I passed my driving test in October, having learnt and experienced driving for a long while in my dad’s Fiat 500 he bought in late 2017 on PCP. I passed my test in a 500 and I have to say that compared to the Honda Jazz I drive now, although I love that car, it’s the Fiat that is easier to daily drive. Because you sit high in a chair like position instead of low seats like a conventional hatchback. This means you have a much wider field of vision and can therefore learn the size of your car very quickly in comparison to a bigger hatchback like the jazz. Whose C pillars block the view of your front left, meaning that parking takes at least twice as long. The size of the Fiat means that parking is very easy. This also means you can go quicker down roads that in another car would be too narrow, so you don't have to slow down as much, meaning you take less time to reach your destination. Because the car has such as short wheelbase, parallel parking is a breeze, especially with parking sensors. However, they seem to beep fully when you have about 2 feet from the space you are backing into 🤨. Although the 1.2-litre engine may not have the acceleration needed in the higher gears ( it takes a long to overtake on a dual carriageway). In town, the lower gears offer way better acceleration on roundabouts as well as changing lanes. You do get a bit tired after journeys longer than a couple of hours though. As the pedal position is quite high in comparison to other cars meaning that having to clutch and brake in traffic repeatedly causes minor thigh pain. The AC also takes a while to kick in, however demisting the front windscreen is quick and especially useful now in January when the temperatures drop and the ice starts to form, making you late for school or work. No matter how heavy your right foot, I am surprised that in over 6,000 miles of driving, the car has managed 50mpg which is around 10mpg higher than my Honda jazz😥. The rear side windows do act as a little problem when checking slip roads are clear on dual carriageway due to their small size. However, it’s not a 5 door and so I’m not sure this will matter to other owners who drive 3 door cars. The car also has Bluetooth and 6 speakers which offer good bass and clarity when playing Spotify. You can also use the car to answer calls whilst your driving which is very useful. A plus point is that you can fit 3 other friends in the car and rear legroom is ok. However, comfort is much lower than the front seats, so if you travel far with your mates, they may hate you a little for the lack of space and ride quality. The boot has a small depth but a high height so you can actually fit quite a lot of stuff in it such as 8 shopping bags or a large Hi-Fi. However, your things will probably be in a different place to where you remember you put them due to the bouncy ride and the lack of tie-down points. The sun visors also don’t block the sun, but the solution is just to wear sunglasses to sort this out. The summarise the Fiat 500 is... • Cheap to buy/rent (£200/month lease with 3 years free maintenance) No garage bills, my Honda has cost £800 so far in servicing costs and a problem with the brakes. • Insurance is very cheap, I’m insured as a named driver for £540 a year. This is without an evil black box and to compared my mate’s 18 plate fiesta, that costs him £800 with a black box. • Fuel cost is very low, around 10p per mile when petrol is around £1.20 - £1.25/litre. My jazz and my friends' cars all average around 40mpg bringing the cost of fuel around £8 per tank cheaper in the case of the 500. • The look and design of the interior is modern and clean with no unneeded buttons and it’s bright if you choose white paint. In comparison one of my friends has a Corsa D and his dash is just a mess of buttons. Update: (Since writing this review the Corsa's glove box, radio and passenger seat have broken with no clear explanation). • The placement of the gear stick allows you to shift gears much quicker due to the short throw and high placement, it’s effortless compared to shifters in the centre drivetrain that have long throws and miss-shift due to bad gear placement. It’s easy to drive and fun too. • The suspension is ok but very noticeably soft and bouncy on rural humped B-roads. The car wants to pull into the opposite lane and you have to fight against the steering to stay straight. On the other hand, you could say this adds to the feel and character of the car. • It’s super easy to park in any space • It so easy to clean at home and takes half the time of a Honda jazz due to everywhere being rounded and easy to reach. It’s not the best car in the world but I think it’s the best car for a young driver. Don’t buy an old car that you think is good value; remember you have to pay for high insurance with a black box, fuel, services and garage work that is time-consuming and in the long run may actually cost the same as a PCP deal; something, in my opinion, you are much better off doing. As you pay only a fixed price, meaning there are no unexpected costs. The fuel-saving and the low insurance means that it’s the best option if you can be prepared to sacrifice a nice ride with only 4 seats. I am speaking from my experience of nearly 9,000 miles, over all road conditions and situations you could think of. I am not telling you to buy a 500, I am just explaining why I recommend it. Thanks for reading all the way through my comment and I hope I have given you an expansion of knowledge you may not have had about the reality of first car ownership and the reality of living with a Fiat 500 over the course of a year. 👍 Update: Since this review, the 500 went back to Fiat last month 'December 2020', in the 3 years we owned the car it had done 24,000 miles total, without missing a beat. My sister also learnt to drive in the car but managed to split the front bumper when going over a steep crest. This was fairly cheap to fix at a local bodywork centre around £200, but it's worth bearing in mind that if you go for the PCP option. Always assess the worst-case scenario and put some money aside for at least an unexpected bill if you have a similar accident which is more than likely to happen in your first car.
@@kellyevans6204 No worries, if you are able to get insurance on the 500 without a black-box, it makes driving a lot more relaxing and easier when you are older 19 or 20. My friend with the Corsa 1.2 is still paying £650 for insurance with a box (We are both nearly 20 now). To compare, I would have been paying around £320 for the year on the Fiat by now as the main driver. I'd also compare the price between a newer model (2016+) and the older version of the car. If you are really set on getting a 500, the model after 2016 got the styling upgrade as well as the touch screen and parking sensors on the 'lounge' model.
@@tygwrwasley8662 wow that is a big money difference! Thank you for that I will keep that in mind. Yeah definitely looking at the newer model for sure- also love the Vauxhall Adam and Renault Clio!
But the Fiat 500 is a girly car. It is not appropriate for men to ride it. When they gave me a Fiat 500 for my sixteenth birthday, I was, to put it mildly, unhappy. I would rather take a bus to school than a girly car.
SonOf Sekhmet a car doesnt necessarily have a gender but you just need to pimp it out thats all at least it gets you from point A to point b regardless of the design.
@@jamesschultz2039 your right it is a girls car, grown arse man gets out of a fiat 500 when your out with pals, really. If its not a girls car why are owners so defensive about them
Surely if you are self-conscious and need to compensate for your manhood, you'd buy a BMW or Range Rover. The Abarth is great and a true driver's car. The T-Jet engine in them was modded by Abarth and is race proven (it was used in formula 4 I think) and has forged internals. They tune really well and it should last a long time.
a new fiat 500e used is a fine deal ...$180 dollars a month ...save about $100 in gas only cost me 2 dollars for every 300 miles worth of travel...goes 0-60 about 4 sec
Scud Nut you would not regret getting yourself a Fiat 500. I am 77 years old and have owned my Sport model since new for 7 years and have no intention of trading it in. It is purely a fun car to drive.
Hey Stef. Fun car to review. Its not my cup of tea and a great commuter car that's fantastic on fuel. Easy to park, turning radius is very good and it can haul your groceries to golf clubs and everything in between very easily. All the BEST-Cheers from Vancouver, Canada!!
I started in a 2003 ford ka 1.6 with 90 something horses, amazing first car, then had a 207 gt, another great car but a bit boring, then had a 207 vti, gorgeous car, kept that one and got a 500 abarth, awesome and it reminds me of my first car, the ka.
Hi Stef, yeah they're fabulous little cars. I've driven loads of them when I used to hire cars from Enterprise car rental, as they had special weekend deals. If anyone is thinking of buying one of these, or any new car, try hiring one for a weekend first to see what you think. Love the Abarth version of this. Cheers, Jon.
Or you could do what I did and get a Mazda RX8 (231bhp) with 40k miles for £2000 and find an insurance company that actually had it down as a 1.3ltr 4 door car. Pay £800 for the year. Or the alternative, buy a ford fiesta for twice the price with half the power and double the insurance premium.
We love both the fiat and Abarth versions. Our club members male, female and of all ages are proof that these cars have universal appeal perhaps equalled only by the origiinal mini.
Great review. I also have just bought the twinair (well in April 2018) coming from a Mini Cooper and so far loving it. Great car with lots of character
What a great car the Abarth 500 is or did i mixed something? 😄 Great work as usual! Think it looks like your videos are always so nicely color graded! Or its your camera?
Fall in love with these as soon as they came out (even before the abarth 500 came out) I had a fiat 500S model for a month going a few years back and I enjoyed every bit of it. That really pushed me to buy my abarth. There siick. Especially in city. There’s a special place in my heart for these (great vid.. keep it up maan 👊🏼👍🏼)
I have to agree, I drove and reviewed one the other week, that the 500 is a perfect car. Which version of the 500 did you review, I can't see it on Fiat configurator and what equipment are you using to film with? I'm just getting started with youtube car reviewing and am eager to learn from more established content creators.
@@StefABtv Those cameras have in built background noise reduction? I'm using equipment I have already, mainly phone plus some sound recording equipment plus tripod I bought recently. This possibly biggest issue I had been facing is controlling background noise albeit mainly down to my lack of knowledge of how to use hardware, second to learning how to use my equipment which I am still learning. Not a techy, pleased with results so far and each video is an improvement to the last. If you have any critiques please do say, like I said I am eager to learn.
My younger sister has the 500c as her first car. She wants a new car but can’t find a reason to change it (4 years later!). Only thing she said to me when I was ordering my Abarth was “don’t get the white interior”. The white turns to brown within the first year lol
Just realised you had a Fiat 500! I now have a white 1.2 2010 edition ....now with an Abarth leather interior. All because I had to get Irish insurance from zero 🙄 thanks to Brexit. Have an F56 Cooper S in UK. Got the Fiat thanks to you and Cooper thanks to Petrol Ped. Keep safe and love the Fiat. Video is better than TV Cheers Stef.
Aww, that coolant resiviour is crying through it's face like it seen the end of My Girl and hasn't seen The Good Son yet. (Macaulay Culkin feature films)
That’s actually my sisters first car lol. 1.2 FR diesel and it is pretty good. But she prefers my Abarth. Only reason she bought the ibiza is because she has a child. My 2 year old nephew calls shotgun all the time in my abarth... not that he has a choice, but i can’t get to fit the baby seat at the back abarth lool. But still... i love it regardless.
right now i kinda want to shit about the cars reliability but then again i really want rx8 that isnt any better but im going to keep it inside and say nothing and not be a hater
I would LOVE to get one of these but idk North Queensland Australia roads are not amazing & I feel like I would get laughed at cause how tiny it is, it’s rare to see theses baby here probably cause we have big roads & don’t need to fit through tiny places
I passed my driving test in October, having learnt and experienced driving for a long while in my dad’s Fiat 500 he bought in late 2017 on PCP. I passed my test in a 500 and I have to say that compared to the Honda Jazz I drive now, although I love that car, it’s the Fiat that is easier to daily drive. Because you sit high in a chair like position instead of low seats like a conventional hatchback. This means you have a much wider field of vision and can therefore learn the size of your car very quickly in comparison to a bigger hatchback like the jazz. Whose C pillars block the view of your front left, meaning that parking takes at least twice as long. The size of the Fiat means that parking is very easy. This also means you can go quicker down roads that in another car would be too narrow, so you don't have to slow down as much, meaning you take less time to reach your destination.
Because the car has such as short wheelbase, parallel parking is a breeze, especially with parking sensors. However, they seem to beep fully when you have about 2 feet from the space you are backing into 🤨. Although the 1.2-litre engine may not have the acceleration needed in the higher gears ( it takes a long to overtake on a dual carriageway). In town, the lower gears offer way better acceleration on roundabouts as well as changing lanes. You do get a bit tired after journeys longer than a couple of hours though. As the pedal position is quite high in comparison to other cars meaning that having to clutch and brake in traffic repeatedly causes minor thigh pain. The AC also takes a while to kick in, however demisting the front windscreen is quick and especially useful now in January when the temperatures drop and the ice starts to form, making you late for school or work. No matter how heavy your right foot, I am surprised that in over 6,000 miles of driving, the car has managed 50mpg which is around 10mpg higher than my Honda jazz😥.
The rear side windows do act as a little problem when checking slip roads are clear on dual carriageway due to their small size. However, it’s not a 5 door and so I’m not sure this will matter to other owners who drive 3 door cars. The car also has Bluetooth and 6 speakers which offer good bass and clarity when playing Spotify. You can also use the car to answer calls whilst your driving which is very useful.
A plus point is that you can fit 3 other friends in the car and rear legroom is ok. However, comfort is much lower than the front seats, so if you travel far with your mates, they may hate you a little for the lack of space and ride quality. The boot has a small depth but a high height so you can actually fit quite a lot of stuff in it such as 8 shopping bags or a large Hi-Fi. However, your things will probably be in a different place to where you remember you put them due to the bouncy ride and the lack of tie-down points.
The sun visors also don’t block the sun, but the solution is just to wear sunglasses to sort this out. The summarise the Fiat 500 is...
• Cheap to buy/rent (£200/month lease with 3 years free maintenance) No garage bills, my Honda has cost £800 so far in servicing costs and a problem with the brakes.
• Insurance is very cheap, I’m insured as a named driver for £540 a year. This is without an evil black box and to compared my mate’s 18 plate fiesta, that costs him £800 with a black box.
• Fuel cost is very low, around 10p per mile when petrol is around £1.20 - £1.25/litre. My jazz and my friends' cars all average around 40mpg bringing the cost of fuel around £8 per tank cheaper in the case of the 500.
• The look and design of the interior is modern and clean with no unneeded buttons and it’s bright if you choose white paint. In comparison one of my friends has a Corsa D and his dash is just a mess of buttons. Update: (Since writing this review the Corsa's glove box, radio and passenger seat have broken with no clear explanation).
• The placement of the gear stick allows you to shift gears much quicker due to the short throw and high placement, it’s effortless compared to shifters in the centre drivetrain that have long throws and miss-shift due to bad gear placement. It’s easy to drive and fun too.
• The suspension is ok but very noticeably soft and bouncy on rural humped B-roads. The car wants to pull into the opposite lane and you have to fight against the steering to stay straight. On the other hand, you could say this adds to the feel and character of the car.
• It’s super easy to park in any space
• It so easy to clean at home and takes half the time of a Honda jazz due to everywhere being rounded and easy to reach.
It’s not the best car in the world but I think it’s the best car for a young driver. Don’t buy an old car that you think is good value; remember you have to pay for high insurance with a black box, fuel, services and garage work that is time-consuming and in the long run may actually cost the same as a PCP deal; something, in my opinion, you are much better off doing. As you pay only a fixed price, meaning there are no unexpected costs. The fuel-saving and the low insurance means that it’s the best option if you can be prepared to sacrifice a nice ride with only 4 seats. I am speaking from my experience of nearly 9,000 miles, over all road conditions and situations you could think of. I am not telling you to buy a 500, I am just explaining why I recommend it.
Thanks for reading all the way through my comment and I hope I have given you an expansion of knowledge you may not have had about the reality of first car ownership and the reality of living with a Fiat 500 over the course of a year. 👍
Update: Since this review, the 500 went back to Fiat last month 'December 2020', in the 3 years we owned the car it had done 24,000 miles total, without missing a beat. My sister also learnt to drive in the car but managed to split the front bumper when going over a steep crest. This was fairly cheap to fix at a local bodywork centre around £200, but it's worth bearing in mind that if you go for the PCP option. Always assess the worst-case scenario and put some money aside for at least an unexpected bill if you have a similar accident which is more than likely to happen in your first car.
What a fantastic insight! Thank you for taking the time to write this! Great info! I will pin this comment to the top! Thanks ma for watching!
I respect that you actually took the time to read my viewpoint and thanks a lot for pinning it. 👍
Wow thank you! I’m 17 and due to covid haven’t even had one lesson yet 😥 but I really would love a Fiat 500 for my first car and you’ve really helped!
@@kellyevans6204 No worries, if you are able to get insurance on the 500 without a black-box, it makes driving a lot more relaxing and easier when you are older 19 or 20. My friend with the Corsa 1.2 is still paying £650 for insurance with a box (We are both nearly 20 now). To compare, I would have been paying around £320 for the year on the Fiat by now as the main driver. I'd also compare the price between a newer model (2016+) and the older version of the car. If you are really set on getting a 500, the model after 2016 got the styling upgrade as well as the touch screen and parking sensors on the 'lounge' model.
@@tygwrwasley8662 wow that is a big money difference! Thank you for that I will keep that in mind. Yeah definitely looking at the newer model for sure- also love the Vauxhall Adam and Renault Clio!
I chaps me when people say my Abarth is a girls car. I usually just challenge them to a race and that shuts them down
But the Fiat 500 is a girly car. It is not appropriate for men to ride it. When they gave me a Fiat 500 for my sixteenth birthday, I was, to put it mildly, unhappy. I would rather take a bus to school than a girly car.
It is better to buy a Ford Fiesta, or Focus. They are ideal for beginners, and at the same time they look pretty cool.
SonOf Sekhmet a car doesnt necessarily have a gender but you just need to pimp it out thats all at least it gets you from point A to point b regardless of the design.
@@jamesschultz2039 your right it is a girls car, grown arse man gets out of a fiat 500 when your out with pals, really.
If its not a girls car why are owners so defensive about them
Surely if you are self-conscious and need to compensate for your manhood, you'd buy a BMW or Range Rover.
The Abarth is great and a true driver's car. The T-Jet engine in them was modded by Abarth and is race proven (it was used in formula 4 I think) and has forged internals. They tune really well and it should last a long time.
*thank you for watching all. please hit the like button, subscribe if you are a regular viewer and check out my Instagram @stef_abtv*
a new fiat 500e used is a fine deal ...$180 dollars a month ...save about $100 in gas only cost me 2 dollars for every 300 miles worth of travel...goes 0-60 about 4 sec
Kinda wanna get this as my first car but feel my friends are gonna laugh at me for it
Screw them off !
Stef... The only guy who can make a dirty car with scratched rim look attractive with his editing skills 😅
😂😂😂 brilliant comment!
Alfa Romeo Mito
Make a testdrive in it.
It's great 🙏🏻
I just drove my brother's girlfriend's fiat 500 yesterday and now I want one.
How about as a (possibly) last car? Comfy enough for a 6 foot 60 year old?
of course, I am 6ft1 I would defo test one out :)
Scud Nut you would not regret getting yourself a Fiat 500. I am 77 years old and have owned my Sport model since new for 7 years and have no intention of trading it in. It is purely a fun car to drive.
@@StefABtv Thanks.
@@billwilson6096 Thanks.
Hey Stef.
Fun car to review. Its not my cup of tea and a great commuter car that's fantastic on fuel.
Easy to park, turning radius is very good and it can haul your groceries to golf clubs and everything in between very easily.
All the BEST-Cheers from Vancouver, Canada!!
Thanks mate 🙌🙌🙌
I miss your old Abarth mate, it was a lovely little beast.
That she was :)
Stef that goes for me also.
Filler content can be good; lots of interesting things come out! The FIAT 500 is a good looking, fun to drive, economical car at an affordable price.
🙌🙌🙌
I started in a 2003 ford ka 1.6 with 90 something horses, amazing first car, then had a 207 gt, another great car but a bit boring, then had a 207 vti, gorgeous car, kept that one and got a 500 abarth, awesome and it reminds me of my first car, the ka.
Hi Stef, yeah they're fabulous little cars. I've driven loads of them when I used to hire cars from Enterprise car rental, as they had special weekend deals. If anyone is thinking of buying one of these, or any new car, try hiring one for a weekend first to see what you think. Love the Abarth version of this. Cheers, Jon.
Thanks Jon 🙌 yeah the Abarths are so much fun!!
Or you could do what I did and get a Mazda RX8 (231bhp) with 40k miles for £2000 and find an insurance company that actually had it down as a 1.3ltr 4 door car. Pay £800 for the year. Or the alternative, buy a ford fiesta for twice the price with half the power and double the insurance premium.
😂
We love both the fiat and Abarth versions. Our club members male, female and of all ages are proof that these cars have universal appeal perhaps equalled only by the origiinal mini.
If ever you want to review the Abarth 595 145bhp let me know and you are welcome to use mine. Another great video Stef. Keep up the good work.
🙌 thanks bud
£15 per month on INSURANCE?! As a 20 year old, I pay QUADRUPLE that! Nearly FIVE times as much! 😓
Ouch!
@@StefABtv in America its 200 per month for one of these fpr someone 16-18
Great review. I also have just bought the twinair (well in April 2018) coming from a Mini Cooper and so far loving it. Great car with lots of character
Glad you are enjoying it Debbie!
Got me a white fiat brah.. its unisex.. I need sex 😂😂😂 love my fiat brah..
Hi my wife has the 500c not abarth it was her car that got me into the abarth i really love my pocket rocket
I think that’s the case for a few of us who got an Abarth :)
What a great car the Abarth 500 is or did i mixed something? 😄 Great work as usual! Think it looks like your videos are always so nicely color graded! Or its your camera?
Thanks man. I grade all my videos :)
Very similar to my old TA+. Loved it. The Twinair has more character than the Abarth IMO😎
Fall in love with these as soon as they came out (even before the abarth 500 came out) I had a fiat 500S model for a month going a few years back and I enjoyed every bit of it.
That really pushed me to buy my abarth.
There siick. Especially in city.
There’s a special place in my heart for these (great vid.. keep it up maan 👊🏼👍🏼)
🙌🙌🙌
I have to agree, I drove and reviewed one the other week, that the 500 is a perfect car. Which version of the 500 did you review, I can't see it on Fiat configurator and what equipment are you using to film with? I'm just getting started with youtube car reviewing and am eager to learn from more established content creators.
500 twinair, great little thing. GoPro hero 4 for in car and GoPro sessions for outside. G7X is my main camera for all the cinematic B Roll 👍🏻
@@StefABtv Those cameras have in built background noise reduction? I'm using equipment I have already, mainly phone plus some sound recording equipment plus tripod I bought recently. This possibly biggest issue I had been facing is controlling background noise albeit mainly down to my lack of knowledge of how to use hardware, second to learning how to use my equipment which I am still learning. Not a techy, pleased with results so far and each video is an improvement to the last. If you have any critiques please do say, like I said I am eager to learn.
Go on do what you should have done in the first place and buy a 4C, can hear you making plans already to get rid of the upmarket 'chavmobile'!!
😂 not yet man
My younger sister has the 500c as her first car. She wants a new car but can’t find a reason to change it (4 years later!). Only thing she said to me when I was ordering my Abarth was “don’t get the white interior”. The white turns to brown within the first year lol
Best to get to learn what a car is how it functions and how to repair it because you're going to spend a lot of time fixing it
Just realised you had a Fiat 500! I now have a white 1.2 2010 edition ....now with an Abarth leather interior. All because I had to get Irish insurance from zero 🙄 thanks to Brexit. Have an F56 Cooper S in UK. Got the Fiat thanks to you and Cooper thanks to Petrol Ped. Keep safe and love the Fiat. Video is better than TV Cheers Stef.
I have a 140bhp 875cc 500 sport was running 120 but pushing it completely now and still holding 💪 message me if you want a feature video 🚘
Good car.
Great little thing
Aww, that coolant resiviour is crying through it's face like it seen the end of My Girl and hasn't seen The Good Son yet.
(Macaulay Culkin feature films)
Seat Ibiza FR 1.2l ; thank me later new drivers!
That’s actually my sisters first car lol. 1.2 FR diesel and it is pretty good. But she prefers my Abarth. Only reason she bought the ibiza is because she has a child. My 2 year old nephew calls shotgun all the time in my abarth... not that he has a choice, but i can’t get to fit the baby seat at the back abarth lool. But still... i love it regardless.
hey Man Fiat 500 Is Awesome. Mines 1.2 LOUNGE cooled air. Its Amazing I Love Mine.
I've just got a Fiat 500 for my birthday and got to say it's amazing
right now i kinda want to shit about the cars reliability but then again i really want rx8 that isnt any better but im going to keep it inside and say nothing and not be a hater
I want to get a fiat 500 but I’m worried about leg room in the back
I would LOVE to get one of these but idk North Queensland Australia roads are not amazing & I feel like I would get laughed at cause how tiny it is, it’s rare to see theses baby here probably cause we have big roads & don’t need to fit through tiny places
Then come over UK I'll show u mine!
In fact my first car is a FIAT 500 Abarth
I want a Fiat 500x sport
Great vid, should have mentioned the engine note though, these engines are so fun
Yeah they are great fun mate 🙌
So we are gonna forget the fact they have shit quality and reliability
Compared to what? I had 2 fiat 500s, never had an issue. Service them on time and change brakes, tyres as required and you're fine.
Sellout. Fiat sucks. They have problems that began from back bumper that go all the wau to the front bumper
Gay car !