I have been fortunate enough to have been the owner of 7 Fiat 500's over the past few years, from the lowly Pop 1.2 to a tuned Abarth 1.4 T-Jet and loved every minute of them.
I have however become slightly bored with them so fancied a change and the need of a new courtesy car prompted the purchase of an Adam, which after driving for a few hundred miles has given me an opportunity to evaluate the two cars. This is not a technical review, just my observations.
My initial thoughts have been how much more "fun" the interior is and even for the basic entry level model, how well equipped too. The 1.2 Pop is very basic, no air con, no cruise which of course the Adam has. I always found the 500 a nice place to be, light, airy and fun - the Adam is a little darker in comparison, but scores higher on the fun and entertainment factors.
In driving, the 68bhp 8v Fiat unit is revvy, but thefuelingisn't right in standard form so suffers flat spots and reduced torque when you need it i.e. it gets bogged down easily, leaving you somewhat concerned if you don't time an overtake perfectly. In the Adam this is less so and delivers a punchy drive when revved hard.
Handling - and this is where the 500 let itself down. The rear end always felt it was controlled by some other being, rather than the driver! In all my 500's I changed the suspension with various options from KW, Vogtland and of course Eibach. This generally cured most of the problems, but the Abarth really crashes on the KW's I have fitted, so not entirely happy with it.
The Adam, has the same problem for me. Push it hard into a bend and the back end can break if the surface is anything other than perfect. I have not looked at altering the setup yet, but will do so to try and cure this.
Fuel consumption on the 1.2 500 and the Adam are very poor - yep, POOR. If you drive the car like Miss Daisy's older and more frail cousin then you can no doubt get some good figures, but if you push it, you drop to mid 30's on the Adam. I get 32mpg on my Abarth and that would improve somewhat if driven at the same speed you can get from the 1.2 - so at the moment not really impressed (however, I only got 37mpg from my Twinair 500 :-D - so there may be a pattern forming...)
Overall though, it may be my tired view of the 500's but I really like the Adam and have driven it with a smile on my face and would choose another over a 500 and have been considering a swap out of my Abarth for a 1.4 100PS Adam.
Would the car be better with a 1.2 Turbo or 1.6 n/a engine, probably, but would that detract away from what the car is? No doubt Vx will bring something out or announce it just as I buy something else lol!
My last question to myself though is.... I am a mid 40's 16 stone shaven headed geezer.....do I look good in a bright green Adam :-D :-D....
I have however become slightly bored with them so fancied a change and the need of a new courtesy car prompted the purchase of an Adam, which after driving for a few hundred miles has given me an opportunity to evaluate the two cars. This is not a technical review, just my observations.
My initial thoughts have been how much more "fun" the interior is and even for the basic entry level model, how well equipped too. The 1.2 Pop is very basic, no air con, no cruise which of course the Adam has. I always found the 500 a nice place to be, light, airy and fun - the Adam is a little darker in comparison, but scores higher on the fun and entertainment factors.
In driving, the 68bhp 8v Fiat unit is revvy, but thefuelingisn't right in standard form so suffers flat spots and reduced torque when you need it i.e. it gets bogged down easily, leaving you somewhat concerned if you don't time an overtake perfectly. In the Adam this is less so and delivers a punchy drive when revved hard.
Handling - and this is where the 500 let itself down. The rear end always felt it was controlled by some other being, rather than the driver! In all my 500's I changed the suspension with various options from KW, Vogtland and of course Eibach. This generally cured most of the problems, but the Abarth really crashes on the KW's I have fitted, so not entirely happy with it.
The Adam, has the same problem for me. Push it hard into a bend and the back end can break if the surface is anything other than perfect. I have not looked at altering the setup yet, but will do so to try and cure this.
Fuel consumption on the 1.2 500 and the Adam are very poor - yep, POOR. If you drive the car like Miss Daisy's older and more frail cousin then you can no doubt get some good figures, but if you push it, you drop to mid 30's on the Adam. I get 32mpg on my Abarth and that would improve somewhat if driven at the same speed you can get from the 1.2 - so at the moment not really impressed (however, I only got 37mpg from my Twinair 500 :-D - so there may be a pattern forming...)
Overall though, it may be my tired view of the 500's but I really like the Adam and have driven it with a smile on my face and would choose another over a 500 and have been considering a swap out of my Abarth for a 1.4 100PS Adam.
Would the car be better with a 1.2 Turbo or 1.6 n/a engine, probably, but would that detract away from what the car is? No doubt Vx will bring something out or announce it just as I buy something else lol!
My last question to myself though is.... I am a mid 40's 16 stone shaven headed geezer.....do I look good in a bright green Adam :-D :-D....
ffice
