1980 auto Fiat Mirafori

Paddy Bateman wrote: »

One of these had come up for sale . What problems would there likely be and how much should I pay. 133k miles 1.6 litre. I would like to buy mainly for nostalgia Also are these old enough to be considered classics?

you may want to read this .......
SOMETIMES PRODUCTS CAN BE USED LONG AFTER THEY HAVE BEEN RULED DANGEROUS. A case I examined in the 1970s involved cars suddenly catching fire; I traced the cause to ozone cracks and wear in the rubber and plastic fuel lines of the Fiat Mirafiori (which was sold in the U.S. as the Brava). The car was recalled in many markets, but not the Republic of Ireland, where unwitting owners were still driving very dangerous vehicles.

Needless to say, the company paid substantial damages.

There were many car fires in the U.S. with similar results.

None of the accidents had to happen. If the fuel line had been well designed from the beginning using armored ozone-resistant rubber, there would have been no problem.

The way Fiat handled this case was echoed recently by Toyota, which denied its accelerator problems for several years until pressures of litigation finally led to admission of a serious design flaw. Both the Fiat and Toyota cases show that design faults are replicated endlessly and needlessly. Such problems should have been discovered by rigorous testing before those models ever went to the dealer showroom.


The Fiat Mirafiori was built with defective fuel lines, which led to some horrific and
sometimes fatal car fires.

My dad had a Mirafiori around about 1983. I think it replaced a 1980 corolla that was a complete rust bucket. the Mirafiori wasn't a lot better. We only had it a few years but I remember lots of filler going into it and it got a bit of a paint job at one stage because so much work was needed on one area. The electrics were also crap. The heater packed it in soon enough and only did full on heat. It had to be disconnected. It was definitely one of the less memorable cars we owned growing up. It was replaced by a Sunny Sentra which was a far better car. I'd say you'd have a lot of work on these. From my experience, much like the 80 corolla, they seemed to rust on contact with air! It didn't help that we're near the sea on the west coast so there'd be spray and salt carried the mile or two inland.

if it is a fiat 131 that you want fair play to you they are a pretty rare car nowadays, as with any car from that era they suffer from rust,mechanical parts are for the most part readily available, fiat are no more unreliable or prone to rust as some other cars of that time period, try this site it is mainly for italian cars, eg fiat .alfa. lancia. etc http://allitalia.proboards.com/index.cgi?

Ours had that browny/orange interior also. The colour of ours was weird. A sort of purpley grey, if that makes any sense!