Instrumented Test
Look what followed us home. The little fella is noisy, a flashy dresser, and, at $32,095 out the door, pricey by the pound. Subtlety is not one of the Fiat 500C Abarth’s virtues. When we tested a manual-transmission coupe version last 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?
While we’re staunch supporters of human-shifted cogs, this Abarth cabrio’s six-speed automatic transmission provides an interesting contrast to the floppy shifter and mushy clutch of the five-speed manual in the Fiat 500C Abarth we tested in 2013. It turns out that the Aisin six-speed automatic—a $1350 option—is well matched to the 1.4-liter turbo’s power curve. Fiat tunes the MultiAir four-cylinder differently for the automatic application: Compared with the manual version, power is down 3 horsepower to 157 but torque jumps by 13 lb-ft to 183. The added grunt, peaking 100-rpm lower in the rev range, makes this engine way less boggy below 3000 rpm than we’ve experienced, for example, in the 2013 Dodge Dart. In fact, the automatic Abarth outdragged the stick-shift 500C, hitting 60 mph in 6.9 seconds versus the manual’s 7.3 seconds.
As with the stick-shift version, the auto-equipped 500C Abarth’s chassis is bolstered with performance-tuned anti-roll bars and dampers, oversize brakes, and big wheels and tires. The electrically boosted steering is quick and manages to deliver small 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 between the front and rear axles can. The little fella does, however, bound enthusiastically over bumps, frost heaves, and expansion strips, so hang onto that double-half-decaf cappuccino.
A thick blanket of cold white stuff prevented us from doing our full testing regimen with the 500C Abarth, so no top-speed or skidpad testing was possible. 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 big tires and stiff suspension, not to mention the obvious lack of steel in the roof, structural rigidity isn’t that bad. One thing this schnauzer of a subcompact doesn’t have is a bad 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 located where you’d expect them to be if this were, say, a Toyota. But it’s not a Toyota, and part of the fun is peeling back the onion a little with each subsequent drive; oh, there’s that switch I was looking for last month! Although the rear seats are pooch perches at best, the fronts manage to be both comfortable and supportive. However, the tilt steering column can’t telescope, which doesn’t help long-legged North Americans get dialed in behind the wheel. With no clutch pedal to deal with here, though, that’s less of a concern. The Fiat 500’s new, seven-inch color infotainment display helps clean up some of the dash clutter, but it sadly doesn’t include navigation. To get maps, you must opt for a tacked-on $600 TomTom unit with a tiny screen that sits atop the dash.
In contrast, the ease of opening the “convertible” top is simply brilliant. It’s really just a rather large fabric sunroof, one that operates with surprising precision. When fully retracted to within a few inches of the trunk lid, it exposes almost as much skin as a Hollywood ingénue on a red carpet. Press the roof button (you’ll do that twice going down and three times coming back up) and the canvaslike material accordions neatly as it rolls back in channels along the door tops—very slick and, at least during our watch, free of wind noise and water leaks.
The only downside to opening the top 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’s the growl of the dog that doesn’t bite.
But the almost inappropriate level of enthusiasm doesn’t matter. The 500C Abarth, even in slushbox form, zips in and out of traffic, is buckets of fun 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 more of the outside world in, it also radiates more of the Abarth attitude to the ionosphere.
