Forza on Xbox and a few of my track friends telling me how great this Fiat was that never came to America was. I walked into the dealership and saw a beautiful red one on the showroom floor and asked for a test drive. I took one for a spin and loved how loud the car sounded starting up, the backfires when driving it hard, the sharpness in the steering, and the overall styling of the car. Twenty minutes later, we had a deal, and I was going to pick up the car a few days later.
The Fiat 500 Abarth is not a bad car, it’s just not a great car. Fiat engineers left a lot of potential on the table. A tune quickly bumps up power resulting in a less than ideal situation where too much power going through the front wheels. There are plenty of chassis points to reinforce the suspension which stiffens the ride and decreases roll through corners. This does help a little, but then you have the seats, which are too darn high - it feels like you’re sitting on milk crates.
There are easy solutions to make this a better car - better tires, a conservative tune, some upgraded suspension bits, and honestly just some brackets that would lower the seats. I didn't want to spend the money and traded the car in after 6 months, because I couldn’t deal with the seats, the terrible turning radius and the fact that the clock wouldn’t display on the radio, but why do I miss the Abarth?
Frankly, I have no idea. Perhaps it was the startup noise. Perhaps it was the quick steering ratio. Perhaps it was how light the car was. Perhaps it was the styling. Perhaps it was the fact it was Italian and I love Italian cars.
I can’t really put my finger on it. Ripping through the mountains of Hudson county’s Seven Lakes Drive, I felt the Abarth had so much potential. Steering response was properly calibrated. Throttle response was aggressive. Braking was proper. The weight was ideal. The car did feel a bit too tall, but once you felt confident that the car wouldn’t roll over, you could slowly push the car harder.
The problem was the Abarth didn't have that certain something that makes you want to keep a car forever. I knew the car would never set any serious lap times at the track or throw down big power.
Even so, I still hate the fact that I love the Abarth so much. Maybe I'll get one in a few years when they cost a few grand, or maybe I'll remember the flaws and talk myself out of it.