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Ford Fiesta ST Vs. Fiat 500 Abarth: Which To Buy?

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#1


Car Wars is where we pit some of today's hottest cars against each other and then, in a commenting fight to the death, decide which one we'd buy. Today we have two of the best hot hatches ever sold in the United States, all for about the same price.

Ten years ago, the American hot hatch landscape was one of dust, tumbleweeds, and the occasional Volkswagen GTI. Sure, there was that weird little Civic Si back then, but it's not like it exactly went around winning hearts and minds. Nowadays we're practically swimming in the things, however, and it's left us with some incredibly difficult decisions.

Both the Ford Fiesta ST, commonly known among the staff and readers here as the FiST, and the Fiat 500 Abarth, commonly known among the staff here as the Fiat 500 Abarth, offer heaps upon heaps of fun for a surprisingly low amount of dollars.

Read more on Jalopnik
 


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#2
The Abarth 500's exhaust sounds AWESOME, but... in the drag... its way slower than the FiST... not to mention the UNCONFORTABLE seating position... and the lack of lateral cushion from the seats...

That's why I opted for the mini ST =)
 


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#3
It seems that the Arbarth is the favorite in the comments on Jalopnik right not. Although one guy is just bashing the ST for the sake of it...or at least it feels like that to me.

I actually looked at the arbarth /and/ the GTI /and/ the GT86 as well as a Scion TC and even the BRZ. They were all kickass cars that are aimed at young fellows such as myself but for me the costs were too great either at the dealer or insurance, or they just didn't have the seats I wanted. I love racing seats and stuffed some "fake" recaro seats in my Nissan 95 hardbody. The Fiesta came with them as an option and I said I must have it.

Took my Fiesta for a test drive and I am super happy with what I came home with. It's been fun, practical, aggressive when it needs to be, and everyone is always looking at my car. I love it.

But I will admit that I don't like the dash. The guy was right on that. Grey dash, on grey steering wheel, on grey seats (unless you got the MO seats...WHICH I WANTED), on grey everything else...I think I'm gonna wrap or spray paint my interior accents. That will show them!
 


D1JL

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I have been driving a Fiat 500 for the last few days.
My FiST is in the shop.

Now I know that it is not an Arbarth and it is an automatic (rental).
But it is the most uncomfortable POS I have ever driven.



Dave
 


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#5
It's Jalopnik, most of them are internet spectators who haven't driven either car. That being said, I test drove an Abarth and I thought it was a blast but it's not really a great car... It rode terrible over rough pavement the whole driving experience was really centred around the exhaust noise and how manic the car felt. The interior sucked (outside of the awesome steering wheel) and the whole package didn't seem like I could drive it day to day. I could see owning one as a weekend car but there's already much better options out there.
 


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#6
The Arbath is basically uncontrolled explosions of power... kind of fun, but nothing is refined and it gets old pretty fast. They cranked up the power, and everything else was an afterthought. It handles goofy, power isn't put the wheels smoothly and it ends up with squirrelly torque steer, and while it sounds pretty amazing and looks pretty funky, it just doesn't have any other characteristics to back it up. I can see how some people like the bold quirkiness of it, but it doesn't appeal to me at all.

The FiST on the other hand... I mean it is something else all together. I've never drive a car that feels this well sorted right out of the box. Somebody really spent time on not just the power plant, but every aspect of the handling and suspension. Anybody that really loves driving is going to pick this car over the Abarth.

This is backed up by virtually every review made so far... seems more than a couple of armchair warriors on Jalopnik seem to disagree, and being that all they do is guzzle pop, fart and eat chips while bashing cars they are probably just upset that they wouldn't fit into the FiST Recaro's.
 


me32

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#7
If you want a car that under performs and awkward to drive then get the fiat. If you want a fun daily driver that performs Better than any car in its category an 1 step above you buy the Fist
 


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#8
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But for the existence of the Fiesta ST I would have an Abarth in my garage now. There are only two areas where I prefer the Abarth; exhaust sound and price. You can get great deals on the Abarth right now if you're willing to settle.
 


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#10
This was no contest for me. I test drove a brand new Abarth and gave it a proper thrashing, I came away with more negative than positive feelings. I loved the nicely weighted steering, responsive handling, and racy exhaust note. But the car as a whole had many problems for me: the seating position and shifter are odd, the gauges are fun and quirky and also completely illegible (huge deal for me), the interior is quirky and bland, and most of all the god-awful turbo lag and poor power - boost didn't come on until 4500rpm (compared to 2000rpm in the FiST) and the thrust was mediocre at best once it did come on. The Mini S and and FiST felt like they would blow the doors off of the Abarth with their near instant response and power while the Abarth just waited and waited and waited for what little power it did have to come on.
 


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#13
I went lurking on the Abarth forums today to see what they were saying about the Fiesta ST slaying it in every review. Obviously bias as it can get, I was laughing at the justifications given;

In order of most to least:
1. The Abarth has a soul, the FiST is apparently designed in a board room
2. The FiST is still a Fiesta (lol, the Abarth is still a shitty Fiat 500 by the same justification)
3. The suspension is too rough (or is the Abarth too sloppy) and acceleration to harsh
4. It is hard to parallel park (seriously?)
5. The Abarth will be an aged Italian car while the FiST will be an outdated domestic

Anyway, it started to be pretty obvious that it is not a community of Drivers, rather a community of Peacocks. Makes more sense now.
 


D1JL

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#14
I just turned the Fiat in after a week of driving it and am I glad.

The seats are very uncomfortable, my back still hurts.
The instrument cluster is very confusing with too much in such a small space, it draws your eyes off the road when trying to read it.
It is sloppy in the turns.
It is BUTT ugly.
And the fuel fill is on the wrong side.

This is only my opinion.
To any that own one, please enjoy.




Dave
 


airjor13

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#15
The 500 is the worst POS I had ever driven, we had one for a week as a rental when my wife's Mini got recalled. The basis of the Abarth is just crap, the ergo are terrible it feels cheap, as much as I "want" to like the Abarth because of its storied history, I just can't forgive how crap the Fiat is...no wonder dealers are selling Abarths for way under sticker
 


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#16
Everydaydriver did a head to head review:

[video=youtube;EY6TYmdLrcc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY6TYmdLrcc[/video]

[video=youtube;UMtk57OVgjU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMtk57OVgjU[/video]

This was like half the reason I bought my FiST
 


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#17
The Fiesta ST mops the floor with the Abarth, no contest.

The closer contender is the BRZ/FRS/GT86... they are very close at the track, and I've seen reviewers disagree strong on it. Even in the above video (pr2) at 10:55 one of the reviewers says he would take the ST over the BRZ, the other disagrees. What is always seems to come down to is if the reviewer gets hung up on the coupe look or RWD. When it comes down to the driving though, I think the ST is better.
 


no-pistons

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I
4. It is hard to parallel park (seriously?)
I kind of agree with this, but I would say its just not as easy to parallel park as some other cars, not "hard" to do. I parallel park on a daily basis, and what kind of pissed me off about the car when i first got it is the turning circle isn't great at all. I've gotten used to it now, but it still sucks.

My previous R50 Mini Cooper was much better at it. And believe it or not, my Land Rover LR3 is easier to parallel park haha.
 


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#19
I kind of agree with this, but I would say its just not as easy to parallel park as some other cars, not "hard" to do. I parallel park on a daily basis, and what kind of pissed me off about the car when i first got it is the turning circle isn't great at all. I've gotten used to it now, but it still sucks.

My previous R50 Mini Cooper was much better at it. And believe it or not, my Land Rover LR3 is easier to parallel park haha.
Yeah the chopped windows to achieve that upward body line and blind spots can make it more tricky, and one thing Land Rover is really good at compared with virtually all other manufacturers is visibiity. Huge windows, great seating position, etc.

My other car is a Hummer H3T... lifted, stanced out to 7' wide, with crew cab and truck box complete with 2 foot high chopped windows, now that is hard to park! haha



It just makes me laugh a bit when somebody says something like the Fiesta is hard to park, haha. All perspective I guess!
 


rodmoe

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#20
Fiesta is easy to park "Inside" but once it is parked it is hard to find a spot to fit the rig into LOL

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