2017 Fiat 124 Spider: A Great Car I'll Never Buy

The Atlanta International Auto Show was full of some incredible cars. My favorite of which was the Acura NSX GT3 car. I'm not the biggest fan of the NSX usually, but this car looked insane. While I was there Fiat had a booth where you could head out in Atlanta and drive one of their cars. I was oddly excited to take a drive in the Fiat 695 Biposto. When it was time to go for the drive, I noticed a little white 124 spider out of the corner of my eyes. I'm a huge fan of the Mazda Miata so I jumped at the opportunity to see if the 124 measured up. The first thing I noticed was that the interiors of the new 124 and the new Miata were IDENTICAL. Literally exactly the same. Yes, I know they share the same platform but you'd at least hope there'd be a slight difference in interior styling. The technology is plentiful and easy to use. The very intuitive interface makes simple tasks like adding a destination on the map easy and fast so the driver isn't distracted. The sound system........ I didn't even turn it on. You're in a fun convertible just listen to the exhaust. The little car felt at home on the bumpy streets of downtown Atlanta. The suspension was comfortable enough that I enjoyed the ride, but stiff enough to have a good bit of fun. The employees at Fiat did a great job of planning out a route that would show us ever emotion of the car. The peppy little 1.4L 4-cylinder turbo was pretty fun to drive. I'd definitely say there are better engines they could have used but it was quick and sounded pretty good. The styling is modern while still keeping bits of the classic 124 in the design. It looks great, sounds great, and drives great. All around the car was great. I still wouldn't buy one and here's why:

It was too new. It was too modern. It wasn't the sports car experience I wanted from a little Italian convertible. Besides my daily driver I have a 1997 Mazda Miata. I love that car. You could offer me 4x the actual value of the car and I still wouldn't sell it. Sure if I turn left too hard and you're in the passenger seat your feet might get a little wet. Maybe the suspension is so hard and low that a big enough speed bump can completely divert my path. It has some flaws but when its good, it really good. The raw feeling of the road as you shift through the gears is unbeatable. The steering is precise and the naturally aspirated engine gives you no lag. This is what a sports car should be. I don't care about voice activated navigation, I care about the experience I get while driving. The Fiat is great, but it needs to return to it's roots when driving was more important than technology.