2013 Fiat 500 Lounge on 2040-cars

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2019 Fiat 500 Abarth Final Drive | Farewell to the Hellmouse

The market for tiny hot hatchbacks hatchbacks was always small in the United States, but it's getting even smaller. The Ford Fiesta ST has joined the dearly departed and soon to join it is the Fiat 500 Abarth, which Fiat has announced will go away along with its less caffeinated 500 siblings. Before it does, though, we got one more romp in the little monster and learned that, even with its age and rough edges, it’s still one of the most fun and charismatic machines you can get for the money. You're reminded of it the second you twist the switchblade key. The little turbo 1.4-liter four-cylinder has a gnarly burble at idle that wouldnÂ’t seem out of place in a muscle car. It only gets better when you start cruising around. The burble becomes a raging howl, and shifting right at redline results in a whiplike crack. ItÂ’s intoxicating. The 500 Abarth is boisterous, but itÂ’s not exactly fast. At 160 horsepower and 183 pound-feet of torque, most of its competition, such as the Veloster Turbo and Civic Si, feature at least 200 horsepower. The turbo isnÂ’t especially fast to spool up, and the engine isnÂ’t quick to rev either. But itÂ’s peppy enough, and the slowly building boost comes on very smoothly. As such, itÂ’s easy to manipulate what power the Abarth has. And the exhaustÂ’s placebo effect is omnipresent. But make sure the car is in Sport mode. If it isnÂ’t, the amount of boost is restricted, making the Abarth feel more like the normal 135-horsepower 500, and no amount of noise will distract you from that. The tiny turbo engine can be paired with either a five-speed manual or six-speed automatic transmission. The manual is a pretty average unit. The shifter is well-placed, but the throws are long and ropey. The pedal position is excellent, making rev-matched downshifts easy. Only having five gears to choose from seems strange in this day and age, but the long-ish ratios work nicely with the slow, low-revving engine. And you donÂ’t have to mess with the wriggly shifter too much. The automaticÂ’s six ratios feel like a good number, and each ratio is closely spaced, which helps keep the car in the power band. It shifts quite smoothly and fairly quickly, too, whether youÂ’re in automatic or manual mode. The automatic even makes smart downshifts when slowing for corners. ItÂ’s a good unit that doesnÂ’t detract from the experience. Curiously, the automatic model makes more torque at 183 pound-feet to the manualÂ’s 170.

Detroit automakers keep their masks on to keep the factories running

United Auto Workers members leave the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Warren Truck Plant in May. Fiat Chrysler along with rivals Ford and General Motors Co., restarted the assembly lines after several weeks of coronavirus lockdown. (AP)   DETROIT — When the coronavirus pandemic slammed the United States in March, the Detroit Three automakers shut their plants and brought their North American vehicle production to an unprecedented cold stop. Now, four months after a slow and sometimes bumpy restart in May, many General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles  factories are working at close to full speed, chasing a stronger-than-expected recovery in sales. So far, none of the Detroit Three has had a major COVID-19 outbreak since restarting production, even as the coronavirus is surging in Midwestern and Southern communities outside factory walls. "We have people testing positive, but it's not affecting operations," said Ford global manufacturing chief Gary Johnson. Keeping the pandemic at bay has pushed the automakers and 156,000 U.S. factory employees represented by the United Auto Workers into unfamiliar work routines and extraordinary levels of cooperation among the rival automakers that will have to be sustained for months to come. For automakers, the automakers' COVID response has been as much about instilling new habits as relying on new technology. Workers log their symptoms, or lack of them, into smartphone apps and walk past temperature scanners to get to their work stations. But company and union executives said masks, along with physical distancing, are the key to keeping assembly lines rolling. "The mask is the foundation" of protecting workers on the job, said Johnson. Complaints about masks Autoworkers are accustomed to wearing protective gear such as shatterproof glasses and gloves. Masks that cover the mouth and nose, however, were not standard equipment on auto assembly lines, and were a tough sell at first. "The biggest complaint is wearing a mask," United Auto Workers President Rory Gamble told Reuters. "A lot of our members perform physical tasks. Wearing the mask inhibits breathing." Beyond that, Gamble said, masks and distancing make it harder for workers to have conversations on the job or socialize during breaks. "ThatÂ’s pretty much out the window, and it makes for a longer day," he said. Masks make it harder for co-workers to read each other's expressions — often crucial in the noisy environment of a car plant.

The mood at this year’s Paris Motor Show: Quiet

The Paris Motor Show, held every other year in the early fall, typically kicks off the annual cavalcade of automotive conclaves, one that traverses the globe between autumn and spring, introducing projective, conceptual and production-ready vehicle models to the international automotive press, automotive aficionados and a public hungry for news of our increasingly futuristic mobility enterprise. But this year, at the press preview days for the show, the grounds of the Porte de Versailles convention center felt a bit more sparsely populated than usual. This was not simply a subjective sensation, or one influenced by the center's atypically dispersed assemblage of seven discrete buildings, which tends to spread out the cars and the crowds. There were not only fewer new vehicles being premiered in Paris this year, there were fewer manufacturers there to display them. Major mainstream European OEM stalwarts such as Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Nissan and Volkswagen chose to sit out Paris this year, as did boutique manufacturers like Bentley, Aston Martin and Lamborghini. This is not simply based in some antipathy on the part of the German, British and Italian manufacturers toward the French market — though for a variety of historical and societal reasons that market may be more dominated by vehicles produced domestically than others. Rather, it is part of a larger trend in the industry. Last year, Mercedes-Benz announced that it would not be participating in the flagship North American International Auto Show in 2019 — and that it might not return. Other brands including Jaguar/Land Rover, Audi, Porsche, Mazda and nearly every exotic carmaker have also departed the Detroit show. Some of these brands will still appear in the city in which the show is taking place, and host an event offsite, to capitalize on the presence of a large number of reporters in attendance. And even brands that do have a presence at the show have shifted their vehicle introductions to the days before the official press opening in an attempt to stand out from the crowd. In many ways, this makes sense. With an expanding number of automakers, with diversification and niche-ification of models and with wholesale shifts that necessitate the introduction of EV or autonomous sub-brands, there is a growing sense that, with everyone shouting at the same time, no one can be heard.