Spider as First Car

[spiderdan]

wclough listen to phaetn, he is a smart guy....Canadian too
Well said phaetn...You must type as fast as you think or think as fast as you type

Where's some more Canadians to insult?

Let me make it EZer for ya eh?

[tonyfromjersey]

Get the car and work on it with your dad. In the blink of an eye, you will be middle aged with kids and he will be gone. All you will have are memories.

We didn't work on cars together, but my dad and brother and I did massive landscaping projects, a ton of house projects, and of course cooked many meals together. That time was more valuable than any money he could have left me (didn't leave me a dime, btw). It doesn't matter, it's what I will pass on to my kids.

For what it's worth, my daughter is more into cars than my son. He is more into it when the power tools come out.

Tony

[BEEK]

a 1974 spider was my first car. i learned a lot about mechanics as i had to repair that car. Being a teenager i didnt have enough income to pay mechanics for most of the work. i learned how to do the brakes. how to fix wiring. i also learned how to destruct a car. i think i took apart everything i could to see how it worked.

i found a junkyard that specialized in fiats, it was my second home, heck maybe my first. i spent so much time there he hired me. which sent me down a journey of life.

i was in 2 hard crashes in my 74 spider. the car survived the first one. all new front end, hood fenders etc. the second one not so much. i was making a left hand turn and got broadsided in the drivers door, by someone (drunk at 8 am) trying to pass me on the inside of my turn on the wrong side of the road in a Lincoln. and in 1984 they didnt make small Lincolns. i did walk away, but the car didnt, it was so distorted it broke the bellhousing. but held up in a very hard crash.

i would put my kid in a spider as a first car with no problems. my daughter doesnt want one, but my son is eyeballing one right now, he is 13

[SoFlaFiat]

a 1974 spider was my first car. i learned a lot about mechanics as i had to repair that car. Being a teenager i didnt have enough income to pay mechanics for most of the work. i learned how to do the brakes. how to fix wiring. i also learned how to destruct a car. i think i took apart everything i could to see how it worked.

i found a junkyard that specialized in fiats, it was my second home, heck maybe my first. i spent so much time there he hired me. which sent me down a journey of life.

i was in 2 hard crashes in my 74 spider. the car survived the first one. all new front end, hood fenders etc. the second one not so much. i was making a left hand turn and got broadsided in the drivers door, by someone (drunk at 8 am) trying to pass me on the inside of my turn on the wrong side of the road in a Lincoln. and in 1984 they didnt make small Lincolns. i did walk away, but the car didnt, it was so distorted it broke the bellhousing. but held up in a very hard crash.

i would put my kid in a spider as a first car with no problems. my daughter doesnt want one, but my son is eyeballing one right now, he is 13

If your son is eyeing your 73, you have nothing to worry about!! That car needs so much work he will be pushing 30 by the time it's done!!
Now, where's that bitch slap button? Beek is looking for it!! Ha

[phaetn]

i was in 2 hard crashes in my 74 spider. the car survived the first one. all new front end, hood fenders etc. the second one not so much. i was making a left hand turn and got broadsided in the drivers door, by someone (drunk at 8 am) trying to pass me on the inside of my turn on the wrong side of the road in a Lincoln. and in 1984 they didnt make small Lincolns. i did walk away, but the car didnt, it was so distorted it broke the bellhousing. but held up in a very hard crash.

i would put my kid in a spider as a first car with no problems. my daughter doesnt want one, but my son is eyeballing one right now, he is 13

You're not going to get much more direct advice than that -- someone who knows all the ins and outs of the car AND has been in more than one accident with them.

Whatever you decide, keep your head on a swivel and always assume other drivers don't see you. A bunch of the time they won't have. I have more than one friend hit on a motorbike by someone that was texting.

Cheers,
phaetn

[Lkcast]

my opinion buy the car, it is a family thing and fun and if your mom gets in for a ride you most likely will not be able to get her out.

[narfire]

A 70 spider was my first car in Vancouver BC. I would not recommend one if you live in an area with lots of rain and wet snow in the winter. Any salt will eat these cars unless stripped to metal and sealed from the elements. Although I had a couple of 50+ pound metal slabs in the trunk for winter driving and snow tires, the car was not the best in the wet snow that happens in Vancouver. Stuff turns to greasy ice after driven on.
I was 16-17 when I bought the car and like others tinkered with the mechanicals and even went as far as pulling the head to get the seals done. The electricals kind of bamboozled me but dad is an electrical engineer and when going to university in England worked for Lucas....he always mentioned he had a difficult time as to which system was more of a pain. His help was invaluable but usually ended up being a corroded ground.
My recommendation for first car....weather dependant... Civic or VW Golf if in an area with a winter or Spider where you have plenty of year round dry days.
Chris

[bradartigue]

It is a great car to work on and learn how to work on cars.

If you don't have the money to keep the Civic and have the FIAT then you're not ready. Too old to be a daily driver, and weekday driving conditions are too intense. I've been driving FIATs and Alfas for half of my life and I won't take them out in weekday traffic any more. Not worth the risk to myself or to the car.

[seabeelt]

To answer the question, ...... "It depends".
My first car was a 64 Chevy Malibu convertible rust bucket with 4 cracked pistons and I bought it for a buck. Spent all summer fixing it in the parking lot of the apartment complex where we lived. Sold it and bought a 68 mustang coupe ; was rear ended twice in that car. Second time so bad it totaled the car I got whiplash and a broken heart. Next car/mistake was a 68 triumph spitfire. Biggest POS I have eve owned, but boy could I perform a myriad of roadside repairs. After the third synchro failure in the tranny, I traded it for a 72 Pinto. Not much of an upgrade, but immeasurably more reliable. This was all while in high school 16-18 years old. There was the same argument back then about large and small cars. The big ones like Lincoln's and Cadillacs were boats of heavy steel. My mustang was hit by a caddy. Crunched the right rear quarter panel. Not a scratch on the caddy. The triumph which is even smaller than a fiat was an oversized go-cart. All in all I think it depends on the driver and the paying attention. I know folks here on the forum that limit their driving to weekends and car shows and the like. I take ours anywhere. Most recent trip was 1000 miles. I just give myself plenty of space both front and rear to the next vehicle and always assume that (like riding a motorcycle) the other guy doesn't see me. I really like my air horns I also always assume the other driver is an idiot doing something like talking on their cell or texting while driving. It has served me well. There are plenty of smaller cars out there today like the little electric smart cars, dual fuel cars and so forth. Do they have air bags and the like, sure. But they are made of aluminum, even thinner steel and plastic. Just as much of a chance in getting crunched in one of those things as a spider. As far is reliability goes. Yes it is an older car and is bound to have issues. Our first spider was a daily driver for over 100k miles and got garaged when we had the second baby. Our now second spider (mice rusted out the first) has over 112k miles and is going strong. I wouldn't hesitate to use it as a daily driver if I had to do so... I commute 150 miles round trip daily to my job. Our sons first car was/is also a spider, though he was 22 when he purchased his car. He got most of the driver mistakes/dings out of the way driving my truck. None of them major, just scrapes and dents.

So if it's a decent car and you can have some bonding time with dad, I say go for it.

[jetboy]

just tell your mom its either the fiat or a ducati....


But seriously: the roads are not what they once were as pointed out by others. These days you are up to your eyeballs in stupidly powerful -heavy- and huge SUVs and the like.. driven by distracted humans safely encased in a cocoon of warmth, quiet- and seeming invulnerability. They have no idea how fast they are driving.. as they can't feel or a hear a thing: not the air, the road, the engine, smaller vehicles...and they drive like maniacs

and Humans are hardwired to look out for threats: and a tiny fiat spider is not a threat to a huge SUV.. and the brain of the human simply glosses over your existence. I have seen the glazed look in many a drivers eyes as they do something quite dangerous to me (on the moto) that is not at all dangerous to them.

LIke I tell most new moto riders (particularly urban riders)- its not if, but when you get in an accident. At some point, no matter how much you pay attention- even if you do everything right: all it takes is one SUV to do something terribly wrong...and guess who ends up broken in the ditch? So be careful and wear all the gear you can afford to protect yourself.

So after that rant: I'd still get the spider- but I would consider a harness seat belt and a roll bar- as well as possibly wearing a helmet. sounds stupid but you pretty much want to wear a hat in a convertible anyway.. so get a stylish helmet. why not?

even with that gear on you will still be cooler than the next guy in his civic...

and oh yeah... I do plan on giving my daughter the 69 spider when she is ready... see how mom reacts to that!

[ClarkTheShark]

It was my first.

I've wrecked it many times. blown many engines. destroyed many transmissions.

still alive, and now know how to rebuild engines and transmissions with a blindfold on.

I say yes, But if I could talk to my 16 year old self i would say (the same damn thing my dad/uncle told me), and that is to respect the car. Its not a race car. So don't try to drag race your friend in his mustang. you will lose.

Learn about maintenance. Learn how to treat the car, and the car will treat you back nicely.

[MrWampus]

Get the Spider and keep the Civic as a backup for when the Spider breaks. You will have a lot more girls look your way when you are in the Spider. You are invisible to the opposite sex in a Civic. The Spider will cozily seat you plus 4 girls. 3 of the girls will sit in the back seat and will inevitably all decide to sit parade style on the back just as you pass a city policeman who will pull you over and ask you what the hell you are doing. One or more of the girls in the back seat will laugh and blurt out that YOU told them it was OK to do that and the policeman will not be happy with you but will let you off with a warning since you haven't been drinking if you take the girls back to wear you picked them up and DO NOT do it again.

Ask me how I know this.

You have gotten a lot of good advice here from a lot of people here. Always wear your seatbelt, NEVER try to race anyone on the street, (you might kill someone, you will lose, and you will probably break the car). Keep your eyes and ears open and drive defensively. Don't assume they see you, they probably don't. And NEVER take the car on a straight country road to see if it will actually go 109 MPH like the literature says. You will get up to about 96 before an old man in a beat up light blue Ford pickup truck towing a john boat pulls onto the road right in front of you without stopping and you will slam on the brakes locking up all four wheels and skid to a stop a foot behind the john boat knowing that the last thing you would have seen before you died would have been the word "Evinrude" but thankfully the brake job you would have done recently actually worked well so now all you have to do is go home and change your underpants. (Ask me how I know that.)

Be careful with it and have a little fun.

[btoran]

excellent post, mr wampus. the john boat incident is another excellent reason to have a black interior.