Fiat 500 Abarth pumps up the low-cost fun …

Few cars are pure joy to drive, yet cost less than $30,000. I’d put the Mazda Miata at the top of those, and a few models of the Mini Cooper would slot into this price range. But Fiat’s 500 Abarth is a relative newcomer and blows the others away on price.

The Abarth starts at about $21 grand, including delivery, and that’s down about $2,500 from a year ago. That doesn’t happen often!

There’s no getting around the fact that the Fiat 500 is a tiny car. It rides on just a 90.6-inch wheelbase, is a wee 144.4 inches long and weighs just more than 2,500 lbs.

But in its size, like the Miata, lies the Fiat’s fun, nimbleness and, well, joy.

You can toss this around, zip through corners, slip into seemingly impossible parking spots and flat out drive it like you stole it. It’s fun. This is a driver’s car. You smile a lot in a 500.

In its lower lines, the Pop and Lounge models, the 500 carries a mild 1.4-liter Multi-Air I4 that generates just 101 horsepower, leading to superb gas mileage. Well, the racier Abarth, which Fiat says is pronounced AH-bart, bumps that up substantially to 160 horses thanks to dual intercoolers, turbos.

Now you have some pop when you slip the 5-speed manual through the gears. Second and third punch up the torque (a 170 rating) and by fourth you feel like you’ve had a little mini vacation. Five speeds keeps it all simple, but adding a sixth would allow its small engine to bring the revs down and quiet the interior some.

Don’t get me wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed the grumbling burble of this little turbo as it was amplified via dual exhausts. But I kept wanting to shift to sixth on the freeway as its continued grumble made listening to the radio nigh to impossible. Continue reading 2017 Fiat 500 Abarth →