Yet Another 500: Abarth 695 Maserati Edition

For the same price as a Golf GTI with all the toys, you could get your hands on a brand new Maserati convertible. Not only that, this Maserati is very economical compared to the V8 powered Grancabrio as it only produces 151g/km of CO2 out of the tailpipe and returns 43.4mpg on average.

What am I on about? Okay, so it's not actually a Maserati. It's another special edition Fiat 500 Abarth but it's called the 695 Maserati edition and it comes with a 1.4 Turbochaged T-Jet petrol engine mated to an electric manual 5-speed paddle shift gearbox which produces 180bhp meaning a 0-60mph time of under 7 seconds and a top speed of 140mph. It's also got better Brembo brakes and Koni shock absorbers.

There are a lot of characteristics that it shares with the Grancabrio. It has four beige leather seats, a dashboard covered in carbon fibre, electric fabric roof, automatic climate control, sat-nav as standard, a black leather steering wheel, hexagonal exhaust tips, a ‘Pontevecchio Bordeaux' paint job, those cool Neptune alloys and a small boot. Sadly, the one thing that it's missing is the seriously frightening grille with a trident in the middle that looks like it would eat pedestrians' legs. Instead it has the retro wimpy face like a normal 500.

Besides the fact that it's loaded with Maserati trinkets and tuned by Abarth, what makes this car far more expensive than the normal £13,000 500c? Well, stock is low with only 499 being made and if you want one now you can't get one until Christmas. Which is a tad late to take advantage of this new-found summer weather.