Fiat 124 Spider

Fiat 124 Spider at a glance

From an Alfa Romeo plan to a Fiat

The car began as a different project. In May 2012 Mazda and Alfa Romeo, then part of the Fiat group, agreed to share a rear-wheel-drive roadster platform. Each brand would build its own car with its own engines. In December 2014 Sergio Marchionne decided that Alfa Romeo models would be built only in Italy, which ruled out a Japanese-made Alfa. The roadster was given to Fiat instead, while the deal for Mazda to build it in Hiroshima stayed in place. The background of the brand that lost the car is in our history of Alfa Romeo.

The 124 Spider's public debut came at the 2015 Los Angeles show in November, and German deliveries started in June 2016. The Detroit News later wrote that the partnership helped Fiat get a halo car and helped Mazda keep the MX-5 viable.

What is different from the Mazda MX-5

The two cars share the platform, the main mechanical parts, the interior and the folding soft-top mechanism. Fiat changed four areas:

• Body: new exterior styling and a longer body. German Wikipedia gives the Fiat as 14 cm longer than the MX-5; the boot is slightly bigger.
• Engine: Fiat's turbocharged 1.4 MultiAir instead of Mazda's naturally aspirated petrol engines.
• Gearbox: the six-speed manual comes from the third-generation MX-5 (NC), because it copes better with the turbo engine's torque.
• Damping: the shock absorbers were retuned to suit the Fiat.

The MultiAir system controls the intake valves hydraulically, so it can meter air through the valves rather than through a throttle plate. This reduces pumping losses. Jeremy Clarkson gave the car three stars out of five and called it quieter and less fun than the Mazda.

Engine and performance

With 1,050–1,080 kg, the Fiat carries roughly 10.2–10.5 kg per kW, and the Abarth about 8.4–8.6 kg per kW. To switch between kW, PS and hp, use our power converter. The Abarth's extra 22 kW cut the 0–100 km/h time by 0.7 seconds and raised the top speed by 17 km/h. Both engines have the same CO₂ figures, so the faster car costs nothing extra in official consumption.

Abarth 124 Spider and the special versions

The Abarth 124 Spider was unveiled in Geneva in March 2016 and reached German customers in September 2016 at €40,000. It came with Abarth badging, 17-inch alloy wheels, heated leather and microfibre sport seats, optional Recaro seats and an optional hand-painted stripe. A leather sport steering wheel and gear knob had red stitching. The story of the scorpion brand is told in our history of Abarth.

Other versions:

• 124 Spider Anniversary: 124 cars at launch for the 50th anniversary of the original, in red with black leather, chrome mirrors and a numbered plaque.
• Abarth 124 GT (2018): shown at Geneva with a carbon-fibre hardtop weighing 16 kg; German Wikipedia lists it in grey only.
• Abarth 124 Rally: a rally car homologated in the FIA R-GT class with a 1.8-litre turbo engine.
• Elaborazione Abarth (North America): announced in 2016 and later replaced by an Abarth-badged model.

Sales and the end of production

The Fiat sold steadily but never in large numbers:

Europe took 58 % of all sales. Germany accounted for about 7,400 registrations from 2016 to 2019, with the best year in 2018 (2,660 cars). The Fiat left the British market in January 2019 and the Abarth in April 2019. In Germany only stock cars were left by November 2019. In December 2020 Stellantis announced that the car would leave the North American range after the 2020 model year. The last cars were sold there in 2021.

The name and the 1966 original

The name comes from the Fiat 124 Sport Spider, a Pininfarina-designed roadster built from 1966 to 1985. The 2016 car revived both the name and several styling details of that model. Read more about the design house in our history of Pininfarina. The classic car has its own entry in the Fiat catalogue.