endrop - for all your online needs

A moment of clarity...

Currently reading:
A moment of clarity...

Steven

Steven

Patron member
Parked in the garage Written a guide
Joined
Sep 26, 2003
Messages
23,887
Points
3,817
Location
Northern Ireland
A question for you. Are you happy with your car?

Personally I'd swap all my Fiats for one nice Alfa, a 147 or 156.

I've always had Fiats but recently I've been asking myself why. I bought a 1996 Alfa Romeo 145 1.6 and prefer it to either my Brava or the Sei to the extent where neither of them are getting driven by me. It's better to look at, better to drive, better to... Well, it's better at everything!

This was reinforced by my Dad's new car, a 2006 Audi A4 2.0 TDi. It's a cracking car to drive, quick, well built and generally everything a Fiat isn't although it doesn't have the "character" of a Fiat. Going from driving that to taking the Brava out for a spin was a real eye opener.

The one Fiat I have a serious soft spot for is the original Panda, I'll always have one of these. This is mostly down to sentimental reasons and I love mucking about with them on a Saturday afternoon.

Anyway, my point is this. Probably none of us would be driving Fiats if we had our pick of cars, so why the hell do we spend so much time talking about them? Fiat produce cheap A to B transport, nothing more.

Discuss. :devil:
 
At the moment im not happy with the cinq, but when its all fine and dandy i love driving it, and surprising chavs with the acceleration etc... and the cornering is so much fun... and i just love it, i say i want to get a polo or something reliable and sell both cinqs, but i go home and see all the work ive put into them and how cheap and easy they are to repair, and wouldnt swap it for any car in the same price range...

CINQS RULE :slayer:
 
Obviously the Coupe and maybe the Stilo Abarth would be exceptions in the A to B transport category. The new Croma is a step in the right direction in terms of build quality, as is the Grande Punto, but generally the current range is lacklustre.

When the Coupe was being built Fiat had a cracking range compared to other manufacturers.

If I had 20k to spend on a new car now if would be hard to justify spending it at a Fiat dealers, especially if there was an Alfa dealers next door. Having 10k to spend would make things easier mind. :)
 
I disagree, I've always had Fiats but always had a decent pick of cars, but I prefer Fiats to most other marques. They just feel "right" and always have character, and are generally more interesing to look at than most equivalent cars. I've just bought ANOTHER mk2.5 Punto, this time a diesel, for what I paid I could have had an older A4 diesel for example, but the way I see it, I can have something like that when (or if) I have a family when I'm older. Fiats tend to be bought by people who are into cars, despite whether the cars are actually mechanically better than other makes or not. Something like an Audi is more of a 'tool' for getting around in comfort, but for me I think I'd get bored of one after a few days.
 
Well I love the character odf the Cinq, and its great fun and pokey....I reckon if my needs were for a reliable faceless car Id have one

Seen as they arent, I dont :p...but tbh the only new Fiat I could see myself in is the Punto Grande...
 
I think money dictates what alot of us can afford,£20K? i'd use that to pay off mortgage but if I had to get a car i'd buy a year old new style multipla & have a good holiday.
My punto cost me a months council tax to buy & never let me down...infact hasn't cost me a penny(except MOT fee/tax/insurance)yet expensive cars I have brought often just turn out to be a endless money pit.
Dont ask me why but I enjoy driving the punto,ok road noise is high,hardly any buttons to play with(I repeatedly turn the heated rear window on & off when i'm bored!)but theres a sense of 'being a part of the car' (insteard of being just in the car in a noiseless atsmophere where you have to look at the tacho to see if it hasn't cut out at the lights cause it's so quiet & refined) & they are easy in general to work on/fix.
Personally i'd never take a Alfa unless it was ridicously cheap,as they have they're fair share of problems (let alone huge depreaction) with airbags,yes a rival for the stilo here,suspension,timing belts(ouch!) speedos/tachos & EM warning lights on..again rivaling the stilo.
Dare I also say there is a sense of 'belonging?' in owning a Fiat that you dont find with other makes,fellow drivers are more friendly towards each another insteard of the "well mines better than yours as it's the limited edition GLX8 twin turbo EX model with 2 cig lighters insteard of one & it has a chrome badge insteard of painted" brigade that you seem to get with cars of other makes.
GIve me cheap reliable A to B transport any day....come on we all snigger when we see a BM or Merc broke down don't we?
 
I love my car when it's working... but to be completely honest, unless i find something worth my cash when my Punto dies, I'll be buying something like a 1995 Civic, or a 1990 CRX. mainly cause they're japanese, far more reliable and they generally have more goodies.

I may buy an Uno Turbo as a weekend car, or something to thrash, but that would be the extent of buying another Fiat.

My opinion may change though in the next year or so, but right now I'm thinking of buying a Honda next. My brothers friend has a 1.6 VTEC Civic (from '92), 212k miles and it still pulls great, outperforms most other 1.6 engined cars on the market and it's not even modified!

So all in all, I would give up my Fiat in a heartbeat if i could afford to insure a CRX/1.6 Civic come november when my insurance policy needs renewing.
 
T14086 said:
Dare I also say there is a sense of 'belonging?' in owning a Fiat that you dont find with other makes
Click to expand...

I was waiting to see who would bring this up. It's definitely the case. When you own a Fiat (or any Italian car) there is a great sense of belonging in the Italian car scene in the UK. Fair enough, other makes have forums/clubs, etc, but there is something different about us.

I should add that I'm only playing devils advocate in this thread to prompt discussion. I was interested in peoples views and reasons for driving a Fiat. (y)
 
helpimonfire said:
So all in all, I would give up my Fiat in a heartbeat if i could afford to insure a CRX/1.6 Civic come november when my insurance policy needs renewing.
Click to expand...

I'd say you would be typical of maybe 80% or more of the forum members. A lot of people here only drive a Fiat because of the social side (Clubcento and so on) but if that wasn't there they'd be in a Honda as well.
 
With the Fiats I have had, I wouldnt buy another punto again, I wasnt happy at all with that car.

Bravos - always had a soft spot for those thats why i was determined to get another after my coupe had died :(

Coupe loved it... I have been considering to buy another one when I have the funds.

I think in all honesty though my next car will be an Audi TT, I plan to hold onto the bravo but lets face it FIAT dont offer a proper sports car after they stopped manufacturing the coupe.

I would buy a little 500 :D but the prices i have seen are between £2k and £4k :eek:
 
I totally agree with most of the points you have made so far Steve. But I did have enough money at the time I bought my Stilo to buy anything up to 20k, The Stilo Abarth just gave me so much for the money especially at the time. Since then I have lost a lot of faith in the company so I doubt I would buy another Fiat. Although the feeling of being part of a community made it tempting to at least consider buying one this time. I resisted though.
 
I have a soft spot for the Uno, dont know why...

I upgraded to a Punto last year and its not a patch on an Uno imo, and has quite dented my confidence in Fiats.

Shall be upgrading again at the end of the year and i dont know whether ill be sticking with an italian car as yet (although an alfa 156 is on the list!)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

SB1500
A (kind of) new Jeep? (Based on an FCA platform)
2
Replies
21
Views
800
JTD_Liam
J
J
Proof of production date
Replies
2
Views
342
s130
s130
porta
Is that a…
Replies
17
Views
440
porta
porta
icheatatscrabble
Finally A Performance Electric Abarth
Replies
8
Views
381
s130
s130
AnthonyH
Going on holiday with a fiat car means...
Replies
0
Views
70
AnthonyH
AnthonyH
Back
Top