Yes! I had a Fiat Barchetta - LOVED that baby! www.fiatbarchetta.com
fiats have been in constant production since 1899
if they were such horrible cars i dont think they would have been in bussiness for over 100 years.
thats older than any of the american car makers
I always drive carefully when I am around Italian cars. The driver has already shown bad judgement once.
TQB
[quote]malonetd wrote:
Do I have to buy the whole car? Can I just get a couple tires and a seatbelt?[/quote]
Wait, how much more is there to a Fiat?
A friend of mine had one in high school. In a way, it was a fun car. Driving it anywhere was like a challenge; can you get there before the carbon monoxide fumes cause you to fall asleep at the wheel?
[quote]MaddyD wrote:
fiats have been in constant production since 1899
if they were such horrible cars i dont think they would have been in bussiness for over 100 years.
thats older than any of the american car makers
[/quote]
Didn’t Henry Ford, an American, invent the first automobile?
[quote]buffalokilla wrote:
malonetd wrote:
Do I have to buy the whole car? Can I just get a couple tires and a seatbelt?
Wait, how much more is there to a Fiat?
A friend of mine had one in high school. In a way, it was a fun car. Driving it anywhere was like a challenge; can you get there before the carbon monoxide fumes cause you to fall asleep at the wheel?[/quote]
Me too! In high school, a friend had some sort of four door fiat sedan, don’t know what model, but we always had to keep the windows open, and push start it by popping the clutch.
The responses adding up to about 50-50.
[quote]eric_lacrosse wrote:
MaddyD wrote:
fiats have been in constant production since 1899
if they were such horrible cars i dont think they would have been in bussiness for over 100 years.
thats older than any of the american car makers
Didn’t Henry Ford, an American, invent the first automobile?[/quote]
I thought so too, but then I found this
thats right ford just invented the assembly line
Karl Benz invented the first true automobile
not knocking american cars I am after all born and bred a ford guy.
the sad truth of the mater is american auto makers have pretty poor quality control on their cars.
and just because a bunch of high school kids are driving around in beaters that does not mean the beaters are poor quality.
the best cars I have ever driven have been japanese and Italian made
As known in Europe
F- Fix
I- It
A- Again
T- Tomorrow
!!!
[quote]MaddyD wrote:
the sad truth of the mater is american auto makers have pretty poor quality control on their cars.
[/quote]
This is a poor generalization. While there are certain makes and models from U.S. manufacturers that have a poor quality record, others have maintained very high quality marks, as measured by initial defects and long-term reliability (where available). Another misconception is that Toyotas are of top-notch quality. They used to be, but over the last 5 years their quality has decreased considerably as they changed their strategy to try to become the #1 seller in the world - especially true of the Camry. This is borne out by the drop in their ranking of initial defects. Italian cars are notoriously bad when it comes to reliability, but this is mostly due to the types of cars the Italian makers have chosen to produce, mainly, high-end, high-margin sportscars that require a lot of maintenance to keep them finely tuned and they aren’t meant for everyday driving (Fiat is an exception).
German cars have long been lauded as being of superior quality, when in truth, many German cars have had particular difficulty with electronics, especially Audi and Mercedes. Keep in mind, some of these issues are due to the fact that they incorporate cutting edge electronics in their top-end models and these technologies are sometimes rushed to market or are very sensitive pieces of equipment.
And, with all manufacturers, certain models are put together better than others. A perfect example is the BMW 3 series, which always gets high quality grades, vs. the 7 series, which usually doesn’t.
I just hate the misconceptions that get spewed out like “American cars are crap” or “the only reliable cars are Japanese,German, etc” when results prove otherwise. It’s as misguided and ill-informed as thinking that Henry Ford invented the automobile.
DB
Maybe.
I had a 75 Fiat Spider 1800 convertable in College. Fun car for twisty higheways. Seats 5 cheerleaders on the back top when retracted…It always broke down in convient places.