... a Mini Cooper S, a Volkswagen GTI and a Fiat 500 Abarth, which would you choose, and why? By way of background, I'm about a year or two away from making a car purchase. I've been driving the base model Mini Cooper the last couple of years and I've liked it pretty well. I'd like something with just a little more "umph," however. Trust me, I'm not leaving the decision up to you! But I am interested in your thoughts, experiences, etc.
All my friends who owned a Volks had some kind of mechanical problems and always advised me to never get one. Whereas, a few friends who owns a mini all seem to love it and recommends it to me.
BMW over VW any day... but it also depends on which VWs, GTIs are produced in Wolfsburg, as opposed to north-american-assembled jettas and beetles. Also, as a general rule of thumb, German cars need more maintainance during the first 50k km, esp compared to Japanese, but in the end will run double as long.
Just to add on to your post, the three friends who were not satisfied with their VW owned a Jetta. I had three other friends who owned a beetle (not he old school 60's type), and two of the friends hated it because of maintenance issues and the third had no problem what so ever.
I can't imagine the Fiat not having trouble when it comes to maintenance either tbh, though. Not sure about Abarth, but I'd püut Fiat one category beneath VW in terms of quality and durability (which is not necessarily bad, mind you, and this is purely based on European built models).
We're starting to see a few of them down here in the wilds of Southern Maryland. Six weeks on, I bet you're pretty enthusiastic about it now, but I'd be curious what your opinion is in a year.
I do believe this makes all the difference in the world. If the OP wants something with a more "umph", I'd go with the GTI, preferably a 6 speed manual and not the DSG. Having driven the GTI's sister car, the Audi A3 in the past, I'd say that the GTI is a very fun car to drive. If space hadn't been an issue for me a couple of years ago, I would have bought the GTI.