Can anyone recommend a Midlands Fiat specialist?

W.A.D. Auto Developments Ltd

They are Alfa specialists but I'm sure will be more than happy to look after your wife's Tipo.

Excellent - she works in Tipton so can drop it in on the way back one day. Also useful as I am looking at getting either an Alfa 146 or a 155, depending on if I can get the insurance costs to a sensible level :)

Cheers

Hellraiser..........>

Both great cars - make sure if you buy the 146 you go for a twinspark, not a boxer.... (Or go for a v6 155 if you love driving a car that loves being driven as power and curves intended, but only if you have shares in shell/bp/texaco!

It'll most likely be a late model 155, 2.0 - can't run to the cost of a V6, both for insurance and petrol purposes :) There's definitely something about the 155, some of them look like old mans cars, and yet others look so aggressive, it's weird how there can be such differences between variations of the same car!

Anyway, how come the name "Ex Alfa Adam" - don't tell me you've gone to the dark side and bought a BMW :)

Hellraiser........>

Not quite - I finally saw sense for a moment after much (over 2 engine rebuilds on one of my Alfa 33s!) excessive maintainence and sold my last 33 a month ago. Good riddance, goodbye, so long, auf wiedersehen, au revoir, arrivederci, etc.

Don't miss them at all. Much, not for the magic handling, the responsive engine, the great accelleration, the (ahem, officer!) remarkably good top speed. Not a bit of it. Just had a gut full of the maintainence of fixing something every week. There is a lot to rebuild in a 16v injected boxer engine you know!

So there I was, carless, perusing ebay thinking - 'cheap and reliable, cheap insurance, low tax, economical' - and suddenly instead of buying a toyota corolla, nissan sunny or proton persona, I'd bought a Fiat Tipo, the one with the 148bhp 2.0 16v engine - damn it goes well!

However, I've always had a problem with Fiats - I've always regarded them as being a 'second grade' vehicle - so I stuck with the 'Alfa' bit - but although I hold BMWs in high esteem, (I used to work in 1st tier motor industry supply to ford, rover, landrover, jag, aston martin, fiat, buick, toyota, nissan, renault - I understand vehicle build quality - get the picture) I just couldn't stoop to buying one as they are just not me. (Interestingly I used to have a Fiat Multipla as a company car...) If I ever had to get sensible and buy a 'decent' car I'd buy something like a PT Cruiser or another Multipla. Oh yes, we have 3 kids.

Somehow, the italians have the edge in appealing car design - I've owned lancias as well and loved them all - oh well, less of my life story - somehow from the above you'll grasp that I love Alfas but can't live with them anymore!

Adam H

Wouldn't mind the 2.0 Tipo myself, the wife drives a 1.6 and even though thats 15 years old it's still in surprisingly good nick. Problem with the Tipo is they stopped making them in 95 and a 9 year old car, well, I'd rather have something a little newer. From what I've read the 155 is quite reliable so long as it is looked after, i.e. cambelt changes at 36k, etc, and as they are galvanised no rust problems. Still, it's better than owning a Mondeo :)

Hellraiser............>

Alternatively, for a better power / weight ratio and lower fuel bills get a 75 TS. As an added bonus it's got the gearbox and driven wheels in the correct place ;-)

A splendid idea - a manual 3.0 v6 in good nick would be a pleasure to drive and also one step on from mu first Alfa, a Giulietta 116 that I loved to bits and seemed to love me! (But at the tender age of 22 then my insurance co, didn't love me - I asked for a quote, they gave me what I thought was a telephone number!)