Category: Lifestyle - Transportation - Automotive - Reviews - Sporty City Cars

2015 FIAT 500C Abarth - Single-Footed Stomping the Scorpion - Short Review, Video

"The Tiny Terror from Toluca" (Mexico): 2014 FIAT 500C Abarth. Colored Granito Lucente (Granite Crystal to us Anglo's). All it takes to thoroughly enjoy this rambunctious, raucous rag-top Wild Child is genuine driver involvement and $26,195.<br> <br> Our fully loaded 5-speed manual tester, with leather seats, Beats audio, automatic climate control and TomTom pod-mount SD navigation topped out at $31,645. <br>
Scorpions have one nasty sting! Just  like Godzilla did to Bambi, humans can dispatch that venomous insect with one “swift, single-footed stomp.” FIAT, maker of insect-sized cars, recently cajoled “Drive…He Said” into taking a quick spin in their “Scorpion”, the 2015 FIAT 500C Abarth. The “C” represents nature’s free air conditioning via a clever, pillar-full... Read more »
By George Straton,
November 7, 2014 at 8:41 am • 

2014 Scion FR-S - Tangerine Drift Dream - Review

Starting at $24,700, the 2014 Scion FR-S 2+2 rear drive sports coupe, done-up in Hot Lava, is a tangerine drift dream.
* * * * * * * * * * * * WANTED: –  ONE front-engine, rear drive 2+2 coupe sports car that won’t break the bank and can drift with the best of them. REPLY: – ONE Hot Lava 2014 Scion FR-S (Front engine, Rear-wheel drive – Sport) COMMISSIONED: –  by Toyota, in a... Read more »
By George Straton,
September 12, 2014 at 1:50 pm • 

2014 Ford Fiesta SE and 2014 Chevrolet Sonic LT - Shift-It-Yourself Subs - Comparison Review

Chevrolet (TOP) and Ford (BOTTOM) offer their respective Sonic LT (top) and Fiesta SE (bottom) 5-door sub-compacts with manual transmissions.<br> <br> Both start at the $16,000 mark and are nicely contented for under $19,000 (if you omit the Sonic's dealer-installed "black-out" kit).<br> For drivers who like to do the "Demi Plie" with three pedals and stick shift. <br>
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – “Why bother making and selling manual transmission sub-compact cars that probably will never hit a professional road course, and in a country [United States] where barely one out of every eleven 200 million... Read more »
By George Straton,
January 27, 2014 at 12:38 pm • 
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2013 Nissan Juke NISMO AWD - Frog Hopping the Gridiron - Review

Call it "Godzilla...extra,extra-light." New-for-2013 is Nissan's sportiest-for-the-masses personal crossover-ute. The Juke NISMO. Good for the Gridiron.<br> <br>Starting at $22,900 for the front-drive 6-speed manual version. The fully optioned CVT all-wheel drive model tops out at $27,200, which, coincidentally is just undercuts the base price of the Mini Cooper Countryman S All4.<br>
You wouldn’t normally describe the amphibian Rana temporaria, aka the “Frog”, as particularly “Cute.” Unless you happen to be a 21-year-old to 30 something urban gal in search of a squatting, bug-eyed sub-compact crossover-utility vehicle. For the boys, whose interest in amphibians leans to more menacing creatures, for 2013 Nissan introduces a [mild] factory tuner... Read more »
By George Straton,
October 5, 2013 at 11:53 am • 

2012 Fiat 500 Abarth - Don't you dare call it "Cute"

This Scorpion can sting...
* * * * * * * * * * * * A week with the 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth here at “Drive…He Said,” was replete with proclamations of  “How cute it looks.” Not even the $350 Rosso stripes or four Scorpion emblems affixed to our tester in the traditional launch Bianco color could ward... Read more »
By George Straton,
August 17, 2012 at 9:59 pm • 

2012 FIAT 500 Sport - 50 years on and no longer a cartoon car (Scusi, Luigi!)

The 2012 Nuova (NEW) FIAT Nuova (NEW) 500 Sport
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Upon returning from a late summer European trip, “Drive…He Said” received a validation of our affection for “cartoon cars”.  Whether at the circus, in animated cartoons, or quirky caper flicks (“The Italian Job”),... Read more »
By George Straton,
April 7, 2012 at 4:55 pm • 
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