M wife drives a fiat 500 and i choose to drive it over my car when i get the chance. However, at the end of the day its a glorified shopping tolley. A nice looking one, but not very heavily engineered.
Plenty strong enough for put putting about town on the school run or little shopping trips but i wouldnt recommend it for more arduous work.
Trouble is peeps seem to be speccing them as jack of all trades. Loads of options, bigger engines, faster engines, expensive costs and then thinking they will be up to more. They are not. Even an ABARTH is still just a basic 500 underneath. The metal used is sooo thin its unbelievable. Look at the door hinges and tell me they are going to last long term. The door handles, the handles to tip the seats etc etc, all very flimsy.
Peeps have mentioned the main issues
Rear tailgate wiring goes brittle and breaks at the rubber hose.
Brake caliper siezing
Shocks are pretty terrible but on normal ones its a chance to upgrade when they wear out
Tops of suspension struts rust on older ones
Door handles dropping off
Wing mirrors are fragile
Electrics can be very tempremental
I wouldnt even consider paying the kind of money a ABARTH would cost. I got a 500 pop over 3yrs ago for about £10k, all paid for and i will give it to the kids when they need to learn to drive. Then put it in the garage when they are finished with it for me to play with.