The Abarth 595 is like an excited little terrier. Unfortunately it has a very tight leash. Far too tight.
Sometimes as a “motor noter”, you get a car that on the face of it you ought to love, on paper everything looks more or less right. And believe me, 160 horsepower in a small little package had me excited over this past weekend, because I was finally getting my hands on the Fiat Abarth 595 Competizione. A small car with a lot of powerIJ That is my definition of fun.
And yes, when you see it in your driveway for the first time, you really look forward to the drive. launched in 2007, the Fiat 500 is still the best looking of the “revival” cars, the others being the Mini and the Beetle. But while the revived Mini and the Beetle are both on their third generations now, the Fiat 500 only received a facelift this year. And you do feel that the interiors, particularly the infotainment system, could do with a bit of TlC. But from the outside, the 500 remains very attractive and adorned with the “Abarth” badges, this version certainly has some street-cred. Something that can be judged by the number of times people try to overtake you dangerously to take a look at the car.
Good engine. Check. Good lookingIJ Check. Impractical rear seatsIJ Check. Well, the original Fiat 500 pioneered the front-wheel drive concept and was designed as a cheap car for young Italian families, so this is not a four-seater, nor was it ever intended to be. Category four. Fun to driveIJ Errr… where do we startIJ
When I told a fellow motor noter about this upcoming drive, he just smirked and said, “enjoy” but it was the kind of smirk that should have given me a clue. As I was not around to receive the Abarth 595 when it was delivered, it was quite a shock to see buttons where you should have seen an automatic lever or gear stick. Those buttons look cool and they look different, but sometimes “cool” isn’t the way you should go with gears.
That possibly would have been fine had Fiat installed a nice, modern dual-clutch automatic gearbox. No strike that out, it would have been fine had Fiat installed a good, modern automatic period. Instead what you get is a five-speed automated manual transmission referred to as an AMT. This 1980’s technology makes a car effectively into a semi-automatic, removing the clutch pedal and while AMTs have improved since their early days, regular automatics have evolved far faster.
The fact is AMTs are cheap, but it is one thing to fit it on 60-80 horsepower small hatchbacks that cost five lakhs. Those cars do not have the power where you feel the AMT is ruining your driving experience, although the Celerio and Alto still have a gear lever. On the Abarth 595, as you power away and suddenly feel the car shift, you feel it, heck you can time it, it takes seconds.
In the 1990s, my school-bus driver struggled with the gears on his old DTC while momentum first pushed you forward and then sent you crashing back into your seat as the gear caught. In an age of millisecond automatic gear changes, we are spoiled, but frankly, if Fiat had made the 595 into a manual, even the worst stick-shift driver could have changed gears faster with less discomfort. The 595 does come equipped with paddle-shifters, and unlike the shifters on an Audi sedan you actually find yourself using these quite often, almost always to override the car’s computer which has either not shifted up when you’re on a crowded road or shifted up when you really would have liked some more power. You get used to the paddles, but even they don’t shift as quickly as you would like them to most of the time. I have never missed a manual gearshift as much as I did on this car. Never. Not even the first time I drove an automatic car in 2001, which was a Volkswagen Phaeton.
And then there is the ride. Now a firm, tight ride with skinny tyres is awesome on the racetrack. It is decidedly not awesome on post-monsoon city roads. The 595 has a lovely large steering wheel for a small car and is highly receptive to inputs, but with the contoured bucket seats with no padding, you actively start hunting out good patches of road outside the windscreen. At least I drove this car in south and central Delhi. One cannot imagine how many times dental appointments would need to be made if you drove it on Mumbai’s pothole riddled streets.
But enough complaining, once you can get a nice stretch of smooth road, this car transforms into something completely different. Something extremely good fun. Unleashed, the 595 gets up to speed at a rate of knots that I have not experienced in most small cars; and this is a tiny car. You cross the speed limit awfully fast, even on the highway. And then when you show this car a corner it urges you to attack it, the tyres do not struggle for grip, it goes for it excitedly.
And out of the corner as you accelerate, you realise that there are no small cars in India, with the exception of the Mini Cooper S, that go this awfully fast. It actually stuns those around you, not just with the rather nice noise from the turbocharger but just how fast it is off the line. It keeps up with fast accelerating motorcycles. Once you get the hang of the 595, and know how to deal with its moody gearbox, it is a hoot to drive, but as I said, it is a moody gearbox.
The Abarth 595 Competizione is not cheap. At 30 lakhs ex-showroom, indeed this is a car for only enthusiasts with money in the bank, maybe for enthusiasts with not enough money to buy more expensive Italian automotive products. But like those more expensive Italian cars, this Abarth does get noticed, does effectively seat only two, goes more than fast enough for Indian highways but unlike them, you can park it at Khan Market. But seriously FCA India, put a manual on it.