| Author | Message | ||
     Etennuly |
I had owned a couple of Fiat sports cars back in the 70's. I wondered if they were ever going to make a come back in the US market. My '71 850 Spyder had a 6 gallon gas tank and averaged over 60 mpg. Not what could have been called a 'safe' car in any manor though. I always felt safer on a bike than in that little sports car. But the car always beat my bikes on mpg. | ||
| Ourdee |
Fiat/Chrysler | ||
| Johnnymceldoo |
They seem to be having an effect on the wrangler lineup. As a consistant jeep skeptic Iam seriously considering one in the next couple years. | ||
| Just_ziptab |
I had a 70 850 Sport Spyder.........fun car! | ||
| Doerman |
My wife bought one a month ago. She loves it. I really enjoy it too!! I am really impressed by this car. Handles well. Not s lug. Awesome amenities. The "blues and me" system really rocks! And.. oh yeah.. I'm not really concerned about gas prices. The mileage is on par with my 1125. | ||
| Cataract2 |
See plenty of them over here in Germany. Seem fairly popular. | ||
| Gunut75 |
They have been alive and well in Europe for decades. This is the first Fiat to hit US shores in over 20 years (from memory, so no accuracy is claimed in that number). Nice lookin little car. I'd rock it. | ||
| Britchri10 |
The Fiat 500 is the biggest selling small car in the UK. Obviously, it's very popular there. Good gas mileage, comfortable & fairly "nippy". If you want to test one ask for the "Arbath" model. Rumor has it that you will not be disappointed! (I used to drive a Fiat X19 sports car) Chris C | ||
| Fahren |
Neat little cars. The Abarth model will be released soon in the States. Meanwhile, for anyone who has a 500 and wants performance/suspension upgrades similar to the Abarth, they are already available, for example: http://fiat500speed.com/ I have an '84, from when Pininfarina took over production of the Spiders from Fiat. | ||
| Etennuly |
Over the years I rebuilt the bodies on three or four 124 Spyders. Though I did not own one of them, they seemed like a pretty refined sports car of the time. Too bad they were made out of old steel beer cans with no galvanizing. The people who owned them loved them. My dad had a '68 128 four door sedan that was a fun little car to drive. I remember setting the throttle to use as cruise control. Fifty up hill, eighty five down hill, fifty up hill, eighty five down! It was doing about 40 mpg the whole time. Those little engines would really sing. I am impressed that they went with 15" and 16" wheels for this new one. The old one's if I recall, were 12" and 13". | ||
| Babired |
FIAT Fix It Again Tony I love them too I drove a little 4 door Fiat around when I was a teenager! | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
My uncle had a spyder of some flavor when he was in school. He said that it wasn't so much unreliable as it was predictably failure-prone. Example he gave me: Odometer up to 30,000? Buy a generator and put it on the shelf. 38,000 miles, charging system failure. "Cool! I got 3000 miles extra out of that one." He said the stuff just didn't last a long time but it was consistent. I could have sworn he said it was 1000cc or was it 1300cc? Does that sound right? This was the early 1970's | ||
| Court |
They are cute. Neighbor gal is having a raffle for one. Cute | ||
| Hughlysses |
Anyone else remember these Fiat TV ads in the early 70's showing Rémy Julienne "Europe's greatest stunt driver" doing all these amazing stunts in a Fiat sedan? (sorry- this French version is the only one I could find) A high school buddy of mine had one of those cars, and it was a pretty good car until he pulled onto a paved road from a dirt road "at a high rate of speed" one night. He got about 100 yards before the oil light came on by which time the engine was pretty much toasted. My friend said that stunt driver might drive a Fiat just like shown in the TV ad, but he was damn sure it did NOT have a stock oil pan.  | ||
| Ferris_von_bueller |
They seem to be having an effect on the wrangler lineup. How so? | ||
| Johnnymceldoo |
Well 2011 wrangler models got a major remodel on the interiors and the 2012 models got the new pentastar motor making 40% more power along with a new transmission. Last I read they were pretty serious about introducing the jeep gladiator too. Wrangler hasnt had a competitive motor in it since the straight 6 and even that was getting outdated compared to new stuff coming out. | ||
| Fahren |
124 Spiders (later becoming "Spider 2000" w/ 2L engines) were remarkably unchanged over the years. Bumper standards changed, engine sizes were upped over the years, necessitating "bulges" on the hoods. From 1400 to 1600 to 1800 to 2000 cc. Around '80 they went from Weber carbs to Bosch fuel injection. Current enthusiasts love the Webers for their tuneability, because that early Bosch FI was not tuneable. Pininfarina introduced rack and pinion in '85, which turned out to be their last year of production. Pretty long run for a car: 1966-'85. The Spiders were pretty advanced for the day: disc brakes all around, DOHC, one of the easiest manual convertible tops to pull up. Cool Pininfarina styling, in many ways inspired by Pininfarina-designed Ferraris, especially the 275GTS | ||
| Ourdee |
Court, The car or the gal?  I hope to be building fiats soon. ;] | ||
| Buellkowski |
I just spent 3 weeks behind the wheel of a loaded Fiat 500 Sport rental while my car was in the body shop. Enterprise is offering them now in their "compact" category. Ups: - Street parking is effortless. - Fun to toss around curves. - Very quiet ride for a microcar. - Chicks dig it. Downs: - 6-speed auto keeps the engine gutless when not in "Sport" mode. - Severely limited rear seat legroom. - Cheap stalk switchgear. - "High Engine Temp" warning would sound regularly and inexplicably. - Chicks dig it too much. ("Oh, it's so CUUUUUUTE!!")  | ||
| Boltrider |
Buellkowski, what were your mpg numbers? The advertised figures seem absurdly low for a car that small. | ||
| Etennuly |
Hugh that is so ironic! My dad gave his '68 sedan to my older brother when he turned 16. His girlfriend's of the time, grandfather owned a closed down dirt high banked race track. Of course he had to see how it would do. There were some serious wash outs across the track in spots he could not miss. The distinct knocking and oil spewing out the bottom of the car were the first clue that something was amiss when he arrived home! He too had been watching those commercials. Ahhh.....to be sixteen and carefree!  | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
heee! carefree = dumb  I was lucky my first car was a 1975 olds delta 88. It was a POS but it could take bottoming out on washed out railroad beds like a champ! Big dumb cast iron anvil. (with | ||
| 99savage |
Think of Italian cars in the same breath as my Italian wife, Great looking with classic lines, interesting engineering, take you thru the curves at the limit of your ability but they run on their own damn schedule | ||
| Zenbiker |
I spent 2 weeks in Italy (in March) for my Honeymoon. I really liked the 500 and wanted to buy one, but the way people drive around here (I live out and drive downtown) is just pathetic and my wife said 'No". I had a wrangler back in 89 and have heard that the new ones are much, much better, so....we shall see what follows me home in the near future. More than one Buell has ended up in my garage that way...... | ||
| Steeleagle |
I had a '72 850 Spider. Fun little car. The front end rusted out and I replaced the upper frame with a piece of 5" steel channel. I was sitting on a piece of oak plank under the seat (across the hole in the floor!) when the front rust got beyond the point of no return. I remember driving with a buddy to the Columbus GP and at one point he was staring out the window and just broke out laughing. I asked what was up and he said "I was looking at the Ford EXP we just passed." "...and??" "It occurred to me that I had to look UP at it!" The car was a ball, and if I had my MIG back then, I'd probably still be slinging sheet metal into it! | ||
| Just_ziptab |
More than once,I'd get off work to find my Fiat sitting on the front wheels and the engine end.......... sitting on a single five gallon bucket. | ||
| Trojan |
Back in 1976 I owned a 1973 model Fiat 124 ST, which was the boring 3 box 'Lada shape' saloon but fitted with the brilliant twin cam engine. It was absolutley brilliant to drive and mad as a box of frogs. The only problem was that the bodywork seemed made out of 'pre-rusted' steel and it just fell to pieces in months! By mid '77 it was a wreck and was scrapped because the floor had rotted through! They may have improved their quality control a lot since then, but I bet they are still not as fun to drive as that car was. I looked at getting one of the 'new' 500 models last year but was shocked at just how expensive they are for what you get. The Abarth model especially is in BMW/Audi territory! | ||
| Bluzm2 |
Saw one in the wild yesterday, boy they sure are tiny little farts.. Bigger than a Smart and better looking but damn small. It was stopped at a light in front of a Tahoe and behind a Suburban. I'd of been a bit nervous. I was WAY taller sitting on the Uly. | ||
| Zenbiker |
Yea Brad, they worked well on the streets of Rome, as everything was small over there. It helps that the streets are all cobblestoned and curvy in relation to the US as well. But I have seen some real nice smash-ups on 94 on the way into work and would rather be on a bike that could lane split if needed than a less mobile and substantial 'cage'. | ||
| Chauly |
I have a Smart, and never feel nervous in traffic or the interstate. It also has a 5-star insurance rating due to the integral roll cage and about 47 airbags (all I think about that is Demolition Man when Stallone crashes the police car and it fills with foam).Top Gear ran one into a barrier at 70 mph, and the doors still opened! I do believe that crash avoidance is much better than crash survival, but aside from feeling like being inside a ball kicked by Beckham, I think the Smart would do OK. I wonder how the 500 would fare?} |
