Test Drive: Abarth 500 - 2010

The first successful small car from Fiat was the Dante Giacosa-designed 500 Toppolino, launched back in 1937. Named after the Italian word for "mouse", the first Fiat 500 sold over half a million cars until 1955, when it was replaced by the more modern, post-war 600.

After only a couple of years, the 600 spawned another return of the 500 nameplate, the so-called Fiat Nuova 500. Also designed by Dante Giacosa, the Nuova 500 became one of Fiat's biggest sellers of all time between 1957 and 1975. Transforming from an inexpensive and simple city car into a cultural icon like the original Mini, the Citroen 2CV or the Volkswagen Beetle, the original 500 raised an entire army of fans.

In the meantime, a Turinese racing car maker founded by the Austro-Italian automotive legend Carlo (Karl) Abarth and Armando Scagliarini was just beginning to make a name for itself. Among other racing and street projects, one of their more spectacular cars were the Abarth-tuned Fiat 500s and later the Autobianchi A112.

Their close ties with the Italian company got the street tuning division to get bought by the Fiat Group on July 31, 1971. Sadly, in just a couple of decades since this happened, the Abarth nameplate began to disappear from view, being slowly buried by Fiat until it completely vanished.

Years passed and a retro revolution began to appear among car manufacturers, with models like the VW New Beetle, the new MINI, the Ford Mustang and others offering a blend of modern technology and an old-school design. Fiat couldn't let this one pass and started work on a retro model of their own.

Previewed by the Fiat Trepiuno Concept from the 2004 Geneva Auto Show, 2007 saw the revival of the Nuova 500 in the Fiat line-up. With a spectacular launch and a waiting list rivaling exotic cars, the latest 500 took the automotive world by storm with its retro design motifs and extensive personalization options.

Abut two years later, another Fiat brilliant idea was to also revive the Abarth nameplate. The first models to receive the "Scorpion touch" where the Grande Punto and the little 500, who also received a more hardcore, SS (Esseesse) variant.

We couldn't let the opportunity to experiment one of the little buggers pass us so we took an Abarth 500 for a test drive. We should probably also mention the fact that Lady Luck smiled upon us and we first got to have a short city driving stint in the esse esse model before jumping in its smaller brother. Read on to check out our opinions about the little retro city racer.

Heavily based on the 2004 Trepiuno Concept, the new Fiat 500, and Abarth 500 consequently, are using so many 1960s design cues that from the distance you might even confuse it with the original Fiat "Bambina".

The Trepiuno and its production counterpart were both designed at the Centro Stile Fiat in Turin, under the supervision of none other than Frank Stephenson, the guy who also penned the original 2001 MINI while working for BMW. The retro motifs all around the car are so well thought-out that even its general proportions are almost identical to the original.

Sir May B. Bach's Opinion

Futile Italian Attempt at Transportation. I think this... ahem... acronym pretty much sums up my opinion about FIAT cars, bust especially when talking about the 500. I realize this is a so-called 500 injected with steroids or something, but it still doesn't float my boat.
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Getting in the Abarth 500, you are first greeted by a sporty, three-spoke steering wheel and a pair of supportive front seats which look like they came off a toy car. The steering wheel is engulfed in leather, with its center hub being complemented by a rather large Abarth logo.

The best looking bit about the dashboard is probably the center rev meter, which right sits inside the tachometer dial. Left from the dashboard is a turbocharger pressure gauge which also houses a rather annoying "shift" indicator. Thankfully, the shift indicator only works when the "Sport" button isn't pressed.

3D Interior Panorama

>> Click to view the interior panorama

Even though the Abarth 500 looks and almost feels race-ready, we weren't expecting any problems arising from this during our city driving stint. Turns out we were quite right on this subject. The overall petite size of the car in both length and width makes fitting between cars in a parking lot a breeze.

Lou Cheeka's Opinion

Well aren't we in a jolly good mood lately? What's up with this substitute of a Barbie car in the front of my porch? Are you trying to get me mob lynched (with pitchforks and everything) by my redneck neighbors?
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To better appreciate what kind of sensations you can experiment in the little Abarth 500 you're pretty much obligated to drive it like you stole it on the open road. This is where the Italian scorpion can really do some sting damage. We're not talking about quarter mile runs or high speed cruising on the highway, since the Abarth 500 doesn't impress that much with these types of numbers.

Mary's Opinion

Best. Chick. Car. Ever. That is what my mind was telling me the second I laid my eyes on its petite figure. Oddly, my opinion somewhat changed during the test drive, but not by much. The only way I would have loved it even more would have been if it was a convertible.
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After first having a short go at the Essesse variant in city traffic, going over tram lines and "sleeping policemen", the regular Abarth 500 felt much, much more comfortable, considering both the suspension and the proofing aspects. Still, if you compare it with an average city car, the situation changes.

The stiffness of the suspension setup can become pretty burdensome on your kidneys, especially if you're the type of person who's not always driving like a madman, trying to make the exhaust spit with every gear change and other such "activities".

The suspension's comfort is not that different from a Mini Cooper S, but the body's movement over rough pavement can actually feel a bit worse since the 500 has a shorter wheelbase. It doesn't exactly feel like torture for your internal organs but it's not like driving a flying carpet either.

On top of that, the sporty and pretty supportive sports seats are a bit anatomically-incompatible with most drivers. In other words, especially on longer trips, you can feel a bit of back pain if you're either too small or too big for the one-size-fits-all front seats.

On the good side, the optional Interscope audio system is a bit better that average, especially for this segment, although it doesn't come with a subwoofer. As far as the interior space goes, as we previously mentioned, it's the same as in every other Fiat 500. Translation: only two persons can fully enjoy it, since the other two in the back should be either midgets or pre-pubescent children. All in all, when talking about passenger comfort in an Abarth 500, you get what you pay for.

The four-cylinder turbocharged engine under that short hood is a pretty good example of downsizing at its best. Only 1.4 liters displacement, a small turbocharger and an intercooler are there to inform you this is a petite but deadly combination. OK, it's not exactly deadly since we're only talking about 135 horsepower in this version (160 in the Essesse mentioned earlier). On the other hand, the power to weight ratio is similar to an old-school British roadster, or an Abarth 595 from the 1960s if you like.

Unfortunately, one area where the Abarth crew didn't get much involved was the five-speed manual transmission, which is all fine and dandy on a regular Fiat 500 used by a daddy's girl when shopping or hitting the mall. On the sports version of the same car it's not exact enough for fast shifting, especially when going from third to second before a tight turn in "Sport" mode.

Apart from the obvious design additions, in both form and function, Abarth has also meddled with the car's suspension. The result doesn't make the car more comfortable than a somewhat similar performing Mini Cooper S, nor sportier. The main problem with it comes from the car's rather short wheelbase and the fact that the rear suspension is semi-independent, not a multi-link like on the Mini.

Other technical bits tickled by the "scorpion" are to be found in the interior. As mentioned before, there are two ECU-presets for the engine, with both being controlled via a button on the center console. Plus, the Abarth-exclusive TTC (Torque Transfer Control) system makes hard cornering a bit easier.

In theory, the system acts as a virtual LSD (Limited-Slip Differential, not the drug), making for a better performing front-wheel drive car when turning hard. Using the same sensors as the ABS and the electronic stability control, the TTC mildly brakes the front wheel which starts spinning much faster than the other during corners, thus trying to compensate for the natural understeer tendency of front-wheel drive cars.

Technically, it works, but not as good as a real limited-slip differential would. The only good thing is that it doesn't also reduce engine power, like other similar systems do, thus making for a good compromise between a real LSD and a regular, virtual one.

Although at first glance the Abarth 500 we drove was a bit better equipped than your average small Fiat, the actual test drive proved us wrong. Apart from the single-zone automatic climate control and the two automatic electrical windows, there weren't many gadgets in our test car. This is not to say that the Abarth 500 is completely devoid of gizmos, but it certainly wasn't excelling at this chapter.

The car had xenon HID headlights with auto-leveling and a washer function, but there was no light sensor to complement them. The front seats were manually adjustable and were not heated (nor cooled), but at least they had a pretty decent way of letting [very short] people get in the back seat.

The Esseesse version we first got to drive was equipped with a panoramic glass roof, but sadly, the regular Abarth 500 didn't have this otherwise pretty cool option. The optional Interscope audio system was above average, while the easily accessible "Sport" and "TTC" buttons can really come in handy when driving in a... livelier manner.

The USB "Blue&Me" system developed in collaboration with Microsoft was also present in our car, as was the three-spoke steering wheel with helpful controls on it. The only major difference was the fact that the Abarth steering wheel is a bit smaller and has a different shape than the Fiat 500 one.

Just like the normal Fiat 500, the Abarth variant has fixed rear side windows, with most of the optional gadgets being shared between the two. The only exception resides in the optional GPS navigation system, which we only got to experiment during our Essesse drive.

The coolest thing about it, apart from being completely portable, was the fact that it can record virtual tracks and your times achieved on those portions of the road. It was helpful by reminding us we are not on a real circuit, but on a public road, while recording the times. All in all, there are a lot of optional extras to make techno-geeks happy, but our test car wasn't exactly filled with them.

The Fiat 500 was tested by EuroNCAP back in 2007, achieving no less than 35 points from a total of 36 in adult occupant protection and the maximum of five stars. As far as the guys from EuroNCAP say, the passenger compartment remained pretty stable during the frontal impact and that all passengers were well protected.

The only bad points during the test were experienced by the 3-year old and 18 month old child dummies, which were not contained by their restraints very well. Also, as far as pedestrian protection goes, the little 500's hood is not very friendly during impacts.

When speaking about passive safety, our test car was equipped with no less than seven airbags. Two frontal ones and two thorax airbags for the front passengers, two head airbags for all for passengers and a driver knee airbag are there to protect you in the misfortunate case of an impact. Also, our Abarth was equipped with an anti-lock braking system, an anti-skid system which also includes the Torque Transfer Control for the front wheels and, of course, standard electronic stability control.

Finding the best side of an Abarth 500 is as hard as finding a needle in a haystack or Waldo. The funky retro bits you can observe on both the exterior and the interior of the car are of course, overwhelming. The rather involving handling and the punchy 1.4-liter engine are also things to brag, but it certainly doesn't set the mark in its segment, especially after we first experimented the Essesse version. To make things simpler though, we chose the design. There's nothing like the feeling when everywhere you park people stop you to congratulate for your choice in cars. We couldn't find a single person not to appreciate the way it looks, with the addition that women like the overall cuteness while guys usually complement the sporty Abarth design bits.

As far as the bad parts about it, we should probably go with the fact that the Abarth version also inherits some too many parts from the Fiat 500 donor, including the rather inconsistent five-speed transmission stick. Another bad part is probably the pretty large turning circle, which kind of diminishes its "small car" credentials.

The ugly bit about the Abarth 500 is most likely the fact that there's also an Essesse variant of it. Sure, the normal Abarth is all fine and dandy, but once you climb in an Essesse it feels much, much more mellow. So, for whomever can live with the hard-as-a-rock suspension setup or the constant exhaust rumble of the Esseesse, we would probably suggest that variant instead of the entry-level one. It's much more involving from the driver's point of view, which is what Abarths from the past were all about.