Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

Ellis

People of my generation had a cynical view of Italian cars - "great engines but dissolving bodywork" - and indeed I was just as biased until my mother chose a new Panda in 2010. It was followed by a second and now the daily runabout is a Fiat 500L 1.6 diesel which was bought last September.

"A Fiat is a good car" is a statement I sneered at for years but I am now a convert.
Many will remember the Lancia Delta fiasco in the late 1970s and early 1980s when Fiat UK actually compensated owners when three year old cars failed the MOT due to terminal rust.

There is however one Fiat car of the 60s/70s which I have always thought was especially nice and good looking in that ethereal way which only the Italians seem to design.
The Fiat 124 Coupe in the BC model :

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To be fair I did not ever see that many but when I did the 124 Coupe stood out.

Which is your favourite?[/img]
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1964 Jaguar Mark 2 3.4 litre
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colwyn500 · Joined: 21 Oct 2012 Posts: 1745 Location: Nairn, Scotland

The (now commonly called) Classic 500. (I am a bit biased there).

fiat500 by peterthompson, on Flickr
The Coupe of the 1990s.
The X19
The original Multipla

KNO_1936 by peterthompson, on Flickr
The 850 and 900 vans and their variants.

Aside from the rust, which is all in the past, Fiats are usually very cleverly designed, well engineered and well-styled. It's a pity more don't appear on this Forum. Sad

D4B · Joined: 28 Dec 2010 Posts: 2083 Location: Hampshire UK

For me it's the the classic Fiat 500.

Then of course I cannot forget the Beast of Turin

Peter you mention the X19, I saw a new owner of one on the at the services
on the M1 heading north last weekend, he said it was his fourth one, and he still owns the other 3!!

Steve

Rick · Site Admin Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 22829 Location: UK

The Dino has a certain something. I'm also quite keen on the 600 Multipla.

The 124 Coupe in your post brings back memories. A friend of the time, and myself, were quizzed by a local bobby over our interest in playing in, and removing odd items from, a car just like that. This would have been in the late 1970s. It had been dumped in a car park for months, with piles of rusted metal littering the ground beneath it, the windows broken, slowly disintegrating into the ground. At the time, such discoveries weren't all that uncommon. It could only have been a young-ish car at the time, yet was in an appalling condition. A short while after it was taken way for scrap.

RJ
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52classic · Joined: 02 Oct 2008 Posts: 493 Location: Cardiff.

I agree Ellis, the 124 Coupe is gorgeous. I prefer the two headlamp version and I always regarded them as quite exotic back in the day.

850 Coupe is a cute little thing too, but when did you last see either?

colwyn500 · Joined: 21 Oct 2012 Posts: 1745 Location: Nairn, Scotland

There was a really restorable 850 Coupe for sale up here a few months ago, which went for a very low price on Ebay. I was sorely tempted, but having just got my life back after years spent chopping out that special reddish-brown stuff that Fiat used to make their cars out of, I managed to avoid bidding.

Ellis · Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2015 8:32 pm Post subject:

Did any of you have a drive in one of these?

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I know it's a bit too modern for this forum but a Cinquecento was a delight to drive and is, in my opinion, a real Mini alternative and better than it.[/img]
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peter scott · Joined: 18 Dec 2007 Posts: 7219 Location: Edinburgh

Unfortunately Steve got to it first but I'll fight him for it!

Peter Wink

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colwyn500 · Joined: 21 Oct 2012 Posts: 1745 Location: Nairn, Scotland

mikeC

peppiB · Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2015 11:23 pm Post subject:

colwyn500 · Joined: 21 Oct 2012 Posts: 1745 Location: Nairn, Scotland

I do like the X19 Steve, but it does seem a bit of a hairdresser's car (and I'm not a hairdresser).
Same with the Barchetta which is nice, but a bit lacking in Fiat character.

Ellis

Ray White · Joined: 02 Dec 2014 Posts: 7277 Location: Derby

I had a Lancia Beta and suffered many jokes about the engine falling out etc. but in fact the car I had was one of the last ones sold into the U.K. before the import ban came into effect. By this time, strenuous efforts had been made to remedy the rust problem but by then it was, of course, too late. As it happened, my car had no rust on it when I got it and was still rust fee when it was sold a few years later.

The down side to running a car which had been banned was that it took so long to get spares and then they were expensive. Apart from heavy steering at low speeds, it was known as a "driver's car". Having said that, FIAT was something of a dead hand and it was somewhat ironic that they were paraded under the Lancia name.

Da Tow'd · Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2015 3:46 am Post subject:

Collectible Fiat
any Abarth and the Dino
I drove one like the Fiat next to the black '57 VW beetle in the photo

1959 1200 Gran Luce
it didn't quite make across the states when I drove to California to attend photography school in 1964
Hank