What do you guys think of this car? Any comments are most welcome :) I am interested in this car.
Thanks.
What do you guys think of this car? Any comments are most welcome :) I am interested in this car.
Thanks.
Last time around, the general consensus seemed to be: Very nice car, very quick, good handling. It's a fiat, so possibly of a temperamental nature, but the main bugbear is the cost of engine work, notably the cambelt change (it's apparently a very tight squeeze in the engine bay, so even minor jobs are complicated and some require engine-out).
Andy
Balance shaft bearings need replacing when the cambelt is changed so the engine has to come out which is expensive. Apart from that it looks good, handles reasonable well and goes fast...
-- James
handles extremely well and are very quick.
They don't _have_ to be done - many people don't have them done.
However - would you _really_ want to take that chance to save £400?
Yes the engine does have to come out to do a belt change, and whilst your at it, you might as well do the clutch as well, as they tend not to last much more 60k on an enthusiastically driven example.
Other than that and propensity for wearing out front wishbone joints, and drive shaft CV joints and the occasional electrical problem they are fast, and good looking.
Unless you can properly afford to maintain one, it will bankrupt you when neglected.
There are as fast, if not quite as good looking and cheaper to maintain cars about.
Tim..
They're a great drive - quick, handle well, look superb in my opinion.
As an ownership experience, not so good - they have a reputation for being unreliable :( and of course, not exactly Punto 1.1 insurance or fuel running costs! :)
But rather more exciting than, say, a Peugeot 406 V6 Coupe. :)
Go for the 16v Turbo - engine cheaper to maintain. Very easily tweaked to produce lots of horses. I know someone who suffered total engine failure on a 20v Turbo after only 14k miles. It's a 'known' problem and Fiat quietly fitted a brand new engine...
PS given your history of asking the type of questions you do on here, you DO NOT want a tempramental italian car.
Not that well known. The 5-pot motor has a good reputation for being pretty unburstable.
Not as unburstable as the 16v, though.
He'll be fine with a 16v, though, as that was a particularly well-proven engine in much higher states of tune.
(when was the last time you heard of an Integrale blowing up?)
"SteveH" wrote
just everything else eh?
No really, as far as the speed goes. There's the Pulsar GTi-T, but that's about it amongst the 200bhp 2.0 turbo set. Most contenders at that level are pushing 16 to 17 second 1/4 miles, the Fiat whips it in around 14.
I have a m8 who is looking to purchase a 20v turbo, I reckon it would be much better value to buy an MR2 turbo (240hp) or an Audi S2.... and as yet he is undecided ( except he doesnt want the toyota )
You could argue that the cam belt doesn't need changing but would you want to take that chance?
The balance shafts are on a different belt to the timing belt but the belt is under the same cover and the balance shaft bearing can and do sieze with age, which results in a snapped balance shaft belt which fouls the timing belt and you can imagine the rest.
The cheap fix is to simply remove the balance shaft belt...
-- James
This is no longer true. A few specialists have now devised a method which leaves the engine in the car. Do a google using the words "Fiat Coupe Wigan Paul Timing Belt" and all should be revealed.
A mate of mine with a Thema Turbo phoned me one night "my car is making a terrible noise - any idea what it is?" - he drove on for a few miles and left his car at services. The AA recovered him to Barry Waterhouse engineering (Evocars.com) who discovered his balance belt had gone and miraculously not fouled the cambelt. That is one lucky break! He got all the belts, tensioners, bearings etc replaced. Only 20k miles later he got the belts done again and the mechanic reported that the bearing was on its way out already.
Yes, but you lose the fantastic smoothness the balance shafts provide. Also you must make sure the balance shafts are left in the correct position or you'll get low oil pressure as the journals will be constantly flowing.
According to Dervman's spreadsheet out all the FWD cars listed the
1998 Fiat is only beaten on 0-60 by the 1994 Rover 200 turbo coupe and the 1994 Vauxhall 2.0 cavalier turbo. Was someone saying that older cars were quicker? 100Kgs lighter.WTF are there no 1/4 mile times on the spread sheet? For some odd reason the VX200 is rated as a 2.5 MCe while the Elise is a 1.5 SCe!
-- Peter Hill Spamtrap reply domain as per NNTP-Posting-Host in header Can of worms - what every fisherman wants. Can of worms - what every PC owner gets!
"Lordy" wrote
That is good! I'm looking forward to taking my red Dedra up Santa Pod this summer. It seems to pull a lot stronger than 'the black beauty'
Because I don't have the necessary data. Oddly enough, Nissan don't quarter mile their Micras! :)
Rated? Merely the size of it, but you're right, it should be a Small Coupe.
/checks/
Heh has already been revised! :)
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