$48K for a Fiat 500C Abarth: Are These Hot Hatches Collector Cars Now?

Italian cars, at least ones that don’t have a hoofed quadruped for a mascot, have a mixed history in this country. For all the clichés about passion, soul, style, etc., and despite loyal followings in the States for names like Alfa Romeo and Maserati, Italian cars have never seen Honda-like sales numbers here, nor do they have the best reputation for quality. Bright spots include the 2010s, when Fiat came back to the U.S. market after a long absence (it first left in 1983) with its adorable 500 hatch. Retro-styled and euro-chic without looking try-hard, the 500 wasn’t a great car, but it was different, and it was fun.

Fiat spun off a head-spinning number of special editions: Gucci, Riva, BlackJack, Pink. There was even a Barbie version sold in Europe. The enthusiast choice, though, was the 500 massaged by Fiat’s in-house tuning arm Abarth. The 500 Abarth lasted until 2019 and offered hot hatch hysterics on a smaller scale than Ford, Mini, VW, and the like. On the used car market, the Abarths are surprisingly, temptingly cheap. That’s why the one that popped up for auction this week and sold for $47,782 (including buyer’s premium) raises some eyebrows. That price is nearly twice what the car cost new nine years ago, and about 12 grand more than its inflation-adjusted MSRP. Are these rambunctious little Fiats the next big thing?

First introduced in 2012, the 500 Abarth followed the small-car, big-personality formula. Compared to the base car, it came with lowered suspension, different wheels and tires, larger front brakes, and a turbocharged 1.4-liter MultiAir four-cylinder, rated at 160 hp and 170 lb-ft of torque. Further visual cues included Abarth’s distinctive scorpion badge every few feet, and out back were two fat exhaust tips. Snarly and loud, the 500 Abarth sounded meaner and better than any sub-$30K car around.

But the 500 Abarth was not exactly a shoo-in for the hot hatch hall of fame. Car and Driver liked its character: “Like a mischievous Chihuahua that nips at your heels and picks fights with Dobermans, the Abarth thinks it’s a bigger deal than it is.” But in a comparison test against the rival Ford Fiesta ST and Mini Cooper S, the Fiat stumbled: “The [turbo] lag and dearth of torque contribute to annoying surges and flat spots in power delivery.”

When it came to handling, here’s what C/D had to say: “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.” Other critiques came in for a too-high seating position and a too-dated-looking interior. As long as you didn’t take it too seriously, though (and how could you?), the fun factor was always there with the Abarth.

The car sold this week is a 500C, the cabriolet version introduced in 2013 with a retractable cloth center section where the roof used to be. It made la dolce vita a little dolce-er on sunny days, but was otherwise basically the same car as the hatch. A 2017 model, it wears Celeste Blu paint on its body and fewer than 6000 miles on its odometer. The seller reportedly bought it in 2021 and has driven just 1300 of those miles. It’s not perfect, as there are scuffs underneath the nose as well as some lightly oxidized bits near the suspension and brakes, but it’s far cleaner than most 2010s Fiats out there.

And it better be clean, because it’s a new high-water mark for the model. The window sticker on this car reads $24,220 back in 2017, so it basically doubled in value over the past nine years. Now, such a leap isn’t unheard of in this hobby. Plenty of models grab enthusiast and collector attention and then soar in value. But there’s no real indication that this is happening with 500 Abarths.

We don’t have these cars in our price guide (yet), but there are plenty of them on the market. After a long but not exhaustive search, the most expensive one I could find for sale anywhere in the country is asking $20K, while a couple have sold on Bring a Trailer for over $30K. Otherwise, it’s hard to find one much more expensive than the mid-teens, and there are loads of mid- to high-mile Abarths out there for four figures. They’re still cheap, and one of the cheapest sporty cars from the twenty-first century.

One sale doesn’t make the market here. A super-rare color, a super-low odometer reading, and the right people being online and bidding made for a big number. That number may encourage other crazy-clean Abarths to come out of hiding and onto the open market, but we’ll have to wait for that to happen to see if we have a new modern collector car on our hands, or if the 500 Abarth is still just used-car Italian fun.