nicksta43 wrote: 3. It's a berkeleying Ford. berkeley Ford.
What is the deal with this? I know in the past you mentioned that your hate for Ford came from your father but what is it that makes you hate everything this manufacturer has ever done or will ever do?
I fail to understand blind hatred or blind faith. In politics, religion, brand loyalty, sportsball teams or whatever. I am just puzzled by your very vocal anti Ford stance.
Last year we had a fleet of five Ford vehicles. That fleet cost us well over $50,000 trying to keep these vehicles on the road and making us money. That includes replacing three engines and two transmissions. It was enough to completely knock us out of getting our bonus. In my experience they break. They break a lot and they are extremely expensive to fix when they do.
Currently as we speak we have a completely different fleet of five Ford vehicles. One has a blown engine, one has been in the shop for two weeks and it's not looking good. And another has all the symptoms of needing a transmission very soon. Every single one of these vehicle had under 150,000 miles.
They are poorly built junk.
Yes I am biased. Yes I am vocal in my hate of Ford. I don't care if it's illogical. That company has cost me way too much money for me to feel otherwise.
I fix cars, and I love ford. Wouldn't own one, but I owe plenty of bonuses to them.
I like what the manufacturer is doing with the coyote, eco boost, and aluminum trucks, but I'd wait to see on all of their new stuff until it's been proven or I'm at least aware of what I'm getting into.
I hope they've turned around of some of the reliability issues because I'm really starting to like them, but after what I've seen it's gonna take some convincing for me to own a ford.
nicksta43 wrote: Last year we had a fleet of five Ford vehicles. That fleet cost us well over $50,000 trying to keep these vehicles on the road and making us money. That includes replacing three engines and two transmissions. It was enough to completely knock us out of getting our bonus. In my experience they break. They break a lot and they are extremely expensive to fix when they do. Currently as we speak we have a completely different fleet of five Ford vehicles. One has a blown engine, one has been in the shop for two weeks and it's not looking good. And another has all the symptoms of needing a transmission very soon. Every single one of these vehicle had under 150,000 miles. They are poorly built junk. Yes I am biased. Yes I am vocal in my hate of Ford. I don't care if it's illogical. That company has cost me way too much money for me to feel otherwise.
Such negativity this week.....
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fiat-500-Nero-Black-2013-Fiat-500-Abarth-2-dr-hatch-back-one-owner-/281414894175?forcerrptr=true&hash=item4185a2825f&item=281414894175&pt=US_Cars_Trucks
1 year old, stickered at $25,000+, and now a 4,000 mile one is asking $16,500? Of course I am not sure if the title is clean or accident free. Could you get it for $15,500?
I've got 48,000 miles behind the wheel of one. All the negative assumptions are bs, great little car, fine on the highway. I blast at 85/90 mph up the highway to work every day and the semis aren't blowing me anywhere.
You get it or you don't, it's a simple as that. Sounds like you drove it, you like it, you want it. You get it, so get it ;)
I don't have an Abarth but we've put 35,000 on ours since October and have never been blown off the highway either.
Wally wrote: I don't have an Abarth but we've put 35,000 on ours since October and have never been blown off the highway either.
Are you sure??? I see one or two on the side of the road on my way to work every day. They are always flipped over too.
Wally wrote: I don't have an Abarth but we've put 35,000 on ours since October
How the hell did you do that?! Is that a typo?
In reply to Woody:
The wife does about 70 miles a day to work, our families are about 120 miles away, it's been to The Keys, a couple other trips, and the first few months I think she did our grocery shopping one item at a time just to drive it around.
Had my Fiat since March. 2 days after purchase I drove 500 miles each way to the SCCA National Convention without issues or discomfort. Got a lot of looks from the rednecks in WV along the way, especially when they heard the exhaust.
I'm 8200 miles in already, and still look forward to driving it the next day ("I get to drive the Abarth today!"). Only issue has been letting the dealer rotate the tires during the first free oil change, the lug bolts are crap. $60 for a set of 20 quality replacements and I'm happy again. People keep asking fuel economy, I really don't keep track. I can still fill up once/week and drive 25 miles each way to work that week, while in Sport mode and enjoying myself. <--- enjoying myself, which is why I bought this car in the first place.
"... but doesn't put the same absurd smile on my face." That's a good reason to not buy the Ford (among many)
I bought a 2013 brand new. I just sold it, at a significant loss, with ~4400 miles on it. I was willing to do so because I absolutely couldn't stand the car. A review from another car magazine that I read recently summed up my thoughts quite nicely.
Aside from smoked headlights and taillights, the 160-hp Abarth is unchanged from its previous defeat. Its 1.4-liter four and exhaust continue to bark with the menace of half a Ferrari F40, but the Abarth has very little bite. Accelerating to 60 mph took 7.0 seconds, just a few ticks off the Ford and the Mini, but that’s not the whole story. In normal driving, the engine suffers from serious turbo lag below 3000 rpm, and the Fiat has the least amount of torque (170 pound-feet) in the group. That lag and dearth of torque contribute to annoying surges and flat spots in the power delivery. With more displacement and more torque than the Fiat, the Ford and the Mini accelerate without heaving and jerking around.
The Mini and the Ford are also more comfortable than the Fiat, whose seats reminded one editor of sitting on a stack of telephone books. Fiat places the driver far off the floor, and an awkwardly large steering wheel doesn’t adjust for reach. So either the pedals are too close or the steering wheel is too far away. The hard-plastic interior trim and the digital displays look about 10 years behind the others. At least the seats have center armrests to keep your arm from getting fatigued, but every other part of your being will grow tired of this car.
Shifting the 500’s five-speed is easy, but the shifter flops from gear to gear without any grace or mechanical precision. A mushy clutch pedal lacks feedback and tactility. The steering twitches and reports what’s happening at the Pirelli P Zero Nero tires, but the 0.82-g skidpad grip means that not much is actually happening. Body roll is excessive, and yet the ride is clumsier than the Mini’s and Ford’s.
Under braking, the Abarth becomes seriously unsettled as it dives deeply into its front tires. With the load thrown forward, the rear end lightens alarmingly. Add any steering input and the rear end will swing wide until the stability control catches it. Even stopping hard in a straight line upsets the Abarth’s stability. Braking from 70 to zero mph took a very long 195 feet. A dusty tarmac is largely to blame for that lengthy stop; in its previous test, the Abarth stopped from 70 in 172 feet.
nicksta43 wrote: Last year we had a fleet of five Ford vehicles. That fleet cost us well over $50,000 trying to keep these vehicles on the road and making us money. That includes replacing three engines and two transmissions. It was enough to completely knock us out of getting our bonus. In my experience they break. They break a lot and they are extremely expensive to fix when they do. Currently as we speak we have a completely different fleet of five Ford vehicles. One has a blown engine, one has been in the shop for two weeks and it's not looking good. And another has all the symptoms of needing a transmission very soon. Every single one of these vehicle had under 150,000 miles. They are poorly built junk. Yes I am biased. Yes I am vocal in my hate of Ford. I don't care if it's illogical. That company has cost me way too much money for me to feel otherwise.
If you're putting yourself in a position where you're financially dependent on heavily used vehicles not breaking down, then you're just not very good at managing your life. And frankly, I think that anyone who buys a Fiat probably falls into that category, too. Most manufacturers have had their quality problems. European manufacturers seem to be particularly good at selling underbuilt crap and then shrugging it off. But Fiat stands alone atop the mountain of chutzpah-to-quality ratio, and I hardly think that hopping into bed with Chrysler has improved things.
Oh yeah, I suck at life. That's the reason why in the last two years we've had three, and likely to be four blown engines and two, possibly three blown transmissions on medium/heavy duty vehicles that all happen to be from the same manufacturer with under 150k on each of them. I'm the problem, that's it.
And what company isn't financially dependent on their vehicles getting the crews and materials out to the job to do the work that makes us money?
I'm not saying I wish everyone who works at Ford would catch syphilis, just the majority of them.
"A review from another car magazine that I read recently summed up my thoughts quite nicely."
That doesn't sound TOTALLY terrible . . . I only drove an Abarth for a day, but loved it all of the way through, maybe didn't notice those faults listed.Too inexperienced and having way too much fun !
I'd still agree that what the Abarth has going for it is that it isn't a little Ford, and it doesn't break down like a Mini. Big one-ups over it's direct competition. Everyone I know with a Mini (and all of their friends with Minis) has had transmission problems with the automatic, and all of the repairs needed on my Mustang were because of factory recalls or plain inefficiency in the manufacturing.
As soon as I've had enough with this Mustang, it's an Abarth for me, hopefully this Spring ! !
It's also cute as can be. I've never had so many people talk to me about a car.
In defense of the Fiat Dyinto's car lived with some pretty stiff competition. He has owned multiple M BMWs, currently owns a ZHP and a recent water cooled 911. BMW is sooo good at making drivers cars that don't make you suffer that the poor Fiat may have never stood a chance. Hell,I DDed a gutter slammed e46 for awhile and the damn thing still rode better than most stock cars I've owned.
Datsun1500 wrote: In reply to nicksta43: Yet there are tons of Ford trucks with 300k+ Miles that just keep going.... You don't suck at life, your people just suck at driving, or something...
it's the difference between owners driving and employees driving. Very few employees even give a second thought to their company vehicle. If they even check the oil once between changes, I would be surprised. I see this everyday with contractors. You can tell when the driver is an owner/contractor as he will pull away from a light gently.. the ones driven by employees tend to just floor it off of the line
Car reviews are subjective at best. "an awkwardly large steering wheel"? I think it's kinda small. How many reviews have I read where the Abarth won the praise? If I ever get a job reviewing movies do not pay any attention to me.
In reply to Jerry:
Too bad the Abarths come in such plain colors.
I have a base model '12 500 that I bought new. It currently has ~26k miles on it and has been problem-free. The car consistently out-performs its EPA numbers and is more fun to drive than it should be. I've driven Abarths and absolutely loved them. I'd have one if they had been as discounted two years ago as they seem to be now.
The more sporty turbo cars available the better. I dig it.
Jerry wrote: Car reviews are subjective at best. .
Did anybody other than me actually laugh out loud reading that review?
Zomby Woof wrote:Jerry wrote: Car reviews are subjective at best. .Did anybody other than me actually laugh out loud reading that review?
I did, but I might be slightly biased.
The Fiesta ST vs Abarth debate has happened on Jalopnik. http://jalopnik.com/ford-fiesta-st-vs-fiat-500-abarth-which-to-buy-1620335275
I own the Abarth so I'm already biased. Basically the prices are low right now for both used and new Abarths right now because Fiat overproduced Abarths in 2013. People were getting $6K-8K off MSRP depending on options.
I will admit the Abarth has some quirks but the aftermarket for the Abarth is strong enough that most of the important quirks can be easily fixed.
Annoying long throws = Short shift adapter
Rear end isn't happy under hard braking = Bigger torsion bar
I'm incredibly happy with the Abarth. It's unique, it's fun, it's engaging.
Only question I have right now is how competitive it is in G-street vs the Focus ST and Fiesta ST. I feel like the Focus ST/Fiesta ST combo has been fully vetted with hot shoe drivers buying both. Not enough skilled drivers in the Abarth to know how competitive the car really is.
Oh and I hear the seats in the FiST are incredibly uncomfortable.
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