Can you make a 500 Abarth exhaust sound more normal?

[AC43]

Hi,

My wife is looking for a new city car (zone 2 London) and seems set on a R56 Mini Cooper S or Fiat 500. I started looking at Mini's in the £6-7K range but really didn't like the ride and all the bottoming out on speedbumps. I'm told I could ditch the runflats but haven't been able to drive one without them so don't know how much difference that actually makes.

So my neighbour suggested I look at Abarth 500's. I don't know much about them but one thing that really puts me off is the (generated?) exhaust noises.

Is it generated? And if so can I just pull a fuse or something to turn it off?

Thanks

[JKDesign80]

No it’s all exhaust!

[AC43]

JKDesign80 said:

No it’s all exhaust!

OK thanks.

[p4cks]

The standard exhaust (single exit on each side) on them is pretty quiet.

The Monza exhaust (twin exit on each side) is certainly not

[AC43]

p4cks said:

The standard exhaust (single exit on each side) on them is pretty quiet.

The Monza exhaust (twin exit on each side) is certainly not

Ah OK it must be the Monza one I'm thinking of.

[Stuart J]

Ride on the Abarth is quite harsh, the ss version even harsher so suggest she test drives one , absolute hoot to drive in a spirited manor though !

[DELTAHPE]

The exhaust note is addictive, really musical. Ride is better on the newer cars very well damped but you will feel every road imperfection. Driven in a calm manner a comp actually isn't all that noisy and it'll cruise out of sport mode on the motorway doing about 45mpg. I'm not sure they are good for heavy traffic though the clutch isn't very light and fuel consumption I fairly high in stop start situations. An auto might be ok I suppose but personally I have mixed feelings about automated manuals on a sporty car

Edited by DELTAHPE on Sunday 17th June 17:26

[Macboy]

Stuart J said:

Ride on the Abarth is quite harsh, the ss version even harsher so suggest she test drives one , absolute hoot to drive in a spirited manor though !

I did get the feeling OP had not driven an Abarth or SS if he felt the MINI wasn't an option because it was too harsh. I've had a couple of Cooper S R56s and I thought they were considerably easier to live with in town than the Abarth I borrowed when I considered a change.

[ecsrobin]

Macboy said:

Stuart J said:

Ride on the Abarth is quite harsh, the ss version even harsher so suggest she test drives one , absolute hoot to drive in a spirited manor though !

I did get the feeling OP had not driven an Abarth or SS if he felt the MINI wasn't an option because it was too harsh. I've had a couple of Cooper S R56s and I thought they were considerably easier to live with in town than the Abarth I borrowed when I considered a change.

And don’t go anywhere near a Honda Civic, my abarth feels like it’s floating on air compared to one!