Abarth 595 Competizione 180
Discussion
rampageturke said:
Only reason I couldnt go for a test drive then was the car wasn't actually there, going for one today
Hope you enjoy it, really can't emphasise how much better the abarth range is in person than on a screen or in a review, especially the sound - took mine to a wedding yesterday and had a good few positive comments about it.Look forward to hearing what you think about it mate
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 etcHas anyone any real world experience of the MTA and is it any good?
Theres a good few on auto trader so a dealer should be able to get a test drive sorted
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.
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 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...-- 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.
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.
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