MotorMouths

The Fiat 500 ABARTH is a bona-fide performance car that is very fun to drive, has some exclusivity, and won’t bust your budget with monthly payments or at the gas pumps. In today’s economy, that might be a winning combination.

Just the right side of cute with a good dose of practicality, this two-door hatchback makes for a great city car. To get your adrenaline into the act, opt for the 500 Abarth model. The car was so simple, so cute and so much fun that I was utterly won over.

The 500 Abarth, despite its diminutive size and decent 28/34 mpg rating, feels refreshingly raw in an age of electronic enhanced performance, with a character and style that’s uniquely Italian.

The 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth is a special car. It is a very different car than the base model it has been built upon, and should be heavily appealing to those drivers that are considering the very most sporting selection of small cars.

It’s a genuinely fun-to-drive, character-filled, lightweight performance car. If you’re after a durable, tossable back-road machine, the Abarth will get the job done. Or maybe you just want a rolling fashion statement? Well, the 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth can do that, too.

t’s hard not to grin at least a bit when you first see Fiat’s cheeky little 500, but critics have been nearly unanimous in stating its need for more power. Enter the Fiat 500 Abarth. It seems to be the answer to many of our desires.

It’s quick and nimble, and so full of character that the things it gets wrong sort of become endearing. If its offbeat seating position doesn’t immediately knock it out of contention for your hard-earned dollars, the 500 Abarth is an extremely fun car to drive, almost in spite of itself.

The Abarth is a flat-out blast to drive. It is destined to make Fiat fans very happy. It’s also destined to give MINI shoppers that are willing to look at another brand a serious dilemma: is a comparable MINI worth an $8,000-$10,000 premium?

Its shortcomings would be a problem in a car that was boring to look at and drive. They’re an afterthought to the sheer pleasure of walking up to a Fiat 500 Abarth and hearing its powerful little engine spring to life.

The Fiat 500 Abarth is a fun little car in a crowded and ever-changing segment, and does a fine job of standing out thanks to clever packaging and a good power-to-size ratio. “Small but wicked” isn’t really too far off the mark.

As brazenly transparent exercises in marketing go, the 500 Abarth has more street cred than most. And it doesn’t hurt that this thing is such a jagged, noisy sprayed-roach of a car.

The Abarth scoots. It’s addictive. It moves so fast and well, you want to drive it the longest way home. I loved driving it so much, especially in congested urban traffic, I didn’t mind accepting the risks suggested by NHTSA’s so-so crash-test results.