I took a HGT out on saturday for a test drive.
I'd like to say that, these cars are worlds apart. It was completely different to drive, and felt like it wasn't scared of the corners. The first thing I noticed, was the gear change. The GT is quite loose and clunky, where as the HGT was a bit firmer and nicer to move around.
The dash looked absolutely terrible in all the pictures I've seen, but when seeing it in the flesh, it's actually not that bad. And when I got back into the GT, it looked terribly dated and boring!!
The ride is firm, but not at all harsh. Seems to corner much better than the GT does, and I felt that it held the road so much better. I didn't go anywhere near as quick as I would have done if i'd have known the car, so at higher speeds, perhaps it's different, but I drove very sensibly, as I didn't know the car.
The engine was quite a revvy engine, though started whining a bit over 5.5k. Obviously, it didn't pull as hard as the GT, as being N/A it would feel completely different, but I felt that there wouldn't be much in it at all with my car and this standard HGT. Infact, I think it would beat a standard GT.
The sat nav didn't work in this car, so didn't test that out, but that's neither here nor there.
The seats hold you quite well, and the only thing that let them down was the dodgy cloth covering. Shame they didn't do a leather option.
All in all, I totally misjudged this car. Infact, I would certainly swap one for the GT anyday. The only thing I didn't like about the whole car, was the no leather, and the window switches being on the centre dash, but you'd certainly get used to their position.
Nice little car.
Good review, I'd have to say I agree with every point made there.Originally Posted by xzibit
As for the seats, I know you can get Abarth Bucket Seats as an option, which you can likely get in leather too.
Now all you need to do is sell your GT and buy Julie's!!!
i have both a GT and a HGT, dont get me wrong but the hgt is a lovely car, but out of the two i think my gt is a better car all round even the handling is better now that i have a front and back strut brace. but if they were both standard then it would have to be the hgt, but power wise their is no comparison to a tunned gt.
no leather option at all even on the oddly shaped abarth seats
glen mate hgt handles better stock that was the comment mate the strut braces on the gt make them unbearably harsh
but yes gt is piss to tune
the advantage the hgt has is it looks like a 1.2
I raced an HGT a while ago. Dual carriageway from 20mphish. I was infront and he stayed with me quite easily all the way till we had to slow down. TBH he probably could have passed me if more room.
I was on pierburg with filter and zorst only.
I'm running mbc/1.2bar/seb2 now though, would be a different story...
Indeed, I was on about the 2 cars in standard trim. Yes the GT is so much easier to get power out of, but the 2 cars standard, I'd rather have the HGT.
What about the choice between an HGT with sweet wheels, lowered etc with all the N/A tuning or a tuned GT.
Is a harder choice then....
It's not a harder choice. I'd have a tuned and modded HGT, it will handle better because of the better chassis.
Tuning isn't really comparable because for £500 you can have a GT with 170 bhp odd. For £500 in an HGT you might have an exhaust and filter giving you no more than 150 bhp and from there on the money increases steeply.
I'd still have a nicely modded HGT, far better equipped and far easier to drive quickly.
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