|
Browse by Tags
All Tags » Down On The Street » Fiat ( RSS)
-
|
My DOTS-detectin' antennae are getting more sensitive every day; I caught the briefest glimpse of something red and vaguely wedge-shaped down a side street out of the corner of my eye while riding as a passenger in a car and made a mental note: Possible Fiat X-1/9! Investigate later! Sure enough, when I went back to that block later on, here was a red X-1/9 and not a Toyota MR2 or Pontiac Fiero (not that there's anything wrong with either of those two, but they're not anywhere near as rare as the Fiat). This ability comes at a price, as I now drive at a maddening 15 MPH in Alameda- the better to scan for interesting iron- and I'm sure my car is hated by the impatient types who don't understand that I'm on an important mission. I had the use of an X-1/9 for a couple of weeks when I was a teenager, and I recall thinking "Cool! Italian sports car! This will be much fun!" Then, a few minutes into driving the thing, I thought "Damn, this thing is miserably...
|
-
|
Once I found the Fiat Strada , I knew I'd have to be able to find a 124 somewhere on the island. Sure enough, on the same block as the aquamarine '65 Impala , here was this fine example of Italian Malaise. These things used to be quite common on the island (as were MGBs ), but... well, you know the rest of that story. This Fiat has a few dents, but all the parts are there, there's no (visible) rust, and it's in pretty good shape. It must drive, too, because it's not always in the same parking space. With just 86 horsepower to haul its 2,180 pounds, the '77 Spider wasn't exactly fast. And with a list price of $6,115, buyers were likely tempted to shell out the extra $884 for the Japanese reliability and 149 horses of the Datsun 280Z. Of course, the Z wasn't this car's true competition; British Leyland products like the MGB and TR6 were. So let's have a poll to see whether the Jalopnik readership would choose the 79-horsepower red MGB over the 86-horsepower...
|
-
|
Some of our sharper-eyed readers may have noticed the car backed up against yesterday's Scout and said to yourselves, "Wait a minute... there's something odd about that Malaise econobox!" Well, that's exactly what I said about 10 seconds after I saw the Scout and started gearing up to take photographs; I think it was the crazy door handles that first tipped me off about the possibility of a Super Double DOTS Potential situation, and then I just about dropped the camera when I caught sight of the grille. I'm pretty sure this is the first Strada I've ever seen, period. You Yurpeans know this car as the Ritmo , and perhaps you still see a few of these things on the roads over there. The Strada was essentially a 128 under the skin; by 1981, most Americans staggered back in horror from the prospect of purchasing perhaps the only available motor vehicle with a worse reputation for unreliability than the Peugeot 504 (yes, yes, Peugeots and Fiats are perfectly good...
|
|
|
|