| Archive for The Motor Forum talking cars since 2006 |
| Skyhook |
"Quite why anyone would want to buy a Fiat..."Good to see Autocar have finally banished their prejudice about Italian cars...
http://www.autocar.co.uk/blogs/an...cy-a-fiat-or-elle-macpherson.aspx |
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| Giant |
Thats quite a 'character assasination' article isn't it, I wonder what FIAT did to Ruppert/Autocar to warrant that attack! | ||||
| Boxer6 |
Re: "Quite why anyone would want to buy a Fiat..."
They gave 2nd-hand Brera's a fair write-up last week, for some reason. Seems now they're a few years old, they are now quite acceptable cars to have and drive....... what happened to the accusations of "lardiness" and "woeful styling" when it was launched? Tossers. |
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| GonnaBreakABuggy |
Re: "Quite why anyone would want to buy a Fiat..."
Have you seen the state of virtually every 'modern' FIAT underneath after a couple of years? 
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| Skyhook |
Re: "Quite why anyone would want to buy a Fiat..."
No, I'm not that short... |
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| Boxer6 |
Re: "Quite why anyone would want to buy a Fiat..."
Well, Helen's GP is an 06 plate, and it seems pretty sound underneath to me, what I've seen of it. Do tell........... BTW Mr Skyhook - saw your moniker on "James May 20th Century" show t'other day, plastered along the side of a Harrier!!
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| Skyhook |
Re: "Quite why anyone would want to buy a Fiat..."
Ha! "My other car's a Harrier"... a vertical take off Sportka (SE) would've helped me avoid a few of the rear-enders I've had! |
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| PhilD |
Yeah when I bought my GP I remember thinking "Fiat made some shitty cars in 1978 so I best be careful 30 years later" FFS. Who didn't back then? Presumably he won't buy a Jag these days for the same reason? | ||||
| Frank Bullitt |
So over-hackneyed it's like a black cab by the bow-bells. | ||||
| TimR |
Same applies to Japanese cars, BMWs were pretty rusty 30 years ago and Merc finally caught up 10 years ago. Why do people only apply it to the Italian stuff? |
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| Martin |
Why isn't anyone answering the question that's in the thread title?
I'm struggling for an answer....... I'm joking 
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| PhilD |
Because mine looks like a Maserati 
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| Martin |
Good enough for me Phil!
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| gonnabuildabuggy |
My only experience of Fiats recently was a GP loaner, and that was...not good. The inside door handle had stopped working so the only way to open the door was to wind the window down and use the outside handle.
The rear parcel mounting had broken as well. It was 1 yr old. |
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| Stuntman |
Phil - is it, in fact, a Maserati? That'd look like a Maserati
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| PhilD |
No, I clearly remember not buying the Maserati 4200 because I (luckily!) recalled just as i was signing on the dotted line, that the 1968 Ghibli was a bit heavy on oil. |
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| Martin |
A wise move.
I didn't buy a Fiat because I remember falling off the back seat of a Panda hire car in spain when the back seat (hammock really) bounced off its mountings at the front. That didn't look like a Maserati though! |
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| Dr. Hfuhruhurr |
Have you seen the original Biturbo? |
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| Pkh72 |
To be fair to the Fiat though that kind of damage can happen to any make of car if they are treated like a loan car should be treated. |
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| Eff One |
I've had a Cinq Sporting, a Barchetta, a Mk1 Punto and a Coupe. Only the Punto gave me any trouble, and that was just wear and tear stuff at 90k miles. | ||||
| Nice Guy Eddie |
Old ruppert is certainly taking a bashing over there now though. Good to see a lazy blog like that being given the treatment its owed.
Its a bit like my missus when we went to see the Mito and said to the salesman that all Alfas rusted and had dodgy electrics. |
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| Dr. Hfuhruhurr |
And now he's written a second blog that embodies the expression about not digging when you're already in a hole. | ||||
| TimR |
+1 It doesn't seem to explain why he bases his opinion of events from 30 years ago. Twat. |
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| ALF |
What nonsense, exactly the sort of tripe that made me cancel my Autocar sub after many years. The final straw for me was that stupid editorial in the letters page slagging off Alfa after someone pointed out that they, in fact, had launched the first compact diesel coupe - many years before the TT recently ruined by a diesel engine. Their response was something like "we meant credible cars". Wankers. | ||||
| TimR |
Ironically the car in question, the Alfa GT, has been given a stay of execution since it's currently so popular. Mind you that's with the buying public who, Autocar would no doubt suggest, clearly know sod all about cars |
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| maz |
my wife's Mark 2 Punto ( 51 reg) has just flown through its 5th MOT with nothing to do. done 56,000 trouble free miles and just gets better ride is a bit hard though |
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| Stuntman |
My first two cars were Unos - I owned them for nearly 3 years in total, with absolutely no issues.
I certainly wouldn't be put off buying a Fiat, or recommending one to anyone else. |
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| Gurney |
More editorial anti Alfa crap in yesterday's mag. Someone rightly pointed out that the new Astra has borrowed an idea from the Alfasud and used Watts linkages to tie down it's non independent rear end. Autocar replied that Vauxhall had also considered making the car with string for a wiring loom and dissolvable bodywork. Pretty cheap and now very unnecessary.
They never seem to mention that mark 1 Golf GTi's were nicknamed 'Exocet' because nothing stopped em. Rather useful brakes on a performance car. |
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| GonnaBreakABuggy |
Caution for FIAT lovers, please avert eyes
If you ever start working on a FIAT then you'll see why you don't want one, all the bolts are cheap, nasty and often unplated so they rust solid even on a car a few years old, electrical looms do two laps of the engine with 14,000 joints for no apparent reason other than to cause some poor bugger electric nightmares at some point down the line, the fuel injectors are bargain basement models with only mesh baskets rather than proper low-micron grade screen, so they gum up and foul often, causing random stutterings/hesitations. I'm not done yet
Most of the support and structure at the front of them is the cheapest, lowest strength steel they could get away with using - great when it's first made perhaps, but after a little surface rust starts appearing they develop cracks around the engine and gearbox mounts leading to funny, almost untraceable knocking and creaking noises. The most common sliding caliper they use for the brakes on most of the cars from about '96 to '01 had the steel sliders exposed to all the salt, grime and brake dust simply because the bean counters had decided to save 13p on rubber seals, which leads to the calipers sticking often, uneven and rapidly accelerated brake wear. The clutch slave cylinders from the same model years on those cars equipped with hydraulic rather than cable clutches suffer from premature failure due to the cylinder bores simply being left as a machined surface rather than being honed afterwards to set up a proper sealing surface. Cheap and nasty tripod type CV joints used on almost everything up to and including the 1.8L models - and I think even on the 2.0TD models on some of the bravo's - it's a design that's very cheap to make but wears far faster under high loads than a proper ball/socket CV joint - clicking and play at just 60-70k miles isn't uncommon. The clutch release arms use unsheilded nylon washers - they tend to stick and the clutch gradually gets really heavy over time - most manufacturers have been using sheilded PTFE or Oilon/Nylube even from the early 90's. There's loads more but I think you get the idea, I'm never letting any of my close family buy a FIAT unless it's a brand spanking one built on someone else platform, I drive an old french tin can and it's still built 10x better. I just might be persuaded by a V6 Alfa though, so I'm not boycotting all italian cars
And just remember, an MOT is just a roadworthiness check, it doesn't mean the car is in decent nick
I bet I can find half a dozen things wrong even with that one that's just flown through it's MOT... |
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| simonp |
Well, I reckon they'll definitely be selling less of 'em if they go ahead with that Punto facelift! | ||||
| Gurney |
Seconded. |
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| GonnaBreakABuggy |
And the ring gear has just slipped in the diff rendering the car undrivable, apparently it's a common problem with Fiat 'cause they decided to save 50p by not bolting the crownwheel on.
Yay. |
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| Apex clipper |
You just want to see that engine don't yer..go on! Admit it! |