Mr Jones said he had always had an eye on a Golf GTI but after buying one, an Abarth was next.
"I decided that I needed to sell my Surf and GTI. So I combined the functionality of them and got this."
"I thought ‘that’s a really nice car’ and when this one came up for sale on Trade Me, I went and had a look at it and thought ‘that’s me’."
Mr Jones bought the car in Christchurch three years ago.
He nicknamed the car "Bianca", the Italian word for white.
The nickname was written on the back of the car.
It was not a garage dweller — the car was driven often, he said.
"Like I say, it goes really really well ... It’s a souped-up version of a Fiat 500."
He recalled being stopped in the New World Gore carpark by someone asking about the car.
"They said ‘I love your car. I actually saw one similar to this, a red one, last week’."
They were not seen around this part of the country often, he said.
He had the European model, which had a non-MultiAir 1.4-litre turbo engine that delivered 138hp.
