Abarth 500 In Showrooms Now

Whilst its not exactly breaking news that the much anticipated Abarth 500 pocket rocket has hit the UK, it is that dealers have finally got some stock to sell.

Early orders of the 500 Abarth went into overdrive when it was first announced leaving dealers an allocation headache trying to fulfill orders. Soon after the official launch dealers were left frustrated that no actual stock had been allocated to them and again spent most of the time gathering names and addresses of potential customers.

Now that's all changed as Abarth have finally put the production pipeline into overdrive and dealers are finally seeing a good range of colour variants as well as demonstration vehicles out on the road.

Most popular of the all the Abarth 500 range is the Bossa Nova white pastel variant with optional 17-inch 10-spoke alloy wheels, Red Abarth side stripes and mirrors and chequered roof (pictured above).

However the most anticipated of all the models is the Abarth 500 Esseesse or SS for short.

Owners who want to take their 500 Abarth onto another level can purchase the £2500 "Esseesse" kit either at time of purchase or within 12 months or 20,0000 km of the cars 1st registration and can only be undertaken by Abarth's skilled network of technicians.

The process of adding more power starts with replacing the ECU or Electronic Control Unit which forces the engine to pump out 160bhp at 5750 rpm from the standard 135bhp. Of course with all this extra power you need to be able to stop so off come the standard brake discs on on go new specially drilled and ventilated 284mm x 22mm brake discs and and new pads.

Next comes the suspension with uprated springs on the front and rear and to give it an even racier look a nice set of 17-inch White or Titanium coloured alloys and 205/40 R17 tyres. Nice!!

Lastly but not least a tyre pressure monitoring system and unique key cover add to the final touches for the ultimate road going 500 Abarth.

After the kit has been fitted the supplying dealer sends on the high quality wooden crate as a memento. Nice!!

Fiat 500 Gets The DIESEL Touch

At the same time as celebrating the recent VAT cut, which brought the price point of the Fiat 500 below the £8,000 mark once again, the busy people at Fiat also sneaked a limited edition version its award winning and hugely successful supermini.

Enter the Fiat 500 byDIESEL - a car that's not only unique in its design but could also change the way car manufacturers and consumers do business in the future. Well that is if you believe everything you read.

Offered exclusively online the 500byDiesel represents Fiat’s first venture into selling vehicles via the web and follows the success of the Abarth 500 on-line deposit offer, which allowed customers to pre-order 200 of the performance supermini six months in advance of UK availability.

This is all good and well but where does this leave the dealer?

It's no big secret that the likes of Jam Jar and Virgin's feeble efforts to tempt buyers into bypassing the dealer network went down like a lead balloon. The reason for that was simple: the cars were coming from the dealer network in the first place offering no real price advantages and the return on investment is less than 2% meaning they couldn't make any money out if it.

People prefer to see and feel what there buying especially as it's such a huge purchase. Then there's the part exchange to consider to help ease the burden. Couple that with documentation to complete where legislation requires the consumer to be on premises and it's a no brainer to see that buying a car requires the human touch and some major investment in infrastructure.

Of course let's not get carried away and remember that Fiat are only offering the consumer an opportunity to leave a deposit on a 500 byDIESEL in order to secure the vehicle before it arrives in the UK. The consumer will still have to select a dealer of their choice in order to pick up the car. They'll then want to drive it before handing over the cash by which time the part exchange will come into the equation and the whole human process will start over again.

So take it with a pinch of salt when Elena Bernardelli, marketing director of Fiat UK says: "This new route to market is an exciting and futuristic development for Fiat."

Hmmm...good to see some things never change.