I went from a 500 sport that put 50k miles on to my fist. Only thing I missed on the junk fiat was the stereo. I also drove an abarth. I just don't understand how you can like the abarth all that much. Yes I like how the abarth sounds and looks but rest of car is junk and lacks the performance of the fist and that mini van feel behind the wheel just sucked. Don't know how
Fiat dropped the ball on seating position and shifter etc.
I kinda liked the weirdness for some reason :shrug:
A little insight into what I wanted from my small fun DD: When I was originally cross shopping the two cars I had recently found out I’d never be able to ride a motorcycle again (with 11 bikes (running and projects)) in the garage. That depressed the heck out of me, as I *love* riding- grandparents rode, parents ride, all family ride. I spent about 2 years in a foul mood without my “pressure relief valve” going through surgeries and physical therapy, and I finally decided I would go shop for the most motorcycle-like car I could find. Test drove a *ton* of cars and wound up at the Miata, st, and Abarth. Wrx’s were too heavy, mustangs too big, 370z was a modern Nissan, brz too slow, etc etc. Between the three finalists, the Abarth was just the most motorcycle-y, no real frills, no sound insulation. I almost went Miata but it’s too impractical- I could still fit a full width rack mount server into the Abarth so it was dd-able. The Abarth was rough, weird and fun enough to fill 80% of that motorcycle shaped hole in my heart. When I say the st lacks character, it’s not that I think it’s a bad car, it just doesn’t scratch that same itch. It’s kinda too smooth and too quiet (great qualities for a car) for what I was looking for. I’ll try some little mods here and there to see if I can make it what I want, because it’s darn close- but if I see a 500 Abarth used for cheap I’ll probably pick that up. Another couple surgeries and I might be blue to ride again, which will mean the st has an easier job
tl;dr: the st is too good a car, i liked the Abarth for the things that made it a poorer car than the st, because it was interesting.