[vinylengraver]

I owned an Abarth for two years.
Had it tuned, upgraded a few bits here and there, got a set of dedicated winter wheels and rubber and drove it like i stole it every time I had a chance.

It was a blast. Zero issues, mind you it was still under warranty.
Felt crazy fast with 200+ lb-ft of torque and sounded awesome.
Lacked refinement and it never felt really solid... like I always expected something to go wrong with it, but it never did.
Great in the snow, surprisingly stable on the highway, and plenty roomy for two people. My back seats were always folded, which yielded surprisingly vast amount of cargo space.

This was a very special car for me so I am biased, but now that you can get them for 1/2 of the original price I would go for it and enjoy for what it is.

Having said that, I would try and find one with warranty remaining or extended coverage already in place.
They are easy to work on but no car today is cheap to fix, including this one.

Fun fact: my car came from factory with leather seats, leather steering wheel, leather gauge cluster hood, leather shifter knob, leather shifter boot and leather handbrake handle. I don't believe any other car in this price range has so much leather-wrapped goodness. Perhaps this is because leather is cheap in Mexico. Still, nice touch, IMO.