So, after a whole week of waiting i picked up my A500 on Friday and in short, it's an absolute hoot! I was due to pick up the car on Friday morning and arranged to meet Ajay at 10am at Thames. All was going well until the night before when I got a call to say i would be needed at a meeting at 10 am the following morning! Trudging off to the station the following morning to catch a train to London was a bit of a nause but one good meeting later and a decent lunch at Home House I headed back home at about 4pm.

So off i shoot to thames having called Ajay to make sure he was free and arrived to find... a queue! Cutting a long story short, i patiently waited my turn and finally did the handover which was effecient and excellent.

I finally have my hands on the car after an extended delay during the day BUT! The Mrs is going out and I have to get back in 15 mins to sort the kids out and pack them off to bed....!

Finally this morning I have a chance to actually drive my car this morning and what a blast. I am massively surprised at just how accomplished this little car is and it oozes character. It brought a real smile to my face today and to alot of passers by too! After a pretty quick, (well, very quick) thrash around my favorite route i have come to the following conclusions.

Boring stuff first -

Blootooth - excellent

Voice control thingy - wicked.

Seats really comfortable and the whole cabin environment is very cool.

Looks better outside the more you look at it.

Driving.

Surprised at how good the chassis actually is. I was expecting the ride to be dreadful but thought it was firm but not crashy! the car feels really planted and stable and the only critisism i have is the steering which is really direct and has loads of feel but then about half way around a corner you sort of loose a bit of connection and I'm not sure how close to the limit the car is - Having said that it didn't once wash wide and so I think it is just a case of getting used to it.

Performance is great - The engine sounds wicked and has loads of grunt low down, something that was lacking in the s2000. In fact I would go as far as to say that I reckon the little abarth is just as quick (maybe a tad quicker!!)up to the red line where the Honda would pull away from 6k rpm onwards.

Most importantly though I really really enjoyed hooning about the countryside this morning and for such a little car it felt really very special.

Absolutely awesome!

Now you're hooked.  See you at a meeting sometime 

Nice one Bear. 
Glad to say...(for me).. more than a year later...(despite a couple of set backs)....that love for the whole A500 thing is just the same... 

Glad you are enjoying it. I can tell you, down our local lane it is much quicker than my s2000......

One slight issue is that in my first 50 miles i have enjoyed the car so much that I appear to be getting 18mpg!!!!

Reset it and it will give you a more realistic reading.
Martin

Had a proper little 60 mile blast yesterday and it was wicked.... I'm genuinely surprised at how quick the little fella is and even though it was wet it is a grippy little b*gger! it's comfy, surprisngly roomy and has bundles of kit. So in summary, I'm delighted with my new motor, more so than I thought as I only bought it as I am working from home now and so have no need for a faster/more expensive car. Did a pretty unscientific test and reckon it's significantly more economical in "normal" than it is in "sport" although how much of that is down the me pressing on in sport and not in normal due to it's somewhat lethargic responses I don't know but my MPG went from 24 to 40.

Anyway, pleased as punch and looking forward to meeting up with some of you guys soon.

Quote from: Bear on November 02, 2010, 10:06:56 AM

Had a proper little 60 mile blast yesterday and it was wicked.... I'm genuinely surprised at how quick the little fella is and even though it was wet it is a grippy little b*gger! it's comfy, surprisngly roomy and has bundles of kit. So in summary, I'm delighted with my new motor, more so than I thought as I only bought it as I am working from home now and so have no need for a faster/more expensive car. Did a pretty unscientific test and reckon it's significantly more economical in "normal" than it is in "sport" although how much of that is down the me pressing on in sport and not in normal due to it's somewhat lethargic responses I don't know but my MPG went from 24 to 40.

Anyway, pleased as punch and looking forward to meeting up with some of you guys soon.

   There's plenty off discussion on here about sport and non-sport, but the vast majority have forgotten what the sport button is.  They (we) switched it on after 5 minutes of ownership and haven't switched it off since.

I'm still playing with the button multiple times in one journey, open road, hit the button, get held up in traffic, turn it off... It's like piloting KITT from Knight Rider, except it's white, much smaller and i don't have cowboy boots or enough hair for a demi wave....!