A bit of Abarth vs twin air maths...hear me out
Discussion
I was thinking a couple of days ago how the twin air 500 from various owners and mag reviews was doing rather worse mpg wise than the sporty Abarth 500.
Now of course the lack of road tax will be a insentive for some, but Ive done the man math.
Over 10000 miles, (so lets say thats yearly for a Daily Driver) All mpgs are taken from forums such as this and long term tests on the cars, but feel free to say Im off the mark.
Twin air - 35 mpgs,£6 per gallon - £1714
Abarth - 40 mpgs, £6 per gallon - £1500
Even with the £170 road tax, its still cheaper AT £1670.
Even you bought new the twin air is almost 13k at 12,760, the abarth is not much more (couple hundred with delivery miles) in fact Autotrader will even find you one for the list price of a twin air!
Now unless your in london, why oh why oh why...
Now of course the lack of road tax will be a insentive for some, but Ive done the man math.
Over 10000 miles, (so lets say thats yearly for a Daily Driver) All mpgs are taken from forums such as this and long term tests on the cars, but feel free to say Im off the mark.
Twin air - 35 mpgs,£6 per gallon - £1714
Abarth - 40 mpgs, £6 per gallon - £1500
Even with the £170 road tax, its still cheaper AT £1670.
Even you bought new the twin air is almost 13k at 12,760, the abarth is not much more (couple hundred with delivery miles) in fact Autotrader will even find you one for the list price of a twin air!
Now unless your in london, why oh why oh why...
...twinairs can be had on good finance deals though - 3 years interest and a moderate deposit and a friend is paying about £110 a month, albeit with a fairly large final payment. Similar arrangement on an Abarth would be £200 or more. If you don't have all the money to hand, monthly affordability is how a lot of people make their decisions on what to buy.
Alfahorn said:
omniflow said:
Squadrone Rosso said:
If you already run two V6 Alfa's & a classic Spider, the TA appeals big time 
I'm sure this is debatable, but I don't consider the S4 to be a classic Spider. S1 & S2 definitely. S3 onwards - no way.crostonian said:
Omniflow, who cares what you think, the Spider S4 is a classic, it was the oldest car in production when it was new so if anything gives it classic status that does!
Sorry, I don't understand this statement. The oldest car when it was new - don't get that at all.Maybe you're saying that the S4 Spider is the same as the Duetto, and that's where the "oldest" bit comes from. So that must mean that a Mk4 Escort is as old as a Mk1 Escort. Or am I missing something? Please explain.
omniflow said:
crostonian said:
Omniflow, who cares what you think, the Spider S4 is a classic, it was the oldest car in production when it was new so if anything gives it classic status that does!
Sorry, I don't understand this statement. The oldest car when it was new - don't get that at all.Maybe you're saying that the S4 Spider is the same as the Duetto, and that's where the "oldest" bit comes from. So that must mean that a Mk4 Escort is as old as a Mk1 Escort. Or am I missing something? Please explain.
Alfahorn said:
I'm not surprised you struggled to understand Crostonians comments when you fail to recognise the classic status of the 105/115 series Alfa Romeo Spider. A car which was in production for 27 years with few revisions to the original design in the last 24 years of production. It is quite clear the final S4 cars very closely resembled the first Duetto models. The comparison with the Ford Escort is clearly ridiculous!
A bit of a pompous response if you ask me.In my view (and this is just my opinion, whether you care or not) the S4 Spider is modern looking and really nowhere near as appealling as the S2 Spider and for that reason I don't consider it a classic. I think that the S4 Spider even has fuel injection, I'm not sure that was a feature of the earlier cars.
The comparison with the Ford Escort is there to demonstrate just how precious you are all being.
What a ridiculous comparison!
You can't compare the list price of a TA with a pre reg 500A. You can compare pre reg for pre reg but it most cases funding is required and the new finance on a TA is incredible (3.5 % apr AND a £500 deposit contribution).
But the most glaring error is with mpgs.. You are comparing a TA being driven hard versus an Abarth being driven sensibly!
Abarth will realistically do 28/29/30mpg most of the time, if it begins with a 4 the car is wasted on you, suggest the 1.2 next time, you may get 60mpg!
TA will realistically return 45mpg whilst in the turbo mode most of the time, you may get low 50's in the eco mode. The high 60's are acheivable but its not a natural way of driving.
Horses for courses really, if you want a stylish city car thats not too flashy with a fun engine like nothing else on the market then you go TA. If you want a hot hatch then there are a myriad of options but the purest say 'Renaultsport' on the tailgate.
You can't compare the list price of a TA with a pre reg 500A. You can compare pre reg for pre reg but it most cases funding is required and the new finance on a TA is incredible (3.5 % apr AND a £500 deposit contribution).
But the most glaring error is with mpgs.. You are comparing a TA being driven hard versus an Abarth being driven sensibly!
Abarth will realistically do 28/29/30mpg most of the time, if it begins with a 4 the car is wasted on you, suggest the 1.2 next time, you may get 60mpg!
TA will realistically return 45mpg whilst in the turbo mode most of the time, you may get low 50's in the eco mode. The high 60's are acheivable but its not a natural way of driving.
Horses for courses really, if you want a stylish city car thats not too flashy with a fun engine like nothing else on the market then you go TA. If you want a hot hatch then there are a myriad of options but the purest say 'Renaultsport' on the tailgate.
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