Quick Drive: 2018 Fiat 124 Spider Lusso

Still like the Mazda version better. Although this is hot. Bring me the 64 Pontiac wagon...the SSR...and a brand new Silverado HD...along with this...and this Fiat....another whole dream car garage.

2 hours ago, A Horse With No Name said:

Still like the Mazda version better. Although this is hot. Bring me the 64 Pontiac wagon...the SSR...and a brand new Silverado HD...along with this...and this Fiat....another whole dream car garage.

Agreed, while I am too big and have never been into small sports cars, there are many others out there that look better than this. Hell, I would rather take a Saturn Sky or pontiac Solstice over this Fiat.

From Washington State sports car club overlooking the Columbia

The Sky and Solstice look good from the outside, but I remember sitting in them at a car show when they were new---nasty Fisher-Price interior plastics and weird placement of some things.

12 minutes ago, Robert Hall said:

The Sky and Solstice look good from the outside, but I remember sitting in them at a car show when they were new---nasty Fisher-Price interior plastics and weird placement of some things.

True, but just think if it had a quality interior, these cars might still be around today.

4 hours ago, dfelt said:

True, but just think if it had a quality interior, these cars might still be around today.

I dont think the interior quality of these had any bearing of the success (or lack of success) of these. 

Seeing that Pontiac and Saturn were shutdown shortly after the Kappa twins were introduced to the world. 

I think the lack of success of the Kappa twins were in fact just a symbolic gesture of the lack of focus and attention their respective brands got from parent company General Motors.  

Saturn did not really need a roadster at this time. Saturn needed to get back to what made Saturn a success in the first place. And that was product that was not badge engineered from the GM umbrella. The whole purpose of Saturn was to be a different kind of car company.

Pontiac, had lost its identity when they started ditching their engines and went for Chevrolet/GM corporate engines. And then the whole FWD badge engineered platforms they shared with virtually every other GM brands...and into the 1990s and the 2000s, with Saturn too...

Pontiac at this time did not know if they wanted to be plastic cladded boy racer FWD appliances that appear to be sporty, or plastic cladded boy racer FWD soccer mom vehicles that appear to be sporty or hanging on to RWD...ditching RWD but then going back to RWD with 4 cylinder roadsters and muscle cars from Australia that have ZERO Pontiac DNA...(those muscle cars from Australia were awesome, but they were more or less GM corporate affairs than anything else...OK...Chevrolet DNA with a "put another shrimp on the barbie" accent...

GM badge engineered the Kappa twins(triplets) and lost focus on what their respective brands actually needed. Twas Pontiac only that really  needed the RWD roadster to spark excitement into the brand. Opel and Saturn did not need these. 

And in turn, the Kappa twins(triplets) were wrongfully marketed to their respective brands.  And in turn, the other GM brands, including the recipients of the Kappa twins(triplets) were starved of funds and R&D for much needed better product planning...

On the Fiat 124 roadster. 

Abarth or Lusso. 

Very Italian. Very Nicely done. 

The Kappa twins were good, but I think Fiat was wise to go to Mazda. 

GM tried to do it on their own, came up short. This Fiat on all trims (124, Lusso, Abarth) is a winner, and if Im not mistaken, has outlived the Kappa twins(triplets)...

11 hours ago, dfelt said:

True, but just think if it had a quality interior, these cars might still be around today.

Interior was the least of thier problems.

oh to fly to Miami and rent one of these for a bit while everyone else is cold in the north.

2 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

oh to fly to Miami and rent one of these for a bit while everyone else is cold in the north.

Yeah, I wouldn't mind being down there this week...my sister is going to Miami next week leaving for a Caribbean cruise for a week..

32 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

oh to fly to Miami and rent one of these for a bit while everyone else is cold in the north.

Interested in your opinions on this.