Fiat 500 Abarth Manual Review: Saved By the Stick?
Asterisks around every corner
We live in a glorious age, with modern turbocharged engines becoming the norm. As such, these engines are being refined to deliver near instantaneous response, and wide, usable power bands. The Fiat 500 Abarth is decidedly old school, offering explosive power in small bursts. You have to work for it. Another lovable quirk in the 500 Abarth’s all-out charm assault.
With 160 horsepower and 170 lb-ft of turbocharged torque on tap, the 2,500-pound Abarth is no slouch, as long as you keep it in the power band. Of course, that is for the 5-speed manual-equipped Abarth. Those who opt for the 6-speed automatic get 157 horses, and, inexplicably, 184 lb-ft of twisting force. Hilariously, on Fiat’s own website, these numbers change depending on what page you’re looking at. Sometimes it’s listed at 154 horsepower, and other times 157. The quoted torque figure is equally elastic. This is, naturally, done for…reasons.
However, the powertrain oddities don’t end there. The United States gets a 5-speed manual transmission while Europe gets six gears to play with. And, let’s go back to that clutch situation. Inexplicably, the floor beneath the clutch pedal isn’t flat, so you’re never sure if the clutch is all the way down when starting off, or changing gears. Why is it like this? Who knows. Just another factoid for the ever-growing quirks list.
Perhaps it’s that different state of tune that explains another quirk of the 500 Abarth manual: the sound. The 500 Abarth is universally praised for the ridiculous sound emitted from the tail pipes. However, this particular Abarth, while sounding quite nice, did sound notably different than the last one I drove. The quirks and oddities list for this car is growing quite long.
But who cares?
Even when down a few decibels, the 500 Abarth is far and away the loudest, and best sounding sport compact on sale today. It’s turbocharged, angry, and ready to tell everyone all about it.
The handling was as zany as ever, trailbraking at any level had the car wanting to swap ends. The car pitches, dives and rolls more than a second-string football player at Spring training trying to get the coach to notice him.
Don’t forget to shift the transmission, all the time. Despite having just five gears, the peaky power delivery means that even in the tightest of roads, you will be working the meaty shift lever constantly to keep that 1.4-liter four-banger on boil.
It’s silly, and ridiculous. It’s hilarious fun.
The Fiat 500 Abarth is fun to look at, easy to park, gets 33 miles-per-gallon on the freeway, and has a cost of entry that just about anyone with a 3-digit credit score can swing. Base MSRP is, at the time of this writing, $19,995. When I drove this car, the base price was closer to $21,000. At this rate, wait a few months and one could simply walk into a Fiat dealership with 1/1,000,000th of a Bitcoin, and drive away with a shiny, new 500 Abarth, paid in full.
It’s as zany as it is flawed, and I loved every second of driving it. Even when I thought it was going to flip over around the corners. It didn’t, and I’m still alive to tell the tale, and for that I stand by it that the Fiat 500 Abarth is one of the best sport compacts on sale today. Go drive one.
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