Words: Antony Ingram
Photography: Abarth
There are a handful of cars that inevitably send your author straight into the classifieds and auction sites after driving them. Caterhams, Elises, Alpine A110s and Porsche Caymans are all guaranteed to get me scrolling, and among classics, the Mini is one I always dream about for days afterwards.
But more down to earth than any of those is the Abarth 500, the 2008-and-on hot hatch based on Fiat’s ubiquitous 2007-2024 supermini. I always have a blast in these rowdy little machines, and their abundance and affordable pricing makes them seem dangerously accessible. Putting a Caterham or Cayman in the garage would need a deep breath and a big chunk of savings, but a few grands’ worth of Abarth? Surely worth a pop.
I suspect that temptation is there even for those who haven’t recently driven an Abarth 500, or the many variations to have come out since those original 2008 cars. Short of maybe Renault Sport Clios or Golf Rs, it’s easier to find spicy 500s in the classifieds than just about any other hot hatch; they were enormously popular over the years, helped by being one of the cheapest hot hatchbacks around for most of their time on sale.
At launch a basic model was around £13,600, while in 2023 a 145-horsepower Abarth 595, then the entry point to the Abarth range, was just over £23k. The latter is a few grand more inflation-adjusted than that early price, but by 2023 standards, still decently affordable, narrowly undercutting the Suzuki Swift Sport, one of the few other semi-accessible hot hatches on sale that year.
These days the point of entry is around the £3500 mark, only a little more than for the less potent Fiat Panda 100HP, so you can understand the temptation. Granted, the cars down at that end of the market will have led hard lives and are now old enough that they may nickel-and-dime your bank account to death with small but frequent bills, but nor are these cars desperately needy.
That is, of course, because they’re still just a mid-2000s Fiat 500 underneath. The 500 itself is sure to become a classic in future – whole generations of drivers will have good memories of them as first cars or city runarounds – but the Abarth will be even more prized, as performance variants often are. It was undoubtedly very smart of Fiat, using the 500 as the springboard for its revised Abarth brand, quickly putting its old tuner into the minds, and on the driveways, of a new cohort of young enthusiasts.
All were powered by a 1368cc version of Fiat’s FIRE engine, badged TurboJet thanks to the turbocharger hanging off the exhaust manifold. Early cars developed 133bhp, but things quickly escalated with special editions and general revisions as the model aged. Competizione and Esseesse models made up to 178bhp, as did the absolutely barmy Biposto launched in 2014, with two seats, and options including £8500’s worth of dog-ring gearbox with an exposed linkage and limited-slip diff. That one wasn’t so affordable, at nearly £50k with all the boxes ticked.
It might be because I went on the press launch, but 2019’s revised 595 Esseesse was my pick of the Abarths. 178bhp, an Akrapovic exhaust, limited slip diff, Sabelt seats, Koni FSD dampers, and Brembo brakes. A veritable who’s-who of cool aftermarket parts, and it felt unbelievably special for something that cost £25k. A Fiesta ST was cheaper and ultimately drove better but it still felt like a tarted-up Ford shopping car. The Abarth felt cut from the same cloth as something from Maranello or Sant’agata.
All those later Abarths sounded fabulous, too. You’ve probably heard the things noisily burbling around your neighbourhood, which might be a bit annoying, but I’d take it over a Golf R with a pop and bang map as far as automotive sounds go, and if you get a go in the Abarth, you’d understand the appeal a lot more – it’s just always so eager to entertain, to make mundane trips an experience worth savouring. A lot of modern hot hatches are arguably a little too normal when trundling around, but the Abarth never lets you forget that it’s designed to be fun.
You need the right body shape. As a former Panda 100HP owner, I never minded the upright driving position or cramped pedal box, but some people simply don’t fit comfortably. They’re nothing if not tactile though, particularly with the Sabelt seats, and later cars have a palm-filling metal gearknob with a pleasingly snappy action. The pedals are great for heel and toe, too.
On the road these Abarth 500s are rowdy and a bit scrappy, but it all suits the character of the car. You’ll get wheelspin and understeer and the ride can be pretty brutal (those later Koni-equipped cars seemed to take the harshest edges off) but you’re involved in the process in a way that most hot hatches started to shy away from even in the 90s; the character here is more like something from the 1980s.
Ah, character. Yes, I guess it’s inevitable that word would come up eventually, but there’s no getting away from it, the Abarth 500 and its variants have great big dollops of the stuff. Enough to make you overlook some of the flaws. Italian cars probably get away with that a bit too much but it’s why we love them. Though as above, it’s not like the Abarth 500 is some deeply troublesome car to begin with. Buy well, and maintain it equally well, and you’ll have no more difficult an ownership experience than any other supermini.
Well, with one final caveat. Apparently, less salubrious members of society also seem to quite like these Abarths, and it’s not unusual to find the car (or bits of the car) gone when you open the curtains in the morning. So if you do get one, make sure you invest in some extra security. Still, it’s not like being a theft magnet has done any harm to the classic status of Sierra Cosworths or Subaru Impreza Turbos…
What do you think? Future classic or just a fun hot hatch? Drop your opinion below.
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