Instrumented Test
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An automatic alfresco ankle-biter.
Appear what followed us home. The tiny fella is noisy, a flashy dresser, and, at $ 32,095 out the door, pricey by the pound. Subtlety is not a single of the Fiat 500C Abarth’s virtues. When we tested a manual-transmission coupe version final year, it was sent to the showers by the Ford Fiesta ST and the new Mini Cooper S hardtop. So why is it shadowing our driveway?
Even though we’re staunch supporters of human-shifted cogs, this Abarth cabrio’s 6-speed automatic transmission gives an exciting contrast to the floppy shifter and mushy clutch of the 5-speed manual in the Fiat 500C Abarth we tested in 2013. It turns out that the Aisin 6-speed automatic—a $ 1350 option—is well matched to the 1.4-liter turbo’s energy curve. Fiat tunes the MultiAir 4-cylinder differently for the automatic application: Compared with the manual version, energy is down 3 horsepower to 157 but torque jumps by 13 lb-ft to 183. The added grunt, peaking 25-rpm lower in the rev range, makes this engine way much less boggy under 3000 rpm than we’ve experienced, for instance, in the 2013 Dodge Dart. In truth, the automatic Abarth outdragged the stick-shift 500C, hitting 60 mph in 6.9 seconds versus the manual’s 7.3 seconds.
Italians are Excellent Dancers, Appropriate?
As with the stick-shift version, the auto-equipped 500C Abarth’s chassis is bolstered with efficiency-tuned anti-roll bars and dampers, oversize brakes, and large wheels and tires. The electrically boosted steering is rapid and manages to provide modest rivulets of tactility transmitted through the meaty, leather-wrapped steering wheel. At speed, the 500C feels stable and as planted as anything with just 90.6 inches amongst the front and rear axles can. The tiny fella does, nevertheless, bound enthusiastically over bumps, frost heaves, and expansion strips, so hang onto that double-half-decaf cappuccino.
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A thick blanket of cold white stuff prevented us from performing our full testing regimen with the 500C Abarth, so no leading-speed or skidpad testing was attainable. But in the patch of tarmac we were able to scrape clean, brake testing had the 500C coming to a halt from 70 mph in 170 feet—similar to the 2013 Abarth cabrio’s 167 feet.
Amazingly, considering the minuscule Fiat’s huge tires and stiff suspension, not to mention the clear lack of steel in the roof, structural rigidity isn’t that bad. A single issue this schnauzer of a subcompact does not have is a undesirable case of the shakes.
The 500C’s revised-for-2015 interior is a riot of shapes and functions, and virtually no switchgear or buttons are positioned where you’d anticipate them to be if this have been, say, a Toyota. But it’s not a Toyota, and part of the exciting is peeling back the onion a tiny with each subsequent drive oh, there’s that switch I was searching for last month! Even though the rear seats are pooch perches at greatest, the fronts handle to be each comfy and supportive. Nonetheless, the tilt steering column can not telescope, which does not help extended-legged North Americans get dialed in behind the wheel. With no clutch pedal to deal with here, even though, that’s significantly less of a concern. The Fiat 500’s new, 6-inch color infotainment display assists clean up some of the dash clutter, but it sadly doesn’t consist of navigation. To get maps, you should opt for a tacked-on $ 600 TomTom unit with a tiny screen that sits atop the dash.
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Ideas for Tops
In contrast, the ease of opening the “convertible” best is merely brilliant. It’s really just a rather large fabric sunroof, one that operates with surprising precision. When totally retracted to within a handful of inches of the trunk lid, it exposes nearly as considerably skin as a Hollywood ingénue on a red carpet. Press the roof button (you will do that twice going down and 3 occasions coming back up) and the canvaslike material accordions neatly as it rolls back in channels along the door tops—very slick and, at least for the duration of our watch, free of charge of wind noise and water leaks.
The only downside to opening the best is the ever-present exhaust sound—enhanced by Abarth to homeowner-association-demerit status—which drones on like a leaf-blowing lawn crew in your neighbor’s yard. It is the growl of the dog that does not bite.
But the almost inappropriate level of enthusiasm doesn’t matter. The 500C Abarth, even in slushbox kind, zips in and out of targeted traffic, is buckets of enjoyable around town, maneuvers like a border collie tending a herd of sheep, and parks wherever you want it to. Not only does the cabrio version let far more of the outside planet in, it also radiates far more of the Abarth attitude to the ionosphere.
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