shining wit said:
Why? Strada. Chroma. 126. Mk1 Panda. 127. Rust. General build quality. Crushingly low residuals. They're made in Italy. People laugh at them. Not known for speed, handling or looks. They break down lots. They say Fiat on the front. (Fix It Again Toni?)
Need I go on?
Erm, not sure about that.
Croma:
Same floorpan as a SAAB 9000, Alfa 164, Lancia Dedra. Galvanised body, twin cam engines with a turbo option that was a bit of a flyer. Not popular with executives because it had FIAT on the front (snobbery at work here!), yet the SAAB sold well, the Alfa 164 confounded sceptics, the Dedra suffered like the Croma and Lancia pulled out of the UK. Yet they were all basically the same car...
Strada:
Not a bad car at all, and I think it was the first fully automated assembly line. The cars were built almost entirely by robots (remember the advert back in the 80's?) Early ones do rust badly. Mk2's were much better, but the damage had been done.
126:
The cheapest car in the UK at one point. A simple, no frills city car before the likes of SMART came along. Based on the old 600 with different styling. Allowed many people to afford a new car when cars were relatively much more expensive than they are now. Crude and basic, but people loved them. You get what you pay for! Now becoming collectable as the 500's/ 600's prices have gone through the roof.
Mk1 Panda:
Nice concept, but very early mk1's had dodgy rear suspension and terrible rusting. Facelifted mk1 was much improved and loved by motoring journalists. A cheap, simple, but cleverly designed car.
127:
Voted 'Car of the Year' in the 70's by one of the leading car magazines. Nice to drive, well packaged and designed. Agreed that rust killed them, but they weren't any worse than some of the other mainstream manufacturers...
'Not known for speed, handling, looks'.
Check out the Dino, 850 Coupe/ Spider, 124 Coupe/ Spider, X1/9, 127 Sport, Mirafiori Sport/ Abarth, 128 3/P, Strada Abarth, Uno Turbo, Barchetta, new Coupe and probably more before and since.
'Build Quality'.
Ok, not brilliant, but these ARE cheap cars. Try a Renault/ Citroen for shocking build quality. Or for that matter VW and Mercedes judging by the latest surveys!
Worth bearing in mind that FIAT own Alfa, Lancia, Ferrari and a few others for that matter. FIAT are the bread and butter cars, Lancia more upmarket and Alfa more sporty. Ferrari obviously supercars.
However, Fiat have always managed to put soul and character into their cars. Get a bad one and they're awful, get a good one and you'll never want to part with it. But that pretty much applies to any volume manufacturer to a lesser or greater extent.
'Rust'.
Virtually all new Fiats from the Tipo onwards are mostly or fully galvanised. Long before some of the other manufacturers started doing that. But as someone said earlier, mud sticks. But whenever someone I know says that Fiat still make rusty cars, I ask them to point one out to me. They can't...
'They break down lots'.
No more than any other car. How many major Fiat recalls have you seen of late? How many known design faults have Fiat been guilty of in recent times? Compare their record with some of the other manufacturers.
They are actually well designed and engineered cars, and in my experience most problems are due to incompetent garages and cack handed servicing by owners. A well looked after Fiat is just as reliable as any other equivilent car.
What Fiat need to do is sort out their abysmal dealer network and parts departments. Most people who own and love their Fiats feel very passionate about them. A shame the people who work in the dealers don't reflect that back...