Which First Car

Fiats are crap

Bill

Novas are finished now run- away.

Bill

Wow! I bow to your vastly superior knowledge.

Care to explain why _all_ Fiats are crap, then? - that's a huge generalisation you've just made.

Nothing like a helpful post eh? ;-)

JH

The message from "JH" contains these words:

I reckon that /was/ a helpful post!

Mainly experience.

Bill

it was meant so you stay away from them.

Bill

it was an honest post. they have clutch problems, rear bearing problems, servo problems, I'm trying to steer away from expensive repair jobs

Bill

OK, so tell us....

And then avoid it.

The Felicia 1.3 engine is pretty tough, and simple to fix. Polo engines are less so.

Richard

They *have* brakes? The one I tried (92 vintage) had some sort of middle pedal, but I'm not sure it was connected to anything. Not to mention that the road-holding was as naff as a very naff thing... Not that I can say much about brakes with a 306. ;-)

Tom.

Did they still have unservoed brakes in 92? Anyway if you pressed em properly they could always lock the wheels.

They had hernia brakes. That is to say that if you press 'em hard enough, you will lock the wheels, but you'll give yourself a hernia from all the effort! Then again, it could just be that the one I tried was mechanically mullered. :-)

Tom.

That's what proper cars felt like, eeh when I where a lad.... Oh no I had a GSA & to be honest I don't know which was a worse idea.

Mine was a Vauxhall Chevette. Probably the best first car to have - cheap to buy and insure. Will do 90 (where permitted) without complaint[1] and being RWD and light... By god it teaches you to be careful when it's wet or icy.

[1] All right - I know. Everything's rattling in sync so you don't notice. ;-)

Tom.

First car: Cinquecento Sporting. Loved that car.

Follwed by a nasty MkIV Escort GL 'Plus', then Alfa 33 16v, Fiat Spider, Alfa 33 8v, Golf Cabrio and finally Alfa 75TS. Some of which were owned at the same time or still owned.

The missus started off in a MkI Fiesta 1.1L, followed by a MkII Fiesta Festival. Nasty, horrible, rattly rustbuckets they were.

Mine was a 1933 Morris Minor; 2 doors, side valves, cable brakes, thermo-siphon cooling, 3 speed g/box, vacuum operated fuel lift to a small header tank just in front of the bulkhead. Most memorable - though not at the time - was the CENTRAL accelerator pedal (clutch to the left and brake to the right).

The latter caused no problems as it was my first car but there were some very hairy emergency stops in my second car which had the normal pedal arrangement.

In frosty weather the core plugs would easily come out of the casting and with them, all the water when it melted, so the first warning was a cloud of steam which found its way into the interior under the dashboard. But I still remember those adventures with pleasure. The date was Autumn 1956 and petrol coupons were just introduced again because of the then Suez crisis.

Tony.

I had a couple of Festas and whilst they rotted for England they only rattled if neglected. They were dynamically better than the Mk3 which had soggy long travel suspension (Mk2 having surprisingly firm setup) very low gear lifeless steering which managed the miracle of being heavier, lower geared and devoid of feel compared to the Mk3. Oh yep and the Mk3 rust ever more efficiently than Mk2 and when catalysed seem to destroy their engines in a way only a seriously abused Mk2 would.

As for Cinqs the Sporting isn't, least the one's i've driven always felt very flat/remote. ;-)

JH

They wallow like hell out of the factory, but a lowering kit sorts that out. You also gain a lot of drivability if you rip off the tens of feet of plastic induction kit and replace it with a K&N bolt-on filter. Combined with a larger-bore exhaust, it sorted out the mid-range flat-spot.