2022 Abarth 595 Competizione 1.4L Turbo Review

Although there’s an all-new electric model available in Europe, the petrol-powered Fiat 500 (on which the Abarth 595 is based on) has been in its current shape since 2008 with no major changes, making it getting quite long in the tooth. There are a number of rivals to the 595 – including the Suzuki Swift Sport, Hyundai i20 N and the Ford Fiesta ST – that offer seemingly more in practicality and features, so does the 2022 Abarth 595 Competizione stack up?

Abarth is a brand that is known for pulling at your heart strings and buying one has always been more of a heart purchase than a head purchase. But has the recently updated 2022 Abarth 595 Competizione maintained Abarth’s lustful and sporting ways or has it gotten more tame? Let’s find out.

Price & Equipment: 6.5/10

The standard 2022 Abarth 595 Competizione is priced from $33,250 plus on road costs (roughly $38,000 drive away), which is not a small amount of money – especially when compared with better equipped competition.

For the MY22 model year, Abarth gave the 595 Competizione a little more equipment to justify its hefty price. It now comes with 17-inch alloy wheels, single-zone climate control, a 7.0-inch touchscreen with wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, digital radio, voice control, an AUX and USB-A input, LED daytime running lights, automatic halogen headlights, front and rear fog lights, auto wipers, adaptive dampers, a digital driver’s display, leather and suede seats and a leather steering wheel with carbon fibre portions.

The list above doesn’t make the 2022 Abarth 595 Competizione seem so sparse but this might: the standard safety kit in the 595 is sparse. It only includes tyre pressure monitoring, rear parking sensors, seven airbags, Brembo brakes and a tyre repair kit in lieu of a spare tyre. There is no form at all of any active active safety tech such as auto emergency braking or a reversing camera, which for a car sold in 2022 is poor.

There are quite a few features we would like to see added to the 595 Competizione to bring it up to scratch with rivals such as a reversing camera, heated seats, a centre arm rest, a telescoping steering wheel, cruise control (which the regular 500 features), satellite navigation and active safety technology such as AEB, a reversing camera, lane keep assist and blind-spot assist.

There are a few options available for the 595, including the $2,500 ‘Premium Pack’ that adds bi-xenon headlights with headlight washers and a panoramic glass sunroof. Another option pack is the $2,500 ‘Sport Pack’ that adds suede/leather Sparco bucket seats and a different design to the 17-inch wheels that are painted black. For $2,500, you can choose the ‘Competizione Body Kit’ for more aggressive styling. Black or yellow brake callipers costs $350, while there is also the option to have black mirrors and a side stripe in either red, black or white which costs $450.

There is quite a lot of customisation when it comes to colour choices in the Abarth 595. Our test car is painted in ‘Rally Blue’, which is a matte blue colour that adds $1,600 to the price of the car. The only standard colour available is ‘Garra White’ but for a further $650, you can have ‘Podium Blue’, ‘Adrenaline Green’, ‘Campovolo Grey’, ‘Pista Grey’, ‘Record Grey’, ‘Abarth Red’ and ‘Modena Yellow’. Adding a black roof to ‘Abarth Red’, ‘Garra White’, ‘Adrenaline Green’ and ‘Modena Yellow’ will cost $1,600 – including the $650 for the paint colour.

Main rivals to the 2022 Abarth 595 Competizione are the $33,490 plus on-road costs Hyundai i20 N, the $27,990 +ORC Suzuki Swift Sport and $33,490 +ORC Ford Fiesta ST. All of these cars feature keyless entry with push button start, rear doors (because of their five-door bodies), six-speed manual gearboxes, auto emergency braking (AEB), blind spot monitoring with rear cross traffic alert, lane departure warning system, cruise control (adaptive in the Suzuki), a reversing camera, LED headlights, auto high beam and heated/electric-folding mirrors – all of these features are unavailable in the Abarth.

Performance & Economy: 9/10

The sole engine available with the 2022 Abarth 595 Competizione is a 1.4-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine that makes the Abarth feel alive. It is a very engaging engine that always wants you to take it to the max and have a little fun. The noises it makes are addictive, which are further helped by the active exhaust system.

The Abarth 595 produces 132kW of power at 5,500rpm and 250Nm of torque at 3,000rpm. These numbers are quite healthy, especially paired with its low tare weight of 1,045kg – in comparison, a Hyundai i20 N (which isn’t a heavy car at all) has a tare weight of 1,213kg. This means a power to weight ratio for the Abarth 595 of 126.3kW per tonne.

The standard gearbox option is a close ratio and short-geared five-speed manual, which feels great and is a joy to operate. The clutch is linear and easy to gauge although we find the pedal placement a little too close together, which can make it dangerous when downshifting. Optional on the 2022 Abarth 595 Competizione is a single-clutch automated manual gearbox, although in our experience, this gearbox is very jerky and hard to master.

The engine has old school turbo lag, which adds to the character of the Abarth – it almost feels faster because of it as you put your foot down then are shot into the back of your seat. The exhaust system is also fantastic as it gives off a deep growl and is louder than the average hot hatch, which makes driving the Abarth more of a dramatic experience than other cars. There are no pops and bangs like other hot hatches, but it doesn’t need them to feel sporty or racey.

Putting the Abarth into Sport mode opens up the exhaust a little more in the mid range, firms the suspension up a little bit, makes the throttle response sharper and tightens up the steering. This all adds to the excitement of this little car and brings the most out of the fantastic little 1.4-litre turbo engine. Sport mode also changes the gauge design and illuminates the word ‘sport’ in the middle of the boost gauge.

The Ford Fiesta ST comes with a 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder that produces 147kW/290Nm – 15kW/40Nm more than the Abarth – but it also weighs 146kg more. The Hyundai i20 N makes 150kW of power/275Nm of torque – 18kW and 25Nm more than the Abarth – and the Suzuki Swift Sport 103kW/230Nm of torque, which is actually 29kW and 20Nm less than the Abarth, but the Swift only weighs 945kg.

The claimed average fuel consumption for the 2022 Abarth 595 Competizione is 6.0L/100km and in our week with it, we saw an average fuel consumption figure of 8.5L/100km – not bad considering we weren’t trying to be economical. In comparison, the Suzuki Swift Sport has an average fuel consumption of 6.1L/100km, the Ford Fiesta ST 6.3L/100km and the Hyundai i20 N 6.9L/100km. One Abarth annoyance is that it only has a 35-litre fuel tank compared to the 40-45L tanks of its rivals. While it can use 95RON fuel, we recommend using 98RON premium unleaded.

Ride & Handling: 8.5/10

The 2022 Abarth 595 Competizione is quite a focused machine and one aspect of that is that it is more performance oriented in its ride. It is quite firm for a daily driver, which is to be expected for this type of vehicle, but it can be a little annoying when driving to the shops. Road noise on highways and other higher speed roads can get a little loud, but around town it is more than acceptable. The ride does handle bumps rather well – the initial jolt is quite firm but it settles quickly after.

The benefit to having rather firm suspension is that the handling ability is improved and boy is it good on the Abarth 595. The combination of the short wheel base and firm suspension makes for a car that can turn on a dime and one that doesn’t have any body roll whatsoever. The steering also offers a great feel and is firmed up further when activating sport mode. The Abarth handles very well due to a lack of weight and its stiff chassis, which makes the car more controllable and more fun to throw around. The 595 uses Michelin Pilot Sport 3 tyres, which are excellent.

Interior & Practicality: 7.5/10

While the the current generation of the 500 has been around for over a decade, the interior of the 2022 Abarth 595 Competizione has been nicely updated to feel younger than it is. The materials used in the cabin are not great but the sporting parts like the steering wheel and seats help lift the overall ambience significantly.

The sports seats that were fitted to our test car were covered in leather and suede and felt excellent, while there are also alcantara portions on the dash and the steering wheel. The door panels and upper dash are covered in hard plastics, but feel sturdy enough.

There isn’t much storage in the Abarth – there are no centre console or storage bins, for example. There are only small door pockets and the glovebox, which is actually quite deep and capable of holding a lot. There are two cup holders in between the front seats and a very small storage cubby, but other than that, the interior is quite bare for storage.

Central to the 595’s dashboard is a 7.0-inch touchscreen which uses Stellantis’ ‘U-Connect’ software. It is a generally intuitive system to operate and doesn’t take much getting used to. The shortcut menus at the bottom of the screen make life easy when navigating between menus. There is wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, although when displayed on the screen, both only take up a small portion. Another gripe we have is the lack of inbuilt satellite navigation and no reversing camera.

Pushing the front seats out of the way reveals two quite small rear seats that are really only there to accommodate smaller kids as both the leg- and headroom are quite limited. There are little armrests build into the side of the Abarth for the rear passengers and a single cupholder – but that’s it.

Opening the boot to the 2022 Abarth 595 Competizione reveals 185-litres of cargo space with the rear seats in place, but folding these down opens the space up to 550L. In comparison the Suzuki Swift Sport has 265L with the rear seats in place and 918L with the rear seats folded down. So the boot isn’t big by any stretch of the imagination and under the boot floor is a tyre inflation kit instead of a spare tyre.

Service & Warranty: 6/10

The 2022 Abarth 595 Competizione comes with a three-year/150,000km warranty and three years of roadside assistance, whereas the Ford Fiesta ST, Hyundai i20 N and Suzuki Swift Sport all come with five-year/unlimited kilometre warranties. The Hyundai i20 N and Ford Fiesta ST has 12 months of roadside assistance, which is extended by a further 12 months at every service for up to five years – the Suzuki Swift Sport has five years of roadside assist right out of the box.

The Abarth requires servicing every 12 months or 15,000km, which is pretty standard in this segment of vehicle and better than the i20 N and Swift Sport’s 12 months/10,000km service intervals. One thing that is enough to put you off buying an Abarth is the service costs. The price of servicing an Abarth 595 Competizione over the span of five-years or 75,000km is $3,285 which is an average service cost of $657. In comparison the Ford Fiesta ST only costs $1,571 which is less than half the cost of servicing the Abarth.

2022 Abarth 595 Competizione DiscoverAuto Rating: 7.5/10

The 2022 Abarth 595 Competizione is a car that doesn’t make sense on paper. It’s small, impractical, loud, firm and expensive but when you get behind the wheel, everything changes as it makes you feel special and can’t help but make you smile. You learn to fall in love with it like it has a soul which can’t be said for many cars. Has Abarth gone all soft? No, not at all.

Would we consider an Abarth 595 if looking for a small hot hatch? Yes, definitely, although the lack of tech and safety features that its rivals offer for the same – if not less – money is annoying. But the Abarth will always have a place in our hearts as it is a truly special car for those enthusiasts who want more from a car than to get from A to B.