To me this just sounds like a bad idea. You take the bulletproof Miata and stick an iffy Italian engine into it and give it questionable looks....ummmm, nope. I really like the Miata, after seeing this at the Edmonton car show, no thank you.
as I said, the Fiat engine is not iffy. Look at the stats.
What stats? What Euros consider "reliable" is a far, far cry from what is reliable in North America.
not going to get into a reliability war here, the stats are out there don't have time to go searching sorry...is there a NA engine reliability survey for the brand new=-ish Fiat 500 Abarth? Havent seen one myself. I have anecdotal evidence from the Italian Car Owners Club, where friends in 500 Abarths have tuned their engines way past 200hp, and they have yet to skip a beat over the years and 100K+ later, as they were DDs.
...and just know that I caned a 500 Abarth in the hot Italian summer for two weeks flat, almost WOT all the time, and it never went wrong - oh and it had 40,000km on it already. Now that MUST surpass many of your preconceived notions considering Italian engines - as it should have blown up many times over, apparently.
The little Fiat wont go wrong, the FIRE engine is solid. There is no reason to worry.
But of course that will change no minds, and everyone will constantly say "dunno about that Italian engine, better get extended warranty / lease it / not even consider it because it MUST go wrong within a week." Sometimes the stigmatization in the auto industry is really present, with little continued basis for it.
Oh and did I mention that my 20 year old Alfa engine has never missed a beat except for an alternator that died from old age? Not once, and it has been driven hard its entire life [past owner and me].
