Abarth 595 Competizione 180

Abarth 595 Competizione 180

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Discussion

ecsrobin

17,018 posts

164 months

Sunday 6th November 2016
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rampageturke said:
Order placed, 8-10 week delivery because of the supersport wheels, gonna be a long wait
What spec/colour did you go for?

That's going to be a painful wait but will be great when it arrives.

rampageturke

2,622 posts

161 months

Sunday 6th November 2016
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ecsrobin said:
rampageturke said:
Order placed, 8-10 week delivery because of the supersport wheels, gonna be a long wait
What spec/colour did you go for?

That's going to be a painful wait but will be great when it arrives.
not many options, but modena yellow, yellow calipers, supersport wheels, black exterior detail (mirrors ect) didnt go for satnav since I just use my phone anyway, and the other options didn't really appeal to me. Didn't opt for the performance pack as it was just a bit too much

so basically i've bought myself a little bee

rampageturke

2,622 posts

161 months

Saturday 10th December 2016
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4 weeks early


Squadrone Rosso

2,740 posts

146 months

Saturday 1st July 2017
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Just ordered one of these myself.

180 Competizione, Red with black stripes & mirrors.
Performance pack (slippy diff, carbon Sabelts, super sport alloys)
Carbon dash inserts
7" Uconnect NAV, apple car play & Xenon headlights

10 week delivery. Replaces my excellent Panda Cross & the wife has traded her GT86 for a new C-HR Hybrid Ltd Edition....



Will sit well aside my Seicento Abarth


Andy665

3,599 posts

227 months

Saturday 1st July 2017
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Pretty much the spec I'm looking at - did you get a decent deal?

roystinho

3,767 posts

174 months

Saturday 1st July 2017
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Pretty much my car. Had mine nearly a year now, brilliant car


Squadrone Rosso

2,740 posts

146 months

Saturday 1st July 2017
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Andy665 said:
Pretty much the spec I'm looking at - did you get a decent deal?
Affinity deal with loyalty bonus so happy smile

Squadrone Rosso

2,740 posts

146 months

Saturday 1st July 2017
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roystinho said:
Pretty much my car. Had mine nearly a year now, brilliant car

Good to know. Thanks. I did ponder the upgraded audio system but in all honesty, I only listen to Radio 2 or Absolute 80s.

Do you have it?

roystinho

3,767 posts

174 months

Sunday 2nd July 2017
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Squadrone Rosso said:
Good to know. Thanks. I did ponder the upgraded audio system but in all honesty, I only listen to Radio 2 or Absolute 80s.

Do you have it?
I have the beats, but it came with the car. I went to order a yellow or grey one, then saw the launch car in the showroom and it was perfect for me, so got one of those

geoffrp

35 posts

147 months

Monday 24th July 2017
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I'm fancying one of these but unfortunately due to my disability I need the MTA box.
Has anyone any real world experience of the MTA and is it any good?

geoffrp

35 posts

147 months

Monday 24th July 2017
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I'm fancying one of these but unfortunately due to my disability I need the MTA box.
Has anyone any real world experience of the MTA and is it any good?

1598Craig

Original Poster:

121 posts

122 months

Saturday 23rd September 2017
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geoffrp said:
I'm fancying one of these but unfortunately due to my disability I need the MTA box.
Has anyone any real world experience of the MTA and is it any good?
Googled the MTA gearbox and a few other forum sites pop up, and the general owners point of view is as long as you accept the limitations of it being an automated manual (i.e with a robotised clutch and not a smoother dual clutch/torque converter setup) its a good gearbox and preferably to the manual in city etc

Theres a good few on auto trader so a dealer should be able to get a test drive sorted

1598Craig

Original Poster:

121 posts

122 months

Saturday 23rd September 2017
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2 Year update

This November will be 2 years since I picked up the car, and as I'm probably going to be busy then thought id do a little round up. 2 years doesn't sound that long ago and certainly doesn't seem I've had the car that long, but much has changed since then - Brexit etc

The car is at 28000 miles, so is due its 3rd service. Id been away for a few months and left the car in the hands of a few mates - they seemed to enjoy it, and not crash it so win win! I did have a service plan with Wessex garages in Cardiff where id bought the car, but they've recently dropped Fiat/Abarth to become a Kia/Hyundai garage. No great shakes cancelling the service plan with them, but it now means my nearest dealer is a good 40 miles away. If I had a fiesta ST there are currently 4 dealers within 10 miles of me that could do the car. If you need anymore reason as why there so popular (as well as being great cars)

Also, watching the new iPhone launch, thought it was a shame my 2015 pre-brexit Abarth didn't have bluetooth audio streaming, and that my 750 quid iPhone 7 plus didn't have wireless charging. So, bit of amazon research and buying, and I've made a set up in my car that now;

- gives bluetooth streaming
- integrated phone holder with wireless charging

There are ready made setups but some like the mope battery case/phone holder cost around 200 pounds, if you can get them (which is hard dependant on iPhone/phone model) I bought just a regular wireless charging pad, a magnetic mount, some velcro tape and a bluetooth streamer.

The usb to 3.5mm bluetooth adapter cost 27 quid, but theres good reason - the quality is good and the device is tiny, about the size of a normal apple headphone. It connects automatically, so I just select "AUX" on the standard fiat audio system and the car now has wireless music.




The charger was a bit more complex, but ended well. Basically, I have a magnetic mount on the central air vent, the wireless charge pad on the mount, and some small strips of velcro around the edge. with 2 small strips on the back of a phone case, as well as a wireless receiver plugged into the lightning port, I can now easily attach/detach the phone onto the air vent and have it charge. This whole setup cost my less than 20 pound and has really changed the car's infotainment system. Ive managed to wire it up a bit cleaner than the photos to, due to the big amounts of space behind the dashboard.

Other than that, the car is as good as ever - lets see what the service brings up.





Otispunkmeyer

12,556 posts

154 months

Sunday 24th September 2017
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That BT to AUX thing is very neat!

1598Craig

Original Poster:

121 posts

122 months

Friday 13th October 2017
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Otispunkmeyer said:
That BT to AUX thing is very neat!
Thanks, was a bit of a long winded article but not bad for around 50 quid all in. I did a set up wit an Amazon Alexa dot plugged into the aux input, WiFi from phone and worked a while hand free phone calls/music/radio system but as I can access that from my phone I chose that. Might do a separate article on it, sure they’re are plenty of people with bad infotainment systems and year old phones...

thefastcanadian

2 posts

94 months

Sunday 12th November 2017
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Thanks Robin for showing me your 595 yesterday, was just passing Meriden Milano today with no intention of buying a car but fell in love with one and bought it in under 15 minutes flat, from the point of walking in and leaving with sales invoice.



Really can't wait to collect it during the week. Not quite the spec of yours Robin but will suit me fine. Probably get some black supersprint alloys and black mirror cases and black Abarth door stripes. Just going to see how it is for a bit. Going to be strange in a little car again from a 300bhp 300c

The sales guy remembers you Robin mainly because yours was first 595 Comp 180 in UK

Edited by thefastcanadian on Sunday 12th November 22:38


Edited by thefastcanadian on Sunday 12th November 22:40

ecsrobin

17,018 posts

164 months

Monday 13th November 2017
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thefastcanadian said:
Thanks Robin for showing me your 595 yesterday, was just passing Meriden Milano today with no intention of buying a car but fell in love with one and bought it in under 15 minutes flat, from the point of walking in and leaving with sales invoice.



Really can't wait to collect it during the week. Not quite the spec of yours Robin but will suit me fine. Probably get some black supersprint alloys and black mirror cases and black Abarth door stripes. Just going to see how it is for a bit. Going to be strange in a little car again from a 300bhp 300c

The sales guy remembers you Robin mainly because yours was first 595 Comp 180 in UK
Not a problem at all always happy to show people what fun little cars they are. Maybe they can give me a discount next time I’m in if they’ve got a sale out of it rofl

Also interesting about it being the first comp in the UK, that’s not something I knew about the car (although I did know it was registered a lot earlier than they went on show so does make sense)

There’s quite a few of us owners on here now. My thread can be found here: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=16...

And I think in that thread I link to the rest.

1598Craig

Original Poster:

121 posts

122 months

Saturday 10th November 2018
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-- End of term --

This post is about 6 months overdue but due to many reasons its been a busy year.

Long story short, a back injury meant i couldn't drive a manual car for the last few months so in March i returned the car at the end of my contract. As I've said before, few hot hatches feel as fun, raw and special as the noisy Fiat and as much as it could be draining on a longer trip, i'd certainly take that over mediocrity any day.

Unfortunately, the week before the handover, the driver door handle came clean off, and i couldn't book into my Abarth dealer as they had closed down. Searching around gave me a 3 month wait to get it repaired under warranty (seriously Fiat? what is up with your service?) so i took the hit on the handover and paid. It also turned out the rear suspension had rusted across (requiring replacement), one of the alloys had rusted through and the windscreen was coming away at the seals. I hate to indulge in car stereotypes but the car did go "full-Fiat" prior to handover. As per, trying to get this sorted as a warranty issue meant i came up with Fiat's service centre. Again a miserable experience.

Currently in a Volvo V40 T3 auto, which isn't far off the pace of the Abarth but highlights how much the sense of occasion the Abarth was. Luckily my back is much better and eagerly awaiting my next car - a VW UP GTI due in April.

The experience so far (apart from the 6 month wait til delivery) has been good and the up itself seems to be a much better car than the base 500, very much a "shrunken Golf" feeling from the car. In my time in the up, I'd argue its as much fun as the 595 without the drawbacks and wouldn't say the power deficit is really an issue.

Ending on a high note, I'm glad I had my 595 and hope whoever ends up with it enjoys it as much as I did and it was great to see other people's on this and other forum posts.

Mike1990

962 posts

130 months

Sunday 11th November 2018
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Throughly enjoyed following your ownership on your 595, so much i bookmarked. So looking forward to seeing what you make of your GTi.