General Buying a Barchetta - your thoughts please?

[blagger99]

I am seriously considering buying a Barchetta to use as my every day car (approx 60 miles per day). I have viewed a 2001 Y Plate model with 55k miles twice now and love the styling and looks but have a couple of concerns. What are your views on this? Am I right to be cautious?
Electric windows did not work when tested - owner said car had not been used for a month so there could be damp in the electrical system - are these cheap / expensive to repair?
Last couple of service repair bills were approx £800 each. Could be viewed as bad, i.e. things keep going wrong or good that everything has been fixed (for now!)
I commute 60 miles per day to and from work - realistic for a car of this age / convertible?
Your advice as Barchetta owners would be much appreciated.
Thanks

 

[RnRollie]

LRB will give his usual list i guess

But the electric windows should work, or at least do SOMETHING, even if it is just moving a millimeter up/down. If not, then blown fuses or packed up motors. Then again, the B windows do not like wet and cold, they tend to become sluggish and recalcitrant.

 

[richie.guy]

What work has been done - water pump, belts, variator?

 

[JimMagill]

if the windows are at fault you have to replace the whole assembly at 180 quid plus vat

Not cheap but it may give you some bargining power as if the owner can't be bothered to check the much cheaper fuse or wiring to the windows then it's his loss as it will be a hard car to sell with non working windows with out a huge discount.

Jim

 

[blagger99]

Form what Ican remember the following have been changed over the past year.

Cambelt
Variator
Tensioner
Brakes and Disks
Rear Shocks
DTR s/s Exhaust system

I can't remember what else was on the list.

Asking price is £3.3k.

Also, the speedometer shows the distance travelled in KM and the speed in MPH - should this be a concern or normal. Car was originally imported by DTR in 2002.

 

[LittleRedB]

Rather than post up my usual list of 'weak points' quite a lot of it's covered on this thread;

https://www.fiatforum.com/barchetta/133171-advice-please-b-i-fancy.html

IMHO the Barchetta is a very usable daily drive, after all it is only a Punto with a different body! If both of the window's are not working I am 90% sure it's just a fuse that has blown, so my question would be why has the fuse blown? If its not the fuse then as RnR said you are probably looking at a couple of new window motors.

From the list of recent invoice items it seems that the car has had all of the expensive items replaced recently. The variator, CAM belt, tentioner all have to be replaced together, brakes and discs are service items and all cars have to have them replaced so would not worry too much about that, the DTR exhaust is a stainless steel replacement for the original and should be good for a few years, although they do have a habit of cracking in the middle.

FYI the CAM belt, variator and tensioner need replacing every 3 years so make sure you add that into your service budget.

3.3k seems quite a good price if the car is in good condition, make sure you check very carefully the list of items on the thread above, although the bodies are fully galvanised rust can appear out of sight under the floor and in the inner wheel arches and once you have it you will struggle to get rid of it again!

Don't worry about the speedo, the only car's with trip counter and speed counter in MPH are original UK car's imported by FIAT, officially FIAT only ever imported about 1,200 cars to the UK and quite a lot were shipped back abroad so there are not that many kicking around!

HTH

 

[silverbarchetta]

Just to add to what's already been written. Mine is my daily driver all year round with a 55 mile round trip each day. It's absolutely fine for this as long as you don't need more than two seats and will return 40 mpg if you're taking it easy.

Good luck

 

[Abarth barchetta]

Again as above I use mine on a daily work trip of some 40 miles, all weathers and it's still one of the few cars I've ever owned to put a smile on my face every time I drive it. As to the service costs and replacements, sounds like it's been main dealer services or a very expensive privateer? Should be a good purchase.

 

[JimMagill]

It's a 7 year old hand made italian sports car for just over 3 grand... It's not going to be built like a BMW but nor is it going to be priced like one to buy.

You buy these thing with the heart not the calculator....

Jim

 

[lanciaman]

You should forget ropey examples and buy one of the best out there. Like mine!!

 

[nicholasb]

https://www.fiatforum.com/barchetta/137174-barchetta-parts-cars-sale-auction-11.html

Scroll down and look at this one for sale at same place I got mine. Lui does look after them. Sorry about the plug for LB Auto again but they are good.

 

[barc_h]

Thinking of selling mine. 2004 model, 54 plate, 25K miles, RED, unmolested.

PM me if you're interested.

H

 

[B-vectis]

Mine's gonna have to go soon too

Going back to driver training and can't afford to run both

54 plate, silver, 48k miles, FDSH, recent variator & timing belt (got that one in before the warranty ran out!), MOT September, unmolested except for upgraded audio - nothing fancy, just 10x better than stock.

 

[LittleRedB]

Geeze, if you lot keep selling your b's this place will be very quiet...............

 

[Rustbucket]

Nothing wrong with the B as a daily drive. The LHD takes about 1/2 hour to get used to...parallel parking takes a bit of re-learning! Plus side is its like a Punto..park it anywhere but watch the doors..no rubber strakes.

Just be careful where you park it in town. I've had mine for a year: its been keyed twice and the roof slashed. The kids can also think its hilarious to treat the car as a skip if you leave the roof down. Friend of mine came back to his MGF (he'd left it for all of 10 mins with the roof down) to find it full of garbage AND the green wheelie bin...

 

[Mad Matt]

Mine's been my daily dive for more than three years, often commuting 120 miles each way. It's been the most reliable second hand car I think I've ever owned. It's never let me down. She's now over 11 years old.

Servicing costs have been average. I did have to replace the plastic rear window as I didn't realise you need to be careful in sub-zero temperatures and allowed something to be lent against it. I had to have some work on the rear brakes as they iced on and instead of being patient I thought I'd teach it a lesson and just drove off! These things apart all the other expenses were down to modifications.

To be honest I was quite surprised but I think they're pretty well built

 

[nicholasb]

Mine has been an outstanding daily drive for over a year now.

 

[LittleRedB]

Mine has been a daily driver for 18 months now, there have been a few issues but given that I do drive her quite hard they are probably the same issues that would occur on any car. As long as they are regularly serviced they should not give many issues.

 

[wish mine was orange]

had mine 18 mths and is my daily drive only spend £170 for repair i would say that cheap motoring, wouldn't you !!