Fiat Coupe - Am I asking for trouble?

Joeyjoejoe Jnr

About 2 years ago I was working with a guy who had a Fiat Coupe (canary yellow). He let me have it for a day and all I can say was that it was fantastic. I had never driven a fast car before so to me it was incredibly fast and the reaction from girls around me in traffic was an unexpected bonus.
Now I can afford a nice car (nothing over 2 litre though). I heard they have a tendency to blow up from time to time but the drivers reviews on cbg.ie seem to say that it’s an OK car. I was wondering, should I dare??

skywalker_208

FIAT = Fix It Again Tony .....

nuff said hehe

ciarsd

skywalker_208 wrote:

FIAT = Fix It Again Tony .....

nuff said hehe

skywalker, you deserve a ban from this forum for that reply

skywalker_208

Jesus keep your hair on!!!

ive seen Fiat Coupes around.. they do look like a nice car. However i do know someone who had one and had a lot of trouble...

Seth Brundle

Its a car I have wanted for a while. Im not familiar with their problems and don't recall hearing of any.
However, you will get details of common problems from somewhere like www.fccuk.org

alias no.9

The biggest problem with these is maintenance costs, in particular the cost of replacing the cam belt on the 20v models which requires the engine to be taken out as access is very limited. Some cowboys do the belt in situe but I believe that involves cutting through part of the chassis leg to make room. I guess the moral of the story is if you want high performance, you've got to stomach the costs too. A good indicator of reliability is when you find high mileage examples, I had a trawl through the uk autotrader website last week looking for interesting cars that weren't overly expensive, there were a few coupe's in there with >150k miles, I'm not saying to go for a high miler, just that they obviously do go to high miles. In terms of looks and performance for the money, it's hard to beat a 20v turbo.

Paul (MN)

changing the timing belt (every 36k) in ireland will cost you up to €2000.
Do it up north for about half.

A FIAT garage will tell you it's an engine out job but you don't have to.


ahh I just read the post above! well those were the prices I was quote to get it done.

el tel

They are in the top UK insurance group (20) somehow so I'd say the insurance would be steep here too so you'd need to factor that cost in.

Eoin

el tel wrote:

They are in the top UK insurance group (20) somehow so I'd say the insurance would be steep here too so you'd need to factor that cost in.

Yeah, I don't think they fit into the normal insurance brackets for it's engine size (I think Cyrus was pretty much priced out of it for one of these?)

Joeyjoejoe Jnr

Got a quote on 123.ie for only €900 with the €4k excess but i dont plan on crashing so thats ok. It really does come down to the reliability and the cost of servicing/parts if the s*** hits the fan belt

Paul (MN)

well it's going to cost to get it serviced.
for insurance try brittons. I got a quote of about €1200 when I was 28

I think this is a high risk car for having hihg servicig costs. It'll be hard to sell on too unless you have already paid the next set of these servicing costs.

Joeyjoejoe Jnr

Are there any other cars around like a Fiat Coupe?

I was thinking along the lines of a Honda Prelude or a Nissan 200. I know they dont have the performance of the Fiat but they look fairly decent and they must be reliable coming from japland.

UberNewb

There's also the Toyota Celica,

http://www.toyotacelicaonline.com/gallery.htm

Joeyjoejoe Jnr

I ment to add that I dont like celicas or FTOs

UberNewb

There's also the Honda Integra!

http://www.honda.org.uk/

bazz26

Toyota MR2:
http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carid=291045

Peug 406 Coupe:
http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=317609

VW Corrado:
http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carid=319844

Ford Cougar:
http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carid=319345

Alfa Romeo GTV:
http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carid=317517

BMW 323 Coupe:
http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=Car&carID=286444&message=You%20searched%20for%3A%20BMW%20323%2C%20Year%3A%201997%2E%20Your%20search%20returned%20one%20vehicle%2C%20which%20is%20shown%20below%2E&CFID=53960763&CFTOKEN=52357146

Honda Integra:
http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=320608

Alfasudcrazy

The Alfa Gt is probably over your budget but its one to keep in mind for the future - its the only car that comes close to the Fiat Coupe in terms of looks.

http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=search&maxrows=100&MakeID=1&xMakeID=1&ModelID=891&xModelID=891&Year=&xYear=&submit=Find+cars+%3E%3E

Failing that the other car that has the same cache is the Alfa GTV - what your insurance Co would think of one of those is another matter.

Pity Fiat don't make cars like the Coupe anymore however the difficulty and frequency regarding the changing of the timing belt comes as a bit of a shock to me - did not know that and if it came down to signing on the dotted line I think that would put me off.:(

Stephen

I wouldn't say Fiat don't make cars like that any more... they just don't sell them here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_barchetta

although...

Production of the Barchetta Mk. 2 is rumoured to have stopped in June, 2005.

Alfasudcrazy

Its true - the Barchetta is no longer being produced by Fiat - and with it the last Fiat that had any flair.:(

alias no.9

Funny that, the barchetta was officially launched in ireland earlier this year, only as LHD though which meant that sales were shocking bad (if any). It was a bit late considering it's been around for nearly 10 years.

stormin

"and the reaction from girls around me in traffic was an unexpected bonus."


That should be in the humour section. If you spray any car Canary Yellow you will probably get a reaction.

Paul (MN)

I once considered all those cars and settled on the Prelude 2.2 VTEC, if you can find a nice one.

Didn't buy it in the end of course due to various reasons.

Joeyjoejoe Jnr

Yea, I have sort of decided to go with the prelude. I think I might get it sprayed a nice lime green with pink dots just for that 'added reaction' from the chicks before they start filnging their clothes off and try to jump me!

Thanks for all the help and advice guys