Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
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FIAT REDUX
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Nelson
Also, these are not very good winter cars, so if you could at least find a carport to keep the snow off that would be great.
Someone will buy the a/c from you, so put it on Ebay. An aftermarket fiberglass hardtop would be a good investment in your case I think.
On the other hand, it sounds pretty typical 82 Fiat. The consoles on all of them are cracked and splitting, I covered mine last fall with a hard plastic cover. Double check that gear box. If it's jumping out of gear on deceleration you have a problem. Price doesn't sound bad either.
Good luck!
Hal
1982 Fiat Spider
1973 Jensen Healey
1997 Chrysler Sebring convertible
1997 Ford E-150 conversion van
Later,
Hal
Shiftright the Evil One
Later,
Hal
I have been told by some car enthusiast friends to stay away from the Fiat 131s, Bravas, and Stradas of the late '70s and early '80s. And I believe them. You do know that these cars were garbage when they were new, right?
They actually do much better on their home turf, so I suspect much of Fiat's problems in the US had to do with a poor parts and service network.
If you buy a decent 131 type for cheap, and remember never to put too much money into it, it could be an okay ride.
I guess that's a reason I'm always sniffing around engine swaps. At least in those cases you end up with a thing (hopefully) that's scarey-fast and you can't just go buy. The average hotrod Fiat/510/Cortina/2002 would likely get whupped by a bone-stock $2500 16V GTI circa 1992.
Hal
I used to work at a Fiat dealer back in 1981/1982 (cleaning and prepping the cars) and hoped one day to be able to own one of those marvels (strong words no?) that were the X1/9's and Spiders.
After having my share of unconventional cars (anyone know what an Innocenti Turbo DeTomasso is?) amongst other things, and often having cars that could cater to taxiing people (which I seldom did anyways), I finally decided I'd treat myself rather then non existing 3rd or more passenger,
So back in spring of 1990 (or was it 1989?) I went out (back to where I once worked) to get a more serious inquiry about the feasibility of my project, and had to decide whether I wanted 2 jump seats, slightly better performance and total top-down driving with less luggage space, or never have to be bothered by the (then) in-laws for rides, have better handling and definitely more cargo room.
Both cars were in the same price range (~$5,000 Canadian) with roughly the same mileage (~50,000 km) and about the same very good condition. As I was fore-thinking about our summer vacation (and all the junk one carries for lavish camping) I decided on the X1/9.
Upon purchase, synchros were changed (2 to 3 I seem to remember) and shocks in the rear were also due but I figured I'd wait and see if I might get a better deal on them in the US during our vacation (which we didn't incidentally).
Over the more then 4 years that I've had that car, it has never let me down once. I had great heat in winter (Montréal winters), had it shod with Pirelli's Winters, studded to boot (101 studs on each tire) and never got stuck once, had great handling, saw soooooo many accidents from the rear view mirror (probably from idiots figuring that if my little thingy could managed, they surely could also, not knowing that my car was balanced and properly shod for such driving conditions) that I figured I'd not use it again in winters for other's sake ;-) (but I still did from time to time, just too much fun)
Over the years I did en up changing the pads on all 4, and that is all I've ever put on my little "toy". Even the other normal maintenance wasn't done regularly on it, though I did at least have synthetic all around.
Had I ever once bothered to actually change those shocks (way back when ), I'd probably still have it. Instead, upon avoiding what would have probably been a disastrous accident (courtesy of an idiot taxi driver) on the highway, I still ended up in an accident (but by myself) for my efforts (and lack of rear shocks), which propelled the car into a concrete divider (left front of car), then somewhat more of a 180 (left rear) then to my amazement , it flipped over (was probably still doing in excess of 90/kph at that time).
Needless to say, that the conception of that car saved my life. I came out of it with nothing at all! Not a single scratch (well, a very small cut on my thumb, but that was from getting out from under the car) to myself except maybe my pride a little. The car was considered totalled by my insurance ( I guess they found the cost of repairs to steep), but at least the settlement did enable me to get my [non-permissible content removed] into a TR6, which was also fun.
Either way, I do miss both those cars. The Fiat did have a looooooot more room for luggage then most people think (have pictures of what went in before departing from a camping trip), handled very well in all situation ( . well, I really didn't have any more shocks on it at all in the end), was very economical in every sense of the word (even insurance premiums were a joke).
Well, if nothing more, I just figured I'd share those experiences with all of you. By the way, I'd done over 100,000 km in the years I owned the Fiat, and I'll forward pictures to anyone who wants to see the wreck or the camping content.
I do hope to manage getting myself back into one some day :-)
I owned one of these and also had very good luck with it; however, I must say that there were some very difficult aspects to normal repair (the window regulators and the water pump, which is 7 hours labor). Also, the car was built to a price and often switchgear and upholstery would melt in one's hands. Nonetheless, it was fun to drive and handled beautifully.
Not a very fast car by any means, but even today how many mid-engine targa top two seaters can you buy in mint condition for $3,000?
The 128 made in Italy wasn't a bad car at all, but probably quality control issues sunk the Yugo here in the US.
Your parents' experience supports the argument that a weak dealership network, in terms of parts and service, was perhaps the major factor for the failure of the Italian and French brands in the U.S. market. Sure, the products had quality deficiencies, but so did many of the domestic, German, Swedish, and certain Japanese cars.
If Fiat had had the number of mechanics that Volvo did, and the parts supplies, I think it would have had about equal a record of customer satisfaction (and dissatisfaction) as Volvo. In Italy, the cars performed quite successfully (obviously, they are still around and bigger than ever).
Other than that, it's a hoot! One of the best little cars I've ever owned (including my world famous MGC!).
Enjoy!
Hal
Most important thing you have to remember with an X1/9 is that this car was built to a price. It is a cheap car, let's just come out and say it. So you'll have to deal with that basic nature of the car whenever you repair it. Things break off and wear out. It wasn't built to last.
Still, you can have a lot of fun for cheap if you buy a good car to begin with. Just don't match your expectations to that of a Lexus.
I had dual weber IDF carbs on the car. That's one throat feeding each cylinder. It really transforms the engine.
I'm surprised that a previous post mentioned that 124 Spiders weren't officially imported into the UK because the dual weber set-up was available outside the US. If you look at a Haynes manual for the car, you'll see tuning instructions for the dual webers. The intake manifold was a FIAT part.
I recently (finally) sold my pininfarina hardtop. This was a rare factory hardtop used on the Abarth 124 rally car. They were really fun cars. I considered getting another one, but then I remembered how exhausted I felt after rebuilding the first one. Didn't want to touch a car for about a year. They are fun though.
Enjoy!
Hal