Yeah, but they didn't look like Astons until last year (Gaming)

by cheapLEY , Saturday, November 07, 2015, 02:41 (3304 days ago) @ ZackDark

Heh, the 500 (not even the Abarth 500), is sold as high-end here. You wouldn't believe what Fiat's entry-level car is. I'm pretty sure it is more dangerous to drive one of those than be run-over by a Volvo.

The Abarth 500 is sold as high-end, here, coming in at around $26,000, which is stupid money for what that car offers, in my opinion. That's used C6 Corvette money, or SN197 style Shelby GT500 money, so what sort of drugs would I have to be on to buy a Fiat over either of those?

I haven't ever driven a KIA, although I've heard they have gotten a lot better in the last five or so years, as well. I still probably wouldn't even look at KIA if I was buying a new car, though.

You see, we don't have a national automotive industry (much less a solid one like yours). The cars that are built here are, in the vast majority of the cases, adaptations on foreign designs. That paired with the push for profit margins and abusive taxes makes for some very poor quality cars. KIA was one of the very first auto makers to sell good quality cars for competitive prices. You could buy a barebones VW Gol or a kitted-out KIA i30 for the same amount of cash. If you manage to dissuade your inner prejudice against Asian cars, suddenly you have a very obvious choice.

I can understand that, and I don't have anything against Kia personally; they just don't make a car I'd be interested in buying.

Although, as seen above, I don't really think about car buying like a lot of people. When you can buy bare bones brand new cars for $20,000, I start looking at what I can buy used for half that, and it's usually something a lot more fun! I'd sooner spend $20,000 on a 2003 Mustang Cobra than the same amount of money for a Fiat (or even the Fiesta ST). Granted, I'm still a single guy in my late 20s, so I don't have to worry about trying to stuff kids in it or anything like that. I'm also still daily driving a car I bought almost ten years now, which is pretty rare here.